Overview
This Cookies page explains how the Chronicles of Wordcraft imprint, operated by R. R. Thalore (“we”, “us”, “our”), uses cookies and similar technologies on rrthalore.com and related pages. It also sets out the choices you have through the Manage Cookies controls on this site and in your browser.
We keep our cookie categories simple: Essential (always on), Analytics, and Marketing. Essential cookies keep the site secure and functioning; analytics cookies help us understand what is working; marketing cookies help us measure the performance of specific campaigns and affiliate links. You are always in control of non-essential categories.
This Cookies page should be read together with our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Disclosures, and Permissions & Licensing pages. Those documents describe how we handle personal data and protect our puzzles, artwork, and press assets.
1. What we mean by “cookies”
When we say “cookies” on this page, we mean not only traditional cookies stored in your browser, but also similar technologies that our tools use to recognise your browser or device over time. This includes:
- Small text files placed in your browser (HTTP cookies).
- Local storage or session-storage entries in your browser.
- Identifiers created by our analytics or consent tools.
- Limited device and log information used to keep the site secure and to prevent abuse of our downloads, artwork, and press kit.
We use a consent tool to group these into categories and to honour your choices. Internally, the same categories are also used by our analytics and affiliate reporting to respect your selections as far as our tools allow.
2. Cookie categories we use
The Manage Cookies panel and this page both use the same three categories. Here is what each one does in practice.
2.1 Essential (always on)
Essential cookies are required for the basic operation and security of the site. Because they are strictly necessary, they cannot be turned off in our on-site controls, but you can still block them in your browser if you choose.
We use essential cookies to:
- Serve pages reliably through our hosting and content-delivery network.
- Remember that you have seen cookie banners or set your preferences.
- Protect the site against misuse and abuse (for example, rate limiting repeated download attempts on puzzle bonuses or press-kit files).
- Support basic security features, such as detecting unusual login behaviour or suspicious traffic patterns.
Essential cookies may indirectly help us protect our intellectual property by making it harder for automated tools to scrape or mass-download our puzzles, artwork, or press materials in ways that break our Permissions & Licensing and Terms of Use.
2.2 Analytics
Analytics cookies help us understand how people discover and use our site, so we can improve navigation, readability, and which books or bonus packs we prioritise. We aim for aggregated, high-level reporting rather than detailed tracking of individuals.
Analytics cookies may be used to:
- Measure visits to pages such as the Library, Join page, Help hub, and Legal hub.
- See which downloads (for example, Zeus bonus packs or sample pages) are popular and whether links are broken.
- Understand whether readers are finding what they need on our Legal pages (for example, if many people abandon a page part-way through).
- Track anonymous patterns of how visitors move between Legal pages, the Affiliate page, and our Affiliate & Partnerships hub.
We use analytics only to improve our own work and user experience. We do not use analytics cookies to sell your data or to build third-party advertising profiles.
2.3 Marketing and affiliate measurement
Marketing cookies are used sparingly and mainly for measurement. They help us understand which campaigns, social posts, or partner recommendations are effective and whether our affiliate links are actually being used.
Marketing cookies may be used to:
- Attribute visits and sign-ups to particular campaigns, such as a newsletter promotion or a shared link to a Zeus bonus pack.
- Track when a visit to our site later results in a purchase on an external bookstore or platform, using privacy-respecting attribution where available.
- Measure the performance of links and banners described on our Disclosures page and our Affiliate & Partnerships page.
We do not use marketing cookies to run intrusive third-party ad networks on this site. Any ads you see for our books are placed through separate platforms that have their own cookies and controls.
3. Your choices and controls
You are always in control of non-essential cookie categories. You can manage them through the banner you see when you first visit, or at any time via the Manage Cookies link in the footer.
3.1 On-site controls
- Click Manage Cookies in the footer to open the consent panel. From there you can turn Analytics and Marketing on or off and save your choices.
- If you click Accept all, we will enable all categories that our tools support. If you click Reject all, we will keep only Essential cookies.
- We store your preferences so the banner does not reappear on every page, but may show it again after a reasonable period or if we change the categories in a meaningful way.
3.2 Browser and device settings
In addition to our on-site controls, most browsers let you block or delete cookies, run private-browsing sessions, or clear storage. Doing so may affect some site features (for example, your cookie preferences may be forgotten), but it is entirely your choice.
3.3 Email and link tracking
Our email tools may use pixels or unique links to measure whether newsletters are opened or clicked. You can:
- Disable image loading in your email client if you do not wish to load tracking pixels.
- Use the Unsubscribe or email preferences links in any message we send.
4. Third-party cookies, affiliates, and social platforms
Our site links to—and occasionally embeds content from—third-party services such as bookstores, email form providers, social networks, and tools we recommend. Those services may set their own cookies and use their own tracking technologies.
When you follow a link from our site to a third-party site, their privacy and cookie policies apply, not ours. This is especially true for:
- Retailers where you purchase our books.
- Tools and services recommended on our Affiliate page.
- Social platforms we link to in our footer (for example, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, YouTube).
We explain how and why we use affiliate links, sponsorships, and recommendations in more detail on our Disclosures page and our Affiliate & Partnerships page.
5. How long cookies last
Different cookies and identifiers last for different periods. In general:
- Some cookies are session-based and disappear when you close your browser (for example, certain security tokens).
- Others are persistent and last from a few days to a few months so we can remember your preferences and measure trends over time.
Where our tools allow, we set reasonable lifetimes and avoid keeping identifiers longer than needed to provide or improve the Services, protect against abuse, and comply with our legal obligations.
For detailed information about how long we keep personal data associated with cookies and analytics, please see the retention section of our Privacy Policy.
6. Do Not Track and global privacy controls
Some browsers and extensions let you send “Do Not Track” (DNT) or similar signals (such as Global Privacy Control). There is currently no single, widely adopted standard for how websites must respond to these signals.
Where our tools support recognised browser-level privacy signals, we will honour them as far as technically feasible, in addition to the choices you make in our on-site Manage Cookies panel.
7. Changes to this Cookies page
We may update this Cookies page from time to time, for example when we add or remove tools, change cookie categories, or update how our consent system works.
When we make meaningful changes, we will:
- Update the “Last reviewed” date in the footer of this page, and
- Where appropriate, mention the change on our Release & Updates page or in relevant newsletters.
If you continue to use the site after changes take effect, you are agreeing to the updated Cookies page. If you do not agree, you should adjust your browser settings and cookie preferences or stop using the site.
8. Questions and contact
If you have questions about this Cookies page or how it interacts with our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Permissions & Licensing rules, or Disclosures, you can reach us at:
Please include “Cookie settings” or “Cookies page” in the subject line so we can route your message correctly.