Institutional

Cookie Policy

Everything this site stores in your browser, item by item, what each item is for, and how to change your answer.

Adopted 4 Feb 2025 · revised 28 Jul 2026 · 3 revisions

1 The short version

This site stores a small number of items in your browser, all listed below. Most are first-party preferences that never reach us. Two exceptions are named in the list and both are third parties: Google Analytics, which counts visits, and Taboola, which supplies the recommended-content unit at the foot of an article and does set advertising cookies. Articles carried that unit from October 2026; before that date there were no advertising cookies on this site.

2 What we store, item by item

theme

Your light, dark or system choice, if you set one in the footer. Stored in local storage on your device until you change it. Strictly a preference; never sent to us.

consent

Your answer to the consent question, so it is asked once and remembered.

zip pin

A ZIP code, only if you enter one on a vote page to pin your own members of Congress. Stored on your device. Never sent to us.

saved

Articles you save for later. Stored on your device. Never sent to us.

Taboola

Cookies and local storage set by Taboola, which supplies the recommended-content unit at the foot of each article. They record which recommendations you were shown and which you clicked, and Taboola uses them to choose what to show you here and on other sites that carry its units. This is behavioural advertising and it is the one thing on this site that is: see Your Privacy Choices for how to opt out, which works without an account and leaves the site fully readable. The unit does not appear on the front page, on section fronts or on any institutional page, only on articles.

Google Analytics

Cookies named _ga and _ga_ followed by a code, set by Google Analytics so we can count visits and see which articles are read. They record the pages you open on this site, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and the browser you use. They expire after two years, or sooner if you clear your browser. We do not use them for advertising and we have not enabled Google's advertising features.

Server request logs, which every website keeps, are described in the Privacy Policy.

3 The consent mechanism

Storage that is strictly necessary to show the page needs no consent and none is asked.

For the two third parties above, the controls are the ones described in Your Privacy Choices: Global Privacy Control, which this site reads and passes on as an instruction not to sell or share, and each company's own opt-out. Both are linked from the footer of every page. Using either leaves the site fully readable.

4 Third parties

Two third parties run script on this site and no others: Google Analytics on every page, and Taboola on articles, where it draws the recommended-content unit at the foot of the page. Our security policy names those two and blocks everything else, which is why an article that quotes material from another platform is rendered as labelled text with a link rather than that platform's embedded player: reading here does not expose you to a third company's cookies.

5 Browser controls

Your browser can clear or block any of the items above; the site keeps working, though it will forget your preferences. Instructions live in your browser's own settings under storage or site data.