Advertising policy

1. How advertising on this site works

Advertisements on this website are served by Microsoft Advertising (also known as Bing Ads). When a page with an advertising placement loads, your browser requests an advert from Microsoft's servers. Microsoft decides in real time which advert to show, based on factors such as the page content, general location derived from your IP address, and — if you have allowed it — your advertising cookie preferences. We do not choose individual adverts, do not see the profiles used to select them, and are paid only for the placement, not for any information about you.

Advertising cookies and tags on this site operate only when you have accepted the advertising category in our consent banner. If you declined, Microsoft serves non-personalised contextual adverts only, and no advertising cookies are set by us for profiling purposes.

2. How Microsoft uses cookies and data

Where permitted, Microsoft may use cookies, web beacons, and similar identifiers to:

• Count impressions and clicks, so advertisers are billed accurately and the same advert is not shown to you excessively.
• Understand which adverts perform well, in aggregate.
• Build or refine advertising segments used to select more relevant adverts across Microsoft's network.
• Detect and prevent click fraud and invalid traffic.
• Remember opt-outs and consent choices you have already made.

Microsoft's data collection and use is governed by Microsoft's own privacy statement at https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/privacystatement, and its advertising policies are published at https://about.ads.microsoft.com/en-us/policies. We encourage you to read both.

3. Personalised vs non-personalised ads

Personalised ads are selected using information about your likely interests, drawn from your activity on this and other sites where Microsoft operates, your general location, and demographic inferences. Personalised advertising on this site relies on your consent, given through our cookie banner.

Non-personalised ads are selected mainly from the content of the page you are reading, plus coarse location (such as country or region) derived from your IP address. Non-personalised ads still use cookies or similar identifiers for frequency capping, fraud prevention, and billing, because without them the advertising system cannot function.

4. Advertising standards

All advertising served to this site must comply with Microsoft's advertising policies, including rules on prohibited content, misleading claims, and restricted industries. Adverts do not influence our editorial content, our choice of projects, or anything we write about Sunderland's buildings. Adverts are always distinguishable from our own content.

5. How to opt out

• On this site: click the "Cookie settings" link in the footer and choose "Decline". This stops our consent-based advertising cookies and switches you to non-personalised contextual adverts.
• Microsoft ad personalisation: manage or turn off personalised ads from Microsoft through your Microsoft privacy dashboard and ad settings, linked from Microsoft's privacy statement at privacy.microsoft.com.
• Industry opt-outs: use the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out page at https://optout.aboutads.info or the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page at https://optout.networkadvertising.org. These let you opt out of interest-based advertising from participating companies across many sites at once.
• Browser controls: block third-party cookies entirely in your browser settings, or use a private browsing window.

Note that opting out stops interest-based selection; it does not remove adverts altogether. You will see non-personalised adverts instead.

6. Changes to this policy

If we change our advertising provider or the way ads are served, we will update this page and, where the change affects cookies, ask for your consent again through the banner. The effective date at the top shows the current version.

7. Questions

For questions about advertising on this site, email office@aandevelopments-ne.co.uk. For the personal data angle, see our privacy policy; for the technical detail of cookies, see our cookie policy.