Cookie Policy
We keep cookies to the minimum needed to run Health Choice and understand which guides help people most. This page explains, in plain English, what we store, why, and exactly how to switch it off.
Last reviewed: June 2026.
What a cookie actually is
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to keep on your device. The next time you visit, the site can read that file back. Cookies cannot run programs, read other files on your computer, or carry viruses. On Health Choice they do two ordinary jobs: they help the pages function correctly, and — only with your agreement — they help us count how many people read a guide so we know which topics to expand. We also use a couple of closely related technologies (browser local storage and similar device storage) for the same purposes; wherever this policy says "cookies", take it to mean those too.
Because Health Choice exists to help you make your own informed decisions, we think you deserve the same clarity about our own site. We do not sell what we learn, we do not build advertising profiles, and we do not pass your browsing on to data brokers.
The three kinds of cookies we use
1. Essential cookies — always on
These make the basic site work and cannot be switched off through our controls, because without them pages would not load or behave correctly. They include items that remember your cookie choices (so we do not ask again on every page), keep a page request secure while it is in transit, and balance traffic across our servers so the site stays available. Essential cookies hold no marketing data and are deleted shortly after your visit, or when you close your browser. Under UK law these are "strictly necessary" and do not require consent — but we still want you to know they exist.
2. Preference cookies — remember your choices
If you change something to suit yourself — for example your chosen language, larger text, higher-contrast colours, or dismissing a notice you have already read — a preference cookie remembers that so you do not have to set it again. These exist purely to make the site more comfortable to use, especially for readers managing a long-term condition or low vision. They store your setting, nothing about who you are. If you decline them, the site still works; it simply forgets your adjustments between visits.
3. Analytics cookies — only with your consent
Analytics cookies tell us, in aggregate, which guides are read, how people arrive, and where a page confuses or loses readers — so we can fix it and write more of what helps. We use a privacy-respecting analytics setup configured to anonymise your IP address and to avoid tracking you across other websites. We look at patterns across many visitors, never at you as an individual. These cookies are off by default and are only set if you accept them in our cookie banner. Declining them changes nothing about the guidance you receive.
Third-party content
A few pages may embed material hosted elsewhere — for instance an explainer video or an interactive map. When you view that content, the provider hosting it may set its own cookies, governed by its own policy rather than this one. We keep such embeds to a minimum and only use them where they genuinely add to a guide. Where a third party is involved, we tell you on the page itself.
What we never do
We do not use cookies to sell or share your data, to build an advertising profile of you, to follow you around the web, or to make automated decisions about your health. Health Choice is an authority resource, not a shop and not a referral service — there is nothing to up-sell, so there is no reason to track you for it.
How to manage or disable cookies
You are always in control. There are three straightforward ways to manage what we store:
- Use our cookie banner. When you first arrive you can accept or decline non-essential (preference and analytics) cookies. You can reopen these settings at any time from the "Cookie settings" link in the site footer and change your mind.
- Use your browser settings. Every modern browser lets you view, block, or delete cookies, and most let you block analytics or third-party cookies specifically. Look under Settings → Privacy in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. You can also browse in a private/incognito window, which discards cookies when you close it.
- Clear what is already stored. Deleting your existing cookies through the browser resets every choice, including ours; you will see our banner again on your next visit.
One honest caveat: if you block all cookies — including the strictly necessary ones — some parts of the site, such as remembering that you have accepted this notice, may not work as intended. Blocking only preference and analytics cookies leaves the guidance fully usable.
Your rights
This policy sits alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains the limited personal data we handle and your rights under UK data-protection law, including the right to access or erase it. Consent you give to non-essential cookies can be withdrawn at any time, for any reason, with no effect on the help you get from this site.
Changes to this policy
If we change which cookies we use, we will update this page and revise the date at the top. Significant changes will be flagged again through the cookie banner so your earlier choices are never assumed.
Questions
If anything here is unclear, or you would like to know more about a specific cookie, please get in touch through our contact page. We are happy to explain in plain terms — that is rather the point of Health Choice.