Cookie Policy | The Gazette News | Independent. Human-Centred. Impactful

Effective Date: March 2026 | Last Updated: March 2026 | Version 1.0

Introduction

When you visit https://thegazette.ng, small files called cookies are placed on your device. These cookies help our website function correctly, help us understand how our readers engage with our journalism, and allow us and our advertising partners to serve relevant advertisements that support our independent editorial operations.

This Cookie Policy explains what cookies are, which cookies we use, why we use them, and how you can control or disable them at any time. It should be read alongside our Privacy Policy at https://thegazette.ng/privacy-policy/ and our Terms of Use at https://thegazette.ng/terms-of-use/

By continuing to use thegazette.ng after this notice has been displayed, you consent to our use of cookies as described in this policy. You may withdraw or adjust your consent at any time using the methods described in Section 6.

1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that a website places on your computer, phone, tablet, or other device when you visit. They are widely used across the internet to make websites work correctly, work more efficiently, and to provide information to the owners of the site.

Cookies do not contain executable code and cannot carry viruses. On their own, they do not identify you personally — they recognise your device and remember information about your visit, such as your preferred settings or the fact that you have visited the site before.

Cookies are set either by the website you are visiting directly — known as first-party cookies — or by third-party services operating on that website, such as analytics platforms or advertising networks — known as third-party cookies.

Cookies can be session cookies, which are temporary and are deleted when you close your browser, or persistent cookies, which remain on your device for a set period of time or until you delete them manually.

2. Why We Use Cookies

The Gazette News uses cookies for four distinct purposes:

To make the website work — certain cookies are strictly necessary for thegazette.ng to function. Without them, features such as page navigation, security, and access to certain content would not operate correctly.
To understand our readers — analytics cookies help us understand how many people visit our site, which articles are most read, where our readers come from, and how they navigate through our content. This data helps us improve our journalism and our platform.
To serve relevant advertising — advertising cookies, set by Google AdSense and our other authorised advertising partners, allow us to serve advertisements that are relevant to your interests. Advertising revenue is essential to sustaining our independent journalism.
To remember your preferences — preference cookies remember choices you have made on our website, such as your consent settings, so you do not have to re-enter them on every visit.

3. The Cookies We Use

The following table sets out the categories of cookies used on thegazette.ng, their purpose, who sets them, and how long they last.

Category 1 — Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are essential for thegazette.ng to function. They cannot be disabled without breaking core features of the website. They do not collect information that could be used for marketing purposes.

Cookie Name	Set By	Purpose	Duration
wordpress_logged_in	The Gazette News	Maintains your login session if you have an account	Session
wordpress_sec	The Gazette News	Security cookie — prevents cross-site request forgery	Session
PHPSESSID	The Gazette News	Preserves user session state across page requests	Session
cookielawinfo-checkbox	The Gazette News	Stores your cookie consent preferences	12 months
viewed_cookie_policy	The Gazette News	Records whether you have viewed the cookie notice	12 months

Category 2 — Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect anonymised information about how visitors use thegazette.ng. The data is aggregated and does not identify any individual reader. We use this information solely to improve our content and website performance.

Cookie Name	Set By	Purpose	Duration
_ga	Google Analytics 4	Distinguishes unique users for traffic analysis	2 years
ga[ID]	Google Analytics 4	Maintains session state for Analytics 4	2 years
_gid	Google Analytics 4	Distinguishes users — stores and updates a unique value for each page visited	24 hours
_gat	Google Analytics 4	Throttles request rate to Google Analytics servers	1 minute

Google Analytics data is collected under a data processing agreement with Google LLC. IP anonymisation is enabled — your full IP address is never stored or transmitted to Google’s servers. You may opt out of Google Analytics at any time by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Category 3 — Advertising Cookies

These cookies are set by Google AdSense and other authorised third-party advertising networks. They are used to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant advertisements on thegazette.ng and on other websites you visit. They do not directly store personal information but uniquely identify your browser and device.

Cookie Name	Set By	Purpose	Duration
DART (NID)	Google AdSense	Used by Google to serve personalised ads based on your previous visits to our site and other sites	6 months
IDE	Google DoubleClick	Used to register and report your actions after viewing or clicking an advertisement	13 months
test_cookie	Google	Checks whether your browser supports cookies	Session
DSID	Google	Identifies a signed-in user on non-Google sites to serve personalised ads	2 weeks
__gads	Google AdSense	Registers advertisement interactions to prevent repeated display of the same ad	13 months
__gpi	Google AdSense	Stores advertising preferences and tracks conversions	13 months

Important — Google AdSense Mandatory Disclosure:

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user’s prior visits to our website or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visit to thegazette.ng and other sites on the Internet.

You may opt out of personalised advertising served through Google by visiting: https://www.google.com/settings/ads

You may opt out of third-party vendor use of cookies for personalised advertising by visiting: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

Category 4 — Social Media Cookies

These cookies are set by social media platforms when you interact with share buttons, embedded content, or social media widgets on our articles. They allow those platforms to track your visit to our website.

Cookie Name	Set By	Purpose	Duration
fr	Facebook / Meta	Used to deliver, measure, and improve the relevance of advertisements on Facebook	3 months
_fbp	Facebook / Meta	Identifies browsers for advertising measurement and analytics	3 months
guest_id	Twitter / X	Identifies users for advertising and personalisation on Twitter/X	2 years
personalization_id	Twitter / X	Tracks browsing behaviour across sites for Twitter advertising	2 years

These cookies are governed by the privacy policies of the respective social media platforms and are outside the direct control of The Gazette News. We recommend reviewing the privacy policies of Facebook, Twitter/X, and any other social platform whose content you interact with on our site.

Category 5 — Preference Cookies

These cookies remember choices you have made on thegazette.ng to give you a more personalised experience.

Cookie Name	Set By	Purpose	Duration
wp-settings-[user]	The Gazette News	Stores user interface customisation preferences	1 year
wp-settings-time	The Gazette News	Records when preferences were last updated	1 year

4. Cookies We Do Not Use

For clarity and in the interest of full transparency, The Gazette News does not use cookies for the following purposes:

We do not use cookies to collect sensitive personal data such as health information, financial details, or precise geolocation data
We do not use cookies to track children under the age of 13
We do not sell cookie data or browsing profiles to data brokers or third parties beyond our disclosed advertising and analytics partners
We do not use supercookies, browser fingerprinting, or other tracking technologies designed to circumvent standard cookie controls

5. Third-Party Cookies and External Services

Beyond the specific cookies listed above, thegazette.ng may load content or functionality from third-party services that set their own cookies. These may include:

YouTube — where video content is embedded in articles
Twitter/X — where tweets are embedded in articles
Disqus or similar — if a third-party comment system is deployed
Cloudflare — our content delivery network, which sets security and performance cookies

Each of these third parties operates its own privacy and cookie policies, which govern the cookies they set. The Gazette News is not responsible for the data practices of these third parties. Links to their relevant policies are provided below:

Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
Facebook / Meta Privacy Policy: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy
Twitter / X Privacy Policy: https://twitter.com/en/privacy
Cloudflare Privacy Policy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/

6. How to Manage and Control Cookies

You have the right to accept, decline, or manage cookies at any time. There are several ways to do this:

Through Your Browser Settings

All major browsers allow you to view, manage, block, and delete cookies through their settings menus. The steps vary by browser — use the links below for specific guidance:

Google Chrome: chrome://settings/cookies — or visit https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647
Mozilla Firefox: about:preferences#privacy — or visit https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/cookies-information-websites-store-on-your-computer
Apple Safari: Preferences › Privacy — or visit https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac
Microsoft Edge: Settings › Cookies and site permissions — or visit https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/delete-cookies-in-microsoft-edge
Opera: Settings › Privacy and security

Please note that blocking or deleting all cookies may affect the functionality of some features on thegazette.ng, including the correct display of certain content types.

Google Advertising Opt-Out

To opt out of personalised advertising served by Google across all websites you visit, including thegazette.ng, visit: https://www.google.com/settings/ads

To opt out specifically of Google Analytics tracking, install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Industry-Wide Advertising Opt-Out

To opt out of interest-based advertising from multiple participating advertising networks at once:

In the United States: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/
In the European Economic Area: http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/
In the United Kingdom: https://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/

Mobile Device Settings

On mobile devices, you can limit interest-based advertising through your device settings:

iOS (iPhone/iPad): Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking — disable “Allow Apps to Request to Track”
Android: Settings › Google › Ads — enable “Opt out of Ads Personalisation”

7. Cookie Consent on thegazette.ng

When you visit thegazette.ng for the first time, a cookie consent banner is displayed at the bottom of the screen. This banner gives you the option to:

Accept all cookies — including strictly necessary, analytics, advertising, and preference cookies
Manage preferences — choose which categories of cookies you accept
Reject non-essential cookies — accept only strictly necessary cookies

Your consent choice is stored in a preference cookie for 12 months. You may change your consent preferences at any time by clearing your browser cookies and revisiting thegazette.ng, at which point the consent banner will be displayed again.

WordPress Implementation Note: Install a GDPR/NDPR-compliant cookie consent plugin such as CookieYes, Complianz, or GDPR Cookie Consent by WebToffee to deploy this consent banner automatically. Configure it to block advertising and analytics cookies until consent is given. This is required for full NDPR compliance.

8. The Legal Basis for Our Cookie Use

The Gazette News processes cookie data on the following legal bases under the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) 2019 and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA):

Strictly necessary cookies — processed on the basis of legitimate interest, as they are essential for the functioning of our website
Analytics cookies — processed on the basis of your consent, which you may withdraw at any time
Advertising cookies — processed on the basis of your consent, which you may withdraw at any time
Preference cookies — processed on the basis of legitimate interest in providing you with a consistent experience

9. Changes to This Cookie Policy

The Gazette News may update this Cookie Policy periodically to reflect changes in the cookies we use, changes in the services of our third-party partners, or changes in applicable Nigerian and international data protection law. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, display a renewed consent notice on the website.

We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about our cookie practices.