Exactly which cookies.
Rather than describe categories in the abstract, here is the complete list. If you inspect this site in your browser and find a cookie that is not in this table, that is a mistake on my part and I would like to know.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics | Distinguishes one visitor from another so a returning reader is not counted twice | 2 years |
_ga_36BWJ5066P | Google Analytics | Keeps the session state for this specific site | 2 years |
_fbp | Meta (Facebook) | Identifies your browser to Meta so it can tell whether an advert led to a visit, and can show you related adverts on Facebook or Instagram | 3 months |
_fbc | Meta (Facebook) | Only set if you arrive here by clicking a Meta advert. Records which advert it was | 3 months |
A third value, your cookie choice itself, is stored in your browser’s local storage under
ma_cookie_consent. It never leaves your device and is not sent to me or to anyone else. It
exists only so the banner stops asking you the same question. Clearing your browser data removes it, and
the banner will ask once more.
The two Meta cookies are advertising cookies, and it is worth being plain about what that means. They let Meta recognise your browser across sites that use its pixel, which is how an advert can be attributed to a visit and how you might later see something related on Facebook or Instagram. That is genuinely different in kind from counting page views, which is why they are treated differently below and why declining removes them.
What is still not here. No LinkedIn insight tag. No Google Ads remarketing tag. No third-party embeds that set cookies of their own. Nothing here is sold, and no list is built for anyone else to advertise to. The LinkedIn link in the footer is an ordinary link — it sets nothing until you click it and arrive on LinkedIn's own site, where LinkedIn's policies apply, not mine.
How the choice works.
The starting position depends on where you are, because the law differs and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.
- In the EEA, the UK or Switzerland: everything is off. No analytics cookie is written, and the Meta advertising script is never even loaded, until you choose Accept. Not loaded is a stronger guarantee than loaded-then-disabled: if the script is absent, there is nothing that could set a cookie. If you ignore the banner, it all stays off.
- Everywhere else, including Nigeria and the United States: analytics and the Meta pixel are on by default. Choosing Decline switches both off and deletes the cookies already set, and that choice is remembered.
Two honest caveats about how your region is determined. For analytics, Google resolves it from your IP address on its own servers, which is reliable. For the Meta pixel there is no equivalent, so the site reads your browser's timezone instead — a local check that requires contacting nobody, since asking an outside service where you are in order to decide whether you may be tracked would itself be tracking. A VPN or an unusual timezone setting can therefore misclassify you. Where the timezone cannot be read at all, the stricter regime is assumed.
Change your mind.
Whatever you chose, you can change it now:
That button is also in the footer of every page on this site, permanently, so the decision is never one you have to hunt for.
Browser controls.
Independently of anything on this site, your browser can block or delete cookies, and most browsers offer a setting to reject third-party cookies outright. Those controls override mine. Blocking cookies here costs you nothing — this site has no login, no basket and no personalised content, so it works identically with every cookie refused.
For the fuller picture of what is collected and what your rights are, see the privacy notice.
Moses Azorbo · Independent SEO & AEO consultant · Last updated 27 September 2026.