Cookie policy
Essential storage keeps the site working. Advertising and analytics cookies stay off until you accept them, and you can change that whenever you like.
Last updated
The short version
This page is the list. The privacy policy is the why.
Fault Code Check sets no advertising or analytics cookie until you accept that category. You can reject both and keep using every page. Your choice is stored in your browser, not as a cookie, under the name fc-consent.
Use the button at the bottom of this page to change a choice you have already made.
How we ask
On a first visit a banner sits at the bottom of the screen, below the answer rather than over it. Three actions, of which reject and accept have the same weight:
- Accept all — analytics and advertising cookies may be set, if and when those tools are switched on.
- Reject non-essential — only essential storage. The site works the same.
- Manage preferences — accept analytics, advertising, both, or neither.
Google Consent Mode starts with advertising and analytics storage *denied*. Accepting a category updates that signal and, only then, allows the matching script to load. Rejecting leaves the scripts unloaded, so they cannot write a cookie "in the background".
Essential storage
These run without a prompt because the site cannot do the job you asked it to do without them, or because they are not cookies at all.
| Name | Where | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
fc-consent | Local storage on your device | Remembers Accept, Reject, or the categories you chose, so we do not ask on every page | Until you clear site data or change your choice |
fc_admin | Cookie, path /admin only | Keeps the site operator signed in to the admin screens | 12 hours |
| Recently viewed codes, saved appliances, recent searches, a helpful-vote | Local storage | Remembers what you looked at on *this* browser so the next visit is less work | Until you clear site data |
None of those are sent to Google. The admin cookie is never issued to a reader who is not signing in.
Server-side we also write ordinary web-server logs and a day-scoped hash used to count visitors. Those live on our server, not on your device, and are described in the privacy policy.
Advertising cookies — Google AdSense
We have registered this site with Google AdSense (publisher ID ca-pub-2548809251185287). Ads are not currently shown. When they are, Google's script loads only after you accept advertising cookies.
Google then sets its own cookies. Typical names include IDE, NID, __gads, __gpi and ANID, used to serve adverts, to limit how often you see the same one, and — if your Google settings allow it — to personalise them. Durations are Google's, commonly up to 13 months. Google is the controller for those cookies.
Google's own description is in Google's privacy policy and at adssettings.google.com.
If you reject advertising cookies, that script never loads and those cookies are not set by us. A Google cookie already on your device from another site is outside this banner.
Analytics cookies
Neither tool below is switched on today. Both are built to wait for analytics consent, so filling in an environment variable later cannot start them on an unconsented visit.
| Name | Provider | What it would do | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics 4 | Count visits and which pages were read, so AdSense reports can be reconciled | Up to 14 months, if we enable it |
| Plausible (first-party, no tracking cookie) | Plausible | Count page views without storing a cross-site identifier | Session / none |
Until one of them is enabled, accepting analytics changes the stored choice and the Consent Mode signal but loads no analytics script.
What "similar technologies" means here
PECR talks about cookies and about anything that stores or accesses information on your device. Local storage (fc-consent, recently viewed codes) is in that set. The hashed visitor count is not: nothing is written to your device for it.
We do not use pixels, device fingerprinting, or a tag manager that can pull in new vendors without this page changing.
Changing or withdrawing consent
- On a first visit, use the banner.
- Later, use Change cookie preferences on this page.
- Or clear this site's data in your browser; the banner will ask again.
Withdrawing consent does not delete a Google cookie that Google already set. Use Google's ad settings, or your browser's site-data controls, for those.
More
The lawful bases, retention periods, your UK GDPR rights and how to complain to the ICO are on the privacy policy. Questions: hello@faultcodecheck.co.uk.