Cookie Policy
Last updated: 5 August 2026
What This Covers
Cookies are small files a website stores on your device. Browsers also offer local storage, which does the same job in a different place. Maltese law (S.L. 586.01, which implements the ePrivacy Directive) treats both the same way: anything that is not strictly necessary to deliver the page needs your consent first. This policy covers both, even though it is called a cookie policy.
What Runs Before You Choose
Until you accept, this site sets no analytics cookies and loads no third-party content. Concretely, before consent:
- Google Analytics does not load, and no _ga cookie is created.
- Embedded YouTube videos do not load. You see a placeholder with a button instead, so no request reaches Google until you ask for one.
- Fonts are served from this site's own domain, so no request goes to Google Fonts.
Declining is a real choice, not a delayed accept. Nothing on this list loads if you decline.
Storage We Use
Strictly necessary
This is the only item stored without your consent, because it is what remembers your consent. It is a local storage entry rather than a cookie, so it is never transmitted to us or to anyone else.
| Name | Type | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| cookie-consent | Local storage | Records whether you accepted or declined, so you are not asked again on every page. | Until you change it or clear your browser storage. It has no expiry date of its own. |
Analytics, only after you accept
Set by Google Analytics 4 to count visits and show which articles are read. They identify a browser, not a person, but they are still personal data under the GDPR, so they are treated as such.
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Google Analytics | Assigns a pseudonymous identifier so repeat visits from the same browser are counted once. | 2 years |
| _ga_NGVY9LLB0W | Google Analytics | Holds session state for this specific property. | 2 years |
Embedded video, only after you accept or click to load
Some articles embed YouTube videos. We load them from youtube-nocookie.com, which holds back advertising identifiers until a video is actually played, and we do not load the frame at all until you accept cookies or press "Load this video" on the placeholder. Once a video plays, Google sets its own cookies and receives your IP address and the page you are on. Google controls this set and can change it; the main ones are:
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | YouTube (Google) | Estimates bandwidth and selects the player interface. | 6 months |
| YSC | YouTube (Google) | Tracks views of embedded videos within a session. | Session |
| PREF | YouTube (Google) | Stores player preferences such as playback quality. | 8 months |
| GPS | YouTube (Google) | Stores location data on mobile devices. | Session |
Google publishes the full list at business.safety.google/privacy.
Changing or Withdrawing Your Choice
Select Cookie settings in the footer of any page. The banner reopens showing your current choice, and changing it applies straight away without a reload.
If you switch from accept to decline we do more than stop loading the scripts: we set Google's official opt-out flag for this property and expire the _ga cookies already on your device, so the identifiers they held are gone.
Browser Controls
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser, independently of anything on this site. Every major browser documents this in its settings under privacy. Blocking all cookies and local storage will stop this site remembering your consent choice, so the banner will reappear on each visit.
To opt out of Google Analytics across every website you visit, install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. For how Google handles data, see Google's Privacy Policy.
Contact and Changes
Questions about this policy, or about anything in our Privacy Policy, go to info@willingness.com.mt.
We update this page when the storage we use changes. The revision date at the top reflects the current version. If we add a new category of cookie we will ask for your consent again rather than relying on a choice you made before it existed.