Cookie Policy

Last updated: 20 September 2026

This page explains what cookies are, which ones are set when you read Compass & Trails, and what you can do about them. It is the companion to the Privacy Policy, which covers the wider question of what personal data is collected.

What cookies are

A cookie is a small text file that a website, or a third party whose code runs on that website, asks your browser to store. Cookies are not programs. They cannot read other files on your device. They are mainly used to remember that a request and a later request came from the same browser.

Related technologies do similar work without the word “cookie” in the name: local storage, session storage, and pixels. Where this page says “cookies”, it means that family of storage methods.

Cookies used on this site

Compass & Trails is a static site. Its own pages do not set first-party cookies and do not ask you to sign in. Everything you see here is set by a third party whose resource the page requests.

Essential. The site itself needs no cookies to display a trail page. The web server that delivers the files may keep short-lived technical records as part of normal hosting and security, but these are server logs rather than cookies placed in your browser.

Advertising. If display advertising is running, ads are served by third-party vendors, including Google. Those vendors use cookies to record which pages you have seen and to limit repetition, and they may use them to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet. Personalized advertising is only served where consent is required and has been given.

Fonts. The typefaces on this site are delivered by Google Fonts, so loading a page makes a request to a Google domain. That request is governed by Google’s own cookie and privacy practices rather than by ours. Photographs are served from this site’s own domain and set no cookies.

How to control cookies

You do not need cookies to read this site. If you want to block or delete them, you have several options:

• Your browser settings. Every major browser lets you refuse third-party cookies, delete cookies already stored, or browse in a private window. The help pages for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge all cover this.
• Personalized advertising. Opt out through Google Ads Settings. Third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalized advertising can be turned off at www.aboutads.info, or, in the European Economic Area, at www.youronlinechoices.eu.
• Background. Google explains how it uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com.

Blocking cookies will not break the trail pages. It will only disable personalized advertising.

Withdrawing consent

Where the law requires consent, advertising cookies are set only after you accept them through the consent notice. You can change your mind at any time: clear this site’s cookies in your browser, then reload a page and answer the notice again. Declining does not remove ads, but the ads you see will not be personalized.

Changes to this policy

Advertising arrangements and third-party services change over time. When they do, this page is updated and the date at the top changes with it. A substantive change — a new class of third party, for example — will be noted in plain language rather than quietly edited in.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or a cookie you think should not be here, can go to fmj3419@gmail.com. See also the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use.