Cookie policy

Your choice controls most of them

When you first visit, we set nothing but the strictly necessary cookies below. Analytics cookies are set only after you press Accept on the cookie banner, and never before.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time by clicking Cookie preferences in the footer of any page. Declining stops analytics and clears the analytics cookies.

Strictly necessary — always on

These make the site work and cannot be switched off. They set no analytics and build no profile of you.

• eo_consent — remembers whether you accepted or declined, so we do not ask again on every visit. Lasts about a year. Readable by the page only to know whether to show the banner.
• eo_session — keeps a member of our own team signed in to the private admin area. It is set only for staff who sign in; an ordinary visitor never receives it.

Analytics — only after you accept

These help us understand, in aggregate, how the site is used so we can improve it. They are set only once you accept, and clearing your choice removes them.

• eo_vid — a first-party visitor identifier, so we can count unique visitors and returning ones. Lasts about a year.
• eo_asid — groups a single visit together (a session that ends after 30 minutes of inactivity).
• _ga and _ga_… — set by Google Analytics 4 for aggregate audience and traffic reporting, where it is enabled. These are Google’s cookies, provided by Google LLC, and typically last up to two years. Google Analytics loads only after you accept.

The website checker — Cloudflare Turnstile

Where we offer a website checker, Cloudflare Turnstile confirms you are a person rather than a script before it runs. That is what stops the tool being pointed at other people’s websites in bulk. It loads only on a page carrying the checker, and nowhere else on this site.

Turnstile is served by Cloudflare from challenges.cloudflare.com, and Cloudflare may set its own cookies there. They are Cloudflare’s, not ours: we never receive them and nothing in them is joined to anything we hold about you. Cloudflare classes them as strictly necessary and states they are not used for tracking or advertising — its full list is at Cloudflare cookies. We do not use Turnstile’s pre-clearance mode, so no cf_clearance cookie is set for this site.

• __cf_bm — Cloudflare’s bot check. Expires after about 30 minutes of inactivity.
• cf_chl_rc_i, cf_chl_rc_ni, cf_chl_rc_m — used by Cloudflare internally to spot problems with the challenge itself.

The WhatsApp button — express-chat.com

Every page carries a floating WhatsApp button so you can reach us in one tap. The button is not ours: it is supplied by express-chat.com and runs on the BotPenguin platform. It loads on every page, whether or not you accept cookies, because it is a way to contact us — the same job as the telephone number in the footer — and not a way for us to watch you.

The button sets no cookies at all. It does keep two small entries in your browser’s own storage, and both hold nothing but the button’s own settings — its colour, our number, the greeting. Neither identifies you and neither builds a profile of you.

• BotPenguin-Config — kept in session storage. Erased the moment you close the tab.
• BotPenguinConfig — kept in local storage. Stays until you clear your browsing data.

Where the WhatsApp button sends your visit

To draw the button, your browser fetches files from cdn.express-chat.com, from api.v7.botpenguin.com, and from an Amazon Web Services store in the United States. Those requests carry what every web request carries: your IP address, your browser type, and the address of the page you are on. The supplier and its hosts therefore receive that information, outside South Africa. We never receive it, and nothing in it is joined to anything we hold about you.

This happens while the page loads. You do not have to press the button for it to happen.

If you do press the button, WhatsApp opens and your message is handled by Meta Platforms, Inc. under WhatsApp’s own terms and privacy policy, not ours. What we do with what you then tell us is set out in our privacy policy.

If you would rather the button did not load, block cdn.express-chat.com in your browser or with a content blocker. The rest of this site works without it.

What we do not use

• No advertising or retargeting cookies.
• No cross-site tracking cookies.
• No cookies that build a marketing profile of you.

Changing or withdrawing your choice

Click Cookie preferences in the footer to reopen the banner and choose again. You can also clear cookies for this site in your browser settings at any time. Blocking the strictly necessary cookies may stop parts of the site working.

More information

How we handle any personal information is set out in our privacy policy. If you have a question about cookies, email us at support@engageone.plus.