Roy Osherove Courses
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Privacy

Privacy

Markdown version

This site counts visits with two analytics tools so Roy Osherove can see which courses people watch. Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies, runs for everyone. In the European Union, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google Analytics runs only if you accept it; elsewhere it runs unless you decline it. The site shows no ads, sells nothing and has no accounts.

Last updated: 30 October 2026.

Your choice about Google Analytics

The box is shown to visitors in the European Union (including its outermost regions, such as Réunion, and Åland), the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), the United Kingdom and Switzerland, and whenever the country cannot be determined. On a first visit there, a small box in the bottom corner of the page asks "Allow Google Analytics cookies?", with a link to this page and two buttons, Accept and Decline. It does not block the page, and it goes away once you choose.

  • There, until you press Accept, Google Analytics is not loaded and no Google Analytics cookie is set.
  • Everywhere else, Google Analytics runs without the box unless you decline it. Nothing is stored on your device about a choice until you make one.
  • Accept: Google Analytics starts on this page and on the next pages you visit.
  • Decline: Google Analytics stays off. If it was on, it stops at once and its cookies are deleted.
  • A Decline is respected in every country, and so is an Accept.
  • Your choice is stored on this device for a year (see Stored on your device below). After that, or if you clear your browser's site data, the box asks again where it is shown; elsewhere Google Analytics runs again without the box.
  • To change your choice at any time, use "Privacy settings" at the bottom of every page.

How the country is determined: this site's server looks up the country of your IP address in a country lookup database on each page request, only to decide whether to show the box. The page tells your browser only whether to show it, not your country. The result is not stored, and your IP address is not kept for this lookup (the server's access logs, below, are separate). IP Geolocation by DB-IP (external link, opens in new tab) (the free IP to Country Lite database, licensed under CC BY 4.0 (external link, opens in new tab)).

Google Analytics 4

When it runs (after Accept, or without the box outside the countries above unless you decline it), Google Analytics records (with its standard settings) the pages you view, the page that linked you here, search words that are part of a page address (see Search below), clicks on links to other sites, scrolling, how long a page is open, your browser, device type, operating system, screen size and language, and your approximate location (country, region and city, which Google works out from your IP address; Google Analytics 4 does not store IP addresses).

It sets two first-party cookies, _ga and _ga_…, which hold a random ID so a returning browser is counted once. They expire after at most two years. Where the box is shown, this site deletes them on every page view without a valid Accept (no choice yet, Decline, or a choice older than a year); everywhere else, on every page view after a Decline. Google keeps the detailed, per-visit data for the retention period set for this site, at most 14 months; the aggregated reports (totals, such as page views per day) are kept longer.

This site shows no ads and has no advertising code. Google Analytics runs with analytics cookies only, whether you accepted it or it runs without the box: Google's advertising settings (ad storage, ad user data, ad personalization and Google signals) stay off.

Google processes this data under the Google Privacy Policy (external link, opens in new tab); see also how Google uses information from sites that use its services (external link, opens in new tab).

Cloudflare Web Analytics (for everyone)

Cloudflare Web Analytics counts page views without cookies. It runs on every page whatever you choose in the box, because it stores nothing on your device and does not identify or follow you across sites. It records the page address, the page that linked you here, your browser, operating system and device type, your country, and how fast the page loaded. See the Cloudflare privacy policy (external link, opens in new tab).

Opting out

Google Analytics: press Decline, or Privacy settings at the bottom of any page and then Decline. Without JavaScript neither analytics tool runs and the box is not shown. Google's Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on (external link, opens in new tab) also works.

Cloudflare Web Analytics is not part of that choice; a content blocker or switching JavaScript off stops it.

Stored on your device

  • analytics-consent (local storage): your Accept or Decline and when you chose it, kept for a year. It is never sent anywhere. Nothing is stored here until you choose.
  • theme (local storage): light or dark, if you used the theme button. It is never sent anywhere.
  • The Google Analytics cookies above, only while Google Analytics runs: after Accept, or outside the European Union, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland unless you decline it.

Videos

The lesson videos are on YouTube. The lesson pages show a preview image stored on this site. Nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play; pointing at or focusing the play button only opens a connection to YouTube's servers in advance, so the video starts faster. The video then plays from youtube-nocookie.com, YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode, and YouTube's and Google's privacy terms apply to it. This does not depend on your choice about Google Analytics. "Watch on YouTube" links open YouTube itself.

Search

The search page runs in your browser, using a search index downloaded from this site. A search started from the search box in the header or on the home page opens the search page with the words in its address (/search/?q=…), so Google Analytics (when it runs) records them as part of that address; words typed on the search page itself stay in your browser. The search API for agents (/api/search) answers on this site's server; the search service itself keeps no log of the queries, but the server's access logs (below) include the address of each search request.

Server logs

Like every web server, the server that hosts this site keeps standard access logs of page and search requests (IP address, time, the address requested, the page that linked to it and your browser). They are used only for security and troubleshooting, not for analytics, and they are not shared.

Contact

For questions about your data or this page, use the contact form (external link, opens in new tab) to reach Roy Osherove.