What this site keeps, and why

01Counting visits

We count visits to every page, for everyone, to see which pages help and which don’t. What’s counted:

• Which pages are viewed, and where the visit came from: another site, a search, or a link with a campaign tag.
• The type of device and browser, the rough size of the screen, and the country and region, worked out from the connection.
• How far down each page is scrolled, for how long the page is in use, and which part of the page was on screen when you left it.
• Which buttons and links are tapped, which menu item is chosen (or that a menu was closed without choosing one), and taps that do nothing, so we can fix what confuses people.
• How long each recording plays while it’s on screen, and which features of a case study stay on screen for more than a moment.
• When something is copied from a post or case study, what kind of thing it was (code, a heading or a paragraph) and how long it was. Never the words copied.
• Whether the cookie banner was shown, and the answer given to it.
• The name of the network the visit came from, such as a broadband or mobile provider, or a company’s own network. It’s looked up from the connection’s address in a list kept with the site’s own code, so the address isn’t sent anywhere, and only the network’s name is kept.
• Whether the contact form was started and left without sending, and on which field. Never what was typed.
• How fast each page loads.

None of it names anyone. To count each visitor once a day, the site makes a code from the connection’s address and the browser’s details, and the code changes every day. The address itself is never stored, and the code is wiped after 2 days, once the day’s visits are added up.

UK law allows this kind of counting without asking first, because it’s for statistics that can’t be used to identify people, as long as we explain it (this page) and you can turn it off for free. To turn it off, choose Don’t count my visits in Cookie settings. The site then sends nothing at all about your visits.

For the site’s first month, Vercel, who host the site, also count page views, as a check on our own count. Vercel’s count uses no cookies: Vercel say each visitor is identified by a code made from the request, which is thrown away after 24 hours. It’s off for anyone who chose Don’t count my visits.

02If you say yes

Until you answer the cookie banner, or if you choose No thanks, we only count visits as above, apart from a visit from a link in one of our emails (below). If you choose Accept, three more things happen:

• A visitor ID. A cookie (cm_vid) links your visits on this browser, so that if you send an enquiry we can see how you found the site: when you first came, from where, and which pages you read. It’s set by this site and only works on this site.
• Microsoft Clarity. It records how pages are used (taps, scrolls and mouse movement) and makes heatmaps, so we can see where people get stuck. Anything typed into a box is hidden from the recordings: Microsoft say text in input boxes is masked in every mode and can’t be unmasked, and our contact form is marked to be hidden as well. Clarity loads only after a yes, and only once the page has finished loading.
• An ad’s click code. If you arrive from an ad, the click code the ad adds to the link is kept with your visits, so we can see which ads lead to enquiries. Without a yes we only note which kind of ad it was.

This relies on your consent. You can take it back at any time in Cookie settings: the visitor cookie is deleted straight away and Clarity stops.

03Links in our emails

When we email a business about their store, the link to this site carries a short code, so we can see that the link was opened and which page it opened. The code doesn’t name anyone; we match it to our own record of who we wrote to. We also see which pages you look at on that visit and for how long, whatever you choose on the banner, unless you choose Don’t count my visits. If you accept on the banner, we can also link later visits from this browser. To have this removed, email tim@cartmasters.co.uk.

04The contact form

When you send the form, what you typed (your name, email, store and message, and the two optional choices) goes by email to the studio’s mailbox, because you’ve asked us to get in touch. The email also carries a reference, the page you sent it from and, if you said yes to cookies, how you found the site.

Your name, email and message are kept only in that email. If the email fails to send, your enquiry is held in the site’s database until it’s delivered to us, then deleted. Nothing is held for more than 30 days.

05What’s stored on your device

Everything this site, or Clarity after a yes, keeps in your browser. Nothing else is stored.

• cm_consent

  Everyone who answers

  Your answer to the cookie banner (Accept, No thanks or Don’t count my visits) and the date. Strictly necessary: without it the banner would ask on every page.

  In your browser’s storage, not a cookie. Asked again after 12 months.

• cm-contact-draft

  While you type in the contact form

  What you’ve typed, so a reload or Try again doesn’t lose it. Strictly necessary for the form, and it never leaves your browser on its own.

  In the tab’s storage. Cleared when the message sends or the tab closes.

• cm_vid

  Only after Accept

  Your visitor ID, set by this site, so your visits on this browser link up.

  A cookie, for 12 months. Deleted straight away if you move away from Accept.

• cm_me

  The studio’s own devices only

  Marks our own browsers, so our own visits are never counted. Never set on a visitor’s browser.

  In that browser’s storage, until it’s cleared.

• _clck

  Only after Accept (Clarity)

  Keeps Clarity’s ID for your browser and its settings, for this site only (Microsoft’s list). Set on this site.

  A cookie, for 1 year.

• _clsk

  Only after Accept (Clarity)

  Microsoft: “Connects multiple page views by a user into a single Clarity session recording”. Set on this site.

  A cookie, for 1 day.

• CLID, ANONCHK, MR, MUID, SM, SRM_B

  Only after Accept (Clarity)

  Set by Microsoft on its own domains. Microsoft say CLID notes the first time Clarity saw this browser on any site that uses it; MUID identifies browsers visiting Microsoft sites and is used for “advertising, site analytics, and other operational purposes”; MR and SM refresh and share MUID across Microsoft’s domains; ANONCHK is always 0, because Clarity doesn’t use the advertising cookie it checks for. SRM_B is also set, on Microsoft’s bing.com, and isn’t on Microsoft’s Clarity list. We don’t use any of them for advertising.

  Microsoft’s list doesn’t give lifetimes. Seen in a browser on 24 October 2026: CLID 1 year, MUID and SRM_B about 13 months, MR 7 days, ANONCHK and SM until the browser closes.

06Who hosts it

• Vercel host the site and run the contact form and the visit count. For the first month, Vercel’s own visit count as well.
• Neon run the site’s database: the visit records, the enquiry references and any enquiry held because its email failed.
• Google Workspace is the studio’s email, where enquiries arrive.
• Microsoft Clarity keeps the recordings and heatmaps, only for people who said yes. Microsoft keep recordings for 30 days, and a random sample, along with any we mark as favourites, for up to 9 months.

No advertising runs on this site, and nothing about you is sold.

The site’s form and visit count run in London, and so does its database. Vercel, Google and Microsoft may also handle data outside the UK, including in the United States, under their own safeguards.

07How long we keep things

• Visit records (each page viewed, each tap counted): 13 months, the visitor cookie’s own life plus a month.
• Daily totals, counts only, with nothing about any one visitor: kept.
• The daily visitor code: 2 days.
• The record of an enquiry in the database (its reference, what it was about, how you said you found us, the page it was sent from, and how you found the site if you said yes): reviewed after 2 years. Your name, email and message aren’t in it.
• An enquiry held because its email failed: until it’s delivered, and 30 days at most.
• Your name, email and message: in the studio’s mailbox, as the record of our conversation, until you ask us to delete them.
• Clarity’s recordings: 30 days, or up to 9 months for a sample and any we mark as favourites (Microsoft’s figures).

08Changing your choice

Use Cookie settings, at the foot of every page. It has three choices:

• Accept: we count visits, remember your visits on this browser, and use Clarity.
• No thanks: we only count visits, as described above, apart from a visit from a link in one of our emails (Links in our emails).
• Don’t count my visits: the site sends nothing at all about your visits.

Moving away from Accept deletes the visitor cookie straight away and stops Clarity. Your choice is remembered on this browser for 12 months, and then we ask again. Clearing this site’s cookies and storage in your browser also resets it.

With JavaScript switched off, there’s no banner and nothing is counted.

09A copy of your data, or deleting it

Ask through the contact page: say whether you’d like a copy of what we hold about you, or for it to be deleted. If you said yes to cookies, sending it from the same browser lets us find the visits linked to it. We’ll reply by email.

If you’re unhappy with how your data is handled, please tell us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk.

10Who’s responsible

Cartmasters is run by Tim Fowler, who is responsible for what this site collects and how it’s used. To reach him about anything on this page, use the contact page.