Cookie Policy
Last updated 26 July 2026
This page lists every cookie msve.io can set, what each one does, and how long it lasts. It sits alongside our Privacy Policy, which covers personal data more broadly.
Nothing beyond the strictly necessary is set until you tell us it can be. You can change your mind at any time: Manage cookies.
How our banner works
On your first visit every non-essential storage signal is set to denied before any tag loads. Our tag manager is loaded in that denied state, so analytics and marketing tags cannot read or write anything on your device until you opt in. This is Google Consent Mode v2 with default consent denied, and it means rejecting is genuinely the default rather than something you have to fight for.
- Accept all turns on the analytics and marketing categories.
- Reject all leaves everything off. The site works exactly the same.
- Manage preferences lets you enable one category and not the other.
Rejecting is one click, the same as accepting, and we do not re-ask you on every page. Your choice is stored for six months, after which we ask again. We also ask again if we materially change this policy.
Categories
Strictly necessary - always on
Needed for the site to function or to record a choice you made. These do not require consent, because they only do what you asked for.
Analytics - off until you allow it
Tells us which pages people read, how they arrived, and where they give up. We use it to decide what to fix, not to identify you.
Marketing - off until you allow it
Measures whether our advertising works and lets advertising platforms attribute a visit to a campaign. This is the category that enables cross-site tracking, and it is off unless you switch it on.
The cookies we set
Strictly necessary
| Cookie | Purpose | Lifetime | Set by |
|---|---|---|---|
msve-consent | Stores the cookie categories you allowed, so we can honour your choice and prove it was given | 6 months | msve.io (first party) |
payload-token | Authenticates a logged-in administrator in our CMS. Never set for ordinary visitors | Session | msve.io (first party) |
Analytics - only after you consent
| Cookie | Purpose | Lifetime | Set by |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Distinguishes one browser from another so visits can be counted | 2 years | Google Analytics |
_ga_<container-id> | Keeps the analytics session state for this specific property | 2 years | Google Analytics |
_gid | Distinguishes visitors within a single day | 24 hours | Google Analytics |
Marketing - only after you consent
| Cookie | Purpose | Lifetime | Set by |
|---|---|---|---|
_gcl_au | Attributes a conversion on this site to an ad you clicked elsewhere | 90 days | Google Ads |
We are not running paid campaigns on every channel at all times. Where a campaign is not live, the corresponding tag never fires and the cookie is never set, whatever you consented to.
Measurement without cookies
Alongside the above we run Ahrefs Web Analytics, which is not cookie-based and is therefore not part of the consent banner. It sets no cookie, writes nothing to your device, reads nothing from it, and assigns you no identifier. What it produces is a count: how many people opened a page, and roughly where in the world they were.
That is why it is not gated. The consent rule in the ePrivacy Directive applies to storing or accessing information on your device, and this does neither, so there is nothing to consent to. We run it under our legitimate interest in knowing whether the site works, and the balance is straightforward: aggregate page counts cannot single you out, cannot follow you to another site, and cannot be combined into a profile.
Your IP address is necessarily present in the request, as it is for any web page you load. You can still object to this processing under Article 21 - see Your rights.
Separately, our host keeps standard server access logs. Those are a by-product of serving a web page, are kept briefly for security, and are not cookies.
Changing your mind
- Use Manage cookies here or in the footer of any page. It reopens the same panel you saw on your first visit.
- Withdrawing is as easy as consenting, and costs you nothing - no feature of this site is gated behind analytics or marketing cookies.
- You can also clear or block cookies in your browser settings. Blocking the strictly necessary ones means we cannot remember that you said no, so you will see the banner again.
- To opt out of Google Analytics across every site, Google publishes a browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Who receives the data
Analytics and marketing data is processed by Google, which may process it in the United States under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses. Our consent records are stored in our own database in London, under the UK adequacy decision. Full detail on recipients, transfers, retention, and your rights is in the Privacy Policy.
Changes to this policy
If we add a cookie, change what one does, or change who receives the data, we update this page and reset stored consents so you are asked again. The date at the top reflects the current version.
Questions: connect@msve.io.