Cookie Policy
Cookie Policy
Cookie Policy for RS Pest Control Ltd
Last updated: 27 October 2026
Introduction
This Cookie Policy covers the cookies used on websites run by RS Pest Control Ltd, including rspest.co.uk and our online shop.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that a website saves on your computer, phone or tablet when you visit. They help the site work and can remember your choices. Websites can also use similar technologies, such as your browser’s “local storage” and “session storage”. In this policy, “cookies” covers all of these.
- First-party cookies are set by our own website (rspest.co.uk).
- Third-party cookies are set by another company whose service we use on our site, such as Google or Microsoft.
- Session cookies are deleted when you close your browser. Persistent cookies stay until they expire or you delete them.
How we use cookies, and your consent
We sort our cookies into the same categories you see in our cookie banner:
| Category | What it is for | Do we need your consent? |
|---|---|---|
| Necessary | Makes the website, basket and secure checkout work, and remembers your cookie choices. | No. These are strictly necessary, so they are always on. |
| Functional | Extra features on the site. We do not currently use any Functional cookies. | Yes |
| Analytics | Google Analytics, which tells us how many people visit, which pages they look at and how they found us, and Microsoft Clarity, which shows us how people use our pages so we can make the site easier to use. | Yes |
| Advertisement | Google Ads, which measures whether our adverts lead to enquiries and sales, and the enquiry-tracking storage used by our enquiry forms, which records which page, website and advert an enquiry came from. | Yes (see the exception below) |
| Other | Cookies not yet in another category. We do not currently use any. | Yes |
Analytics and Advertisement services are only loaded if you agree to them, and the same will apply to any Functional or Other cookies we add in future. Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Google Ads are not loaded at all until you choose Enable All, or switch the category on under Edit Preferences and press Save Preferences. If you choose Reject All, or don’t make a choice, they are not loaded.
One exception. The enquiry-tracking storage used by our enquiry forms (icaal__landing_url, icaal__referrer_url and icaal__quoting-engine-tracking, listed under Advertisement below) is currently set when the page loads, before you make a choice. It is kept only in your browser’s session storage, it is cleared when you close the tab, and it is only sent anywhere if you submit an enquiry, when it goes with your enquiry. We are changing our site so that it is only used if you agree to Advertisement cookies, and we will update this policy when that is done.
Lawful basis. For any cookie that isn’t strictly necessary, we rely on your consent, under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and Article 6(1)(a) of the UK GDPR. Strictly necessary cookies don’t need consent under PECR. We use them because we need them to run the website and process your orders. You can withdraw your consent at any time (see “Changing or withdrawing your consent” below).
The cookies we use
Durations are the longest a cookie normally lasts. Some browsers shorten them. For example, Chrome caps cookies at 400 days, and Safari may delete some sooner.
Necessary cookies (always on)
| Cookie | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
PHPSESSID | RS Pest Control (first party) | A standard website session cookie that keeps the site working correctly as you move between pages. | Until you close your browser |
Modalshown | RS Pest Control (first party) | Remembers that you have already seen the cookie banner, so it isn’t shown on every page. | 1 year |
functional_cookies, analytical_cookies, advertisement_cookies, other_cookies | RS Pest Control (first party) | Store your choice for each cookie category. (A copy of your choice is also kept in your browser’s local storage.) | 1 year |
all_cookies_rejected | RS Pest Control (first party) | Remembers whether you chose Reject All. | 1 year |
woocommerce_cart_hash, woocommerce_items_in_cart | RS Pest Control (first party, WooCommerce) | Keep track of what is in your basket. Only set once you add something to it. | Until you close your browser |
wp_woocommerce_session_[code] | RS Pest Control (first party, WooCommerce) | A unique code that links your browser to your basket, so your items are still there as you browse. Only set once you add something to your basket. | 2 days |
__stripe_mid | Stripe (set on rspest.co.uk) | Fraud prevention for card payments. Set on our basket and checkout pages. | 1 year |
__stripe_sid | Stripe (set on rspest.co.uk) | Fraud prevention for card payments during your visit. | 30 minutes |
m | Stripe (third party, m.stripe.com) | Fraud prevention and payment security. | Up to 2 years |
If you pay with PayPal, you may be taken to PayPal or shown PayPal’s payment window, and PayPal may set its own cookies. See PayPal’s cookie statement.
Functional cookies
We don’t currently use any Functional cookies. If we add any, we will update this policy, and they will only be used with your consent.
Analytics cookies (only with your consent)
We use Google Analytics 4 (provided by Google) to understand how many people visit our site, which pages they view, how long they stay and how they found us, such as through a search engine or an advert. We use this to improve our website and services. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
| Cookie | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Google Analytics (set on rspest.co.uk) | Tells one visitor apart from another, using a random ID. | Up to 2 years |
_ga_NZRLQHHGG8 | Google Analytics (set on rspest.co.uk) | Keeps track of your current visit (session). | Up to 2 years |
We also use Microsoft Clarity (provided by Microsoft) to see how visitors use our pages, for example where people click and scroll, through heatmaps and recordings of visits. This helps us find and fix parts of the site that are hard to use. Clarity uses a random ID rather than your name, and we set it to hide what you type into form fields, so names, phone numbers and addresses are not recorded. We tell Clarity about your choice using Microsoft’s consent signal, and Clarity only loads once you have agreed to Analytics cookies. For more information, see Microsoft’s privacy statement.
| Cookie | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
_clck | Microsoft Clarity (set on rspest.co.uk) | Stores a random Clarity user ID and settings for this site. | 1 year |
_clsk | Microsoft Clarity (set on rspest.co.uk) | Joins several page views into one visit recording. | 1 day |
CLID | Microsoft (third party, clarity.ms) | Records the first time Clarity saw this browser. | 1 year |
MUID | Microsoft (third party, clarity.ms and bing.com) | Identifies unique browsers visiting Microsoft sites. Microsoft uses it for site analytics, advertising and other operational purposes. | About 13 months |
MR, SM, ANONCHK, SRM_B | Microsoft (third party, clarity.ms and bing.com) | Technical cookies that Microsoft uses to refresh and sync the MUID cookie. | From a few minutes to about 13 months |
Advertisement cookies (only with your consent)
We use Google Ads (provided by Google) to measure whether people who click our adverts go on to contact us or buy from our shop. This is called “conversion measurement”, and it helps us see which adverts work. We may also use this information for remarketing, which means showing our adverts to people who have visited our website before, on Google Search and other websites. We don’t use Google Ads cookies unless you have agreed to Advertisement cookies.
| Cookie / storage | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
_gcl_au | Google Ads (set on rspest.co.uk) | Measures how well our adverts work by linking ad clicks to visits and enquiries. | 90 days |
_gcl_aw | Google Ads (set on rspest.co.uk) | Stores the ad-click information when you arrive from one of our Google adverts. | 90 days |
_gcl_ls | Google Ads (browser local storage) | Stores ad-click and measurement information used for conversion measurement. | Until cleared |
IDE | Google (third party, doubleclick.net) | Used by Google for advertising, including measuring adverts and, where used, remarketing. | Up to 13 months |
test_cookie | Google (third party, doubleclick.net) | Checks whether your browser accepts cookies. | 15 minutes |
icaal__landing_url | ICAAL (browser session storage, set on rspest.co.uk) | Records the first page you arrived on during your visit. If you send an enquiry through one of our website forms, this is sent with it, so we can see which page the enquiry came from. | Until you close the tab |
icaal__referrer_url | ICAAL (browser session storage, set on rspest.co.uk) | Records the website that sent you to us, such as a search engine, if there was one. If you send an enquiry, this is sent with it. | Until you close the tab |
icaal__quoting-engine-tracking | ICAAL (browser session storage, set on rspest.co.uk) | Records any advert campaign codes in the web address you arrived on (for example, codes showing you clicked one of our Google adverts). If you send an enquiry, these are sent with it, so we can see which advert it came from. | Until you close the tab |
Enquiry tracking (ICAAL). Our enquiry forms are run through ICAAL’s enquiry system. The three session storage items above record which page, website and advert you came from, and are sent with your enquiry when you submit one. They are cleared when you close the tab. At the moment they are set when the page loads (see “One exception” above).
You can also control how Google personalises adverts for you at Google’s My Ad Centre or adssettings.google.com.
Other cookies
We don’t currently use any cookies in the “Other” category. If we add any, we will update this policy, and they will only be used with your consent.
Third parties
Google, Microsoft, Stripe and ICAAL are third parties. When their services are active on our site, they receive information from your browser, such as your IP address, device and browser type, and the pages you visit. They use it as described in their own privacy policies, and some of them may process it outside the UK:
- Google: Privacy Policy and advertising and measurement cookies
- Microsoft (Clarity): Privacy Statement
- ICAAL: receives and stores the enquiries you send through our website forms, with the enquiry-tracking details above, on our behalf. See our Privacy Notice.
- Stripe: Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy
- PayPal: Cookie Statement
Other content on our pages
Some of our pages include content from other companies: a Google Map of the areas we cover, Google reviews shown through Trustindex, reviews shown through EmbedSocial, and web fonts from Google Fonts. Our live chat (ChatBot.com) only loads if you click the chat button. When this content loads, the company providing it receives basic technical information, such as your IP address and browser type, so it can show the content. When we last checked these did not set cookies on our site, but the providers’ own policies apply and may change.
Changing or withdrawing your consent
You can change your mind at any time, and withdrawing consent is as easy as giving it.
- Use the cookie icon. Click the small cookie icon in the bottom-left corner of any page. This opens your cookie preferences.
- Switch categories on or off. Use the toggles for each category (for example Analytics and Advertisement), then press Save Preferences.
- From the next page you visit, the services you’ve switched off won’t load.
Switching a category off stops new cookies being set, but cookies already on your device stay until they expire. To remove them straight away, delete them in your browser settings (see below).
Browser settings. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser:
If you block necessary cookies, parts of the site, such as the basket and checkout, may not work.
You can also opt out of Google Analytics on all websites with Google’s opt-out browser add-on.
Changes to this policy
We’ll update this policy if the cookies we use change. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.
Contact us
If you have any questions about this policy or how we use cookies, email us at info@rspest.co.uk. For more about how we handle your personal data, see our Privacy Notice.
