Cookie Policy

How Tradewinds Brief uses cookies and browser storage — short version: minimally, and never for tracking or advertising.

This is a short policy because Tradewinds Brief uses very few cookies. We do not use cookies for advertising, profiling, cross-site tracking, or analytics.

This policy was last updated on May 1, 2026.

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device. Browser storage (localStorage and sessionStorage) is similar but stored more directly in your browser.

Cookies and storage can be useful — they remember your preferences, keep you logged in, secure your session — or they can be invasive when used to track you across the web for advertising purposes.

We use them only in the useful way.

What we use, and why

Functional storage

When you visit Tradewinds Brief, we may use the following:

A modal dismissal flag — localStorage entry that remembers whether you closed our newsletter signup popup, so it does not reappear during the same browsing session (or for seven days if you actively dismissed it).
A sticky bar dismissal flag — sessionStorage entry that remembers whether you closed our sticky newsletter bar during the current session.
An exit-intent flag — sessionStorage entry preventing our exit-intent prompt from triggering twice in the same session.

These three exist solely to make your experience less annoying. They expire automatically and contain no personal information.

Service provider cookies

The services that run Tradewinds Brief may set their own cookies:

Cloudflare sets a session cookie for security purposes — preventing automated bot abuse of our content delivery network. This expires when you close your browser.
Netlify (our host) and EmailOctopus (our newsletter platform) may set technical cookies during specific actions (form submission, page load). These are functional, not for tracking.

These services have their own cookie policies you can review:

Affiliate platform cookies

When you click an affiliate link on our site (clearly tagged with rel="sponsored" and disclosed both in our footer and on relevant articles), the affiliate platform you click through to (e.g., Wise, Coursera, Booking.com) sets its own cookies on its own domain. These cookies are how the affiliate platform tracks that you came from us, so they can pay us commission if you sign up.

Cookies set by affiliate platforms are governed by their own privacy and cookie policies. We do not have access to or control over these cookies.

What we do NOT use

We do not use:

Google Analytics
Facebook Pixel or any other social media tracking pixel
Advertising cookies of any kind
Cross-site tracking cookies
Behavioral profiling cookies
Personalization cookies based on browsing history

We do not allow third-party advertisers to place cookies on our site.

Managing cookies

Modern browsers let you control or block cookies. The exact controls vary:

Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies
Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies
Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data
Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Cookies

If you block cookies entirely, our site will still work, though our newsletter signup modal will reappear each time you visit (because we cannot remember that you dismissed it).

You can also enable “Do Not Track” in your browser. Tradewinds Brief honors Do Not Track by disabling our newsletter signup modal, sticky bar, and exit-intent prompts entirely. The signup form remains available on our /subscribe/ page if you want to sign up directly.

Changes

If we change cookie practices, we will update this policy and reflect the change in the “last updated” date at the top.

Contact

Questions: brief@tradewindsbrief.com.