Privacy policy

What loads on a first visit

Unless your browser sends Global Privacy Control and you have not chosen otherwise, the page creates these requests on the first visit without waiting for a click: Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-8ZV7NV6LFG), Microsoft Clarity (project z8qx3g3ncb), and two Adsterra placements, NativeBanner_1 (unit 32102550) and SocialBar_1 (unit 32102551), served from bicea.org for publisher 3403020. Adult advertising is switched off on this Adsterra website; only the Native Banner and Social Bar formats are used, with no popunder, banner or smartlink unit.

The YouTube player is the exception: the page shows a local thumbnail and contacts YouTube only after you press play. Steam, XLGAMES and other outbound links are ordinary links and do not run inside this page. The site is served by Cloudflare, which processes the request itself as a hosting and security provider.

Pressing Accept or Reject in the banner updates Google Consent Mode and the site loader immediately. Reject records the choice and reloads the page without Google Analytics 4, Clarity or Adsterra; on later visits the loader does not create them again, so no request reaches googletagmanager.com, clarity.ms or bicea.org and no analytics or advertising cookie is written.

Cookies and local storage

First-party keys are stored in your browser under the archeage.org origin and are not sent to us as cookies. The two consent keys below are the only records this site writes itself.

Google Analytics 4

GA4 runs with measurement ID G-8ZV7NV6LFG and Consent Mode v2. On a first visit analytics_storage is granted, so the tag writes _ga and _ga_8ZV7NV6LFG and sends page-view and engagement events to Google. After Reject the loader does not create the GA4 tag at all, so no request is sent to googletagmanager.com and no GA4 cookie is written for the 180 days the rejection is stored. We use the reports only to understand which guides are read and to fix broken pages; we do not use them to identify individuals or to build advertising audiences.

We use GA4 for traffic measurement. The property’s event-retention setting has not been independently recorded in this audit; Google’s configured retention and service terms apply. Google’s own privacy policy applies to its processing: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Microsoft Clarity

Clarity project z8qx3g3ncb records anonymised sessions and heatmaps so we can see where a layout or a guide is hard to use. It sets _clck, _clsk and the Microsoft MUID cookie, and may set CLID on clarity.microsoft.com. Clarity provides sensitive-input masking; we do not ask for passwords, payment details or government identifiers anywhere on this site. Reject stops the Clarity script from loading and it is not created again for 180 days.

We use Clarity to diagnose usability problems. Recordings and heatmaps follow the provider’s current retention settings; we have not independently recorded a project-specific retention period. Microsoft’s privacy statement: https://privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement.

Adsterra advertising

Adsterra publisher 3403020 serves the NativeBanner_1 (unit 32102550) and SocialBar_1 (unit 32102551) placements through bicea.org. The Social Bar is the floating strip at the bottom-right; it can be closed with the Close ad button, and that close is remembered for 180 days under aac-socialbar-closed. Adsterra and its demand partners may set cookies on their own domains to cap frequency, prevent fraud, measure impressions and choose a creative. Those cookie names are chosen by the network, not by this site.

Adult advertising is off for this website. We do not run popunder, banner or smartlink units. Where advertising is personalised, you can object or opt out at https://adssettings.google.com, https://optout.aboutads.info and https://www.youronlinechoices.com. Adsterra’s own policy and opt-out information are at https://adsterra.com/privacy-policy/. Reject removes both Adsterra scripts; because the site does not load them again while the rejection is stored, no new ad request is made on those visits.

We use Adsterra to fund the site. Adsterra is an independent advertising partner. We do not sell personal information and we do not know your identity from an ad request.

YouTube and other third parties

A video page shows a thumbnail stored on this site. Pressing play creates an iframe to www.youtube-nocookie.com, which can then request YouTube, Google video and player resources; only then does Google receive the request and may set its player cookies. YouTube’s terms and Google’s privacy policy apply from that point. We do not embed YouTube on page load and we do not use the YouTube API to build profiles.

Cloudflare serves the site and processes connection data for security and delivery. It does not receive your consent choice. We do not run AdSense, a tag manager, a separate affiliate network or a social embed on this site. If that changes, this page will name the new provider before it is enabled.

Your choices and rights

Press Reject in the banner, or open Cookie settings in the footer at any time, to withdraw. The choice lasts 180 days and is stored under aac-consent. You can also clear the two aac- keys through your browser settings; the next visit is then treated as a fresh default-on visit and the banner appears again. Global Privacy Control is honoured as Reject. Do Not Track is not used because browsers do not send it consistently.

You can ask what this site holds about you, ask for correction or deletion, or object to analytics and advertising by writing to [email protected]. Because there is no account system, the usual answer is that we hold only the mail you sent and the two local-storage keys in your own browser. You also have the right to complain to your local data-protection authority.

Retention, security and changes

The first-party consent keys expire after 180 days. Provider cookies follow the lifetimes in the table above. Server logs at Cloudflare are kept for the short period needed for security and troubleshooting. The site is served over HTTPS; we do not store personal data in the repository or in the built pages.

This policy changes by editing this page and its date. Material changes are reflected here before the new script is enabled. Questions about this policy go to [email protected].

Related pages

• Contact — Privacy requests
• Editorial policy — How articles are corrected