1. What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file a website stores in your browser. Similar technologies — local storage, pixels, tracking parameters appended to a URL — do comparable things. Throughout this page, “cookies” means all of them.
2. Categories we use
Strictly necessary
Required for the site to function and to keep it secure. These cannot be switched off, and under UK and EU law they do not require consent. They include cookies set by our hosting and content delivery provider to route requests, balance load and mitigate abuse, and any cookie that stores your own cookie preferences.
Analytics
Help us understand which pages are read, how people arrive, and where they give up. We use this to decide what to write next and to find pages that are broken or confusing. This data is aggregated and we do not use it to identify individuals.
Affiliate tracking
This is the category that pays for the site. When you click an outbound commercial link, the destination seller or their affiliate network records that the click came from us — usually via a cookie set on their domain, or a tracking identifier in the URL — so that a subsequent purchase can be attributed to us and a commission paid.
These cookies are set by the merchant or network, not by us, and are governed by their privacy policies. We receive aggregate reporting of clicks and completed sales. We do not receive your name, your payment details, or the contents of your order. See our affiliate disclosure for the full picture.
Functional
Remember preferences such as a saved comparison or a dismissed notice, so the site behaves sensibly on your next visit.
What we do not use
We do not run display advertising, and we do not use advertising cookies to build profiles for third-party ad targeting. We do not embed social media tracking widgets.
3. Consent
Where the law requires it — in the UK, the EEA, and an increasing number of other jurisdictions — non-essential cookies are set only after you have given consent, and refusing is as easy as accepting.
You can withdraw consent at any time by clearing cookies for this site in your browser and declining when asked again, or by using your browser’s cookie controls as described below.
4. How to control cookies in your browser
Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies. The controls are usually under Settings, then Privacy:
- Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies
- Safari: Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data
- Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
- Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions
Blocking all cookies will not stop you reading this site. It may stop affiliate attribution working, which costs us rather than you — you will pay the same price at the seller either way.
Most browsers also offer a private or incognito mode that discards cookies at the end of the session, and browser extensions can block tracking more aggressively.
5. Global Privacy Control
We honour Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals where our tooling supports them. GPC is a browser-level setting that communicates an opt-out request to every site you visit, and is recognised under several U.S. state privacy laws.
6. Third-party cookies we cannot control
Once you click through to another website, that site sets its own cookies under its own policies. We have no control over them. If you are about to buy something, particularly a health product, it is worth reading the seller’s own privacy and cookie policies.
7. Changes
We will update this page if our use of cookies changes. The date at the top always reflects the current version.
8. Contact
Questions about cookies or tracking: privacy@tomsweightlossrankings.com. Our full privacy policy covers what we do with the data these cookies generate.