Cookie Policy

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files stored on your device by your browser when you visit a website. They let the site recognise your browser between page loads and across return visits. Cookies are one of several similar technologies (local storage, pixel tags, device identifiers) that websites and their partners use to remember preferences, measure traffic, and serve advertising.

This page describes which cookies Characters.biz and our partners set, why we set them, and how you can control or block them. For the wider picture of how we handle data, see our Privacy Policy.

Categories of cookies we use

Strictly necessary

These cookies are required for the site to work. They are set when you navigate the site and do not identify you personally. Characters.biz itself uses very few first-party cookies — the site is primarily static HTML.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics (property ID G-ZH4907WS7B) to understand which pages readers visit, how they arrive, and how long they stay. Google Analytics sets cookies such as _ga and _ga_<CONTAINER_ID> in your browser. The data is aggregated and we use it to decide what to improve and what to publish next.

Advertising (Google AdSense and ad partners)

Pages on Characters.biz display advertising served by Google and other ad partners. These partners may set cookies on your browser to:

• Measure how often an ad is shown and whether it is clicked.
• Limit the number of times you see the same ad (frequency capping).
• Serve ads that are more relevant to you based on your previous visits to this and other websites (personalised advertising).
• Detect invalid ad activity and fraud.

Google uses cookies such as NID, IDE, and ones tied to the DoubleClick ad domain. Other ad partners set their own identifiers. A full list of Google's ad technology partners is maintained by Google at support.google.com/admanager/answer/9012903.

As required by Google, we disclose the following: third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our site and/or other sites on the internet.

How you can control cookies

You have several independent controls:

• Your browser. Every major browser lets you view, block, or delete cookies site-by-site or globally. Look for "Cookies and site data" or "Privacy" in your browser's settings. Blocking all cookies will not break Characters.biz itself, but will stop analytics from tracking your visit and may break login or preferences on other sites.
• Google Ad Settings. To manage personalised advertising from Google across the web — including ads served on Characters.biz — visit adssettings.google.com. You can turn off personalised ads entirely.
• YourOnlineChoices / industry opt-outs. European readers can opt out of personalised advertising from many ad networks at once via youronlinechoices.com. Readers in the United States can use optout.aboutads.info or optout.networkadvertising.org.
• Google Analytics opt-out. If you want to exclude your visits from Google Analytics specifically, Google publishes a browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a do-not-sell / do-not-share signal where applicable law requires.

Third-party content

Some pages may embed or link to content hosted elsewhere (for example, YouTube clips, social media posts, or game publisher sites). Those third parties set their own cookies under their own privacy and cookie policies. We don't control those cookies; you'll need to check each provider's policy and use their own controls to manage them.

Changes to this policy

We update this Cookie Policy when our ad partners, analytics setup, or the categories above change meaningfully. The "Last reviewed" date at the top of the page reflects the most recent update. We encourage you to check back when you're curious; the policy in effect is the one published here.

Questions

For cookie or privacy questions, write to privacy@characters.biz. Please include the page URL and a brief description of your question.