Cookie Policy

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which a website may place on your computer or device when you visit a site. The cookie will help the website, or another website, to recognise your device the next time you visit. Web beacons, pixels or other similar files can also do the same thing. We use the term "cookies" in this policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way.

Cookies serve many functions. For example, they can help us to remember your username and preferences, analyse how well our Sites are performing, or allow us to recommend content we believe will be most relevant to you.

The majority of websites use cookies to collect and retain personal information about their visitors. Most cookies collect general information, such as how visitors arrive at and use our Sites, the device they are using, their internet protocol address (IP address), what pages they are viewing and their approximate location (for example, we would be able to recognise that you are visiting our Sites from London).

Purpose of cookies

We group our cookies into the below categories.

Operating our Sites

Some cookies are essential for the operation of our Sites. This includes cookies for the following purposes:

Access – we use these cookies to identify subscribers and ensure access to subscription only pages, including premium access.

Billing – if your subscription is provided by your employer or educational institution under a group subscription, we use cookies for the purposes of measuring activity and billing.

Performance – we use these cookies to monitor Site performance. This allows us to provide a high quality experience by quickly identifying and fixing any issues that arise. For example, we might use performance cookies to track error messages, and to determine improvements to our Sites.

Functionality – we use functionality cookies to allow us to remember your preferences. For example, we use functionality cookies to provide you with enhanced services, such as allowing you to watch a video online or comment on a blog.

Analytics – we use cookies to help us understand our audience and the success of advertising campaigns. For example, we count articles views to present 'Most Read' content. We also use analytics cookies to keep track of how many advertising impressions have been served for a campaign and to manage the frequency at which you see the same adverts.

Fraud prevention – we use cookies to monitor and prevent suspicious activity and fraudulent traffic

Personalisation

We use cookies to improve your experience of our products by personalising our Sites. For example, we help you to find new content and recommend email alerts based on the topics you read. Where our Sites have such functionality, you can manage elements of personalisation in your account.

Advertising

We use cookies to serve you with advertisements that we believe are relevant to you and your interests. You may see these advertisements on our Sites and on other sites that you visit. For example, if you read a number of articles on motoring on chiefbrief.org or on other sites, you would see more car advertisements as we have inferred that you are interested in this topic. You may also see advertisements for our products and services on other websites if you have previously visited our Sites.

For our Sites that offer behaviourally or demographically targeted advertising, you will have the opportunity to turn this off in your account. Please note, if you turn this off you will still see the same number of advertisements but they may be less relevant to you. You may continue to see "contextual" advertisements that are not targeted based on your personal information – for example, a motoring advertisement presented on a motoring article.

Third party cookies on our Sites

We also use third party cookies on our Sites that fall into the categories above ("third party cookies") for the following reasons:

• to help us monitor traffic on our Sites (like many companies, we use Google Analytics to do this);
• to identify fraudulent or non-human traffic;
• to assist with market research;
• to improve Site functionality;
• to monitor compliance with our terms and conditions and copyright policy.

We also use third party cookies for the purpose of programmatic advertising. This is where we sell digital advertising space through the use of automated technology such as Google Doubleclick (AdX).

These third party cookies are used within programmatic for measurement and attribution, and management of frequency. They may also be used for personalisation of advertisements based on data you have shared with third parties, to the extent that you have consented to this.

Advertisers sometimes use their own cookies to measure performance and to identify fraudulent or non-human traffic. To the extent that you have given them your consent to do so, advertisers may also provide you with targeted advertising based on their data. For example, advertisers may use a profile they have built either on their own site or on sites that you have previously visited to present you with more relevant advertisements during your visit to chiefbrief.org.

Our standard advertising terms and conditions do not permit our advertisers to drop their own cookies for profiling or retargeting without your consent.

How to manage cookies

You can manage your cookie preferences through your browser settings. Most modern browsers allow you to:

• View what cookies have been set and delete them on an individual basis
• Block third party cookies
• Block cookies from particular sites
• Block all cookies from being set
• Delete all cookies when you close your browser

Please remember that if you choose to disable cookies, certain sections of our Sites may not work properly. Deleting cookies may mean that any settings or preferences you have set on our Sites may be lost.

For more information about cookies and how to manage them, please visit: www.allaboutcookies.org

More information

Further information about our data processing can be found in our Privacy Policy.

If you have any queries regarding this Cookie Policy, please contact our Data Protection Officer at newsroom@chiefbrief.org

GDPR & UK Data Protection

This Cookie Policy complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

Under these regulations, you have the right to:

• Access: Request a copy of your consent records
• Withdraw Consent: Change your cookie preferences at any time
• Data Portability: Request your data in a machine-readable format
• Deletion: Request deletion of your data (subject to legal retention requirements)
• Complain: Lodge a complaint with the ICO (UK) or your local data protection authority

Your consent is valid for 6 months, after which you'll be prompted to renew your preferences. We retain consent records for 5 years as required by law.

Changes to this Cookie Policy

This policy is effective from 17 April 2026.

Any changes we may make to this cookie policy will be posted on this page. If changes are significant, we may choose to notify you by email or to clearly indicate on our home page that the policy has been updated.