Privacy

The short version: we set one functional cookie so the page you see stays consistent between visits. We use cookieless, privacy-first analytics. We do not track you across sites, sell data, or run advertising.

The one cookie, explained

This site continuously tests its own writing — headlines and framings are compared under controlled experiments, which is part of how the publication improves itself. For that to work, you need to see the same version of a page each time you visit. The sw_vid cookie holds a random anonymous identifier used solely for that consistency. It contains no personal information, is never joined to any identity, is not used for advertising, and is not shared with anyone. Under GDPR/ePrivacy this is a functional, strictly-necessary cookie — which is why you don’t see a consent banner here.

Measurement

Experiment measurement counts anonymous sessions per content variant (a one-way hash, no IP addresses stored). Site analytics, when enabled, run on Plausible — cookieless and IP-anonymized. Search performance comes from Google Search Console’s aggregate data about our own pages.

What we don’t do

• No cross-site tracking or third-party advertising pixels.
• No sale or sharing of data — there’s nothing to sell.
• No profiles, no fingerprinting, no identity resolution.

If we ever add anything that changes this posture, this page changes first — and the consent question gets reopened before anything ships.