Last updated: August 20, 2026
This page explains every cookie and similar technology PayoffPath can set, what each one is for, how long it lasts, and how to get rid of it. It is the detailed companion to our Privacy Policy.
1. What a cookie is
A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store, and which your browser sends back on your next visit. It lets a site remember something — that you already chose an option, for instance.
“Similar technologies” means anything that does the same job by other means: local storage and session storage (also kept in your browser), pixels or tracking beacons (a tiny invisible image whose only purpose is to record that it loaded), and device or advertising identifiers. Everything below applies to all of them, not only to cookies strictly speaking.
A cookie can only be read by the domain that set it. Cookies set by payoffpath.xyz are first-party; cookies set by another domain loaded inside our pages — an advertising network, for example — are third-party, and those are the ones that can follow you across different websites.
2. Your choice, and how to change it
Consent here is opt-in: no cookie beyond the strictly necessary is set until you expressly accept. The consent banner itself is in transition — we are deploying the Google-certified consent platform and, until it is active, no consent is collected from anyone: every visitor stays in the denied state. The advertising and analytics scripts do load with the page, but they start in a denied state: until you accept, they store nothing on your device and any advertising you see is non-personalised. You can verify this yourself in your browser’s network tab — you will see requests to googlesyndication.com and google-analytics.com, and no advertising or analytics cookie alongside them.
- Silence is not consent. Ignoring or closing the banner does not count as a yes, and neither does scrolling down.
- Rejecting costs you nothing. Every article on this site stays free and complete either way.
- You can change your mind at any time: delete this site’s cookies in your browser and your previous answer is gone with them. Withdrawing consent is never harder than giving it.
Your answer is itself stored in a cookie — otherwise we would have to ask on every page.
3. Every cookie, one by one
3.1 Strictly necessary
These make the site work. They cannot be switched off, and they do not track you.
| Name | Set by | What it does | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
cookie_notice_accepted |
payoffpath.xyz | Remembers whether you accepted or rejected, so the banner does not reappear on every page | 1 month |
wordpress_test_cookie |
payoffpath.xyz | Checks that your browser accepts cookies at all. Set only in the administration area | Session |
wordpress_logged_in_*, wp-settings-* |
payoffpath.xyz | Keeps an administrator signed in and remembers their editor preferences. A reader never receives these | Session to 1 year |
3.2 Analytics
Used to count visits and see which articles get read: how many people, from which country, on what kind of device, arriving from where. Aggregate only. We do not use analytics to identify you, build a profile of you, or follow you elsewhere.
| Name | Set by | What it does | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga |
Google Analytics | Distinguishes one visitor from another so a return visit is not counted twice | 2 years |
_ga_<ID> |
Google Analytics | Keeps the state of the current session | 2 years |
These run only if you accept. Google processes that data under its own terms.
3.3 Advertising
Set by Google and, through it, by other advertising vendors. They limit how often you see the same ad, measure whether an ad worked, detect fraudulent clicks and — only where you have allowed it — personalise what you are shown.
| Name | Set by | What it does | Lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
__gads |
payoffpath.xyz (Google) | Measures ad interactions and limits repetition | 13 months |
__gpi |
payoffpath.xyz (Google) | Ad personalisation and measurement | 13 months |
IDE, test_cookie |
doubleclick.net | Identifies the browser across sites in Google’s network for ad measurement and personalisation | Up to 13 months |
NID |
google.com | Stores ad preferences | 6 months |
These cookies are only set if you allow advertising in the banner. Refusing leaves the whole site readable: nothing here is behind a consent wall.
Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or to other websites. You can opt out of personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings, or from many vendors at once at aboutads.info/choices and, in Europe, youronlinechoices.eu. How Google handles this data is described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
3.4 What we do not use
No social network buttons, no embedded video players, no chat widgets, no heatmap or session-recording tools, no fingerprinting. Every one of those loads third-party code and watches you, and none of them would make these articles any better.
3.5 How your choice is enforced
This site implements Google Consent Mode v2. In plain terms: when a page loads, the browser is told up front that advertising storage, ad personalisation, ad user data, analytics storage and personalisation are all denied. Only two categories start granted — the strictly necessary ones and those used for security and fraud prevention.
If you accept, that state is updated to granted and the tags that depend on it are allowed to run. If you reject, or later delete this site’s cookies, it goes back to denied. Your previous answer is remembered, so a returning visitor gets their own choice applied before anything else happens.
Two tags read those signals. Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-9BH4QXZXGQ): because analytics_storage starts denied, GA4 loads in its cookieless mode — until you accept, it sends an anonymous ping without writing _ga or any other identifier to your browser, and it cannot recognise you on a later visit. If you accept, normal measurement begins. If you reject, it stays in that reduced mode for as long as you want.
And Google AdSense, which serves the advertising. Its script is present on article and category pages from the first load, but because ad_storage, ad_user_data and ad_personalization all start denied, it is bound to your choice before it can store or read anything for advertising. The script is not loaded at all on this site’s policy and contact pages — Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Legal Notice, Editorial Policy, Advertiser Disclosure, Contact and About — nor on the articles excluded under section 4.1 of the Privacy Policy — today, the guides on being sued for a debt and on stopping a wage garnishment.
4. Controlling cookies in your browser
Independently of our banner, your browser can block or delete cookies. It is usually under Settings → Privacy:
- Chrome — Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies.
- Firefox — Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data.
- Safari — Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data.
- Edge — Settings → Cookies and site permissions.
Blocking cookies will not stop you reading anything here. It may break the administration area, which only affects us.
Private or incognito browsing discards cookies when you close the window — which also means you will be asked for your choice again next time.
5. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Browsers can send a Do Not Track signal, but there is no agreed standard for how a site should respond and we do not act on it. The opt-out that the Global Privacy Control signal expresses — no sale or sharing of personal information — is already the standing state for every visitor here: nothing is stored or shared for advertising unless you expressly opt in.
6. If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland
Cookies there are governed by the ePrivacy rules as well as by the GDPR, which is why anything beyond a strictly necessary cookie is asked for before it runs rather than after. You can withdraw consent at any time, and doing so is no harder than giving it.
One thing we would rather state plainly than bury: for personalised advertising in those territories Google requires publishers to use a consent platform certified under the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework. Until that is in place, readers in the EEA and the UK may be shown non-personalised advertising only. That is a limitation on the ads, not on the articles.
7. Changes to this policy
If the cookies we use change, this page changes with them and the date at the top is updated. If a new category is added, the banner will ask again.
8. Questions
Write to zykoadministracion@gmail.com or use the contact form. See also our Privacy Policy and Advertiser Disclosure.