Cookie Notice
What this site stores on your device, why, and how to turn it off. This notice reflects the site's actual configuration.
Last updated September 2026
1. The short version
This site sets no cookies for advertising or profiling on its own. It contains no third-party advertising, no social media pixels, and no embedded media from external platforms. Reading this site does not require an account, and we do not ask you to accept anything in order to read it.
If analytics or advertising tags are enabled in the site configuration, the sections below describe what those set. The current status is stated in section 5.
2. What a cookie is
A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store, which the site can read on a later visit. Similar technologies include local storage and pixels. They are used to remember preferences, measure usage or select advertising.
3. Categories we might use
| Category | Purpose | Typical examples | Consent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Delivering the page and keeping the site secure. These cannot be switched off. | Hosting and CDN security cookies | Not required |
| Analytics | Aggregate measurement of which pages are read and for how long. Used to decide what to update, not to identify individuals. | _ga, _ga_* (Google Analytics, up to 13 months) | Required where the law demands it |
| Advertising | Selecting and measuring advertising, including limiting how often the same ad is shown. | _gcl_au, IDE-type cookies (Google, up to 13 months) | Required |
| Preferences | Remembering settings you have chosen on the site. | None currently set | Not applicable |
4. How to control cookies
All major browsers let you view, block and delete cookies through their settings, and most offer a private browsing mode that discards them when you close the window. Blocking analytics and advertising cookies does not affect your ability to read anything on this site.
For advertising specifically, you can control personalised advertising through Google’s ad settings, and industry opt-out tools cover many other networks.
5. Current status on this site
As configured at the last update of this page, this site serves no advertising and loads no behavioural tracking. Measurement code is only present when a measurement ID is configured in the site environment; while no such ID is set, nothing is requested from a third party at all.
When a tag ID is configured, the site asks for your consent before loading anything from a third party, and remembers your answer on your device so that it does not ask again. Refusing is as easy as accepting, and reading the site does not depend on either.
6. More information
Our privacy policy explains what data we process more broadly, and hello@smarthomeverdict.com reaches the editorial team if you have a question about any of it.