Cookie Policy

About this policy

This policy explains the cookies and similar technologies used on thefence.uk, what each one is for, how long it lasts, and how you control them. It sits alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle personal data more generally — including the pet photos you upload.

"Cookies and similar technologies" means more than cookies. UK law (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, PECR) covers anything stored on or read from your device, so this policy also lists the things we keep in your browser's local and session storage.

The Fence is a trading name of [FILL IN: registered company / legal entity name], company number [FILL IN: company number (Companies House)], registered office [FILL IN: registered office address]. This version is effective from [FILL IN: effective / last-updated date for this version].

Your choice, and how to change it

On your first visit we show a consent banner. Until you choose, nothing is stored on your device beyond the strictly necessary items listed below. Our tag manager (Google Tag Manager) does load on every page, but it loads with every consent signal set to "denied": the analytics and advertising tags inside it are held, so they do not run and they set nothing.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page. Withdrawing is as easy as giving consent: the same dialog, one click, and the page reloads so anything you have withdrawn is unloaded.

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings, and clear local storage the same way. If you do, the site still works — browsing, the cart and checkout do not depend on any optional storage — but we lose the record of your choice, so the banner will ask again.

The categories we use

The banner offers five categories. Strictly necessary is always on, because without it the site cannot do what you have asked it to do. The other four are off until you turn them on.

• Strictly necessary — the cart, the checkout, signing in, security, and remembering your cookie choice. Always active; no consent is required for these under PECR.
• Measurement — anonymous statistics about how the site is used, so we can see which pages and products work.
• Marketing — advertising and audience measurement on Google, Meta and Microsoft, including measuring whether an ad led to a purchase.
• Functionality — optional conveniences beyond the essentials. We currently set nothing in this category.
• Experience — personalisation of what you are shown. We currently set nothing in this category.

Strictly necessary

These are first-party — set by thefence.uk itself, not by anyone else — and they are the only things stored before you make a choice.

• c15t (cookie and local storage) — remembers the consent choice you made, so we do not ask again on every page. 365 days.
• tf-cart (local storage) — your basket: what you added, the options you picked, and the quantity. Kept until you clear it or your browser clears its storage.
• better-auth.session_token and better-auth.session_data (cookies, prefixed __Secure- over HTTPS) — keep you signed in to your account. Set only if you sign in, and cleared when you sign out.
• better-auth.dont_remember (cookie) — records that you asked not to stay signed in. Set only if you choose that option.
• tf_tier_seen (local storage) — remembers that we have already shown you a rewards-tier message, so it is not repeated. Set only for members.
• __stripe_mid and __stripe_sid (cookies, set by Stripe) — fraud prevention on the payment form. Stripe is our payment processor and these are required to take a payment securely. Set when you reach the checkout, and lasting about one year and 30 minutes respectively.
• tf_sess (cookie) — an opaque identifier for your shopping session, with no information in it. It lets us recognise the page you arrived on and the order you later place as the same visit, which is how we tell which advert led to a sale. It is set only if you arrive from an advertising link, it is not readable by any script on the page, and it is never shared with an advertising platform. 90 days.

Measurement — only with your consent

We use Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager. Nothing here loads until you allow the measurement category.

• _ga (Google) — distinguishes one browser from another so visits can be counted. 2 years.
• _ga_<container id> (Google) — keeps the state of the current analytics session. 2 years.
• tf_client_id (local storage) — a first-party identifier we generate when Google's own cookie is unavailable, so a visit is still counted once rather than twice.
• tf_first_visit, tf_last_visit and tf_last_order (local storage) — when this browser first came, last came, and last ordered, so reports can tell a new visitor from a returning one.
• tf_member and tf_subscribed (local storage) — flags recording that this browser belongs to a signed-in member or a newsletter subscriber, so reports are not skewed by mistaking one for a new visitor.
• tf_identity (session storage) — a copy of the answer to "is this browser signed in?", kept for the tab so the same lookup is not repeated on every page. Cleared when you close the tab.

Marketing — only with your consent

These are set by the advertising platforms we use, through Google Tag Manager, and by us, and only after you allow the marketing category. They let us measure whether an advert led to a visit or an order, and to show relevant adverts elsewhere.

• _gcl_au (Google) — attributes a visit and any resulting order to a Google advert. 90 days.
• _fbp and _fbc (Meta) — the same for adverts on Facebook and Instagram; _fbc stores the click identifier from the advert you arrived on. About 3 months.
• MUID, _uetsid and _uetvid (Microsoft) — the same for adverts on Microsoft/Bing. Roughly 13 months, 1 day and 13 months respectively.
• When you place an order we also read _gcl_aw (Google), _fbp (Meta) and _ttp (TikTok, if that platform's tag is in use) from the cookies those platforms have already set, and attach them to the order for the same purpose. We do not set these ourselves — they belong to the tags above, which load only with your consent.

Who else can read this data

Where a cookie above is set by another company, that company is the one reading it, under its own privacy notice: Google (Analytics, Ads and Tag Manager), Meta, Microsoft and Stripe. Consenting to marketing means these companies may combine what they see here with what they already hold about you, and may process it outside the UK.

We do not sell your personal data. What we do share, and the safeguards for data that leaves the UK, are set out in our Privacy Policy.

How we record your consent

When you make a choice we store a record of it on our own consent service, so we can show what was consented to and when. That record holds the categories you chose, the time, the jurisdiction we applied, a shortened (masked) IP address and your browser's user-agent string. It is kept for [FILL IN: consent-record retention period — commonly 12 to 24 months after the choice], as evidence that consent was given.

Your choice is also stored in your own browser (the c15t entry above), which is what lets us honour it without asking again.

Changes to this policy

We update this policy when the storage we use changes. The current version is dated [FILL IN: effective / last-updated date for this version]. If we add a new purpose we will ask for your consent again rather than assume the old answer covers it.

Contact us

For any question about cookies or your data, email hello@thefence.uk. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.