Legal
Cookie policy
What this site stores in your browser, when it stores it, and how to change your mind. This policy lists the actual cookies and browser storage this site uses — not a generic list.
Last updated: 18 September 2026.
Your choice
Nothing non-essential is set until you agree
When you first arrive, a banner asks how you want to be treated. Until you answer, this site sets no cookies at all — advertising storage is switched off by default using Google Consent Mode.
- Essential only — we record your choice and nothing else. No advertising cookies are set and no advertising scripts are loaded.
- Accept all — we additionally load Google Ads conversion measurement, so we can tell which advert led to an enquiry.
You can change your answer at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page.
Always set
Essential and functional storage
These are needed for the site to work, to remember your cookie choice, and to keep the enquiry form from being abused. They are set whichever option you choose.
| Name | Type | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
mc_consent | First-party cookie | Records whether you chose “Essential only” or “Accept all”, so you are not asked again on every page. | 180 days |
mc_consent | Local storage | A second copy of the same choice, so your preference survives if the cookie is cleared. | Until you clear it |
mc_consent_at | Local storage | The date and time you made that choice, so we know how old the consent is. | Until you clear it |
_grecaptcha | Local storage | Set by Google reCAPTCHA to tell real enquiries from automated spam on our quote and contact forms. This is a security measure and loads before you answer the banner. | Until you clear it |
Only if you accept
Advertising storage
These are set only after you choose “Accept all”. If you choose “Essential only”, none of them appear and no request is made to Google’s advertising servers.
| Name | Type | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
_gcl_au | First-party cookie | Set by Google Ads to link an advert click to an enquiry, so we can tell which campaigns actually produce work. | 90 days (set by Google) |
_gcl_ls | Local storage | Supports the same conversion linking. | Until you clear it |
Accepting also allows the page to contact googleads.g.doubleclick.net. Decline and that request is never made.
What we do not run
We do not run a web analytics product
This site has no Google Analytics property and no equivalent behavioural analytics. We do not build a profile of what you read or how far you scroll. The only measurement we run is advertising conversion, described above, and it happens only with your consent.
Other technologies
Things that are not cookies
- Jetpack statistics. Our host loads a script from
stats.wp.comthat counts page views for the site as a whole. It does not set a cookie in your browser. - Google reCAPTCHA. Protects our forms from automated submissions. Google may set its own cookies on
google.comwhen the check runs; those are governed by Google’s privacy policy. - Google Fonts. The typefaces on this site are served by Google, so your IP address is visible to Google when a font loads. No cookie is set on this site.
- Google Maps. The map on the contact page is embedded by Google and may set Google cookies once it loads; our address is written out in text directly above it.
- Signed-in staff. If you log in to administer this site, WordPress sets session cookies to keep you logged in. These are never set for ordinary visitors.
Changing your mind
How to change or remove what is stored
- Use the Cookie settings link in the footer to reopen the banner and switch between “Essential only” and “Accept all”.
- Clearing your browser’s site data for mc-automations.com removes everything listed on this page, including your recorded choice. You will then be asked again on your next visit.
- Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies for a specific site from its privacy or site-settings panel.
- Blocking essential storage will not stop you reading the site, but the consent banner will reappear on every page because there is nowhere to record your answer, and the enquiry forms may refuse submissions when the reCAPTCHA check cannot run.
Updates
Changes to this policy
If we add or remove something that stores data in your browser, we update this page and the table above. The date at the top shows when it last changed.
Contact
Questions about this policy
How we handle personal information more generally is set out in our Privacy Policy, and our Terms and Conditions govern use of this site.
MC Automations (Pty) Ltd · Unit 2, 84 Ridge Road, Laser Park, Roodepoort, Gauteng, 2040 · Tel 010 412 0062 · Email info@mc-automations.com
Plain-language guide
A plain-language guide to this cookie policy
This guide is explanatory. Where it differs from the policy above, the policy applies.
What a cookie policy is for
A cookie policy exists so a visitor can find out what a website puts on their device without reading the source code. Most cookie policies are copied from a template and describe tracking the site does not do. This one was written from what the site actually stores, which is why it is short.
Nothing is stored before you choose
On this site no cookies are written before the banner is answered, although Google reCAPTCHA stores its own security data so the forms can tell a person from a script. That is the part of the cookie policy worth knowing: declining costs you nothing, because the site carries no analytics and no advertising pixels that would otherwise be waiting for consent.
What the consent record does
When you answer the banner, a single record of that answer is stored for 180 days. It exists only so the banner does not ask again on every page, and it is the first entry in the tables above.
Embedded content
Where a page embeds a map or a video, that provider may set its own storage once the content loads. This cookie policy cannot control what a third party does on its own domain, which is why embedded content is identified as a separate category rather than folded into ours.
Changing your mind
Clearing site data for mc-automations.com in your browser removes the consent record, and the banner appears again on your next visit. Browser-level blocking also overrides anything described in this cookie policy, and we do not attempt to work around it.
How this fits with our other policies
The cookie policy covers browser storage. The privacy policy covers personal information such as an enquiry you send us. The terms and conditions cover quotations and work. If you are trying to answer a question about your data and this cookie policy does not answer it, the privacy policy probably does.
This cookie policy in four pictures
Where this cookie policy sits in South African law
Browser storage and personal information are governed here by the Protection of Personal Information Act, which is overseen by the Information Regulator of South Africa. This cookie policy deals with the first of those: what is written to your device when you visit the site.
Consent in practice
The principle behind the law is that storage which is not strictly necessary should be a choice rather than a default. On this site that is straightforward to honour, because little is stored beyond the record of your answer and the security data reCAPTCHA needs. A cookie policy on a site running advertising networks has to describe dozens of third-party identifiers; ours does not, and we would rather say that plainly than pad the document to look thorough.
Personal information is a separate question
If you send an enquiry, that is personal information rather than browser storage, and it is covered by the privacy policy instead of this cookie policy. The two documents are kept apart deliberately so that each answers one question properly.
Keeping this policy honest
This cookie policy is checked against the live site rather than maintained from memory. If a future change to the site introduces analytics, embedded media that stores data, or any third-party script, this document is updated at the same time, and the consent banner is adjusted so the choice is still real.
What this cookie policy was measured against
Most cookie notices describe what a site intends to do. This cookie policy describes what the site was measured doing, because the two are not always the same thing.
The check was run on 28 September 2026 from a browser with every cookie and storage key cleared first, loading the site as a new visitor with the banner showing and no choice made. Ten seconds after the page finished loading the result was no cookies at all — not one, first-party or third-party. The only item in storage was _grecaptcha, described below.
That is the claim this cookie policy makes, and it is the one worth holding us to. If you find something set before you have chosen, tell us and we will correct either the site or this page, whichever is wrong.
What Google Consent Mode does before you choose
The advertising tag is loaded in a consent-aware mode. Before you choose, it is told explicitly that advertising storage, advertising user data, advertising personalisation and analytics storage are all denied, and it waits briefly for your answer before acting.
In practice the tag is present in the page but writes nothing to your device. That is the difference between a tag that is loaded and a tag that is tracking, and it is why this cookie policy can say nothing non-essential is stored before you agree while an advertising tag still appears in the page source.
If you decline, that state persists. Declining is not a temporary answer that gets asked again on the next page.
Every item of storage, one by one
mc_consent — ours, strictly necessary. Records the choice you made so you are not asked again on every page. It holds a value such as “essential” or “all”, no identifier, nothing that could identify you. It is the one thing this cookie policy cannot offer to switch off, because without it the banner cannot remember your answer.
_grecaptcha — Google reCAPTCHA, strictly necessary. Kept in local storage rather than as a cookie. It lets the quote and careers forms tell a person from an automated submission. Without it the forms would fill with spam or need a puzzle for every visitor. It is not used for advertising.
_gcl_au — Google Ads, only after you agree. If you accept, it records that a click on one of our adverts led to a visit, so we can tell which adverts are worth paying for. It does not appear unless you have agreed, which is what the measurement above confirms.
Embedded services. The map on our contact page is served by Google Maps and typefaces by Google Fonts. They load as part of the page and may see your IP address, as any request does. Neither is used by us to build a profile of you.
How to check this cookie policy yourself
You do not have to take a cookie policy on trust, and checking this one takes about a minute in any desktop browser.
Open a private window so you start clean. Load any page here and wait for the banner, but do not answer it. Open developer tools with F12, go to the Application tab (Storage in Firefox) and look under Cookies for this domain. It should be empty. Answer with “essential only” and look again: you should see mc_consent and nothing else. Accept everything and look a third time, and the advertising cookie above should appear.
If what you see does not match what this cookie policy says, the page is wrong and we would like to know.
Controlling cookies in your browser
Your browser gives you controls that sit above anything this site does, and they apply everywhere rather than just here.
In Chrome and Edge the controls are under Settings, Privacy and security, Third-party cookies. In Firefox, Settings, Privacy & Security, Enhanced Tracking Protection. In Safari, Settings, Privacy. All four let you block cookies entirely, clear what is stored, or clear storage for one site.
Blocking cookies will not break this site. The forms still work, because reCAPTCHA uses local storage rather than a cookie. The one visible effect is that the banner reappears every visit, because the record of your choice is itself a cookie and cannot be saved.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Some browsers send a Do Not Track header or a Global Privacy Control signal. There is no agreed standard for how a site must respond, and this cookie policy will not claim we honour a signal we do not act on programmatically.
It makes no practical difference here: nothing non-essential is stored until you choose, so a visitor sending either signal and one sending neither are treated identically until they answer the banner.
When this cookie policy has to change
A cookie policy goes stale the moment the site adds something that stores data, so it is worth saying what would trigger an update here.
Adding an analytics product, an embedded video, a chat widget, a social feed or a remarketing pixel would all require this page to change before the feature went live rather than afterwards. The newsletter sign-up added in September 2026 did not, because it stores nothing in your browser — your address is submitted and held by the mailing service, which the privacy policy covers rather than this one.
If you want to know what was true on a particular date, ask and we will tell you what the site was doing then.
Why this cookie policy is shorter on promises than most
A great many cookie notices are written to cover every conceivable future use, which is why they read as though the site is doing far more than it is. We have gone the other way: this cookie policy lists what is actually stored, and where something is not used we say so rather than reserving the right.
We do not run a web analytics product on this site. We do not use social media pixels. We do not sell or share anything stored in your browser, because there is nothing stored worth selling. The advertising tag exists for one purpose, which is telling whether money spent on adverts produced enquiries, and it does nothing at all until you agree to it.
The practical consequence is that this cookie policy is a short document about a small number of items, and it should stay that way. If it ever grows, it will be because the site started doing something new, and the measurement at the top of this page is how you will be able to tell.