Cookie information
Last updated: 24 September 2026
Cookies are small files a website asks your browser to store. This page sets out which ones are actually involved when you visit nxtsmarthome.com.au — not a generic list.
What we set ourselves
No cookies. There are no accounts, logins or server-side sessions. Your cookie choice and your light/dark theme are remembered in your browser's local storage, which never leaves your device.
Cookies that can come from others
Content delivery and security
The site is served through a content delivery network, which may set a small number of strictly functional cookies to distinguish genuine visitors from automated traffic and to keep the site available. These are security and delivery cookies, not advertising ones.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics to see which guides get read and which land badly, so we know what to write next and what to fix. It sets cookies that record a return visit as the same visit rather than a new one.
It does not run unless you accept. The tag loads with its storage switched off and stays that way until you choose, so declining is a real decline rather than a preference recorded after the fact.
We also use Ahrefs Web Analytics for page-view counts. Ahrefs describes it as using no cookies and collecting no personal data, so it runs on every page without asking.
Advertising
No ads are shown and no advertising cookies are set yet. When we switch on Google AdSense, this applies: Google and its partners use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites, to limit how often you see an ad, and to measure ad performance. Ads are labelled and kept separate from our editorial content.
Personalised ads wait for your consent. AdSense reads the same consent signal as analytics: until you accept, any ads shown are non-personalised. In the EU, the UK and Switzerland, Google's own consent message asks you instead of our banner, and advertising cookies are set only if you agree there. You can opt out of personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings, and read how Google uses data from partner sites at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Affiliate tracking
We take part in affiliate programmes, which is how the site is funded. This is what can happen here:
- Sovrn Commerce (VigLink) may affiliate outbound merchant links when you click them, routing the click through its tracking service, which may set cookies.
- When you click through to a retailer such as Amazon AU, eBay AU, JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys, Officeworks, Bunnings or Harvey Norman, that retailer sets its own cookies on its own site so a resulting purchase can be credited to us. Those cookies are governed by the retailer's policies, not ours.
Affiliate cookies record that a referral happened. They do not tell us who you are, and we never receive your name, address or payment details.
Controlling cookies
The first time you visit, a banner asks whether to allow analytics. Nothing beyond your answer is stored by us until you accept. To change your mind later, use Cookie settings in the footer, which asks again.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings — every major browser allows this, usually under Privacy or Site settings. Blocking cookies will not stop you reading anything here, because nothing on this site depends on them. It may mean ads are less relevant, or that a purchase is not credited to us, which costs us a commission and costs you nothing.
Browser features such as tracking protection or Do Not Track, and most ad blockers, may also stop affiliate tracking scripts from loading.
If this changes
If we add or remove a script that sets cookies, we will update this page and ask again rather than carry an old answer over to a new set of scripts. The date at the top shows when this was last reviewed.
Related
See our privacy policy for how personal information is handled, and our affiliate disclosure for how the commercial side of the site works. Questions can go to contact@nxtsmarthome.com.au.