A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store and hand back on later requests. It is how a site recognizes that two page views came from the same browser. This page lists the cookies involved in a visit to cyberlyber.com, explains what each one is for, and covers the affiliate cookie that Amazon sets after you follow a shopping link, which is the one with the most bearing on you.
This page sits alongside the Privacy Policy, which covers everything else we hold.
Cookies this site sets
- A visit identifier. Our own analytics stores a short random value that lasts for the length of your browsing session. It exists so that six page views in one sitting are counted as one visit rather than six separate arrivals. It carries no name, no email address and nothing you typed.
- A returning visitor identifier. A second random value is stored for a longer period, up to around two years, so that a repeat visit can be distinguished from a first one in aggregate reporting. It is a random string, it is not linked to your identity, and clearing your cookies removes it and starts you fresh.
- Caching cookies. The site uses page caching so pages load quickly. The caching layer may set a small marker so that it serves the correct cached variant of a page to your browser.
- Platform cookies. The publishing platform sets cookies in a few situations, for example if someone logs in to administer the site, or if a cart session is created by the underlying store software. Nothing is sold here and no payment is taken, so a cart cookie has no purchase attached to it.
Cookies set by others while you are here
Traffic to this site passes through Cloudflare, which handles caching, encryption and protection against automated attacks. Cloudflare may set its own cookies to distinguish a human visitor from a bot and to keep a security decision consistent across your visit. These are set by Cloudflare under its own terms and we do not control them.
Social sharing buttons appear on some pages. Simply loading a page does not sign you in to anything, but if you use one of those buttons, the network you share to may set cookies of its own under its own policy.
We do not run third party advertising networks or retargeting pixels on these pages, so there are no advertising cookies from ad exchanges here.
The Amazon affiliate cookie, explained honestly
This is the one worth understanding properly. When you follow a shopping link from a write up here, whether that is a television, a single serve brewer or anything else in the catalog, you leave cyberlyber.com and land on Amazon. At that moment Amazon sets a cookie on its own domain recording that you arrived through our referral.
Amazon’s standard referral window is 24 hours. If you buy within that window, the purchase is attributed to us and we receive a commission. There is a longer window in the specific case where you add an item to your cart within those 24 hours and complete the purchase later, up to 89 days after adding it. The commission is paid by Amazon out of its own margin, so the price you pay does not change.
Three things follow from that, and they are the reason this section exists:
- The cookie belongs to Amazon, not to us. It sits on Amazon’s domain, it is governed by Amazon’s privacy notice, and we cannot read it, edit it or delete it on your behalf.
- Within that window, a commission can be earned on things we never wrote about. If you follow a link about a rice cooker and then buy an unrelated item in the same session, that purchase can still be attributed to us.
- If you would rather not carry the referral, clear your Amazon cookies before checking out, or go to Amazon directly in a new browser session. It costs you nothing either way and it will not affect what you read here.
The commercial side of this is set out in full on the Affiliate Disclosure.
Controlling cookies
Your browser is where the control sits. Every major browser lets you view stored cookies, delete them individually or all at once, block third party cookies, and refuse cookies from particular sites. The settings live under privacy or site data, and private or incognito browsing discards them when you close the window. Browser vendors publish their own instructions and those are more reliable than anything we could summarize here.
Blocking our cookies does not lock you out. Pages still load and read normally. The effect is that visits are counted less accurately in our reporting, which is a cost we can live with. Blocking cookies more broadly may break other sites, including retailer checkouts, so it is worth knowing what you are turning off.
Changes and questions
Cookies change when the software behind a site changes, so this page is revised when that happens. If a cookie appears in your browser that is not accounted for here, tell us through the contact form and we will find out what it is and update the page.