Cookie policy

The cookies this site sets

Two, both from Google Analytics, and both set as soon as you open a page:

• _ga — a random identifier that lets Google Analytics tell a returning visit from a new one. It does not contain your name or anything you typed.
• _ga_CE9TLDF5WN — the same thing scoped to this site's specific analytics property.

There is no advertising network and no ad cookies. Our two other traffic counters, Ahrefs Web Analytics and Cloudflare Web Analytics, set no cookies at all.

The third cookie, which readers never receive

The site has a password-protected staff dashboard at /admin, where our own editors write and publish. Signing in there sets a single session cookie so the editor is not asked for a password on every page. It expires, it is marked HttpOnly and Secure so scripts cannot read it and it never travels unencrypted, and it holds a signed session rather than anything about a person.

It is set only in response to a successful sign-in. Visiting an article, a game hub or a code list cannot produce it, and neither can visiting /admin without credentials. We are listing it because a cookie policy that quietly omits the one cookie the site actually sets is the kind of thing this page exists to avoid.

What would change

• Advertising — an ad slot component exists but loads no network and is disabled by default. Any advertising partner would bring its own cookies, which would require consent.
• Newsletter — sign-up is closed. When it opens, submitting the form would involve the newsletter provider.

Controlling cookies

Your browser can block and delete cookies for any site, including this one. Since reading PhonePlayers sets none, doing so will not affect anything you can see. The only thing it would break is signing in to the staff dashboard, which requires a password you do not have.