The short version
This website uses one kind of optional cookie: Google Analytics, which helps us see how the site is used. It only runs if you agree. Until you choose, and if you say no, nothing is stored in your browser for it and nothing is sent to Google.
The only other cookie an ordinary visitor ever gets is a small one that remembers your choice, so we don’t ask you on every page.
There’s no advertising on this website, and we don’t use cookies to follow you around other websites.
What cookies and similar technologies are
A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to store. Other technologies do much the same job under different names, such as local storage, tracking pixels and device fingerprinting. The law treats them all the same way, and on this page “cookies” means all of them.
Websites may only use them without asking you first when they are strictly necessary for something you have asked for, or in a few other narrow cases. Everything else needs your permission, and saying no has to be as easy as saying yes.
The cookies this website uses
Necessary: no permission needed
| Name | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
jd_consent | Remembers whether you accepted or rejected analytics cookies, so we don’t ask you on every page. It holds your choice and its date, and nothing that identifies you | 6 months, then we ask you again |
It’s only set once you make a choice. Before that, this website stores nothing in your browser at all.
Analytics: only if you agree
We use Google Analytics 4, a service from Google. If you accept analytics cookies, it sets these:
| Name | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
_ga | Gives your browser a random number, so that repeat visits are counted as one visitor rather than several. It doesn’t contain your name or anything you’ve told us | 6 months after your last visit |
_ga_8FHYJ5FNW5 | Keeps track of your current visit, so that one visit isn’t counted as several | 6 months after your last visit |
If you withdraw your consent, we delete both straight away. If your choice runs out after 6 months, we delete them the next time you visit, and ask you again.
What Google Analytics records if you agree:
- the pages you visit and when, how long you stay and how far you scroll,
- the website that brought you here,
- where you are, to the level of your town or city,
- details of your device and browser, such as its make and model, the versions of its software and your screen size,
- the links you follow to other websites, including files such as PDFs,
- the words you search for, if you use the site’s search, and
- whether you click through to Amazon, to book a call or to email us.
Its settings also let it look in the pages you view for contact details, such as email addresses, and send any it finds to Google in a scrambled form. Our pages show only details we publish, such as our own email address, so they have none of yours unless you search this website for your own details. Our privacy notice explains all of this in more detail.
What we use it for: seeing which pages people find useful and what’s working, so we can improve the site. We don’t use it for advertising. Our set-up tells Google that you haven’t agreed to advertising cookies or to your information being used for advertising, and Google signals, which can link visits to people’s Google accounts, is off.
Google’s part: Google provides Google Analytics to us as a service provider. Our privacy notice explains what is collected, where it goes and how long it’s kept. Google explains how it uses information from websites that use its services in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.
Nothing else
There are no advertising or social media cookies, and no embedded videos, maps, booking calendars, social media feeds or review widgets. Apart from Google Analytics, and only after you agree, your browser doesn’t contact any other company when you read a page here.
We last checked on 26/09/2026, by visiting the pages of this website in a fresh browser before and after making each choice, and recording what was stored in the browser and what was requested from other websites. We check again whenever the website changes.
How you choose
The first time you visit, a banner asks you. It offers Accept analytics cookies and Reject analytics cookies, side by side and equally easy to press. Nothing is ticked for you in advance, and ignoring the banner counts as no. You can read the whole site whatever you choose.
If you say no, we remember it in the jd_consent cookie, and we don’t ask you again for 6 months.
Changing your mind
To change your mind at any time, use Cookie settings at the bottom of every page, or the button below. It takes one press, just as agreeing did.
If you withdraw your consent, Google Analytics stops straight away and we delete its cookies from your browser. Within one month, we also ask Google to delete the analytics information linked to them.
Why we ask first
The law lets a website count visits without asking in some cases: where the counting is done only for that website, by a provider working just for it, and produces only totals that can’t identify anyone. Google Analytics keeps information about each browser, not just totals, so we don’t rely on that rule. We ask.
How the site works without anything else
- Fonts are stored on our own server, so your browser does not contact Google or anyone else to fetch them.
- Buttons for books, calls and programmes are ordinary links. Nothing from those websites loads until you click.
If you manage this website
People who log in to manage the website get the cookies that logging in needs, such as WordPress’s own, whose names begin wordpress_, wordpress_logged_in_ and wp-settings-, and a test cookie, wordpress_test_cookie, on the login page. Visitors never receive them.
When you leave this website
Some links take you to other websites, such as Amazon for Jo’s books, bluecowpractice.com to book a call, social media, and the publications that have featured Jo. Those websites may set their own cookies once you arrive, and their own cookie and privacy notices apply there, not this one.
If this ever changes
If we ever want to use any other cookies that aren’t strictly necessary, we will update this notice first and ask your permission separately, with a choice to say no that is as easy as saying yes.
Controlling cookies in your browser
Your browser lets you see and delete what websites store, and block cookies in future. Look in its settings under privacy or cookies. Blocking cookies will not stop you using this site. If you block or delete the jd_consent cookie, we’ll simply ask you again.
Questions
Email hello@bluecowpractice.com. Our privacy notice explains how we handle personal information, and our terms of use explain the rules for using this site.