Cookie Policy

1. The short version

This site uses no advertising cookies, no third-party trackers and no cross-site identifiers. What it stores is one entry in your browser's local storage recording the choice you made in the cookie banner, plus optional anonymous analytics if you agree to them.

• Strictly necessary storage — always on, remembers your cookie choice.
• Analytics — off unless you accept, counts page views and reading depth.
• Personalisation — off unless you accept, remembers region and travel season.

You can change your mind at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page, or the small cookie button in the bottom-left corner. Withdrawing consent takes effect immediately.

2. Cookies, local storage and the difference

A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store and send back on later visits. Local storage is a similar mechanism that stays in the browser and is not transmitted with every request. Both are covered by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, and both require your consent unless they are strictly necessary.

We use local storage rather than cookies for your preference, because it does not need to travel with every page request. The legal position is the same, which is why we ask.

First-party means set by rate.ie itself. Third-party means set by another domain, typically for advertising. We set no third-party storage of any kind.

3. Exactly what we store

The two analytics cookies are only set after you accept analytics. If you decline, or ignore the banner, they are never created. Nothing on this list is shared with an advertising network, because we do not use one.

4. The three categories explained

Strictly necessary

Cannot be switched off, because without them the site cannot remember that you asked it not to store anything else. This category holds one item: your consent choice. It contains no identifier and tells us nothing about you.

Analytics

Tells us which guides get read and how far down the page people get, which is how we decide what to update. Aggregate and anonymous: no cross-site tracking, no advertising identifiers, no fingerprinting and no data sold. IP addresses are truncated before storage.

Personalisation

Remembers small conveniences — the region you were reading about, the season tab you last opened — so the site behaves sensibly when you come back. Purely local; nothing is transmitted and nothing is used to target you.

5. Managing your choice

There are three ways to change what this site stores:

• On this site. Use the Cookie settings link in the footer, or the cookie button at the bottom-left of every page. Changes apply immediately.
• In your browser. Every modern browser lets you block or delete cookies and local storage, either entirely or per site. Look for Privacy or Site Settings.
• By blocking scripts. A content blocker will prevent the analytics script from loading. The site is designed to work fully without it.

Clearing your browser storage also clears your recorded preference, so the banner will appear again on your next visit. That is the mechanism working correctly rather than a fault.

If you use a Global Privacy Control signal or "Do Not Track", we treat it as a refusal of analytics and personalisation and do not ask again in that session.

6. Embedded content and links

Photographs on this site are downloaded and served from our own servers rather than hot-linked, precisely so that no third party learns about your visit. We host our own fonts declaration through Google Fonts; if you prefer to avoid that request, a content blocker will prevent it and the site will fall back to system fonts without any loss of function.

We do not embed video players, social media widgets, comment systems, maps or chat tools, all of which typically set third-party cookies. Where we link out to another website, that site's own cookie policy applies once you arrive and we have no control over it.

7. Legal basis and your rights

Strictly necessary storage is permitted without consent under Regulation 6(4) of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. Everything else runs on your consent, which you give freely and may withdraw at any time without detriment.

Where analytics or personalisation involve personal data, our lawful basis under the UK GDPR is consent. Your rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection apply, and are described in full in our Privacy Policy.

To exercise any right, or to ask what we currently hold, email support@rate.ie or call +44 20 7790 1050. You may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

8. Changes to this policy

If we add or remove anything the site stores, we update this page and the table above, change the date at the top and — where the change is material — ask for your consent again. We review the policy at least annually.

The current version is dated 1 February 2026 and supersedes all earlier versions. Write to us if you would like to know what changed.