Cookie Policy
Last updated: 7 October 2026
What cookies we use
Cookies are small files stored on your device. We use them for two purposes: to make the Service work, and, only if you agree to it, to work out which of our adverts brought you to us. If you agree, we also count which of two buttons you click, which uses no cookie at all and is described further down.
Strictly necessary cookies
These are required for the Service to work and cannot be switched off. Under UK law they do not require consent.
| Purpose | What it does |
|---|---|
| Authentication | Keeps you signed in and identifies your session |
| Security | Protects against cross-site request forgery and abuse |
| Preferences | Remembers which business you were last viewing, and your cookie choices |
Demo access (cfopal_demo_pass, 30 days) | Remembers that you gave us an email address to open the demo, so you are not asked again on every page of it. It holds the single character 1 and nothing else: not your address, and nothing that identifies you. |
Advertising measurement cookies
These are set only if you accept them. If you refuse, or simply ignore the banner, they are never written at all.
| Cookie | Lasts | What it does |
|---|---|---|
cfopal_attr | 90 days | Remembers which advert brought you here |
cfopal_ref | 60 days | Remembers which affiliate's link you arrived from, so they are credited if you subscribe |
cfopal_first | 90 days | Remembers the page you first arrived on and the site that sent you, whether or not an advert was involved |
Everything cfopal_attr holds, in full:
- The campaign tags on the advert link you clicked (
utm_source,utm_medium,utm_campaign,utm_term,utm_content). - The click identifier the advertising network adds to its own advert links — Google's, or Microsoft's if we ever advertise there.
- The page on our site you arrived on.
- The name of the site that sent you — the site's name only, never the full address of the page you came from. We do not need to know what you were reading, so we do not keep it.
- The date and time you first arrived.
It is written once, on your first visit, and never changed after that. Nothing is added to it later. If you arrive with no advert information at all, cfopal_attr is not written.
cfopal_first is the one that records an ordinary visit. It holds three things and nothing else:
- The page on our site you arrived on.
- The name of the site that sent you — the site's name only, never the full address of the page you came from.
- The date and time you first arrived.
It holds no advert or click identifier of any kind, and nothing from it is ever sent to Google or to any other advertising network. It is written once, on your first visit, and never changed after that. It exists so that we can tell how people find us when they did not come from an advert at all — through a search, a link someone shared, or by typing the address — which we could not see before, and which made our own figures look as though advertising were the only way anybody arrives.
They exist because most people do not sign up on the first visit. Without them we can only connect an advert to a sign-up that happens in the same visit, which tells us very little about which adverts are worth paying for.
What they do not do:
- They are first-party cookies, set by us and readable only by us.
- They do not follow you to other websites, and we do not permit any third party to track you across other sites through our Service.
- They are not used to build a profile of you, to decide what you are shown, or to target advertising at you.
- They are never sold or shared for anyone else's advertising.
If you subscribe, we may tell Google that a sign-up or payment came from its advert. We send only the click identifier and the time — never your name, email address or anything about your business or finances. Full detail in our Privacy Policy.
Measuring which button people click
This happens only if you accept it, and unlike everything else on this page it stores nothing at all on your device.
If you agree, we count which of the two buttons at the top of our home page you choose: Try the live demo or Start your free trial. We record the name of the button, the page you were on and the time. That is the entire record.
What it does not involve:
- No cookie and no browser storage. Nothing is written to your device, so there is nothing here for you to delete.
- No identifier of any kind - not your name, your email address, your IP address, or a scrambled version of any of them. We cannot tell one visit from another, which means we can count clicks and never people.
- No page-view tracking, no heatmaps and no session recording.
- No third party. It is our own server writing one line in our own database. Nobody outside CFO Pal receives it.
We do it for one reason: we do not know which of those two buttons people prefer, and guessing has a cost.
What we do not do
We use no third-party analytics. There is no Google Analytics, no Tag Manager, no advertising pixel, no heatmaps and no session recording. The only non-essential things we ask about are the advertising measurement and the button count described above.
Changing your mind
If we have asked you, you can change your answer at any time, and refusing is exactly as easy as accepting:
- On this page, in the Advertising measurement panel below.
- If you have an account, in Settings → Privacy & Support.
Refusing deletes the advertising cookies from your device straight away, as well as recording your decision.
You can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings. If you block strictly necessary cookies, you will not be able to sign in.
Questions
Email privacy@cfopal.co.uk.