How we count visits to this site

What we count, and why

The numbers show which pages people read, how they found the site and how far they read. We use them to decide what to write and how to arrange the site.

We look only at totals, such as the number of visits to a page in a week. We do not use the numbers for advertising, or for anything else. We look at one person's visits only when that person asks us to, as Your other rights explains. The only companies that receive the data are Google and Vercel, which count it for us.

We also share visit data with Microsoft Clarity, for the same reasons.

What is stored in your browser

The two items from this site are kept in your browser's local storage, not as cookies, and are never sent to us. Vercel Web Analytics sets no cookies and writes nothing to your browser. Apart from these four items, this site stores nothing in your browser.

Your choice

You have the right to object to visit statistics. It is free, you do not need to give a reason, and you can change your mind at any time. The switch below applies to this browser.

Switched off, nothing more is counted in this browser, on any page you have open, and the two Google Analytics cookies are deleted. We keep one item, tad-stats, so that your choice lasts.

What Google Analytics receives, and what Google does with it

Google Analytics is provided by Google Ireland Limited. Google LLC, in the United States, handles the data for it. Each time you read a page, your browser sends Google details such as these:

• the address of the page, and of the page you came from, each without anything after a question mark
• the title of the page
• the type of device and browser you use, its screen size and its language
• the random number in the _ga cookie, and the number of your visit and when it started, from the _ga_4BT7G2R0LL cookie
• what you do on the page, such as how long you have it open, scrolling to the end, following a link to another site or downloading a file
• your internet address, which Google uses to work out roughly where you are, never more precisely than a town or city

Google says it uses your internet address only to work out your approximate location, and then discards it without storing it.

Google handles all of this only as our processor. That means it works on our instructions, under its data processing terms, to produce our statistics. We chose the settings that keep it that way:

• sharing with other Google products and services is off
• contributing our data to Google's models and benchmarks is off
• Google signals, which would connect visits to people signed in to a Google account, is off
• ads personalisation is off, and Google Analytics is linked to no advertising product
• Google Analytics does not collect anything you type, such as a name or an email address

Whatever our settings, Google may also use the data to keep Google Analytics running and secure.

Google's page How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services explains what Google does with data from all the sites that use it. On this site, Google handles the data only as our processor.

What Vercel Web Analytics receives

Vercel Web Analytics is provided by Vercel Inc., the US company that hosts this site. It counts visits without cookies.

Each time you read a page, your browser sends Vercel the address of the page. We remove anything after a question mark before the counter records it. On the first page you read, it also records the address of the website you came from, if you came from another website.

Your browser also sends your internet address and details of your browser, as it does to every website. Vercel uses them to work out roughly where you are, and your type of device, operating system and browser.

Vercel says it tells visitors apart with a code made from each request, and that the code changes every day. So it cannot follow you from one day to the next, or from one website to another.

Vercel handles this data for us under its data processing terms.

How long the data is kept

• Google Analytics keeps the detail of each visit for 2 months. Google deletes expired detail once a month, so it can last up to about 3 months. That is the shortest time Google Analytics allows.
• The totals in our reports, such as visits to a page in a month, identify nobody, and we keep them.
• Vercel shows us the numbers for 12 months. Vercel says it may keep the data longer, and it does not say for how long. It discards the daily code after 24 hours.
• The cookies and the two items from this site last as long as the table above says.

Where the data goes

Google Analytics data goes to Google Ireland Limited in Ireland and to Google LLC in the United States. Google may also handle it in other countries where Google, or a company it uses, has facilities. Vercel Web Analytics data goes to Vercel Inc. in the United States.

UK law allows transfers to Ireland, as it does to every country in the European Union.

For the United States, UK law allows transfers to US companies that have signed up to the UK-US data bridge, a scheme the UK government approved. Google LLC and Vercel Inc. have both signed up, and both were active when we checked.

For any other country, Google's data processing terms apply standard contract terms, or another route that UK law accepts.

Vercel's contract with us also includes the UK's standard terms for sending personal data abroad.

The law we rely on

UK law normally needs your consent before a website stores or reads anything in your browser. The rule is in the UK's Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. Since 5 February 2026, those regulations have an exception for statistics. A website may store and read information for statistics without consent when all four of these are true:

1. The only purpose is statistics about how the site is used, to improve it.
2. The information goes to nobody else, except to help improve the site.
3. The site tells you clearly what it does. That is what this page and the note are for.
4. You have a simple, free way to object, and you have not objected.

We rely on this exception. That is why there is no consent banner on this site, and why Your choice has a switch.

The two items this site keeps for itself do two jobs. One remembers that you saw the note. The other remembers that you turned statistics off.

UK data protection law also needs a legal reason for using personal data. Ours is called legitimate interests. Our interest is to learn which pages readers use, so that we can decide what to write and how to arrange the site. We weighed that interest against your privacy and wrote the assessment down.

Your other rights

Under UK data protection law, you can ask us:

• for a copy of the data about you
• to correct it
• to delete it
• to limit how we use it

You can object at any time with the switch in Your choice.

You cannot ask us to move your data to another service. That right applies only when a site uses your data because you agreed, or because of a contract with you. Neither is the case here.

Google Analytics data carries no name. To find your visits, we need the Google Analytics number from your browser. We use it only to answer your request.

Vercel Web Analytics data carries no code that lasts longer than a day, so we cannot find one person's visits in it.

How to complain

If you are unhappy with how we handle data about you, you can complain to us first. Email hello@theassurancedesk.com, or write to the postal address below. We acknowledge every complaint within 30 days, look into it, and tell you what we found.

You can also complain to the Information Commission (the ICO), the UK's data protection regulator: make a complaint to the ICO.

Who runs this site

The Assurance Desk is published by Add-Venture Advisory Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 11854524. It decides how the visit data described on this page is used.

Email

hello@theassurancedesk.com

Postal address

Add-Venture Advisory Ltd
1st Floor at Bobby's
The Square
2-12 Commercial Road
Bournemouth
BH2 5LP