Cookie and Tracking Notice
Last updated: August 31, 2026
This page lists everything civicsguide.com stores in your browser and everything it measures. It is deliberately specific, because “we use cookies to improve your experience” tells you nothing.
The short version
This site sets no cookies of its own. There is no login, no shopping cart, and no personalization to remember. The only cookies that can appear are Google Analytics ones, and only when analytics is enabled for the site.
What can be stored in your browser
Analytics cookies (Google Analytics 4)
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Distinguishes one browser from another so a returning visit is not counted twice | 2 years | |
_ga_<container> | Keeps GA4 session state | 2 years |
These are only present when a Google Analytics Measurement ID is configured for the site. Without one, no analytics script is loaded at all and neither cookie is set. That is a real switch in the code, not a promise.
Consent preference
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
cg_consent | CivicsGuide | Remembers your analytics choice so you are not asked again | Until you clear site data |
This is stored in your browser and never sent to us.
Measurement storage
These are not cookies. They are stored by this site in your browser’s local storage, they are never sent to Google, and nothing in them describes you. They exist so that if you join the waitlist we know which article brought you here, which is the only way a site with no advertising can tell what is worth writing.
| Name | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
cg_first_touch | How you first arrived: the name of the search engine or site that referred you, any campaign label on the link, and the path of the first page you opened. Written once and never changed. | Until you clear site data |
cg_last_touch | The same, for your most recent arrival | Until you clear site data |
cg_visitor_id | A random number generated in your browser, so repeat visits can be counted as one person rather than several. It is not derived from anything about you, and it means nothing outside this site. | Until you clear site data |
cg_session | How many times you have visited and how many pages you read this visit | Until you clear site data |
cg_stage | Whether you have read something here and whether you have joined the waitlist | Until you clear site data |
Only the referring site is kept, never the address you came from. If you arrive from a search, we store the word “google”, not what you searched for. Query strings are stripped from the page path before anything is written, and a value that does not look like a channel name or a page path is discarded rather than cleaned up.
If you join the waitlist, these values are sent to us with your email address and stored on your row, so we can tell which pages bring people who sign up. If you never sign up, they never leave your browser.
No advertising cookies
We do not run advertising on this site, and we do not set advertising, retargeting, or social media tracking cookies. There is no Meta pixel, no TikTok pixel, and no LinkedIn Insight tag. See the Advertising Disclosure for what would change if that ever does.
What Google Analytics measures
When analytics is on, we record:
- page views, including which language version of a page you read,
- clicks on the app store buttons and the waitlist calls to action,
- which FAQ questions get opened,
- how far down the page people scroll,
- waitlist form submissions and form errors, as counts,
- clicks on links that lead off this site,
- file downloads,
- which language you switch into, when you use the language picker,
- what you type into the filter box on the question list, so we can see which questions people look for. Anything that looks like an email address, a long number, or a sentence rather than a search is replaced with the word “redacted” before it is counted,
- when a page cannot be found, so we can fix the link that pointed at it.
We never send your email address to Google. The waitlist form posts your address to our own API and stores it in our own database. What analytics sees is that a signup happened and which form it came from, not who signed up. That separation is in the code: the analytics module is told “a lead occurred at this location”, and is never handed the field’s value.
We do not use Google Signals, we do not enable advertising personalization, and we do not build cross-site profiles.
Consent
We use Google Consent Mode v2, and the site declares consent defaults before any
analytics loads. Where consent is required, analytics storage begins denied and
only becomes granted after you opt in, and your choice is remembered in
cg_consent.
How to turn it off
- In your browser. Blocking third-party cookies, or using a content blocker, stops Google Analytics entirely. Nothing on this site breaks if you do; there is no analytics-gated content.
- Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends one of these signals, treat it as a request we want to honour, and tell us at [email protected] if you find it is not being respected.
- Clear site data. This removes every name in the tables above, including the measurement storage, and you will be treated as a new visitor.
- Opting out stops the sending, not the counting on your own device. If you decline analytics, nothing is sent to Google. The measurement storage above is still written, because it is what makes your own signup attributable if you choose to make one, and it stays on your device until you clear it.
Changes
If we add anything that stores data in your browser, it gets added to the tables above and the date at the top changes. Related reading: our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.