Cookie Policy

We set two cookies on this website, both for Google Analytics, so we can count visits and see which pages get read. There is no cookie banner and no setting to answer first; they are set as soon as the page loads, for everyone who visits.

Our booking scheduler is provided by Calendly, and when it loads, Calendly and its own providers set four more cookies on their own domains.

That is the entire cookie story here: two cookies from us on every visit, four more from Calendly once its scheduler loads, and the sections below name every one of them with what it does and how long it lasts. The last section but one tells you how to opt out or block them.

A cookie is a small text file a website asks your browser to store, so that something can be remembered between one page and the next. A first party cookie is set by the site you are visiting. A third party cookie is set by a different company whose content is embedded in that site.

Two cookies on this site are first party, set by us for Google Analytics. The other four are third party, set by Calendly and its providers. The sections below mark which is which.

We also mention one thing that is not a cookie but does live in your browser, because leaving it out would make this page less than honest. It has its own section below.

These two are set by us, on our own domain, as soon as any page of this site loads, for every visitor. There is no separate step and no setting to change first; they are on every page of this site from the first one you open, except the private report page that the link in our assessment email opens. Analytics is switched off on that page, so these two are not set there.

On our AI Readiness Assessment we also record four interaction events with Google Analytics: that the check was started, that a question was answered, that the result screen was reached, and that the email form was submitted. The question event carries the number of the question and nothing else. No event carries your answers, your email address, your result or anything from your report. These events set no cookies of their own; they use the two above.

Separately from those four events, Google Analytics collects some behavior on its own, on every page of the site, without the site sending anything deliberately. It records page views, the start of a session, whether it is your first visit, how long the page was in front of you, when you scroll to the bottom 90 percent of a page, when you click a link that leaves the site, and the first time you interact with a form field. That last one records only that an interaction began. None of these carries what you typed.

Thirteen months is not Google's default, which is two years. We set it deliberately, in the site's own code rather than in a setting you cannot see, and the figures above were read off a browser rather than copied from Google's documentation.

Google's own documentation describes a third analytics cookie, _gid. Some configurations set it and ours does not. We checked on this build, with analytics switched on, and it was not there. If that ever changes, this table changes with it.

These four are not set anywhere on this site until Calendly's scheduler loads. The section on when the scheduler loads explains exactly when that happens. All four sit on other companies' domains, not ours.

Two things worth pointing out rather than leaving you to work out.

First, OptanonConsent is a consent record, and it is Calendly's consent record, not ours. It is set by OneTrust, the consent platform Calendly runs inside the scheduler, and it appears the moment the scheduler loads, carrying Calendly's own default categories before you have been asked anything. If you answer the consent card inside the scheduler, it is rewritten with your answer. Either way it records a position on Calendly's cookies and says nothing about any choice you made on our site.

Second, the m cookie from Stripe lasts more than a year and appears even though you are not paying anyone. Stripe's library is part of Calendly's scheduler whether or not the booking is a paid one.

No advertising or retargeting cookies. No Meta pixel, no LinkedIn Insight Tag, no Google Ads cookie, no TikTok pixel. No personalization or preference cookies. No cookie that follows you to another website.

Some animations on this site remember, for the length of a single browsing session, that they have already played, so they do not replay each time you move between pages.

Your browser stores that under a key beginning rs-arrival-fired, and the stored value is the character 1. It holds no personal data, it is never sent to our servers or to anyone else's, it cannot be used to identify you, and it is deleted when you close the tab. If your browser blocks local storage, nothing breaks and the animations simply play again.

We mention it because it is technically storage on your device, and a cookie policy that quietly omitted it would be the kind of document we do not want to write.

The AI Readiness Assessment keeps a second item while you are part way through it, so a reload or a phone call does not send you back to question one. It is stored under the key rs-ai-readiness-progress, and the stored value is the options you have tapped so far and a timestamp. It holds no personal data and it is never sent to our servers while you are answering. We delete it when you finish, when you choose to start again, or after 14 days, whichever comes first. If your browser blocks local storage, nothing breaks and the check simply cannot be resumed.

The announcement bar at the top of most pages keeps a third item. If you press its close button, your browser remembers that you did, so the bar does not come back on every page. It is stored under the key rs-announcement-dismissed, and the stored value is a short label naming the announcement you dismissed, and nothing else. It holds no personal data, it is not a cookie, and it is never sent to our servers. It is written only when you press the close button. We do not delete it on a timer: it stays until you clear your browser's site data, or until we replace the announcement with a new one, at which point we delete the old value the next time the bar loads. If your browser blocks local storage, nothing breaks and the bar simply closes for the rest of your visit and returns on your next.

The answer is different on different pages, and the difference is deliberate.

On our home page, the scheduler does not load with the page. It shows a still placeholder, and it loads when you scroll the booking section into view, or sooner if you click the placeholder. That section is at the foot of a long page. Until one of those happens, none of the Calendly cookies exist and no third party in this document has been contacted.

On our contact page, it works the same way, but the booking section is near the top of a short page, so the first time you scroll the scheduler loads and the four cookies are set, without you clicking anything. That page exists to book a call, so we put the calendar where you will reach it rather than making you ask for it twice. Open it and neither scroll nor touch it, and nothing is set.

On every other page, including our work, team, finance, operations, and sales and marketing pages, the scheduler does not load and none of these cookies are set.

Opt out of Google Analytics everywhere. Install Google's opt out add-on from tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout, which works on every site you visit, or block cookies as described below. Nothing on this site breaks if you do.

Do not load the scheduler. On our home page, do not scroll to the booking section at the foot of the page. On our contact page, do not visit it. Email tony@runsimpler.com instead and we will arrange a call directly, with no third party involved at all.

Use your browser settings. Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies, including blocking third party cookies specifically. Blocking third party cookies will stop everything in the cookie tables above. It may also stop Calendly's scheduler working properly, in which case the email route above still works.

1. 8.3.1Chrome: Settings, then Privacy and security, then Third party cookies
2. 8.3.2Safari: Settings, then Privacy
3. 8.3.3Firefox: Settings, then Privacy and Security
4. 8.3.4Edge: Settings, then Cookies and site permissions

Use Calendly's own controls. A cookie banner runs inside the scheduler, provided by OneTrust on Calendly's behalf. Preferences you set there apply to Calendly, not to us, and we have no visibility into or control over what you choose.

Blocking cookies will not stop you reading this website. Nothing here depends on one, and we would rather you read the site on your terms than not read it at all.

If what this site loads changes, this page changes with it, and the date at the top changes too.

Questions about cookies go to tony@runsimpler.com.

Our Privacy Policy explains everything else we do with data, and its section on the booking scheduler covers Calendly in more depth.