Cookie Policy

This page lists every cookie and similar storage mechanism the site sets, what it does, and how long it lives. We keep this short and accurate, because most cookie pages are neither.

A “cookie” is a small text record stored by your browser. The same rules apply to localStorage, sessionStorage and browser-fingerprinting techniques, and we treat them the same way here.

What we set by default

One cookie runs without asking, because it is necessary for the site to work.

Cookie	Set by	Purpose	Lifetime
__cf_bm	Cloudflare	Distinguishes humans from bots so the site stays up under attack. Required for security.	30 minutes

This cookie cannot be refused without breaking the site. It is exempt from consent under the ePrivacy regime and the UK PECR rule on strictly-necessary cookies.

Analytics

We run a single, privacy-limited analytics tool so we can see which pages are useful and fix the ones that are not. It measures aggregate traffic only. IP anonymisation is switched on, and we do not enable Google’s advertising, remarketing or personalisation features.

Cookie	Set by	Purpose	Lifetime
_ga	Google Analytics 4	Distinguishes unique users for traffic analysis. IP anonymisation is on.	13 months
_ga_<container-id>	Google Analytics 4	Maintains session state between page loads in a single visit.	13 months

Google Analytics is operated by Google LLC. Its data ends up on US-based infrastructure. The transfer relies on the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (and the UK Extension, for UK residents). To opt out entirely, use your browser’s cookie controls to block or clear cookies for this site, or install Google’s official opt-out add-on. We set no advertising or profiling cookies, so there is nothing else to refuse.

What we do not set

For clarity: we do not run advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, third-party trackers, social media trackers, A/B-testing cookies, or behavioural-profiling tools. We do not embed Facebook Pixel, TikTok Pixel, X (Twitter) Pixel, LinkedIn Insight, or any equivalent.

If you see a cookie that is not on the list above, it has not been set by us. Browser extensions, captive-portal Wi-Fi and corporate proxies sometimes inject cookies of their own; that activity is outside our control.

Opting out

• Every browser can block or delete cookies for a single site; that stops the analytics cookies from being stored.
• Google’s official opt-out add-on disables Google Analytics across every site you visit.
• Send mail to etc [at] virugroup [dot] company with any question about how we measure the site.

Because we set no advertising or profiling cookies, there is nothing else to switch off.

Why the list is so short

A page that sells citizenship advice does not need to track its visitors. The shorter this list is, the easier the site is to trust. If we ever add a cookie, we add it to this table on the day, and we note the change on the news page.

Contact

Cookie questions, ePrivacy complaints, KVKK questions, ICO referrals: etc [at] virugroup [dot] company.