Last updated: 20 October 2026

This policy explains how cookies and similar technologies are used on www.datasouth.co.uk.

How this website uses cookies

Cookies are small pieces of information stored by your browser. We use necessary cookies for security, website sessions and remembering your cookie choice. Optional Matomo analytics is off by default: its script, tracking requests and cookies are blocked until you opt in. We do not use Google Analytics or Google advertising, and do not use browser local storage or session storage for optional tracking.

Choose Accept all to allow analytics, Reject optional to keep it off, or Manage preferences to choose. Analytics is not preselected. Necessary functions remain available whichever choice you make.

Cookies and their purposes

Website sessions: CONCRETE

Provider: Datasouth, using Concrete CMS. This first-party cookie identifies a website session when needed for functions such as forms and authorised editor access. It is a session cookie, with no fixed expiry date in the browser, rather than a persistent tracking cookie. Browsers normally remove session cookies when the session ends, although session-restore features may retain them. Blocking it can prevent session-dependent functions from working.

Remembering your choice: ds_cookie_preferences

Provider: Datasouth. Our self-hosted CookieConsent software sets this first-party cookie when you accept, reject or save your preferences. It records your selected categories, policy revision, choice times and a generated consent identifier so that you do not see the notice on every page. Its configured lifetime is 182 days. It is not used for analytics or advertising. It is sent over secure connections, uses SameSite=Lax and applies to the website’s path /.

Optional analytics: Matomo

Provider: Datasouth UK Ltd, using our own Matomo service at matomo.datasouth.co.uk. If you opt in, Matomo helps us understand visits, returning visitors and which pages are used, so we can improve the website. It receives page paths, a pseudonymous visitor identifier, visit timing and browser/device information; the connection also involves your IP address. For new analytics visits, Matomo masks the IP address before storing it and uses the masked address for location enrichment. This reduces identifying detail but does not make all analytics information anonymous. We use analytics only to understand and improve this website, not to identify sales leads, profile people or target advertising. We do not send form contents, page query strings, URL fragments, page titles or referrers in these analytics pageviews. We do not track signed-in CMS users.

Matomo uses first-party cookies on www.datasouth.co.uk with path /: _pk_id.1.* identifies a returning browser for up to 393 days; _pk_ses.1.* groups activity into a visit for 30 minutes, renewed with activity. The suffix depends on the website domain. Browser privacy settings may shorten these lifetimes. These cookies are only used after analytics consent. We honour the browser’s Do Not Track signal.

Analytics retention and your rights

Analytics remains optional for all visitors, including visitors in the UK. We rely on your consent for this analytics processing, not on a statistics-only exception. Matomo currently retains individual visit records as well as aggregate reports; automatic deletion of those server-side records is not enabled. The browser-cookie lifetimes above are not limits on server-side retention. Withdrawing consent stops new tracking and removes our analytics cookies from this browser, but does not automatically delete past server-side records. Please contact Datasouth to ask about your information or exercise your data-protection rights, including a request for erasure where applicable.

Security checks: cf_clearance

Provider: Cloudflare. Cloudflare protects and delivers this website and may set this cookie to remember that your browser has passed a security check. Its lifetime varies with the security settings applied to the website; you can see the expiry of the cookie issued to your browser in your browser’s cookie settings. Cloudflare controls its issuance and may refresh or replace it. See Cloudflare’s cookie information. It is a security cookie, not a Datasouth analytics cookie. Blocking it may cause repeated checks or prevent access.

Remembered editor sign-in: ccmAuthUserHash

Provider: Datasouth, using Concrete CMS. For authorised editors who choose remembered sign-in, the CMS is configured to keep its authentication cookie for 14 days. It is not needed for ordinary public browsing and is not set by accepting analytics.

Cloudflare and contact forms

Cloudflare’s website security checks are separate from Cloudflare Turnstile. Turnstile is designed to help protect contact forms against automated abuse by checking browser interactions and returning a result for server-side verification. When a form loads Turnstile from challenges.cloudflare.com, this involves communication with Cloudflare and processing browser and connection information, including an IP address; it is not an analytics or advertising service.

A Turnstile check does not necessarily set a separate cookie. The cf_clearance cookie listed above may be set by website security checks; Turnstile does not always set that cookie. For Cloudflare’s own information about its processing, see the Cloudflare privacy policy.

Use Cookie settings in the footer at any time to change your choice. Turn Analytics off and save, choose Reject optional, or use the permanent Withdraw analytics button to stop further tracking and remove our analytics cookies from this browser. Withdrawal takes effect immediately on the page where you use the control and applies on subsequent page loads. Your rejection is remembered; analytics does not restart unless you opt in again. These controls do not turn off security or session functions, sign editors out, or erase information already received by Datasouth, Matomo or Cloudflare.

You can also use your browser’s privacy settings to inspect, block or delete cookies. Deleting the preference cookie makes the choice appear again, with analytics off. Blocking all cookies may affect security checks, forms or sign-in. This policy remains available without JavaScript; the interactive controls require JavaScript, and analytics does not run without it. Without JavaScript, use your browser settings to remove saved cookies.

External links take you to other websites, which have their own cookie and privacy practices.

Questions

For questions about this policy or this website, please contact Datasouth.