Last reviewed: August 13, 2026. This policy explains how brianwinum.com uses cookies and similar technologies, what they do, and the choices available to you. It should be read together with the Privacy Protection Policy.
The inventory below reflects the most recent successful CookieYes scan, completed August 13, 2026 at 11:50:23 UTC. Because cookies can depend on the page visited, consent choices, browser state, embedded content, and whether a user is signed in, not every visitor will receive every item listed.
1. What cookies and similar technologies are
Cookies are small text files stored by your browser when you visit a website. They can support essential functions, remember preferences, measure site use, or help third-party services deliver embedded content. This policy also covers similar technologies, including local storage, pixels, tags, and device identifiers, when they serve a comparable purpose.
2. Services that may use these technologies
CookieYes consent management
CookieYes provides the consent banner, records and remembers a visitor’s cookie preferences, and helps control non-essential technologies based on those choices.
Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics
Google Tag Manager is used to manage website tags. Google Analytics may use cookies to measure site traffic and engagement, including page views, sessions, traffic sources, and approximate visitor activity. Tag Manager itself was not listed as a separate cookie in the scan, but it can deliver services that use cookies or similar technologies.
YouTube embedded content
Pages may contain embedded YouTube videos. YouTube may set cookies or use browser storage to provide the video player, remember preferences, measure video use, protect its services, personalize content, support feature testing, or provide and measure advertising, depending on the visitor’s settings and interactions.
WordPress and site administration
WordPress may use essential cookies for browser capability checks, login, account security, language selection, and administrator preferences. Most authentication cookies affect only authorized users who sign in to manage the site. Public articles do not require a visitor account.
Affiliate links and external services
When you follow an affiliate link, purchase a product, or visit another external service, that provider may set cookies on its own website for attribution, checkout, security, analytics, or account functions. See the Affiliate Commission Disclosure for more information.
3. Cookies and storage detected in the latest public-site scan
CookieYes categorized the following 11 cookie or storage entries. Category labels and durations reproduce the scan results; providers may change their technologies and retention periods independently.
Necessary (3)
| Cookie or storage key | Provider/domain | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
wpEmojiSettingsSupports | brianwinum.com / WordPress | Session | Checks whether the browser can properly display emojis. |
cookieyes-* | brianwinum.com / CookieYes | 1 year | Stores and manages cookie consent preferences. |
VISITOR_PRIVACY_METADATA | .youtube.com / YouTube | 6 months | Stores the user’s cookie consent state for the current domain. |
Functional (2)
| Cookie or storage key | Provider/domain | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE | .youtube.com / YouTube | 6 months | Measures bandwidth to help determine which YouTube player interface is delivered; it may also support personalization depending on Google settings. |
ytidb::LAST_RESULT_ENTRY_KEY | youtube.com / YouTube | Never expires | Browser storage used to remember the last YouTube search-result entry selected and improve the user experience. |
Analytics (3)
| Cookie or storage key | Provider/domain | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
YSC | .youtube.com / YouTube | Session | Tracks views of embedded YouTube videos. |
_ga_* | .brianwinum.com / Google Analytics | 1 year, 1 month, 4 days | Stores and counts page views for Google Analytics properties. |
_ga | .brianwinum.com / Google Analytics | 1 year, 1 month, 4 days | Distinguishes visitors and supports visitor, session, campaign, and site-usage reporting using a randomly generated identifier. |
Advertising (3)
| Cookie or storage key | Provider/domain | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
__Secure-YNID | .youtube.com / YouTube | 6 months | CookieYes categorized this as advertising; its scan description says YouTube uses it to protect user security and help prevent fraud, especially during sign-in. Google also describes it as supporting analytics or advertising depending on settings. |
__Secure-ROLLOUT_TOKEN | .youtube.com / YouTube | 6 months | Supports staged feature rollouts and experiments and helps keep a user’s experience consistent during testing. |
__Secure-YEC | .youtube.com / YouTube | Past/expired in scan | Detected and categorized as advertising by CookieYes. The scan did not provide a description for this entry. |
Performance (0)
No performance-category cookies were detected in the August 13, 2026 scan.
4. Other WordPress cookies that may appear for authorized users
The public scan did not report the following login-related cookies, but WordPress may set them when an authorized administrator visits the login screen or signs in:
wordpress_test_cookie— a temporary session cookie used on the login screen to check whether the browser accepts cookies.wordpress_[hash],wordpress_sec_[hash], andwordpress_logged_in_[hash]— authentication and security cookies used when an authorized user signs in. Duration depends on the login session and whether “Remember Me” is selected.wp-settings-{user_id}andwp-settings-time-{user_id}— preference cookies that customize the WordPress administration interface for a logged-in user.wp_lang— a session cookie that remembers a selected language on the WordPress login screen.
5. Consent and your choices
The CookieYes banner lets you accept, reject, or customize non-essential cookie categories where those choices are offered. Necessary cookies support security, consent management, browser compatibility, or services you request and may operate without optional consent. You can revisit your choices at any time using the consent-preferences control displayed on the site.
You can also use your browser settings to view, delete, or block cookies, including third-party cookies. Blocking WordPress authentication cookies prevents authorized users from signing in but does not prevent ordinary visitors from reading public content. Blocking third-party cookies or declining optional categories may limit embedded videos, measurement, personalization, or other features.
6. Third-party information
- CookieYes Privacy Policy
- How Google uses cookies
- How Google uses information from sites that use its services
7. Retention and continuing review
Session cookies expire when the relevant browser session ends. Persistent cookies or storage remain until their stated expiration, until a provider removes them, or until you delete them. “Never expires” means the scan did not identify an automatic expiration. The site will review this inventory after material changes to plugins, tags, analytics, embedded services, advertising tools, or consent settings and after future cookie scans.
Automated scans are a useful snapshot but may not trigger every cookie or storage item under every condition. Short-lived, login-only, interaction-dependent, geographically restricted, or newly introduced technologies may not appear in a particular scan.
8. Contact
Questions about cookies, tracking, or your privacy choices:
Contact form bw@brianwinum.com