Cookie Policy

What cookies and browser storage are

A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to keep. localStorage and sessionStorage are similar places in the browser. sessionStorage usually lasts only until you close that tab. None of these are the same as the content of an email I send you.

How they are used

Some storage is needed to remember your cookie choice, to keep a secure session for a project or Discovery questionnaire you have opened, or to continue a form or payment you have asked for. That necessary storage does not wait for optional analytics consent. Analytics and performance tools are optional. They do not run merely because you keep browsing.

Creative Spark Digital does not currently use advertising or marketing cookies. There is no Google Analytics and no Meta Pixel. That can change later. If it does, this page and the consent choice will be updated, and a new choice will be asked for where that is required.

The preferences panel includes a marketing switch so the category is visible. It is locked off. Saving any choice stores marketing as off. A choice about promotional email is not stored in a cookie. The Privacy Policy explains that server record.

Necessary storage

The consent cookie is named csd_cookie_consent. It is needed to remember the choice you just made, so the banner does not reappear on every page. It stores that choice, a version number, and the time you chose. It does not store your name or email. It is sent with Path=/ and SameSite=Lax. On an https connection it is also marked Secure. It lasts 180 days. If it is missing, expired, or from an older version of the choice, the banner is shown again.

You cannot switch this off in the preferences panel, because the site would no longer know what you had chosen. You can still delete it in your browser. Doing that shows the banner again.

Private admin sign-in cookies are set only when someone logs in to the private admin area. They are not set for ordinary visitors, and they are not listed in the public inventory below. A temporary access cookie can also exist only if a pre-launch mode is switched on. It is not part of normal public browsing.

After you successfully open your own project, the site can set csd_client_session for 8 hours. After a valid Discovery questionnaire link is used, the site can set csd_discovery_session for 8 hours. Both are essential secure sessions for the page you asked to use. Neither is optional analytics. The current storage list has the detail.

Analytics

If you allow analytics, the site can load Vercel Web Analytics and, when configured, Microsoft Clarity. It can also record selected page views and button clicks in my own database. Those first-party records can include the page address, the event name, the referring address, campaign fields, a random session identifier, and the label and destination of a button. They do not include the words you type into a form.

That optional recording is sent to this website’s database and, separately, Vercel can receive the events its analytics script collects. Rejecting analytics stops those optional events. It does not delete a business record that was already created because you submitted a form, such as a project enquiry or a health check. Those records exist so I can deal with the request. They are not advertising profiles.

Choosing accept, reject, or save preferences does not itself send an analytics event.

Performance

Performance is a separate choice from analytics. If you allow it, Vercel Speed Insights can load and measure loading speed. If you reject non-essential storage, or leave performance off, that script is not added. Allowing analytics does not turn performance on, and allowing performance does not turn analytics on.

Microsoft Clarity

Clarity is not added for every visitor. The script is added only when a Clarity project is configured for this website and you have allowed analytics. If it is not configured, nothing is sent to Clarity. It is grouped with analytics, not with advertising. Any cookies it sets are Microsoft's. This page does not list those names, because they are not fixed in this website's code.

Project enquiry storage

If you start a project enquiry, the browser can keep a localStorage item called css_project_planner_draft. That item holds a draft identifier and the package key. It does not hold your answers, and it does not expire after 30 days by itself. The answers are stored on the server. The server draft can be edited for 30 days from the latest save. That server period is separate from how long the browser keeps the item. This storage is part of the form you asked to use. It is not optional analytics, and it is not used to advertise to you.

After you submit, that draft item is removed. The same tab can then keep css_project_survey_submission, which includes the submission reference, the package, and the email address, until the tab is closed. That item is sessionStorage, not a cookie.

Campaign information

If a link includes utm_source, utm_medium, or utm_campaign, and you have allowed analytics, those values and the referring address can be kept for that browser tab. They can be sent with the optional analytics events described above. Click identifiers such as gclid and fbclid are not stored by this website.

This is not stored before you allow analytics. Closing the tab, or withdrawing analytics, clears it.

Payments and Stripe

Ordinary pages on this website do not load Stripe’s payment script and do not set Stripe cookies. If you choose to pay a deposit or invoice, you are taken to Stripe’s checkout. Stripe may then set its own cookies to run that payment and to reduce fraud. Those cookies belong to Stripe. I do not list their names here, because Stripe controls them and can change them.

Card numbers are entered on Stripe’s pages. I receive payment records such as whether the payment succeeded, customer and invoice identifiers, amounts, and billing details needed for the project. The Privacy Policy explains those records.

Current storage

This is the storage I can evidence in the website as it works today. Third-party services can change their own cookies without this page naming each one.

Your choices

Until you choose, optional analytics and performance tools stay off. The banner offers:

• Reject non-essential, which leaves analytics and performance off.
• Accept all, which allows analytics and performance. It does not allow marketing, because marketing is not used.
• Manage preferences, where analytics and performance can be chosen separately. Necessary stays on. Marketing stays off.

Continuing to browse, scrolling, or closing the banner without a choice does not count as permission.

Changing your preferences

Cookie settings in the footer reopens the same choices. You can reject optional tools after previously allowing them. When analytics or performance is turned off, the page reloads so those scripts are not started again on the next view. The analytics session and any saved campaign fields for that tab are removed when analytics is withdrawn.

A script that has already run in the current page can be stopped from future collection by that reload. I cannot promise that a third party deletes data it has already received.

Most browsers also let you block or delete cookies and site data. The Information Commissioner’s Office explains browser controls at ico.org.uk.

Third-party services

• Vercel, for hosting, and for Web Analytics and Speed Insights only after the matching choice.
• Microsoft, for Clarity only when it is configured and you allow analytics.
• Stripe, for a payment you choose to make on Stripe’s checkout.

Their own policies apply to storage they set.

Changes to this policy

I will update this page when the cookies or browser storage actually change. The date at the top is the date of that update. Using the site after an update does not replace a choice you have already made. If the choice itself needs to be asked again, the banner is shown again.

Contact

Creative Spark Digital Ltd
128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom
cssdesignstudiouk@gmail.com

You can also use the contact form. The Privacy Policy explains personal information more broadly.