1. Cookies, in one short paragraph
A cookie is a small text file your browser stores on our behalf so the site recognises the same device on your next click or your next visit. That is the entire mechanism. Cookies do not execute code, they do not install anything, and they cannot see the files on your machine. Some are placed by the domain you are reading (first-party), others by services embedded on the page (third-party). Throughout this policy we use "cookie" as shorthand for the broader group of storage mechanisms covered by the ePrivacy Directive, which also takes in local storage, session storage and tracking pixels. If anything from that family is active on faders.io, it is in the table below.
2. The laws we work to
Our editorial office sits in the UK and our readers come mainly from the EU, so three rulebooks apply at once: the UK GDPR, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). The upshot is straightforward. Strictly necessary cookies can load without asking, but anything else only runs after you have given free, specific, informed consent. Refusing has to be as easy as agreeing, and you must be able to change your mind at any time. The banner on this site is designed around exactly that rule, and section five shows how to reopen it on demand.
The consent tool in one line. Click "Cookie settings" in the footer, or clear the faders_consent cookie in your browser, and the preference banner returns on your next page load, letting you switch analytics or affiliate tracking on or off without emailing anyone.
3. How we sort them into three buckets
Rather than littering the page with dozens of entries and leaning on vague jargon, we keep the total small and sort each cookie into one of three plainly labelled groups. The label decides whether the cookie fires straight away or waits for consent, and it is the same label that shows up on the sliders inside the banner.
3.1 Strictly necessary
These are the ones that make the site function. They remember the choice you made on the banner so it does not nag you on every click, they stop automated bots from drowning the forms, and they let the CDN hand you pages from the nearest edge node. Switch them off and the banner shows up every time you move pages, the search box misbehaves and load balancing collapses. Because they support a service you actively requested, PECR allows them without a prompt. You can still refuse them in your browser, but expect the site to feel broken afterwards.
3.2 Analytics and performance
These tell us which guides are being read, which pages crash on which phone models, and where readers scroll off before finishing. We use Google Analytics 4 with IP anonymisation, plus Microsoft Clarity for pooled heatmaps and Matomo for a self-hosted second opinion. None of them see your name, email or payment details, and we never join analytics data to identifiable profiles. Nothing in this bucket loads until you tap "Accept" or move the analytics slider on our consent banner.
3.3 Marketing and affiliate tracking
No display ads, no retargeting pixels and no social-network conversion scripts run on faders.io. The one marketing-adjacent thing we do is drop a first-party click ID when you follow an outbound link to a casino so the operator can credit the referral to us if you go on to sign up. The plain-English version of that arrangement sits in our affiliate disclosure. This bucket stays dormant until you say yes to it on the banner.
4. The full cookie table
What follows is the complete, up-to-date inventory of what we set on this domain right now. Any time we add or drop a cookie, this table is the first thing we edit, and the "Last updated" line at the top of the page moves with it.
| Category | Cookie / storage key | Purpose | Retention | Opt-out |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | faders_session |
Anonymous session identifier used for security, rate limiting and CDN routing. | Session (deleted on browser close) | Clear browser cookies |
| Strictly necessary | faders_consent |
Stores your per-category banner choice so the prompt does not keep returning. | 12 months | Delete cookie to reopen banner |
| Analytics | _ga, _ga_<ID> |
Google Analytics 4, anonymised traffic and session counts. | 13 months | Banner slider, or Google opt-out add-on |
| Analytics | _clck, _clsk |
Microsoft Clarity heatmaps and scroll depth, pooled and anonymous. | 12 months / session | Banner slider |
| Analytics | _pk_id, _pk_ses |
Matomo self-hosted analytics running with IP anonymisation enabled. | 13 months / 30 minutes | Banner slider |
| Marketing / affiliate | faders_cid |
First-party click ID attached when you follow an outbound casino link, used for referral attribution. | 90 days | Banner slider |
| Marketing / affiliate | Operator-side (e.g. btag, affid) |
Set by the casino or its network once you have landed on their site; covered by their own cookie policy rather than ours. | Typically 30-90 days | Manage on operator's site |
That genuinely is the full list. No ad exchanges, no fingerprinting scripts, no data brokers. If you catch anything on the wire that is not accounted for above, flag it through the contact page and we will look into it the same day.
5. Changing your choice from the banner
On your first visit from a fresh browser, a banner slides up at the bottom of the screen with three equally weighted options: Accept all, Reject all, and Manage preferences. Nothing in the analytics or marketing buckets fires until you make a choice. Tap Reject all and we write that "no" to the faders_consent cookie so you are not pestered on every click afterwards.
Revising the decision later takes a couple of seconds. Scroll to the footer, click "Cookie settings" and the banner reopens with your current choices pre-selected. Flip a slider, save, and the change is live immediately. Withdrawing consent halts any new collection; anything already captured stays in the anonymised analytics logs unless you ask us to remove it through the routes set out in the privacy policy.
6. Doing it from the browser instead
If you would rather handle cookies at the browser level and apply the same rule to every site you visit, every mainstream browser gives you the same three tools: review what is already stored, block by category or by domain, and delete on demand. The exact menu paths shift every few releases; the routes below were accurate as of the last update.
- Google Chrome (desktop): Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies. Pick "Block third-party cookies" or use the "Sites allowed to use cookies" list to whitelist specific domains.
- Mozilla Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Enhanced Tracking Protection. Choosing "Strict" blocks cross-site tracking cookies, fingerprinters and known trackers by default.
- Safari on macOS: Safari menu → Settings → Privacy. Tick "Block all cookies", or use "Manage Website Data" to remove entries one domain at a time.
- Safari on iOS or iPadOS: Settings app → Safari → Advanced → Website Data, or flip "Block All Cookies" on the main Safari settings page.
- Microsoft Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Manage and delete cookies and site data.
- Brave: Settings → Shields → set "Trackers & ads blocking" to Aggressive; cross-site cookies are blocked automatically after that.
- Samsung Internet on Android: hamburger menu → Settings → Sites and downloads → Block cookies.
- Private, incognito or InPrivate windows: any cookie set inside a private window is discarded automatically the moment the last private tab closes.
One caveat before you nuke everything from orbit: blocking the strictly-necessary bucket also stops the banner from remembering your preference, so it will pop up on every page load. Blocking analytics or affiliate cookies has no impact on the reading experience and never puts any content behind a wall.
7. Third parties and the click ID we drop
Some of the tracking you may notice while reading does not originate on our servers at all. The most common case is affiliate attribution: when you click a "Visit casino" button, we append a short click ID to the destination URL and, more often than not, the operator or their affiliate network then sets its own cookie so any account you open in the following weeks is credited back to faders.io. That commission is what keeps the lights on without paywalls or display ads, and the fee is paid by the operator, never by you.
From the second you land on the casino's domain, their cookie policy takes over from ours. We cannot shorten, disable or read those cookies, and their behaviour differs from one operator to the next. The full plain-English picture of how the commercial side works, which links are affiliated and how that does or does not shape our ratings, lives in the affiliate disclosure.
8. Lifetimes and expiry windows
We work to a "shortest useful window" principle: session cookies die when you close the tab, consent choices last a year so we are not asking you every week, analytics cookies hold to the vendor default of thirteen months, and the affiliate click ID clears itself after ninety days. Expiry is handled by the browser itself, so you do not need to do anything. Separately, the server-side analytics logs are trimmed on a rolling twenty-six-month schedule that matches the retention window disclosed in the privacy policy.
9. Frequently asked questions
Do I have to accept cookies to read the reviews?
No. Tap "Reject all" on the banner and every review, guide and comparison table remains fully accessible. Only the two strictly-necessary cookies stay, and neither of them identifies you personally.
Will you sell my browsing data?
No. We do not sell, rent or share cookie data with data brokers, ad exchanges or social networks. The analytics vendors listed above act as contractual data processors and only move on our written instructions.
What happens if I clear my cookies?
The consent banner will show up again on your next visit because the faders_consent cookie is gone. Any affiliate attribution window from an older click will also close out, which is worth knowing if you clicked one of our outbound links a few days ago and were planning to sign up today.
Do you honour Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control?
We treat Global Privacy Control signals as a valid refusal: when the browser transmits one, we skip the banner prompt entirely and leave analytics and marketing off. The older Do Not Track header is not consistently implemented across browsers, so we do not rely on it on its own.
I am on a shared device. Can I wipe my history from your side?
Analytics data is stored in aggregate, so there is nothing personally tied to you to wipe. If you can give us a rough visit time, however, get in touch through the contact page and we will walk through the options with you.
10. Updates and how to reach us
Questions, corrections and formal data-protection requests all go through the contact page. Anything to do with personal data more broadly (access, deletion or portability requests under UK GDPR or GDPR) is covered end-to-end in the privacy policy. We revisit this cookie page any time we swap an analytics tool, retire a script, or the regulator publishes fresh guidance; the last-updated line at the top will always match the version you are reading.