Cookie Policy
What we store on your device and how to manage it
Last Updated: 20 April 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 through the consent banner on your first visit, our site sets nothing on your device. No cookies, no browser storage, no tracking. This is deliberate. We do not treat consent as a formality to dismiss and we do not load trackers pre-emptively.
When you accept, the items described below are set or loaded. When you reject, only the preference recording your rejection is stored, so we do not ask you again. You can change your choice at any time by reopening the consent banner through the link in the site footer.
What we store on your device
The table below lists every cookie or storage entry our site sets on your device, along with its purpose and how long it persists. This is a complete list of what our own domain writes. Some third parties we use may set cookies on their own domains, which we describe separately in the next section.
| Name | Type | Purpose | Duration | Consent needed? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
cookie_consent_choice |
Local storage | Records your choice from the consent banner so we do not ask again | Until you clear browser storage | No |
_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 |
That is the complete list. We do not use advertising cookies, we do not use social media pixels, we do not use session recording or heatmapping tools, and we do not use LinkedIn, Facebook or any other platform-specific tracking on our site.
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.
Changing or withdrawing consent
You can change your mind at any time. We provide two ways to do this.
- Reopen the consent banner using the link in our site footer and make a different choice. Your new choice replaces the previous one.
- Clear cookies and local storage for smecybersolutions.com in your browser. This removes our consent record, and the banner will appear again on your next visit.
Withdrawing consent does not affect what happened while consent was in place. Data already sent to Google Analytics remains in that platform under Google's retention settings and our opt-out does not retroactively delete it. If you need historical GA4 data associated with your visits removed, contact our Data Protection Officer.
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: