No advertising cookies. No cross-site tracking. No data brokers. If you decline analytics, the site works exactly the same.
1. What a cookie is
A cookie is a small text file a website stores in your browser. Similar technologies such as local storage, session storage and single-pixel images do comparable jobs, and everything on this page applies to them too. Some are essential to make a site function; others are optional.
2. Cookies we set
Strictly necessary
These cannot be switched off because the site or the application would not work without them. Under EU and UK law they do not require consent.
| Name | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
wst_session | Keeps you signed in to the application and links your browser to your session. | Session, or 30 days if you choose “remember me” |
wst_csrf | Protects forms against cross-site request forgery. | Session |
wst_consent | Remembers your cookie choice so we stop asking. | 12 months |
wst_locale | Remembers your language, currency and date format. | 12 months |
__stripe_mid, __stripe_sid | Set by Stripe on payment pages for fraud prevention. Required to take a payment safely. | 1 year / 30 minutes |
Analytics, optional
These are set only after you press Accept on the cookie bar. Until then, Google Analytics runs in Google's consent mode with storage denied, which means it sets no cookies and keeps no identifier. Contentsquare is not loaded at all until you accept.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics 4 | Distinguishes one browser from another so repeat visits are not counted as new people. | 2 years |
_ga_H0PYGVDDMZ | Google Analytics 4 | Keeps session state for this specific property. | 2 years |
_cs_id | Contentsquare | Holds a random visitor identifier so returning visits are recognised as the same browser. | 13 months |
_cs_s | Contentsquare | Tracks the current session and how many pages were seen in it. | 30 minutes |
_cs_c | Contentsquare | Records your cookie choice for Contentsquare. | 13 months |
_cs_ex | Contentsquare | Marks a visitor excluded from recording, for example after an opt-out. | Session |
Google Analytics is configured with IP anonymisation, and Google Signals, advertising features and remarketing are switched off. Contentsquare, which is the company behind Hotjar, provides heatmaps and session replay so we can see where people get stuck on a page. Text typed into form fields is masked and is not recorded. The authoritative list of Contentsquare cookies is published in their cookie documentation.
3. Third-party cookies
- Google Analytics 4: measurement, described above. See the Google privacy policy.
- Contentsquare: heatmaps and session replay, described above. See the Contentsquare privacy policy and their opt-out.
- Stripe: fraud prevention on payment forms. See the Stripe privacy policy.
- Google Fonts: we load fonts from Google's CDN. Google does not set cookies for font requests, but it does receive your IP address as part of the request. If you would rather avoid that entirely, self-host the fonts.
- Scheduling widget: if you book a call, the scheduling provider may set its own cookies on its own page.
4. What we do not use
- No advertising or retargeting pixels.
- No social media tracking widgets.
- No cross-site or cross-device identity graphs.
- No selling or sharing of cookie data with data brokers.
5. Managing cookies
You can change your choice at any time by clearing the wst_consent cookie, which makes the banner reappear. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. In Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge this lives under Privacy and Security. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will sign you out and may break payment forms.
6. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
We honour the Global Privacy Control signal. If your browser sends it, we record a refusal automatically, never load Contentsquare, keep Google Analytics in denied consent mode, and do not show you the cookie bar at all. We treat a Do Not Track header the same way, even though it has no agreed standard behind it.
7. Changes and contact
We will update this page whenever we add or remove a cookie. Questions: privacy@westorably.com.
Related: Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Sub-processors