LEGAL
Cookie policy
Which cookies this site sets, what each one is for, and how to refuse them.
What a cookie is
A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to keep. Some are needed for the site to work at all. Others watch what you do so the people running the site can learn from it. The law treats those two very differently, and so do we.
This page lists every cookie this website sets, what each one is for and how long it lasts. If you find one here that is not in the list, tell us and we will fix the page.
The short version
Until you choose, this site sets nothing. No analytics, no Google, no session identifier. If you accept, we set one cookie of our own and Google Analytics sets two. If you refuse, we set one cookie to remember that you refused, and nothing else.
Refusing costs you nothing. Every page works exactly the same either way.
Cookies we set whatever you choose
One cookie, and only because we have to remember your answer. The law lets us set this without asking, because without it we would have to ask you again on every page.
| Cookie | What it does | How long it lasts | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|---|
| tt_consent | Remembers whether you accepted or refused analytics, and which version of this policy you answered. | 6 months | Thorne Technology |
Cookies we set only if you accept
None of these exist until you click Accept. If you refuse, or simply never answer, they are never set.
| Cookie | What it does | How long it lasts | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|---|
| tt_sid | Groups the pages you view in one visit, so we can see a journey rather than a pile of unrelated page views. It is a random number and it is not linked to you. | 30 minutes, extended while you keep browsing | Thorne Technology |
| _ga | Google Analytics. Tells one visitor apart from another. | 14 months | |
| _ga_ followed by a code | Google Analytics. Keeps track of the current visit. | 14 months |
Google Analytics is a service run by Google, and if you accept it, information about your visit is sent to Google and handled under their terms rather than only ours. We have turned off the setting that would let Google use it to follow you across devices for advertising, and we have cut the storage period from Google's two year default to fourteen months.
What we record, and what we deliberately do not
If you accept, we record which pages you looked at, which page sent you here, how long each page was actually visible, which links and buttons you clicked, and whether you were on a phone, a tablet or a desktop screen. That is the whole list. We use it to work out which of our services people actually want to read about, so we write about those first.
We do not record your IP address. We do not record which browser or device model you use beyond the screen size. We do not record anything you type into a form. We do not follow you to other websites, and we do not let anyone else use this data to follow you either. The session number is random and is not built from anything that identifies you.
Because there is no IP address and nothing that persists between visits, what we hold is not realistically capable of identifying you. That is on purpose.
Changing your mind
Use the Cookie settings link in the footer of any page. You can switch from accept to refuse, or back, as often as you like, and it takes the same single click either way.
Refusing after you previously accepted stops any further collection immediately. It does not reach back and delete what Google already holds, because that is theirs rather than ours; Google's own controls let you opt out of Analytics across every site at once, and we have linked to those below.
Blocking cookies in your browser
Every major browser can block or delete cookies without going anywhere near our banner. The controls live under Settings, usually under Privacy, and the browser's own help pages explain it better than we can because the menus move.
Blocking all cookies will not break this website. It will mean we cannot remember your cookie choice, so you will be asked again next time, which is an irritation rather than a fault.
The client portal
The client portal at portal.thornetechnology.co.uk is a separate application and sets its own cookies, which are necessary to keep you signed in and keep your session secure. Those are strictly necessary and are not covered by the choice you make here. If you have a portal account, the terms of your agreement with us cover how it works.
If this policy changes
If we add a tool that sets a new cookie, this page is updated before the tool goes live, and the version recorded in your tt_consent cookie changes so you are asked again rather than carried along on an answer you gave to a different question.
This policy should be read alongside our privacy policy, which covers the information you give us deliberately, such as through the contact form.
Asking us about it
Email hello@thornetechnology.co.uk or call 01656 521 505. If you want to know what we hold about you, or you want it deleted, the privacy policy explains how to ask and what we have to do about it.
If you are not satisfied with how we have handled a question about your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, the UK regulator, at ico.org.uk.