# Cookies and tracking

Cookies · in effect 6 October 2026

Version 3.5, in effect from 6 October 2026, and it supersedes every earlier version of this page. Playway Books may revise this text; the version and date above change when it does, and continued use of this website after that is acceptance of the revision. If you need the text as it stood on a particular date — because you are relying on it — write and ask, and it will be sent to you.

## Google Analytics 4 and PostHog count every page but store nothing until you agree to Analytics. Clarity and Advertising wait to be asked. Web Analytics and the four forms do not ask, and this page says which is which

**Nothing is kept on your device for measurement or advertising until you agree.** A panel asks when you first arrive, and it asks two separate questions — Analytics and Advertising — because agreeing to one is not agreeing to the other. **Google Analytics 4 and PostHog count the pages you read whatever you answer**, but until you agree to Analytics they do it without an identifier kept on your device; agree, and they may keep one so that your visits can be joined up. Microsoft Clarity does not load at all until you agree to Analytics, and Google Ads does not load until you agree to Advertising. Refusing is not a lesser version of the site. You can change either answer on this page at any time. Cloudflare Web Analytics is not part of the panel and never keeps anything; the paragraphs and the table below say exactly what each does.

**Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads never contact your browser directly. Microsoft Clarity does.** All three run as Cloudflare Zaraz tools, but not identically. Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads run on Cloudflare’s own servers, so no Google address is requested by any page here — Google still receives the measurement, and the advertising signal if you agreed to it, and [the privacy policy](/legal/privacy/) names it as a processor, but it never sees your browser directly. Microsoft Clarity is different and we would rather say so plainly than let the same claim cover it by accident: it is a session recorder, its script runs in your browser once you agree to Analytics, and it contacts Microsoft’s servers directly — [www.clarity.ms](https://www.clarity.ms/), scripts.clarity.ms and u.clarity.ms — to send what it records.

**PostHog runs on every page, and your Analytics answer decides what it keeps.** It is a separate product-analytics tool, not a Zaraz tool: it counts pages read, clicks, errors and page speed whether or not you have answered. Until you agree to Analytics it stores nothing on your device and counts each visit anonymously, with a code on PostHog’s side that changes every day; if you agree, it keeps cookies and browser storage so that your visits can be joined up. A refusal leaves a note on your device recording the no, and Cloudflare Zaraz keeps its own record of your answer for Google Analytics 4 either way. If you agree, it also records a replay of your visit, with anything you type hidden, and may show you a short survey; neither starts without a yes. Nobody is identified by name. What it sends goes to this site’s own address first and our server forwards it to PostHog, so your browser never contacts PostHog directly.

**Cloudflare Web Analytics runs on every page, and it keeps nothing.** Cloudflare, which hosts this site, measures how quickly each page loads and how often it is read. It sets no cookie, stores nothing in your browser and has no identifier for you, and Cloudflare discards what it measures from its data centres in the European Union. We should have said so here before 26 September 2026 and did not.

**Without your agreement, this site keeps one cookie of its own, and it is the one that remembers your answers** — plus, once you answer Analytics, a local-storage entry recording that answer for Google Analytics 4 and, if you refuse, PostHog’s note of the refusal. There is no account, no session and nothing else it keeps about you between pages. Agree to Analytics and the cookies and storage in the table below are added.

**The four forms are on different terms, and we would rather say so than let one rule seem to cover both.** HubSpot loads with the page on [For Schools](/for-schools/), [For Tuition Centres](/for-tuition-centres/), [For Booksellers](/for-booksellers/) and [Contact](/contact/), without asking, and sets a token that identifies your browser to HubSpot. Everything below sets out what to do about that.

This page was drafted for this website and this company on 2 September 2026. It states the law as we understand it and describes what we actually do, but it has not yet been settled by a lawyer, and it is not legal advice. If anything here is wrong, tell us at learn@playwaybooks.com and it will be corrected rather than defended.

## What a cookie is, briefly

A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to keep and hand back on your next visit, so that the site can recognise the browser. Related technologies do the same job by other means — local storage, session storage, pixels, fingerprinting scripts, software development kits inside apps. **This page covers all of them, not just the ones literally called cookies**, because a policy that only mentions cookies is a policy with a gap in it.

## What this site does on its own

**One cookie of its own, and it exists to hold your answer.** When you reply to the panel, that reply is written to a first-party cookie so that you are not asked again on every page. It records which purposes you agreed to and nothing else — no identifier, no history, nothing that says who you are. It is the one thing on this site that a refusal does not remove, because a refusal has to be remembered to be honoured.

Beyond that, nothing that needs a cookie. The pages are static, so there is no session to keep. There is no account, so there is nothing to log into. There is no theme to remember either: this site renders the same cream page on every machine, whatever your operating system asks for, so there is no setting of yours to store. Your language and your place on a page are handled by the browser itself. The three typefaces are served from our own domain rather than a font network, so no third party sees a request for them.

**The one measurement this site takes for itself has no cookie in it and no question attached.** When you press a Buy control the link passes through this site before opening the retailer, and one number goes up: how many people pressed that shop’s button that day. No cookie, no identifier, no IP address, no session, no row per person. It cannot be worked backwards into a reader, which is why it is not behind the panel — there is nothing to consent to. Since 26 September 2026 the same press is also sent to PostHog as one event naming the shop, from our server rather than your browser. If you have agreed to Analytics it carries PostHog’s identifier for this browser, so it joins your other visits; if not, it goes under a random code that belongs to no one and is never used again. The [privacy policy](/legal/privacy/) describes both in full.

Our server keeps ordinary security logs, as any server does, and they are retained for 180 days because the CERT-In Directions of 28 April 2022 require it. They are not analytics and nobody reads them to find out what you looked at.

## The third parties, and how to avoid each

They differ in scope and in terms. Google Analytics 4 and PostHog are on every page and wait for the Analytics answer only before storing anything; Microsoft Clarity waits for that answer before loading at all; Google Ads waits for the separate Advertising answer; HubSpot is on four pages and does not wait at all; Cloudflare Web Analytics is on every page and stores nothing at all. None of that is an accident and the difference is the reason this table has four columns.

| Who | When it runs | What it may set | How to avoid it entirely |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cloudflare Zaraz, carrying Google Analytics 4 | On every page, as it loads, whether or not you have answered the panel. Your Analytics answer decides what it may keep. | Which pages are read and when. Until you agree to Analytics, and after a refusal, Google Analytics 4 is told to store nothing (Google’s Consent Mode, with storage denied), so it counts pages without an identifier kept on your device. If you agree, it may keep its own identifier cookies, named _ga and _ga_…, so that your visits can be joined up. Once you answer, yes or no, an entry in this browser’s local storage named _zaraz_google_consent_update, written by Cloudflare Zaraz, which records your Analytics answer so that Google Analytics 4 knows on every page whether it may keep an identifier. It runs on Cloudflare’s own servers rather than in your browser, so no Google address is ever contacted by this page. | Refuse Analytics when asked, or press “Review your cookie choices” further down this page and change your answer, and it keeps nothing on your device. It still counts the page without an identifier; to stop that too, turn JavaScript off for this site. Every page still reads normally either way. |
| Cloudflare Zaraz, carrying Microsoft Clarity — Analytics | On every page, but only after you agree to Analytics. Until you answer, it does not load. Refusing is a complete answer and the panel does not come back to ask again. | If you agree: session replay and heatmap data — mouse movement, clicks and scrolling, not just which pages you read. Its script runs in your browser and posts what it records straight to Microsoft, at www.clarity.ms, scripts.clarity.ms and u.clarity.ms. If you refuse: nothing at all. | Refuse Analytics when asked, or press “Review your cookie choices” further down this page and change your answer. Blocking third-party cookies or scripts in your browser also stops it, and every page of this site still reads normally with all of it blocked. |
| Cloudflare Zaraz, carrying Google Ads — Advertising | On every page, but only after you agree to Advertising — a separate question from Analytics. You may agree to one and refuse the other. | If you agree: an advertising and remarketing signal, sent from Cloudflare’s own servers rather than your browser, so no Google address is ever contacted by this page. If you refuse: nothing at all, and no identifier is created. | Refuse Advertising when asked, or press “Review your cookie choices” further down this page and change your answer. Blocking third-party cookies or scripts in your browser also stops it, and every page of this site still reads normally with all of it blocked. |
| HubSpot — the enquiry and message forms | On the four pages that carry a form — For Schools, For Tuition Centres, For Booksellers and Contact — as they load. Not on any other page, and NOT behind the panel: these four load without asking. | A visitor token that identifies this browser to HubSpot, so that a form you start and a form you send can be joined up. It is set on HubSpot’s European servers and lasts months rather than a session. | Stay off those four pages, or block third-party scripts. Ring the office or write an email instead: the number and the address are below, and an enquiry by telephone is exactly as welcome. |
| PostHog — product analytics | On every page of this site, as it loads, whether or not you have answered the panel. Your Analytics answer decides what it may keep: until you agree, it stores nothing on your device; if you agree, it keeps cookies and browser storage. | Which pages are read, which elements are clicked, where on a page people click (a heatmap), clicks that do nothing, errors in the page, and how quickly it loads. Until you answer, nothing is written to your browser: no cookie and no storage. PostHog counts the visit on its own servers using a code derived from your IP address and browser that changes every day, so a returning reader looks new each day and cannot be followed from one day to the next. If you agree to Analytics, PostHog keeps two cookies whose names begin ph_, for a year, on playwaybooks.com and its subdomains, plus entries in this browser’s local and session storage, and it keeps a profile for this browser so that your visits can be joined up — nothing on this site tells PostHog who you are, so the profile is never under your name. If you agree to Analytics, PostHog also records your visit as a session replay — mouse movement, clicks, scrolling and what the page showed, with anything typed into a field hidden — together with the page’s own error messages and the timing of its network requests, and it may show you a short survey, which you are free to ignore. Recordings are kept for 30 days. None of this starts before you agree: until then, and after a refusal, the recording and survey scripts are never loaded. If you refuse, or later withdraw a yes, PostHog deletes its identifier and keeps one local-storage entry recording that you said no, so that it does not start again; it goes on counting without an identifier, as before you answered. Either way your browser sends what it counts to an address on this site, playwaybooks.com/ph/, and our server passes it on to PostHog Cloud EU with your IP address, so the only address your browser contacts for PostHog is this site’s own. | Refuse Analytics in the panel and PostHog keeps nothing on your device but the note of your refusal (Zaraz keeps its own note of the same answer, as in the Google Analytics 4 row); it still counts the page without an identifier, as above. To stop that too, turn JavaScript off for this site: every page still reads in full without it, and PostHog cannot run. Blocking PostHog’s own addresses — in the browser or with a tracker-blocking extension — does not stop it, because your browser never contacts them. |
| Cloudflare Web Analytics | On every page, as it loads, without asking. For visitors reached through Cloudflare’s data centres in the European Union, Cloudflare discards what it measures. | Nothing. It sets no cookie and writes nothing to local storage. A small script, fetched from static.cloudflareinsights.com, measures how long the page took to load and which page it was, and reports that to an address on this site, playwaybooks.com/cdn-cgi/rum. Cloudflare counts visits from each request as it passes, without an identifier for you, so no visit can be joined to another. | Block scripts from static.cloudflareinsights.com in your browser or with a tracker-blocking extension, or turn JavaScript off for this site; every page still reads in full either way. The panel does not govern it, because it keeps nothing on your device. |

### What is in the Cloudflare configuration

Cloudflare Zaraz is a box that other tools go into, and the box is edited by Playway Books in Cloudflare’s interface rather than in this website’s code. An earlier version of this page said that if an advertising or remarketing tool was ever added to it, that would be a different purpose and it would not arrive quietly. It has now arrived, so we are saying so plainly rather than letting the promise go unkept: Zaraz today carries three tools and two questions. Since 26 September 2026 Google Analytics 4 loads on every page and reads the Analytics answer only to decide whether it may keep an identifier. Microsoft Clarity is behind Analytics and does not load without a yes; it is a second, independent tool rather than a feature of Google’s, which is why it gets its own row. Google Ads is behind Advertising, asked separately, exactly as promised: it has its own entry in the panel, so a reader who refuses Advertising never loads it, and the site’s content security policy names every address a script may talk to — www.clarity.ms, scripts.clarity.ms and u.clarity.ms for Clarity among them — so anything running in your browser is refused until this page and that policy are both changed. Those ties are still deliberate and they are still what discipline here consists of; this page is the record of the policy changing in step with the code, not a claim that nothing ever gets added.

### Why PostHog is not in that configuration at all

Because Playway Books asked for it directly as a script rather than as a Zaraz tool. It is not edited in Cloudflare’s interface and it is not a third question in the panel. It does read your answer to the Analytics question: never answer, and PostHog keeps nothing on your device and counts you anonymously; refuse, and it keeps only a note of your refusal; agree, and it keeps an identifier. It does not stop counting pages either way. That is a deliberate choice, not an oversight or a gap in the panel, and it is why PostHog gets a table row of its own.

### Why Cloudflare Web Analytics is not in it either

Because it is a setting of the Cloudflare account that hosts the site, not a Zaraz tool, and because it keeps nothing about you to consent to: no cookie, no stored identifier, and no way to join one visit to another. It has been on since before 22 September 2026, and this page did not mention it until 26 September. That was our omission, and the table row above is its correction.

### Why HubSpot is not behind the same question

Because it is the form rather than a measurement of you: a HubSpot embed renders the fields you type into, and a form behind a press-to-load button was tried on 3 September 2026 and taken out at Playway Books’ request. The consequence is real and it is yours to know about — opening [For Schools](/for-schools/), [For Tuition Centres](/for-tuition-centres/), [For Booksellers](/for-booksellers/) or [Contact](/contact/) contacts HubSpot and lets it set a token before you have typed anything, whether or not you go on to write to us. If you would rather that did not happen, do not open those four pages: the telephone number and the email address are on every page of this site and reach the same desk in Kochi.

### And the retailers, once you leave

Amazon, Flipkart, JioMart and any other shop you reach from here are separate companies with their own cookies and their own policies, and those apply from the moment their page loads. We have no control over them and no visibility into them. The same is true of the social platforms our footer links to; nothing from those platforms is embedded on this site, so none of them can see you here unless you click through.

## How to change your answer, or switch it all off

### Your browser, which works on all of it

The panel governs Clarity and Advertising, and what Google Analytics 4 and PostHog may keep. Your browser governs everything, including HubSpot, Cloudflare Web Analytics and the anonymous counts, which the panel does not stop, and it is the answer if what you want is none of it. Every current browser lets you block third-party cookies, block scripts, and clear what is already stored; the setting is usually under Privacy, and the browser’s own help explains its version better than we could. A tracker-blocking extension does the same thing with less effort for everything except PostHog: its requests go to this site’s own address, so an extension that blocks by address does not see them. Turning JavaScript off for this site stops Google Analytics 4, PostHog and Web Analytics along with everything else. **Block all of it and every page of this site still reads normally** — nothing here depends on a cookie. What you would lose is the four forms, which need HubSpot’s script to render at all, and the telephone number reaches the same desk without one.

A “do not track” or global privacy control signal is not read by this site, and we would rather say so than leave you to assume it is honoured. The panel is the mechanism that is real here.

**If you would rather we held nothing about you**, write one line to [learn@playwaybooks.com](mailto:learn@playwaybooks.com). Anything Playway Books holds that identifies you will be deleted, and we will tell you when it is done. The [privacy policy](/legal/privacy/) sets out that right, and the [grievance page](/legal/grievances/) is where to go if the answer is not good enough.

## If this changes again

This page changes in the same release as the site, and it has now been rewritten eight times — including the version that had no mechanism to describe and had to say so, one that corrected a tool wrongly named in the version before it, the one that added the first tool on this site that runs on every page without waiting for the panel, the one that made that tool wait for your Analytics answer before storing anything, and this one, which put Google Analytics 4 on the same terms and says exactly what PostHog keeps once you agree. If Playway Books adds a third Zaraz purpose, an embedded video, a chat widget or anything else that sets a cookie, it is described here in the commit that ships it — but not everything that gets added in future will necessarily get its own entry in the panel first, because PostHog did not. The version and date at the head of the page are how you can tell what is current.

Questions about anything on this page go to [learn@playwaybooks.com](mailto:learn@playwaybooks.com), and a person answers them.

## If this page and the site disagree, the page is the defect.

Everything above is checkable with a browser’s network tab, and we would rather you checked. Refuse the panel and watch: Clarity and Advertising stop completely, Google Analytics 4 and PostHog keep counting but store nothing in your browser beyond two notes of the refusal — PostHog’s, and Zaraz’s record of your answer for Google Analytics 4 — and Cloudflare Web Analytics keeps measuring page loads — that asymmetry is the point of this page, not a thing to discover by watching the network tab yourself. Five companies are named here — Cloudflare, Google, Microsoft, HubSpot and PostHog — and this page says exactly which pages load each one and on what terms; if you find anything else contacting anybody, that is a bug and we would fix it the same day — tell us and we will.

### The Grievance Officer

The Grievance Officer Playway Books Pvt Ltd 43/2153, Jewel Homes, Flat E1, Whitefield, A-Block, SRM Road, Kaloor, Ernakulam, Kerala 682018, India [learn@playwaybooks.com](mailto:learn@playwaybooks.com) [+91 99471 23678](tel:+919947123678)

Every complaint is acknowledged within 48 hours and answered within 30 days. Write in English or Malayalam. If a complaint needs longer than that, you will be told why and when to expect an answer, rather than hearing nothing.

## Talk to us

- [+91 99471 23678](tel:+919947123678) Kochi office, weekdays
- [WhatsApp +91 99471 23678](https://wa.me/919947123678)
- [learn@playwaybooks.com](mailto:learn@playwaybooks.com)

Playway Books Pvt Ltd 43/2153, Jewel Homes Flat E1, Whitefield, A-Block SRM Road, Kaloor Ernakulam, Kerala, India — 682018

**CIN**

U22220KL2022PTC074201

**GSTIN**

32AAMCP6989J1ZN