Cookies are only one form of technology covered by the rules. Websites can also use local storage, pixels, tags, scripts, device identifiers and other techniques that store information on, or obtain information from, a user's device.
This policy therefore uses the broader expression storage and access technologies where appropriate. The technologies actually used on this website depend on its live configuration and the services enabled at the time you visit.
What are cookies and similar technologies?
A cookie is a small text file that a website can place on a computer, mobile telephone or other device. Cookies can allow a website to recognise a device, remember information or support particular functions.
Similar technologies can include:
- browser or web storage;
- tracking pixels;
- scripts and tags;
- device identifiers or fingerprinting techniques; and
- technologies used to remember preferences, support security or understand website use.
UK rules apply to technologies that store information on, or access information from, a user's device. Calling a technology something other than a cookie does not by itself take it outside those rules.
Why these technologies may be used
Depending on the live website configuration, storage and access technologies may be used for purposes such as:
- delivering the website and its requested functions;
- maintaining security and protecting forms or systems;
- remembering cookie or privacy choices;
- remembering a display or functionality preference;
- producing statistical information about website use for the purpose of improving the website, where the relevant legal conditions are satisfied;
- supporting embedded content or third-party functionality where that functionality has been enabled; or
- other non-essential purposes for which the necessary permission has first been obtained.
Technology categories
The following categories describe the different purposes that may arise on a website. A category appearing in this policy does not mean that every technology in that category is necessarily active on Tax Accountant Manchester.
Strictly necessary
Technologies genuinely required to provide a function requested by the visitor, maintain essential security or perform another purpose falling within an applicable legal exception.
Statistical or analytics
Technologies used to understand how the website is used. Whether consent is required depends on how the technology operates, the purpose for which the information is used and whether the statutory statistical-purpose exception is fully satisfied.
Functionality and appearance
Technologies that remember or implement a visitor's choices about how a service appears or functions. A specific exception may apply only where its legal requirements are met.
Advertising, profiling or tracking
Technologies used for advertising, behavioural profiling, conversion tracking or following visitors across services generally require consent before they are used.
When consent may not be required
UK law contains limited exceptions under which storage or access can take place without consent. The availability of an exception depends on what the technology actually does and the purpose for which it is used.
| Exception | General purpose |
|---|---|
| Communication | Storage or access whose sole purpose is carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. |
| Strictly necessary | Storage or access essential to provide an online service the visitor has requested. |
| Statistical purposes | Certain storage or access used solely to produce statistical information about use of a website or service with a view to improving it, subject to the detailed statutory conditions. |
| Appearance or functionality | Certain storage or access used solely to adapt how a service appears or functions in accordance with the user's preference, subject to the detailed statutory conditions. |
| Emergency assistance | A specific exception concerning device location for the purpose of providing emergency assistance. |
The exceptions are narrow. If a technology is used for another purpose at the same time, such as behavioural advertising or individual tracking, the exception may not apply to that additional purpose.
The statistical-purpose exception concerns aggregate information used to understand and improve the service. It does not provide a general exemption for profiling individuals, linking visitors to advertising activity, monitoring them across services or retaining individual-level tracking information for unrelated purposes.
Consent, objections and your choices
Where consent is required, non-essential storage or access should not begin until the required choice has been made. Consent must be informed and indicated through an appropriate positive action rather than being assumed merely because a visitor continues to browse the website.
Where the statistical-purpose or appearance/functionality exception is relied upon, the law requires clear information and a simple means of objecting free of charge.
The cookie or privacy control should explain the relevant category and what it is used for.
Where a technology requires consent, the website should provide an appropriate way to accept or decline it. Where an applicable exception instead requires an objection mechanism, an easy way to object should be available.
A visitor should be able to revisit the website's cookie or privacy controls where the applicable technology and consent mechanism provide for this.
The exact method for reopening cookie preferences depends on the consent-management tool configured on the finished website. The site's cookie banner or preferences control should provide the current operational choices available to visitors.
Current cookie and technology inventory
Cookie names, providers and storage periods can change when a website plugin, hosting configuration, analytics service, embedded service or consent-management system is added or updated.
We therefore do not list invented cookie names or guessed durations in this policy. The final published inventory should be based on a scan of the live website after its production configuration is complete.
| Information to record | What the final inventory should show |
|---|---|
| Name | The actual cookie, storage key, pixel, tag or other technology identifier where one exists. |
| Provider | Whether it is set by Tax Accountant Manchester or by a named third-party service. |
| Purpose | A clear explanation of what the technology actually does and why it is used. |
| Category / legal treatment | Whether consent is required or whether an applicable PECR exception is relied upon. |
| Duration | Whether it is a session technology or how long information remains stored or accessible. |
The finished website should be scanned on desktop and mobile, before and after each available consent choice, so that the published cookie inventory and the actual behaviour of the consent mechanism agree.
Third-party services and embedded content
A third-party service can sometimes store or access information on a visitor's device when its feature, media, form, map, booking function or other content is loaded.
Whether this occurs depends on the service and the way it has been configured. We therefore do not state that a particular third-party technology is active unless it is confirmed on the live website.
Where a third party is used, its own privacy or cookie information may also apply to information it receives in accordance with its role.
Browser and device controls
Most browsers allow users to delete stored cookies, block some or all cookies, limit third-party storage or use private-browsing features.
Browser controls operate separately from any choices offered by this website. Blocking all storage can sometimes affect website functions that depend on technologies that are genuinely necessary to provide a requested service.
The Information Commissioner's Office provides general information for users about controlling cookies in browsers on its cookies information page .
Cookies and personal information
PECR rules about storing or accessing information on a device can apply even where the information is not personal data.
Where use of a cookie or similar technology also involves processing personal information, UK data-protection law may apply in addition to PECR.
Information about our wider handling of personal information is contained in our Privacy Policy .
Changes to this Cookie Policy
We may update this policy when the website's technology, consent arrangements or legal requirements change.
Material changes to the website's use of storage and access technologies should also be reflected in the actual consent or objection controls available to visitors, rather than being recorded only in this policy.
The date displayed at the top of this page identifies the version currently published.
Questions about website privacy?
Contact Financials Direct Ltd if you have a question about this Cookie Policy, the site's use of storage and access technologies or our handling of personal information.