High Country Tips is a guide you can read without an account, a sign-up or an email address. We do count visits and record how pages get used. This page lists the services that run when you read, what each one collects, and what you can do about it.
Last updated October 14, 2026.
When you read
This site uses cookies for its analytics. There is no cookie banner: these services load as soon as a page opens.
Hosting. The site runs on Pressable, a WordPress host owned by Automattic. Its servers and content network keep standard request logs (your IP address, the page asked for, your browser type) to run and protect the site.
Our host’s visit counter. Pressable counts visits on the sites it hosts with Fathom Analytics (formerly Gauges). It sets no cookie. It receives the page address, the page you came from, the page title, and your browser and screen size, and tells visitors apart with a code that Pressable calls anonymous, made from your IP address and browser, that changes every day.
Google Analytics. Loaded through Google Tag Manager, it records which pages you view, how you got here, and your device, browser and rough location. It sets two cookies on this site, _ga and _ga_J5BRW5HJFP (Google sets them for two years; Chrome and Edge cut that to about 13 months, and Safari to 7 days). Your browser contacts Google, so Google receives your IP address. Google’s advertising storage is switched off here.
Microsoft Clarity. Loaded through Google Tag Manager, it records how a page gets used (clicks, scrolling, mouse movement and the page as you see it) so a visit can be replayed, along with your device, browser and rough location. It sets two cookies on this site, _clck (up to a year) and _clsk (up to a day), and keeps a short tab ID in your browser’s session storage. This site uses Clarity’s Balanced masking setting with no custom rules. Microsoft sets its own cookies on clarity.ms and bing.com, and says one of them, MUID, is also used for advertising. Microsoft says it keeps recordings for 30 days (some up to nine months) and heatmaps for up to nine months.
Matomo. Analytics software that EKG Marketing, the company behind this guide, runs itself on a server it rents, so your visit is not handed to an analytics company. It is loaded through Google Tag Manager and counts only this site’s own addresses. It records which pages you view, how long you stay, where you came from, and your device, browser, screen size, language and rough location. It sets two cookies on this site, _pk_id (up to 13 months) and _pk_ses (30 minutes), plus _pk_ref if you arrive from another site, to remember where you came from.
Fonts. The typefaces are stored on our host with the rest of the site, so loading them doesn’t contact Google or anyone else.
Photos and links. Photos are stored on our host and credited to their creators; nothing loads from Wikimedia Commons when you read. Links to official sources are plain links. Nothing loads from those sites unless you click one.
How long it’s kept
Google Analytics is set to keep its detailed data for 14 months. Microsoft’s figures for Clarity are above. We haven’t confirmed how long Matomo keeps its visit records, or how long our host keeps its request logs and visit counts.
How to say no
Nothing on this site depends on these services. Block them and every page still works.
Most of them at once: a content blocker with the standard privacy lists usually stops our host’s visit counter, Google Analytics, Clarity and Matomo. Nothing stops the host’s request logs.
Google Analytics: Google’s opt-out browser add-on turns Google Analytics off on sites that use Google’s standard scripts.
Matomo: open the Matomo opt-out page and untick the box. It sets a cookie on our analytics server, so it covers one browser and is lost when you clear your cookies.
Microsoft Clarity: Microsoft says Clarity supports Global Privacy Control, a signal some browsers can send for you.
When you send the contact form
What we keep: what you type into the form (your name, your email address, the topic you pick and your message), with the date and time, the page you sent it from, your IP address, your browser and device, and the country worked out from your IP address. It is stored with the site’s WordPress data and emailed to the editor.
Spam screening: the form carries Akismet’s hidden fields. Akismet, run by Automattic, can check submissions for spam; when it does, your submission is sent to Automattic for that check.
What we do with it: we use your email address only to reply. It isn’t added to any mailing list or to our email-marketing system, and we don’t send newsletters.
Want it deleted? Send the contact form again with “delete my message”, and roughly when you wrote. We’ll delete the entry and the email, and the deletion request too.
What else we collect from you
Nothing else. There are no comments or reader accounts on the site. If a newsletter arrives, this page will say exactly what it collects, where it goes and how long it’s kept, before it goes live.
What we never do
We don’t sell or rent anything about you, show ads, or run advertising tags of our own. Rankings and answers on this site can’t be bought.
Questions
Use the contact form. It goes straight to the editor.