Cookie Policy
What we store on your device and how to manage it
Last Updated: 7 September 2026 • Version 1.1
About this policy
This Cookie Policy explains how SME Cyber Solutions Ltd uses cookies and similar technologies on smecybersolutions.com. It sits alongside our Privacy Policy, which covers personal data more broadly and which you should read for the full picture of how we handle your data.
We use the term "cookies and similar technologies" because modern websites store information on visitor devices using more than traditional cookies alone. The UK Information Commissioner's Office treats all such storage (cookies, local storage, session storage and related mechanisms) the same way for consent purposes, and so do we.
Our approach
Before you make a choice, we aim to prevent non-essential analytics and marketing storage. Strictly necessary storage may still be created by the web server when a page or form needs a PHP session, and the chat service may use its own session storage. Those operational stores are separate from analytics consent and are not used to measure your activity.
Consent preferences and analytics technologies are managed through our consent tooling. Accepting enables the analytics tags configured for the site; rejecting disables those non-essential tags. The footer includes a persistent Cookie Preferences link, with browser controls available as a fallback if the consent interface does not reopen.
What we store on your device
The table below lists the storage we have identified from the site source and its main purpose. It is an operational inventory rather than a guarantee that every browser, PHP session, chat-provider, or third-party implementation will use exactly the same key. Third-party storage is described separately below.
| Name | Type | Purpose | Duration | Consent needed? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
sme_cookie_consent |
Local storage or consent-tool preference | Records your consent choice so non-essential tags can follow it; the exact key is controlled by the consent implementation | Until you clear browser storage | No |
PHP session cookie |
Cookie | Maintains a short-lived server session where a page or form requires it | Session or server-configured expiry | Strictly necessary where used |
Chat session storage |
Provider-controlled storage | Maintains the conversation widget session and state | Provider-configured | Operational; provider implementation applies |
_ga |
Cookie | Google Analytics 4 visitor identification | 2 years | Yes |
_ga_8PHX87YTXJGS |
Cookie | Google Analytics 4 session state for this specific property | 2 years | Yes |
We do not intentionally use advertising cookies, social media pixels, session recording, or heatmapping tools. Analytics and consent behaviour can also be affected by the consent platform, Google Tag Manager configuration, the chat provider, and browser settings, so this inventory is reviewed when those implementations change.
Third-party services that use cookies
Some of the services we rely on set their own cookies on their own domains when they are loaded. These are not cookies on our domain, but they exist because our site loaded the service, so we describe them here for transparency.
| Service | What it does | Where it sets cookies | Consent required on our site? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 (via GTM) | Measures traffic and user behaviour on our site | On our domain (_ga, _ga_*), plus Google-side cookies on .google.com |
Yes |
| Google reCAPTCHA | Protects specific forms from automated submissions | On .google.com only. We do not store any reCAPTCHA cookies ourselves. |
No. Used as a security measure, engaged on legitimate interests. |
| Ahrefs Web Analytics | Measures search performance and referral traffic | Does not set cookies on our domain. Uses cookie-less analytics. | Yes (loaded only after consent) |
| Google Consent Mode | Signals your consent preference to Google tags | On .google.com. No cookies set on our domain. |
No. Required to honour your consent choice. |
Google also operates Google Search Console and Microsoft operates Bing Webmaster Tools. These report on how our pages appear in search results. They do not set cookies on your device when you visit our site. They are aggregate reports the search engines provide to us about their own indexing of our site.
What Google and Google Analytics receive
When you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics 4 loads via Google Tag Manager and begins recording data about your visit. The data sent to Google includes a visitor identifier (the _ga cookie value), your truncated IP address, the pages you view, the device and browser you use and events such as form submissions.
Google Analytics 4 truncates IP addresses before storage, which means Google does not store your full IP address against your analytics profile. This is a built-in feature of GA4 rather than an optional setting. We have Google signals disabled on our property, which means we do not receive cross-device reporting, demographic inference or advertising-oriented data. Analytics data is retained in our GA4 property under standard Google retention settings.
You can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser extension at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout to prevent your data from being collected by any Google Analytics property on any website.
Manage Cookie Preferences
Strictly necessary security, session, and consent storage may still be used when required for the site to work or to protect forms. This control cannot disable that necessary storage. Your choice is saved only in this browser and can be changed at any time.
Clearing cookies and local storage for smecybersolutions.com also clears this saved choice. If analytics data was already sent to Google, changing your choice does not retroactively delete it; contact our Data Protection Officer about historical data requests.
Browser-level controls
In addition to our own consent mechanism, every modern browser lets you control cookies directly. You can block all cookies, accept only first-party cookies, clear existing cookies or set the browser to ask you each time. Doing so will apply to every site you visit, not just ours.
Be aware that blocking all cookies universally will break sign-in flows on many sites. Targeted controls (allowing first-party cookies, blocking third-party cookies) tend to be the least disruptive.
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when our site's actual cookie and tracking behaviour changes. The version number and date at the top of this page always reflect the current policy. When we make a significant change (adding a new third-party service, changing a retention period) we will also update our Privacy Policy accordingly.
Questions about cookies?
If you have questions about how we use cookies or tracking, contact our Data Protection Officer: