Cookie Policy
Last updated: March 2026
1. What Are Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device (computer, tablet, or mobile phone) when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work efficiently, provide a better user experience, and supply information to website operators.
2. Our Approach to Cookies
approval.co.uk uses essential cookies that are strictly necessary for the website to function, and advertising cookies from Google AdSense that are only set with your explicit consent. You can change your cookie preferences at any time.
3. Essential Cookies
Essential cookies are required for the basic functionality of our website. These cookies do not collect personal data and cannot be disabled without affecting how the website works.
| Cookie | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Session cookies | Maintain your session as you browse the website, ensuring pages load correctly and forms work as expected. | Expires when you close your browser |
| cookie-consent | Stores your cookie preference choice (accepted, rejected, or essential-only) so we respect your decision on return visits. | Persistent (localStorage) |
4. Advertising Cookies
We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on our website. AdSense helps fund this free service so that we can continue to provide an independent directory of financial advisers at no cost to consumers.
Advertising cookies are only set if you give your explicit consent. If you reject non-essential cookies, no advertising cookies will be placed on your device and you may see non-personalised ads or no ads at all.
When you consent to advertising cookies, Google may use cookies to:
- Show you ads that are relevant to your interests based on your browsing activity
- Limit the number of times you see a particular ad
- Measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns
- Understand how you interact with ads
| Cookie Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Google AdSense / DoubleClick | Ad serving, personalisation, and frequency capping | Up to 13 months |
| Google (NID, IDE, ANID) | Ad personalisation preferences and measurement | 6–24 months |
For more information about how Google uses data from sites that use their services, visit Google's partner sites policy. You can also manage your Google ad personalisation settings at Google Ad Settings.
5. Google Consent Mode
We implement Google Consent Mode v2, which ensures that Google tags (including AdSense) respect your cookie preferences. When you reject non-essential cookies:
- No advertising cookies are stored on your device
- No personal data is shared with Google for ad personalisation
- Google may still serve non-personalised, contextual ads without cookies
6. Analytics
We use Plausible Analytics, a privacy-focused web analytics tool. Plausible is specifically designed to operate without cookies and without collecting any personal data. It does not track individual visitors, use fingerprinting, or store any information on your device.
Because Plausible does not use cookies or process personal data, no cookie consent is required for our analytics. Plausible is compliant with UK GDPR, PECR, and ePrivacy regulations by design.
7. How to Manage Cookies
On our site: You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clearing your browser's local storage for approval.co.uk, which will cause the cookie consent banner to reappear on your next visit.
In your browser: You can also control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to:
- View what cookies are stored on your device
- Delete individual cookies or all cookies
- Block cookies from specific websites or all websites
- Block third-party cookies
- Accept or reject cookies on a case-by-case basis
Please note that disabling essential cookies may affect the functionality of our website.
For instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:
8. Changes to This Policy
We may update this cookie policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date.
9. Contact
If you have any questions about our use of cookies, please contact us at:
- Email: privacy@approval.co.uk
For more information about how we handle your personal data, please see our Privacy Notice.