Cookie Policy
This page sets out the cookies and similar technologies deployed across Heart Bingo, the role each performs, how long each persists on your device, and the routes for controlling or removing them. The broader question of personal-data handling is covered separately on the Privacy Policy page; this page is the technical companion to that one. The site as a whole is described on the About page, with the flagship operator review sitting on the Heart Bingo Casino homepage.
1. What a cookie is, briefly
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to keep on your device. On the next load of the same site, the browser returns the file, letting the site recognise the visit, recall a setting, or tally traffic. Cookies cannot execute code on your machine, cannot read other files, and cannot identify you personally without additional information already attached to the cookie. Many things casually called "cookies" today are technically other browser-storage mechanisms — localStorage, sessionStorage, IndexedDB — that operate in much the same way; for plain English, the term "cookie" on this page covers all of them.
2. Categories of cookies used on Heart Bingo
Three categories of cookie are in use across Heart Bingo. They are surfaced on your first visit through a consent banner, and your selection can be revisited at any moment via the dedicated link in the site footer.
| Category | Purpose | Consent required |
|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Make the site work: load the page, remember your cookie-banner choice, route traffic, prevent abuse. | No (legal basis: legitimate interest) |
| Analytics | Anonymous, aggregated traffic measurement: which pages are read, where readers come from, which links are clicked. | Yes |
| Affiliate tracking | Recognise that a click through to an operator came from Heart Bingo so the partnership can be credited. | Yes |
Heart Bingo does not deploy advertising or remarketing cookies. We do not display on-site advertising, do not run programmatic ad networks, and do not pixel-track readers across other websites. The funding model behind the site is laid out on the Affiliate Disclosure page.
3. Specific cookies, third parties and lifetimes
The list below details the cookies that may be set during a visit to Heart Bingo. Third-party cookies are set by services Heart Bingo relies on; full control over their behaviour rests with the third party, and links to their own policies are provided.
| Name | Set by | Category | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
heartbingo_consent | Heart Bingo | Strictly necessary | Stores your cookie-banner choice so the banner does not reappear on every page load. | 12 months |
heartbingo_session | Heart Bingo | Strictly necessary | Anonymous session identifier used to load assets and rate-limit abusive traffic. | Until browser closes |
_ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics 4 | Analytics | Aggregated traffic statistics: pages per session, traffic sources, average time on page. IP addresses are anonymised before storage. | 14 months |
heartbingo_aff | Heart Bingo | Affiliate tracking | Records that a click on an outbound operator link originated from Heart Bingo so the partnership is credited. | 30 days |
Third-party policies: Google Privacy and Terms covers Google Analytics. Operator partner sites set their own cookies once you have clicked through; those sit under the operator's own privacy policy, not under Heart Bingo.
4. How to control cookies in your browser
Every modern browser allows you to block cookies, delete existing ones, or reject third-party cookies outright. Official documentation:
You can also browse Heart Bingo in your browser's private or incognito mode, which stops cookies being retained across sessions.
5. What happens if you decline non-essential cookies
The site keeps functioning as normal. Every page remains readable, every internal link clickable, and every operator click-through still works. There are only three small consequences: your visit will not appear in our traffic statistics; if you click an affiliate link after declining affiliate tracking, the partnership cannot be credited — the operator still treats you, the user, in exactly the same fashion; only Heart Bingo's end of the commission goes unregistered; and the consent banner returns whenever you clear cookies, since the choice itself lives inside a cookie. The full editorial standards behind every page (covering how affiliate links are signposted) are detailed on the Editorial Policy page, with the player-safety commitments housed on the Responsible Gambling page.
6. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Heart Bingo respects the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal: where your browser transmits GPC, all non-essential cookies are blocked automatically and the consent banner is suppressed. The older Do Not Track header lacks an agreed enforcement standard and is not relied upon.
7. Updates to this policy
Where the cookies on Heart Bingo change, this page is updated and the "Last updated" date at the top is refreshed. Material changes — new categories, new third parties — trigger a one-time consent banner refresh so existing visitors are asked again. Minor housekeeping edits (rewording, link refreshes) do not produce a fresh consent prompt.
8. Questions and complaints
For queries about specific cookies in use on Heart Bingo, the Contact page is the right starting point. Formal complaints about UK websites under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 are handled by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), reachable at ico.org.uk.