Cookies and device storage

Cookie and device storage notice

Last updated: 20 October 2026

Website use

The eServUK website uses first-party, strictly necessary technology to maintain a secure Laravel session and protect forms against cross-site request forgery. These functions are required for account, Marketplace, Operations and enquiry workflows.

Website cookies used

• Session cookie: maintains authenticated or form session state, validation feedback and other necessary workflow state. The site is currently configured with a 120-minute session lifetime, although browser and server behaviour can end it sooner.
• XSRF-TOKEN, where issued: supports cross-site request-forgery protection for compatible requests.
• Cookie choices: remembers this browser’s separate Analytics and Advertising measurement choices for up to one year. It does not contain application answers or contact details.

Mobile secure storage

The native eServUK mobile app does not use browser cookies for Marketplace authentication. It stores the Marketplace authentication token and app installation identifier using the device's secure credential storage. Authentication tokens are environment-scoped and expire according to the server's configured token policy. The raw installation UUID is not stored by the Laravel server.

Optional Analytics — Google Analytics

Google Analytics is loaded only after this browser accepts Analytics. It helps eServUK understand use of an allowlisted set of public pages and can record a completed professional registration only when the completion browser had Analytics enabled before the one-use link was consumed. eServUK supplies a clean page location, an empty referrer and a bounded page title and context instead of transmitting secure-link tokens, arbitrary query strings or private account or job references. Google may still receive browser, device and network information and set cookies such as _ga under Google’s own terms. This information is not described as anonymous.

eServUK uses basic consent mode: the Google tag is not loaded and no analytics request or cookieless measurement ping is sent before consent or after rejection. Google advertising storage, ad-user data, ad personalisation, Google Signals and user-provided data collection are not enabled by this integration. Enhanced Measurement must remain disabled in the configured web stream.

Optional Advertising measurement — Meta

Where eServUK has enabled its professional-campaign measurement, Meta Pixel is loaded only after this browser accepts Advertising measurement. It can then record a page view, a visit to the professional-registration journey and a completed registration. Meta may set cookies such as _fbp and _fbc and receive browser, device, network and clean page context under Meta's own terms. eServUK does not include names, email addresses, phone numbers, postcodes, application answers, evidence or secure-link tokens in its event parameters.

An explicitly reviewed Advertising choice permits a recognised Meta campaign source with your initial completed application; an explicitly reviewed Analytics choice permits a recognised search/referral source. New linked evidence is kept for no more than 30 days, with erasure due about a day earlier for daily cleanup. Search referrals do not prove organic rather than paid traffic, and campaign tags do not prove Meta attribution. Direct/Unknown means evidence is insufficient. Older tracking preferences do not silently authorise a new purpose. Rejecting either choice leaves registration available; signed-in withdrawal of the relevant choice, account deletion and expiry erase the related evidence.

After the relevant consent, an encrypted eserv_application_source cookie may carry only a recognised source key, version, channel and observation time for ten minutes from a public landing to the initial application. It is bound to this browser session, consumed once and never carries a raw referrer, search term, arbitrary query string or contact details. It does not transfer tracking consent to the email-verification browser.

Recognised campaign labels can be mapped into Google Analytics on a clean landing only after Analytics consent. Original application source is separate from the later email-verification browser's acquisition; eServUK does not transfer consent or browser identifiers between devices. Late Analytics acceptance does not create retrospective registration eligibility.

For recognised homepage campaign visits, Analytics alone permits the separate encrypted eserv_ga4_landing_campaign cookie. It contains only a registered campaign key, version and channel plus opaque session and single-use controls. It expires no later than ten minutes after the original visit; retries do not extend it. It is used once on the immediate clean homepage, then removed. Before a choice, the sealed visit context exists only in that page, with opaque control markers on the server. Rejection or withdrawal clears pending context. Functional query parameters are retained for the website but not measured; they cancel this visit context. No click identifier, raw URL or contact detail is kept in the cookie. This Analytics context does not create or replace an application-source label.

Analytics and Advertising measurement are independent. Choosing one does not enable the other, and registration and account features continue to work when both are off. You can reopen Cookie settings to change either choice for this browser. Withdrawal stops subsequent eServUK events from that browser and attempts to remove accessible provider cookies from the current host and the eServUK parent domain. Browser or third-party storage that this site cannot access may need to be removed with browser controls. Withdrawal cannot recall an event already transmitted.

eServUK does not use Meta's unconditional tracking image. Meta Conversions API is disabled and no server event or access token is used by this release.

Browser and device controls

You can block cookies in your browser, but blocking strictly necessary cookies may prevent secure forms and account sessions from working. Removing the mobile app or clearing its secure credentials can sign the device out of the Marketplace.

Changes

This notice and the consent approach must be reviewed whenever cookies, embedded services, analytics, advertising, browser storage or mobile credential-storage behaviour changes.