1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, tablet, or mobile device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, provide a better user experience, and give website owners useful information about how their site is being used.

Cookies do not contain personal information such as your name or payment details. However, personal information that we store about you may be linked to information stored in or obtained from cookies.

Cookies are not harmful to your device and cannot carry viruses or install malware.

2. Types of Cookies

Cookies can be categorised in two main ways — by duration and by purpose.

2.1 By Duration

2.2 By Origin

3. Cookies We Use on www.bitdrum.org

The following table provides a detailed breakdown of the cookies currently used on our website, grouped by category.

3.1 Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are essential for the website to function and cannot be switched off. They do not require your consent. They are usually set in response to actions you take such as logging in, filling in forms, or setting privacy preferences.

Cookie Name	Provider	Purpose	Duration
wordpress_logged_in_*	BitDrum / WordPress	Keeps you logged in to the WordPress dashboard	Session
wordpress_sec_*	BitDrum / WordPress	Security cookie for authenticated users	Session
wp-settings-*	BitDrum / WordPress	Stores user interface preferences for the admin panel	1 year
PHPSESSID	BitDrum	Maintains your session state while browsing the site	Session
cookie_consent	BitDrum	Remembers your cookie consent preferences	1 year

3.2 Analytics & Performance Cookies

These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website — which pages are most visited, how long people stay, and where they come from. This helps us improve our content and user experience. All data collected is aggregated and anonymous.

Cookie Name	Provider	Purpose	Duration
_ga	Google Analytics	Distinguishes unique users by assigning a randomly generated client ID	2 years
_ga_*	Google Analytics (GA4)	Maintains session state for Google Analytics 4	2 years
_gid	Google Analytics	Distinguishes users; stores and updates a unique value for each page visited	24 hours
_gat	Google Analytics	Throttles request rate to Google servers; limits data collection on high-traffic sites	1 minute

ℹ️ We use Google Analytics with IP anonymisation enabled. This means Google Analytics cannot identify individual users by their IP address.

3.3 Functional Cookies

These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced, more personalised features. For example, remembering your preferred language or region.

Cookie Name	Provider	Purpose	Duration
wp-wpml_current_language	WPML (if installed)	Remembers your preferred language on multilingual sites	Session
wfwaf-authcookie-*	Wordfence Security	Helps identify logged-in users for security verification	Session
cf_clearance	Cloudflare (if used)	Records successful completion of a security challenge to avoid repeated challenges	1 year

3.4 Marketing & Targeting Cookies

At present, BitDrum does not run paid advertising campaigns that use tracking or retargeting cookies. If this changes in the future, we will update this policy and obtain your consent before placing any marketing cookies on your device.

4. Third-Party Services That May Set Cookies

Some features on our website are powered by third-party services that may set their own cookies. We do not control these cookies. The table below lists the third-party services currently active on our website and links to their respective cookie or privacy policies.

Service	Purpose	Cookie Policy
Google Analytics	Website traffic analysis and reporting	policies.google.com/privacy
Google Fonts	Loads web fonts used in the site’s design	policies.google.com/privacy
YouTube (if embedded)	Embeds video content on pages	policies.google.com/privacy
Facebook / Meta (if used)	Social sharing and page engagement	facebook.com/privacy/policy
Cloudflare (if used)	Website security, DDoS protection, performance	cloudflare.com/privacypolicy
WPForms / Contact Form 7	Contact and feedback form functionality	Self-hosted — no external cookies set

ℹ️ This list reflects third-party services currently active on our website. We periodically review and update it as our tools change.

5. Your Cookie Choices & How to Manage Them

You have several options to manage, limit, or disable cookies. Please note that disabling certain types of cookies may affect how our website works and your overall experience.

5.1 Cookie Consent Banner

When you first visit our website, a cookie consent banner will appear allowing you to accept all cookies, reject non-essential cookies, or customise your preferences by category. You can change your preferences at any time by clicking the “Cookie Settings” link in the footer of our website.

We recommend installing a cookie consent plugin such as CookieYes, Complianz, or GDPR Cookie Consent to power this banner on your WordPress site.

5.2 Browser Settings

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can typically:

• View all cookies currently stored on your device
• Delete individual cookies or all cookies at once
• Block all cookies or cookies from specific websites
• Set your browser to notify you when a cookie is being placed

Here are direct links to cookie settings for the most popular browsers:

5.3 Opt Out of Google Analytics

To specifically opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, you can install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, available for all major browsers.

6. Cookie Consent & Legal Basis

In accordance with Ghana’s Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) and international best practices, we obtain your consent before placing non-essential cookies on your device.

Cookie Category	Consent Required?	Legal Basis
Strictly Necessary	❌ No — always active	Legitimate interest (site cannot function without them)
Analytics & Performance	✅ Yes	Consent
Functional	✅ Yes	Consent
Marketing & Targeting	✅ Yes	Consent (not currently used)

You may withdraw your consent at any time by adjusting your cookie preferences via the cookie settings banner or your browser settings. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing that took place before you withdrew consent.

7. Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers include a “Do Not Track” (DNT) feature that signals to websites that you do not wish to be tracked. There is currently no universally agreed standard for how websites should respond to DNT signals.

At this time, our website does not alter its behaviour in response to DNT signals. However, you can manage your cookie preferences directly through our cookie consent banner or your browser settings as described in Section 5.

8. Changes to This Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time as our website evolves, new cookies are introduced, or legal requirements change. When we make updates, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page.

If we make significant changes — such as introducing marketing cookies for the first time — we will notify you via a prominent notice on our website and, where applicable, request your consent again.

We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we use cookies.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about our use of cookies or this Cookie Policy, please contact us: