Cookies set before you consent: zero.

What this policy covers

This policy covers regulatorynews.com, the public website of Regulatory News (part of the Regulatory Leadership network). It documents every cookie this site can set (two, both from Google Analytics, and only with your consent) and the consent choice that governs them. It supplements our Privacy Policy, which describes our broader information practices, and forms part of our Terms of Use.

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files a website stores in your browser so it can recognize you later: to keep you signed in, remember preferences, measure traffic, or follow you across sites for advertising. Related techniques (localStorage, sessionStorage, tracking pixels, and fingerprinting scripts) accomplish similar things by other means, and privacy regulators treat them under the same rules. When this policy says “cookies,” it means all of them.

What we set, and when

Every page on regulatorynews.com is static HTML with no login or cart, so the site itself needs no cookies to function. Until you make a choice on the consent banner, it sets nothing at all. Once you choose, one strictly necessary localStorage entry (rn-consent) records your answer so we don’t ask again; it contains a single word and no identifier.

If you allow analytics, Google Analytics 4 sets two first-party cookies:

• _ga distinguishes returning visitors using a random identifier. Lifetime: 2 years nominal; browsers such as Chrome cap it at about 13 months.
• _ga_HNRLWFY5W7 maintains session state for our property. Same lifetime as _ga.

If you allow analytics, Microsoft Clarity also loads. It records anonymised heatmaps and session replays of how pages are read, with typed text and sensitive fields masked, and sets two first-party cookies:

• _clck holds a random visitor identifier and Clarity’s settings for this site. Lifetime: 1 year.
• _clsk joins the page views of one visit into a session. Lifetime: 1 day.

Clarity’s script also sets Microsoft’s own cookies on Microsoft domains, not ours (CLID on clarity.ms; ANONCHK, MR, MUID and SM on c.clarity.ms and c.bing.com), which Microsoft uses to recognise a browser across the sites that run Clarity and describes in its privacy statement.

If you allow analytics, PostHog loads too. It counts page views and visits (session recording is switched off, and it builds no profile of any visitor, because this site identifies no one) and sets one first-party cookie:

• ph_phc_rZM6iiLN4sxKDaNTJXLnfTWd2Hyqxw86wbBJiyucZAhQ_posthog holds a random visitor identifier and the current session. Lifetime: 1 year. PostHog keeps a copy of the same entry in localStorage, plus a few sessionStorage entries for the open tab that end when you close it.

That is the complete list. We enable no Google signals, no demographics, and no advertising features; Google’s Consent Mode keeps every advertising flag permanently denied on this site, and Clarity is told the same; Google, Microsoft and PostHog process the analytics data on our behalf. If you decline, or simply never answer the banner, none of the three scripts loads and not a single request goes to Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity or PostHog.

Apart from those three opt-in tools, these pages make two other third-party requests. Our display typeface loads from Google Fonts; per Google’s documentation, the Fonts API serves font files without setting cookies. And Sentry’s error reporter loads from js.sentry-cdn.com: it sets no cookies, records nothing while pages work, and only when a page breaks sends a report (what failed, on which page, and the browser type, without your IP address) to Sentry’s US servers.

Verify it yourself

We spend our working lives being audited, so we won’t object if you audit us. In Chrome or Edge, open Developer Tools, choose the Application tab, and expand Cookies in the left rail. In Firefox, use the Storage tab; in Safari, enable the Develop menu and check Storage. Before you answer the banner, the panel is empty. Decline, and it stays empty. Allow analytics, and you will find the two _ga entries and the two _cl entries named above, and nothing else from us.

If you ever find more than we have disclosed here, tell us. We will treat it as a deviation and correct it.

Change your mind

Your choice is yours to revise, in either direction. The panel below shows your current setting and changes it immediately: withdrawing consent stops collection on the spot and removes the Google Analytics, Clarity and PostHog cookies and storage we can reach from this page (Microsoft’s cookies on its own domains are outside our reach; clear them in your browser).

The newsletter form

Subscribing to the newsletter sends us the address you typed, the page you were on, and how you reached the site. The form sets no cookies. It adds two browser entries: rn-briefing (in localStorage), which records only that you signed up, so the sign-up prompt is not shown again; and rn-briefing-visit (in sessionStorage), which records only that you closed the prompt, so it stays away for the rest of that visit. The prompt is shown once on each visit until you sign up. What happens to your address is covered by the Privacy Policy.

Outbound links

Where this site links elsewhere (LinkedIn, regulators’ sites, cited sources), those destinations set their own cookies under their own policies once you arrive. We don’t control them, and we receive nothing from them about your visit.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

Some browsers send Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals, and sites must decide how to honor them. We honor both the strong way: if your browser sends either signal, we treat it as a declined banner. You are never asked, and the analytics script never loads, unless you later opt in explicitly using the panel above.

If this ever changes

This page changed on July 23, 2026, the day we adopted Google Analytics, and again on September 20, 2026, when the newsletter sign-up prompt and its rn-briefing and rn-briefing-visit entries were added; each time the updated policy shipped in the same release as what it describes. That is the standard we hold ourselves to: if we ever add another cookie, it will be listed here by name, purpose, and lifetime before it ships, with consent requested where the law requires it. The effective date at the top of this page always reflects the current version.

Contact

Questions about cookies or tracking go to the same inbox a person actually reads:

Regulatory News
editor@regulatorynews.com