What a cookie actually is
A cookie is a small plain-text file a website writes to your device when you first arrive. It lets the site remember a handful of small facts as you navigate around or return later: which consent banner you dismissed, for example, or which referring link brought you here. Cookies are not code, cannot deliver malware, and each one holds only a short string that on its own tells nobody anything personal about you. Sites also rely on close relatives such as browser local storage and tracking pixels; for readability, this page treats all of them together as "cookies".
- What a cookie actually is
- Why we set any at all
- The four categories we use
- Which analytics tools actually run
- Third-party cookies
- Managing cookies in your browser
- Your consent, your choice
- Contacting us
- Changes to this policy
Why we set any at all
PlaySide.gg is a review outlet, not a casino. Nobody opens a player account on this site and no bets are placed here, so we need a fraction of the data an operator ever collects. The cookies we do use handle three plain jobs: they keep the site running as you move between pages, they hold on to small preferences so your visit stays consistent, and they let us measure, in aggregate only, which guides people are actually reading. That last figure decides what we update, expand, or retire. At no point are we trying to identify you as an individual.
The four categories we use
Every cookie on the site falls into one of four industry-standard buckets in the table below. Essential cookies always load, because the site cannot work correctly without them. The other three categories are optional and stay dormant until you explicitly opt in.
| Category | Purpose | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | Handles security and lets the pages render correctly as you click around. These cannot be disabled. | Session identifier, stored consent preference, load-balancer token |
| Preferences | Holds on to little UI choices so the site is arranged the way you left it last time. | Selected country or market, colour theme, banners you've already closed |
| Analytics | Counts visits in aggregate to show us what's landing well and what needs a rewrite. | Microsoft Clarity, Matomo |
| Marketing | Attributes a click-through to us when you visit a casino via our links, which is where our commissions come from. | Affiliate tracking set by the destination casino or its network |
Which analytics tools actually run
Only two analytics platforms are wired into playside.gg, and neither loads before you opt in. Microsoft Clarity records aggregated, anonymised behaviour, scroll depth and click points, which helps us spot layouts that confuse readers or sections that appear to break. Matomo counts page views, approximate region and device category, so we can read long-term traffic trends. Neither service builds an advertising profile against you, and both report to us as pooled numbers, never anything traceable to one person. Rather not be counted? Declining analytics cookies switches both off, and the rest of the site keeps working exactly the same.
Third-party cookies
A handful of the cookies you may collect while browsing here are set by other companies, not by us. The most common case: click an outbound casino link and the destination operator, or the affiliate network behind that link, may set its own cookie so it can register that the visit came from PlaySide.gg. That is how we earn a referral fee. It costs you nothing on top of your usual spend and never influences our rating. Once you land on someone else's site their own cookie and privacy rules apply, and those are outside our control. Affiliate cookies of this kind typically last somewhere between 30 and 90 days.
Managing cookies in your browser
On top of the choice you make in our consent banner, every major browser lets you inspect, delete, or block cookies directly. Menu labels drift between versions, but these are the usual starting points:
- Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies (or Cookies and site data).
- Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data.
- Safari: Settings → Safari → Advanced → Website Data on iPhone or iPad (on macOS, Safari → Settings → Privacy).
- Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Manage and delete cookies and site data.
A private or incognito window is another option, since it typically wipes most cookies the moment you close it. Note that blocking cookies marked essential can stop parts of the site, including the consent banner itself or your saved theme, from behaving as they should.
Your consent, your choice
On your first visit we ask whether you accept the cookies that are not strictly required. Nothing optional runs until you say yes, and if you change your mind later you can reset the whole thing by clearing this site's cookies or adjusting your browser settings. Essential cookies stay on because the site genuinely will not work without them; preferences, analytics and marketing are entirely up to you.
Contacting us
If anything on this page raises a question, or you would like to know what data we currently hold on you, write to us via the contact page and we will walk you through it. Wider personal-data matters that reach beyond cookies are covered in our privacy policy.
Changes to this policy
We may revisit this text when our own tooling shifts or the underlying regulations move. When that happens, the last-updated date advances and the new wording replaces what is here. The version you are reading was last refreshed in July 2026.