1. What a cookie actually is
A cookie is a small text file a site asks your browser to keep. On your next page view the browser hands it back, which is how a site can tell that two visits came from the same device. Some of the tools below also use related browser storage, like localStorage, for the same job. Where this page says "cookies," it means both.
Nothing on this site requires an account or a login, so none of these cookies identify you by name. What they hold is an opaque identifier plus, in one case, a record of the choices you made in the consent banner.
2. The categories we use
Strictly necessary
These make the site work as intended and are set regardless of consent. There are two: the cookie that stores your consent decision itself (otherwise we would have to ask you again on every page), and the storage used by our accessibility widget to remember settings like larger text or higher contrast between visits.
Analytics
These tell us which pages get read, how people move through the site, and where they get stuck. We use them to decide what to rewrite and what to fix. They report in aggregate — we are looking at patterns across visitors, not at you.
Marketing
We sometimes pay for ads. The marketing cookie is how we find out whether a given ad led anywhere, and it lets Meta show our ads to people whose behavior resembles our visitors. We do not sell the data these cookies generate, and we do not hand it to data brokers. Our privacy policy covers the wider picture of what we collect and why.
3. The services behind them
Six third parties are involved. Two of them set no cookies at all and are listed here anyway, because you should know what loads in your browser. Note that the analytics and marketing scripts are deliberately deferred — they do not load until the page is interactive or you interact with it — so a very fast bounce may set nothing at all.
CookieYes — consent management
Category: Strictly necessary.
What it does: Shows the consent banner, records which categories you accepted, and generates the live cookie table further down this page. Its own cookie is persistent, so your decision survives closing the browser.
Google Analytics 4
Category: Analytics.
What it does: Aggregate reporting on page views, traffic sources, approximate location, and device. Sets persistent cookies named _ga and _ga_<id>, which Google documents as lasting up to two years by default.
Microsoft Clarity
Category: Analytics.
What it does: Heatmaps and anonymized session replay, with form inputs masked. Sets _clck, a persistent cookie Microsoft documents at roughly one year, and _clsk, a short-lived one that ties a single session together.
Meta Pixel
Category: Marketing.
What it does: Records page views and lead events so we can measure Facebook and Instagram ads. Sets _fbp, which Meta documents as persisting for about 90 days.
accessiBe accessibility widget
Category: Strictly necessary.
What it does: Powers the accessibility menu on every page. It stores the profile you pick in your own browser so your settings persist. It is a functional tool — it does not report your browsing to us.
Vercel — hosting and Speed Insights
Category: No cookies.
What it does: Vercel hosts this site and keeps standard server logs. Speed Insights measures page-loading performance (Core Web Vitals) and is cookie-free by design. Our typefaces are self-hosted rather than pulled from a font provider, with one exception: the Casual Edition page loads two display faces from Google Fonts, which sets no cookies but does see your IP address. See our Privacy Policy for details.
4. The full, current cookie list
The table below is generated by CookieYes from a periodic scan of this site. If a cookie name or duration ever disagrees with the summary above, treat the table as authoritative — it is regenerated automatically, and prose written by hand is not.
5. Changing your consent
The consent banner appears on your first visit and records what you choose. To revisit that decision later, use the button at the bottom of this page, or the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link in the footer of any page. Both reopen the same CookieYes banner with your current selections showing, and a new choice replaces the old one immediately.
Because the decision lives in your browser, it is per-browser and per-device: choosing on your laptop does not carry over to your phone. Clearing your cookies also clears the record, so the banner will ask again on your next visit.
6. Controlling cookies in your browser
Consent settings are the easy route. Your browser is the definitive one — it can block or delete anything on this page whether we cooperate or not.
- Block or clear cookies directly. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge all expose this under privacy settings. Safari, Firefox, and Brave block most third-party tracking out of the box.
- Use a content blocker. uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger are free and stop these scripts before they load.
- Opt out of Google Analytics everywhere with Google's browser add-on.
- Limit Meta's use of your data in Facebook's Ad Preferences.
One trade-off worth knowing: blocking cookies wholesale also blocks the one that remembers your consent choice, so the banner will greet you on every visit.
7. Questions
If anything here is unclear, or you want to know what a specific cookie is doing, email hello@mockingbiird.co with "Cookies" in the subject line. If we add or remove a tool, we update this page and the date at the top of it.
Manage your preferences
Change or withdraw your cookie consent at any time. Your choices are saved in this browser.