Cookie Policy

Plain-English summary

emeraldstatic.com runs on a deliberately minimal cookie diet. We do not use marketing cookies, advertising cookies, retargeting pixels, social-network trackers, fingerprinting scripts, or session-replay tools.

We set one strictly-necessary cookie, only when you actively submit the contact form. It exists to prevent duplicate submissions and expires after 24 hours. Our analytics provider is cookieless and does not collect personally identifying information.

Because we use only strictly-necessary cookies, no consent banner is shown — ePrivacy and GDPR allow strictly-necessary cookies without prior consent. If we ever change that, this page and a visible banner will be updated first.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store on your device. It lets the site remember things between page loads — a session ID, a language preference, a setting you toggled. Similar technologies (local storage, session storage, pixels, scripts) can serve the same purpose; for this page, when we say "cookie" we mean all of them.

Cookies are typically classified by:

• Origin — first-party (set by the site you’re visiting) vs third-party (set by another domain loaded inside the page).
• Lifespan — session (deleted when you close the browser) vs persistent (kept for a specified duration).
• Purpose — strictly necessary, functional, analytical, or marketing/advertising.

Regulators (UK ICO, EU EDPB, French CNIL, US FTC) take the view that strictly-necessary cookies do not require prior consent. Everything else does, and pre-checked boxes don’t count as consent under GDPR.

Cookies and similar technologies we use

The complete first-party inventory:

es_form_submit (cookie)

First-party. Strictly necessary. Set only when you submit the contact form. Prevents duplicate submissions. Expires after 24 hours. No personal data.

Third-party services that load on this site and their cookie behaviour:

Plausible Analytics

Cookieless. No cookies set, no cross-site identifiers, no IP storage. Aggregated pageview counts only. GDPR-friendly by design (servers in EU).

Cloudflare (CDN / DDoS)

May set a strictly-necessary __cf_bm cookie (Cloudflare Bot Management) to distinguish humans from bots. Expires 30 minutes after last activity. No marketing use.

Google Fonts

No cookies set when fonts are loaded. Google logs the IP address that requests the font file, per their published terms; we have switched to font-display: swap and could self-host these fonts on request.

YouTube / Vimeo embeds

Not used on this site.

Meta Pixel / Google Ads / LinkedIn Insight tag

Not used on this site.

Session-replay tools (Hotjar, FullStory, Microsoft Clarity)

Not used on this site.

Cookies on client sites we build

This Cookie Policy applies only to emeraldstatic.com. The websites we build for clients have their own cookie policies, set by the client and disclosed on each respective site.

When asked to build a site that uses non-essential cookies, we implement a consent management platform (CMP) — typically Cookiebot, Iubenda, Klaro!, or Cookie Consent — that blocks non-essential scripts until the visitor opts in, supports per-purpose granular consent, and logs proof of consent for at least 12 months. We default to a "reject all" button that is as visible as the "accept all" button and pre-ticked boxes are never used.

How to control cookies

All modern browsers let you view, delete, and block cookies for specific sites or for all sites. The exact menu names change over time; current vendor instructions:

• Google Chrome — Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data.
• Mozilla Firefox — Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data.
• Apple Safari — Settings → Privacy → Manage Website Data.
• Microsoft Edge — Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Cookies and site data.
• Mobile (iOS / Android) — your browser app’s settings menu mirrors the desktop options.

Because we only set strictly-necessary cookies, blocking them on this site will not break anything except the duplicate-submission protection on the contact form (you may briefly see your message echo back if you click "Send" twice).

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

We honour the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal where it applies under the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) — meaning if your browser sends a GPC header, we treat that as an opt-out of any sale or sharing of personal information. Because we do not sell or share personal information in the first place, the GPC signal has no additional effect on our processing.

The older "Do Not Track" (DNT) browser header is honoured similarly. Because we do not track you across sites, DNT has no operational effect on our site either.

Changes to this Cookie Policy

When we change which cookies or similar technologies are used on this site, we update this page and the version number at the top. Material changes — anything that adds a non-essential cookie or moves us to a consent-required posture — are accompanied by a visible banner on first visit after the change.

Questions

For any question about cookies or this policy, email legal@emeraldstatic.com. We will reply within 5 business days.