Effective Date: October 14, 2026
This Cookie Policy explains how HonestCredit.org uses cookies and similar technologies for website operation, privacy choices, analytics, and advertising. Read it together with our Privacy Policy.
What Cookies and Similar Technologies Do
Cookies are small files stored by your browser. Similar technologies include local storage, pixels, and web beacons. They can remember preferences, help protect the website, measure visits, or support the delivery and measurement of ads.
Some cookies expire when you close your browser. Others remain until their expiration date or until you delete them. First-party cookies are associated with this website; third-party technologies are associated with providers such as Google and advertising partners.
How We Use These Technologies
| Category | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Website operation and security | Support essential website functions, prevent misuse, and maintain service reliability. |
| Privacy preferences | Remember consent decisions, objections, or opt-out choices and help communicate them to the relevant providers. |
| Analytics | Use Google Analytics 4 to understand page views, interactions, traffic sources, and website performance. |
| Advertising | Use Google AdSense and participating ad partners to deliver and measure ads, limit repeated ads, and detect invalid activity. Where permitted, ads may be personalized. |
This table describes categories, not an exhaustive list of cookies stored in every visitor’s browser. The actual technologies and lifetimes depend on your location, device, choices, the services loaded, and the advertising partners involved. Technologies that are strictly necessary for a service you request or for recording privacy choices may operate without optional-cookie consent where applicable law permits.
Google Consent Management
We use Google’s consent management platform (Google CMP), through AdSense Privacy & messaging, throughout HonestCredit.org: on the homepage, articles, dictionary pages, calculators, and category or hub pages. It presents applicable privacy messages and communicates choices concerning Google advertising and analytics.
For visitors in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, the European regulations message presents choices concerning relevant purposes and partners. You can consent, decline consent, or manage options. Where a partner relies on a permitted legitimate interest, the controls also let you object to that processing.
For visitors in supported U.S. states, Google’s U.S. state regulations message provides applicable advertising opt-out controls. Available messages and choices can differ by location.
Google may display either a standard consent message or a smaller, non-blocking notice associated with limited advertising. The type of message depends on the applicable settings and Google’s message optimization. A previous choice may be remembered in your browser, so a message does not necessarily appear again on each page. New choices may be required after changes, expiry, or deletion of stored preferences.
Browsing the website, scrolling, or leaving a message unanswered does not, by itself, grant consent to optional cookies or personalized advertising.
Google Analytics and Consent Mode
We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to understand how visitors use our content and tools. Analytics can process page views, interactions, referral information, browser and device details, approximate location, and pseudonymous identifiers.
Our Google Consent Mode setup uses denied defaults for analytics storage and Google’s advertising consent categories in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland until the applicable consent choices are communicated. With Advanced Consent Mode, Google tags can load while storage consent is denied and send limited cookieless measurement signals. Rejecting Analytics cookies therefore does not necessarily prevent every measurement request to Google.
Google states that Analytics does not log or store individual IP addresses. Temporary IP processing may be used to derive approximate location. This statement concerns Google Analytics, not all website security systems or advertising services.
Google AdSense and Advertising Partners
HonestCredit.org displays ads served through Google AdSense. Google and other third-party vendors may use cookies and similar technologies to deliver ads informed by earlier visits to this website or other websites. Google’s advertising cookies can enable Google and its partners to personalize ads across participating websites, subject to applicable choices and requirements.
Advertising providers may also process technical information such as IP addresses, browser and device details, page or referral information, ad impressions, and interactions. Non-personalized ads are not necessarily cookie-free: technologies may still be used for permitted measurement, frequency limits, security, or fraud prevention.
Where applicable, the Google consent message identifies participating providers and includes information about their purposes and privacy policies. Learn more about Google’s partner-site data use and Google’s cookie technologies.
Limited Ads Without Personalization Consent
Where supported and permitted, Google may serve limited ads when you do not consent to personalized advertising or advertising storage. Limited ads do not use personal data to personalize advertising, but technical information such as an IP address may still be used to deliver an ad. When programmatic limited ads are enabled, Google may use cookies, local storage, or related storage dedicated to invalid-traffic detection and fraud prevention.
Limited ads and non-personalized ads are different serving modes. Non-personalized ads can still require cookie consent. Refusing consent therefore does not necessarily mean that the page will contain no advertising or that no information will be processed.
For more information about Google’s processing of personal information, visit Google’s Business Data Responsibility information.
Manage Your Privacy Choices
Use the Privacy and cookie settings link in our website footer to access the available privacy controls. When the European regulations message applies, the link or the button below can reopen the Google message. You can reject consent, withdraw previously granted consent, review purposes and providers, and object to applicable legitimate-interest processing. Withdrawal does not change the lawfulness of processing that occurred before you withdrew consent.
For supported U.S. state messages, use Google’s Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information link when displayed. Those controls concern the Google advertising processing covered by the message. Contact us for other applicable privacy requests.
Additional options include:
- Google My Ad Center to manage eligible Google personalized-ad settings.
- Digital Advertising Alliance choices for participating third-party advertising providers.
- Google Analytics opt-out add-on for supported browsers.
- Your browser settings to inspect, delete, or block cookies and site storage.
These controls serve different purposes. Turning off personalized ads does not remove all advertising, and blocking cookies does not necessarily stop all data processing. Some choices apply only to a particular browser, device, or provider. Deleting stored preferences may require you to choose again.
If a privacy control is unavailable, contact info(at)honestcredit(dot)org. Browser controls remain available, although blocking necessary storage may affect some website functions.
Global Privacy Control
Global Privacy Control (GPC) is a browser signal that communicates an opt-out preference. Google describes how recognized GPC signals trigger restricted advertising data processing in supported U.S. states. Its treatment depends on the applicable region and service. A GPC signal is not a universal substitute for every cookie or privacy choice.
Retention and Cookie Lifetimes
Our GA4 user and event-data retention setting is 14 months. This setting does not determine cookie lifetimes or the retention of all aggregated reports, advertising data, or security logs. Some identifier retention periods may restart with new activity, depending on the Analytics configuration.
Cookie and local-storage lifetimes vary by provider and purpose. You can inspect storage for this website in your browser and consult the relevant provider’s documentation.
Policy Updates and Contact
We may update this policy when our services, providers, settings, or legal requirements change. The revised policy and effective date will appear on this page.
HonestCredit.org is operated by BoostMedia. Questions about cookies or privacy choices can be sent to info(at)honestcredit(dot)org.