Remembering what you explore
If you enable suggestions, this browser keeps a small list of the pages or sections you spend time with. It uses that list to give other material a turn on the homepage. Opening a page briefly does not count as exploring it. Important developing stories can still appear, and substantial new reporting makes an older page eligible again.
The list stays in this browser. We do not upload it, attach it to requests, use it for advertising or create a reader account. It contains the page or section identifier, the content version and the date of the visit. We do not infer your political views.
If you choose essential only
You can read the same material and use the whole site. The homepage still offers current reporting and a changing public selection. It simply does not remember your visits for recommendations.
We store your choice so we can respect it. Optional recommendation memory is off until you enable it. Closing a settings window or continuing to browse does not enable it.
What this browser remembers
- Your privacy choice: acceptance or refusal, its date and the version of the notice, for six months.
- Optional visits: up to 200 page or section records, used for no more than 90 days each.
Expired visit records are removed when the site next runs; a closed browser cannot clear them on our behalf. You can clear visits, or turn suggestions off and clear them, at any time through Privacy settings in the footer.
This memory does not follow you to another browser or device. Clearing browser data or using private browsing may remove it sooner. Other people using this browser may see the same suggestions and remembered list.
Hosting and external content
Keeping recommendation history here does not mean that nothing leaves your device. Your browser requests pages and files from the site. The site is delivered through Cloudflare; ordinary delivery and security processing is separate from this recommendation list.
Some pages include videos and other content from external providers, including YouTube and PBS, and link to publishers and original records. Loading that content can disclose ordinary request information to those providers. Enabling suggestions does not grant permission for their separate purposes.
The Simon Marks list also uses a local cache of public article information to help it load. That cache contains public content, not your reading history. These privacy controls manage optional homepage recommendations; they do not act as consent for external video providers. You can manage third-party storage through your browser and the provider’s own settings.
Questions and your rights
Contact contact@the47files.com with questions or a privacy request. You can inspect and clear the local recommendation list directly in Privacy settings. We cannot retrieve it from a server because this feature does not send it to us.
Where data-protection law applies, rights may include access, correction, erasure, restriction, objection and withdrawal of consent. You can raise concerns with the relevant data-protection authority in your country or region.
Changes to this feature
A new article does not require a new privacy choice. If we change what this memory is used for, we will explain that and request a fresh choice where required.
Audience measurement
We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to measure visits and page performance, and a small first-party counter to see which pages people open and spend time reading. These measurements do not use advertising cookies, reader accounts or device fingerprints. Our page counter does not store IP addresses or the contents of searches.
The counter records a page identifier and a broad arrival category, such as search, social or direct. Approved public link labels can identify a channel such as Bluesky, YouTube, Reddit or RSS; arbitrary campaign text and full referring addresses are not retained. It counts a view after three seconds with the page visible, and a reading signal after thirty visible seconds and an interaction during the visit. These are estimates of activity, not a count of identifiable people or proof that an article was read in full. Known bots, automated tests and browsers that have opted out are excluded. We also honor Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track.
Random receipts prevent duplicate requests from being counted twice. They are kept for up to 24 hours, with cleanup every fifteen minutes; daily totals are kept for up to one year. Receipts are not linked between pages or used to build reader profiles. Cloudflare handles ordinary delivery and security information under its own privacy terms.
Your local recommendation history is separate and is not uploaded. You can exclude this browser from audience measurement. An exclusion cookie remembers that choice for one year and contains no unique identifier. About Cloudflare Web Analytics.