Cookie Policy

1. What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device when you visit. They help websites remember information about your visit, such as your preferences and which pages you have viewed.

2. How we ask for your consent

The first time you visit, a banner asks whether you are happy for us to use optional cookies. Nothing optional is switched on until you choose. You can accept everything, reject everything, or pick each purpose separately — and rejecting is exactly as easy as accepting.

Your choice is remembered for six months, after which we ask again. You can change it at any time using the Cookie preferences link in the footer of every page.

3. Essential — always on

These are needed for the site to work and for us to honour your cookie choice. They cannot be switched off, and they do not require your consent.

• emalocks_consent — stores the cookie choice you made on this site, so we do not ask again on every page. Contains only your selection and the date you made it. Expires after six months.
• Cloudflare Turnstile — a security check on our contact form that tells humans apart from automated spam. It is provided by Cloudflare and runs only on pages with a form.
• Hosting — our host, Vercel, may set a short-lived technical cookie while serving the site.

We also use Vercel Speed Insights to monitor page-loading performance. It sets no cookies and does not identify you.

4. Analytics — optional

If you allow analytics, we use Google Analytics to understand which pages people use and where they arrive from, so we know what to improve. We use this in aggregate; we do not use it to identify individual visitors.

• _ga — distinguishes one visitor from another. Expires after two years.
• _ga_VVP4G5TD07 — keeps track of a single visit (session state). Expires after two years.

5. Advertising — optional

If you allow advertising cookies, we can see which of our adverts led to an enquiry, so we stop paying for adverts that do not work. We do not sell your data, and we do not use these cookies to build a profile of you across other websites.

• _gcl_au — set by Google Ads to link a click on one of our adverts to an enquiry made on this site. Expires after 90 days.

6. What is sent to Google if you decline

We want to be straightforward about this, because it is not obvious. Google's measurement tag loads on the page whether or not you consent. If you decline, it sets no cookies and reads none, and it stores no identifier on your device — but it still sends a request to Google containing limited information such as the address of the page, the page you arrived from, basic browser and device details, and your IP address.

Google uses the IP address to work out an approximate location and does not retain it. Because nothing is stored on your device and no identifier is created, these signals cannot be tied back to you or joined up across visits.

If you would rather no request reached Google at all, the browser controls in section 8 — or a tracker-blocking extension — will prevent it.

7. Who processes this data

Analytics and advertising data is processed by Google, which may store and process it outside the UK. Google acts as our processor for analytics and applies the safeguards required for international transfers. You can read how Google handles this data in its own privacy documentation.

8. Changing or withdrawing your choice

Use the Cookie preferences link in the footer of any page. Withdrawing consent takes effect immediately and removes the cookies that were set under it.

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser. Doing so may affect the contact form.

• Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Third-party cookies
• Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
• Safari: Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data
• Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions

9. Changes to this policy

We update this page when we add or remove cookies. The “Last updated” date reflects the most recent change. If we add a new purpose, we ask for your consent again rather than assuming your previous answer still applies.