This text (14 September 2026) is being reviewed by Roadby's legal adviser before it is published as final. It may change without notice and should not be taken as the final version.
Cookie policy
This page explains the cookies and similar technologies used by this website (roadby.app): what is stored, who stores it, what for, how long it lasts, and how you can change or withdraw your choice at any time. It complements the privacy policy, which covers everything else we handle, in the app and on this site.
1. What cookies are
A cookie is a small file that a website asks your browser to keep, so that something can be remembered between one page and the next, or between one visit and the next. This policy also covers similar technologies that do the same job without being cookies: local storage (localStorage), which is where this site keeps your own choice about cookies.
Cookies are called first party when the site you are visiting is the one that stores them, and third party when someone else does. There is a middle case that matters here: a cookie stored on roadby.app, but written and read by a script belonging to Google. The table below says so for each one.
2. Who is responsible
The operator of Roadby, the same controller as in the privacy policy: see “Who is responsible” there for the formal details and the contact address.
3. What this site stores
Before you accept anything, the only thing this site stores is your own decision about cookies. It is the first row of the table, and it is strictly necessary: without it we could not remember that you said no, and we would have to ask you on every page.
The rest is stored only if you accept the category it belongs to. This site uses Google Consent Mode v2 in its basic version: Google's scripts are not loaded at all until you accept, and Google's own documentation describes that setup as one where, if you do not consent, “no data is transferred to Google at all – not even the consent status”.
| Name | Provider | First or third party | What it is for | How long it lasts | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
roadby-cookie-consent-v1 | Roadby | First party. It is not a cookie: it is an entry in your browser's local storage, and it is never sent to any server. | Remembers which categories you accepted or rejected, and the date you decided. | Until you clear site data; after 24 months the site ignores it and asks again. | Necessary |
_ga | Third party (Google); written on roadby.app by Google's script. | In Google's words, “used to distinguish users”. | 2 years by default. Google states that this is a default that can be changed, and that browsers cut the life of a first-party cookie short if you do not come back (400 days in Chrome, 7 days in Safari). | Analytics | |
_ga_<container-id> | Third party (Google); written on roadby.app by Google's script. | In Google's words, “used to persist session state”. | 2 years by default, with the same caveats as _ga. | Analytics | |
_gid | Third party (Google); written on roadby.app by Google's script. | Google lists it as a Google Analytics cookie and gives it no further description. | 24 hours | Analytics | |
_gat (and _gat_<custom name>) | Third party (Google); written on roadby.app by Google's script. | Google lists it as a Google Analytics cookie and gives it no further description. | 1 minute | Analytics | |
_gcl_au | Third party (Google); written on roadby.app by Google's script. | Google classifies it as analytics, advertising and security, for Google Ads and other Google advertising products. It is what lets a conversion be attributed to an ad click. | 90 days | Advertising | |
_gcl_aw | Third party (Google); written on roadby.app by Google's script. | Google names it as one of the cookies in which the conversion linker tag stores ad click information. | 90 days | Advertising | |
_gcl_gs | Third party (Google); written on roadby.app by Google's script. | The other cookie Google names for the conversion linker tag. | 90 days | Advertising | |
_gac_<wpid> | Third party (Google); written on roadby.app by Google's script. | Google attributes it to Google Analytics and classifies it as advertising and security, not analytics. It appears where Google Analytics is linked to Google Ads. | 90 days | Advertising | |
_gac_gb_<wpid> | Third party (Google); written on roadby.app by Google's script. | Google attributes it to Google Ads and classifies it as analytics, advertising and security. | 90 days | Advertising | |
_gcl_ls | Third party (Google). It is not a cookie: it is an entry in your browser's local storage, written on roadby.app by Google's script. | Google states that conversion linker tags store ad click information in this local storage key. | Google states no duration. This site deletes it when you withdraw advertising consent. | Advertising |
Google writes the cookies above on roadby.app itself, which is why your browser will show them as belonging to this domain. We still call them third party, because the one who decides what goes in them and reads them back is Google, not us. The names ending in <container-id> and <wpid> are completed by Google with the identifier of our own Analytics property.
[To confirm against the live Google Tag Manager container before publishing: the list of cookies actually set, and that every Google tag requires its consent (GA4: analytics_storage; Google Ads: ad_storage and ad_user_data) so a rejected category sends nothing, not even cookie-less pings. Three further cookies have to be checked in particular, because Google lists them for its advertising products without naming Google Ads among them: Conversion (set by googleadservices.com, 90 days), IDE (set by doubleclick.net, 13 months in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, 24 months elsewhere) and test_cookie (set by doubleclick.net, 15 minutes). If the container turns out to set any of them, they belong in the table above, as genuinely third-party cookies on Google's own domains.]
4. How to accept, reject or change your mind
The first time you arrive, a notice asks you to choose. Accepting and rejecting are the same single click, and closing the notice or pressing Escape is not consent: nothing optional is switched on until you say so.
There are three ways to change that decision afterwards, and they all open the same panel:
- The round cookie button in the corner of the page, present on every page and at any scroll position.
- “Cookie preferences”, at the bottom of every page.
- This button:
Withdrawing consent is as easy as giving it, and it takes effect immediately: Google's scripts stop being used and the cookies of the category you switched off are deleted from your browser there and then. Your decision is stored with its date; after 24 months we ask again, and we also ask again if the categories change.
5. How to delete cookies in your browser
Whatever you choose here, your browser is the last word: it can delete what is already stored and refuse what is to come. Each one explains how in its own help pages:
Deleting the entry where this site keeps your choice also means we will ask you again on your next visit: it is the only way we have of remembering that you said no.
6. Third parties
6.1 Google
The analytics and advertising cookies in the table belong to Google LLC, which is based in the United States. They are loaded through Google Tag Manager and they are loaded only if you accept: until then, this site makes no request to Google at all.
[To confirm with our legal adviser: safeguard for transfers to Google LLC (standard contractual clauses or another mechanism), and how it is described here and in the privacy policy.]
[To confirm: data-retention period configured in Google Analytics for the data Google keeps on its own systems, which is a separate matter from how long each cookie lasts in your browser.]
6.2 The newsletter
The newsletter form sends you to our email provider; its cookies are not ours, and neither is its policy. The provider is named in section B.3 of the privacy policy as soon as one is chosen.
6.3 Donations
The buttons in the “Buy us a coffee” window take you to an external platform. Once you are there, that site's cookies and that site's policy apply, not ours.
7. Changes to this policy
If the categories or the cookies change, we update this page, change the date at the top and ask for your consent again: a decision made under the old notice does not carry over to a new one. Even with nothing changing, we ask again after 24 months.
8. Contact
For any question about this policy or about your data: support@roadby.app. You can also read the privacy policy and the terms of service.