Cookie Policy

This Cookie Policy explains how Coffee Machine HQ (coffeemachinehq.com) uses cookies and similar technologies. It should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle personal data more generally and sets out your rights under UK data protection law.

Our use of cookies is governed by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR) and, where cookies involve personal data, by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

What cookies are

A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store on your device. When you return to the site, or move between pages, the browser sends the cookie back — which is how a website can remember things like the contents of your basket or a preference you have set.

Cookies cannot run programs, read other files on your device, or carry viruses. Most contain nothing more than a short identifier. Some, however, can be used to build a picture of browsing behaviour over time, which is why the law treats non-essential cookies differently from essential ones.

This policy also covers similar technologies that work in comparable ways, including local storage and session storage in your browser, and small tracking images sometimes called pixels or web beacons. Where we say “cookies” below, we mean all of these.

Consent: what needs it and what does not

Under PECR, cookies that are strictly necessary to provide a service you have asked for do not require your consent. Every other category — functional, analytics and marketing — requires your consent before it is set.

Where a consent banner is presented on this site, non-essential cookies are not set until you make a choice, and declining is as straightforward as accepting. You can change your mind at any time by revisiting the cookie settings from the banner or the site footer, or by clearing cookies in your browser. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything that was lawfully done before you withdrew it.

The categories of cookies we use

Strictly necessary cookies

These make the website work. Without them you could not add a product to your basket, stay logged in, or complete an order securely. They are set on the basis that they are essential to a service you have requested, so they cannot be switched off through a consent banner. Blocking them in your browser will break core parts of the site.

• Keeping the contents of your basket together as you move between pages.
• Maintaining your session so that checkout information is not lost.
• Remembering that you are signed in to an account, and signing you out securely.
• Security functions such as protecting forms against cross-site request forgery and detecting abusive traffic.
• Recording your cookie preferences, so we do not ask you the same question on every page.

Functional cookies

These remember choices you have made so the site behaves the way you expect — for example a recently viewed product, a dismissed notice, whether you have chosen to see prices with or without VAT, or a delivery preference. They are not required for the site to function, so they are set only with your consent. If you decline them, the site still works but will not remember these preferences between visits.

Analytics cookies

Analytics cookies help us understand how the site is used in aggregate: which pages people land on, which product pages are visited most, where people abandon the checkout, and whether pages load and work correctly on different devices. We use this to fix problems and improve the site — not to identify you personally.

Analytics may be provided by a third-party measurement service. Where it is, that provider sets its own cookies and processes the data on our instructions under a written agreement. Analytics cookies are set only where you have consented. We do not name a specific provider here because our arrangements may change; the current provider is always listed in the cookie settings panel on the site.

Marketing and advertising cookies

Marketing cookies are used to measure whether an advert or campaign led to a visit or an order, and to show relevant advertising on other websites. They are typically set by advertising platforms rather than by us, and they may be used to build a profile of your interests across different sites.

These cookies are never set without your consent. If you do not consent, you will still see advertising elsewhere on the internet, but it will not be informed by your activity on this site.

Cookies set by our shop platform

Our shop runs on WordPress with WooCommerce. WooCommerce sets a small number of cookies that are strictly necessary for e-commerce to work at all: cookies that identify your basket and hold its contents, a session cookie that links your browser to the temporary record of your session on the server, and a cookie that tells the site when the basket has changed so that cached pages are not served with stale basket data.

These are set as soon as you add something to your basket or begin checkout, and they do not require consent because you cannot buy anything without them. WordPress itself also sets cookies when you log in to an account, and may set a cookie if you leave a comment or submit certain forms. None of these are used for advertising.

Third-party cookies

Some cookies on this site are set by other organisations rather than by us. These typically arise from our payment provider (for fraud prevention and to complete a payment securely), embedded content such as a video player or a map, analytics or advertising services where you have consented, and any live chat or review widget in use on the site.

We do not control third-party cookies and we cannot read them. Their use of any data collected is governed by their own privacy and cookie policies, and we would encourage you to read those if you want the full detail. Blocking third-party cookies in your browser will not stop the site working, though embedded content may not display.

How long cookies last

Cookies fall into two broad types. Session cookies exist only while your browser is open and are deleted automatically when you close it — most of the cookies that hold your basket and session work this way. Persistent cookies stay on your device until they reach their expiry date or you delete them, which is how a site remembers a preference or a consent choice on your next visit.

Lifetimes vary by cookie and by the platform that sets them, and they change as software is updated. Rather than publish a figure that would quickly go out of date, we list the current expiry alongside each cookie in the cookie settings panel on the site. You can also inspect exact expiry dates yourself in your browser’s developer tools or cookie settings.

Controlling cookies in your browser

Independently of any consent banner, your browser gives you direct control. Every major browser lets you view the cookies stored, delete some or all of them, block third-party cookies, block cookies from specific sites, or clear cookies automatically when you close the browser.

• The controls are usually found under Settings, then Privacy, Privacy and security, or Cookies and site data.
• Private or incognito browsing discards cookies at the end of the session.
• Many browsers offer a tracking-protection setting that blocks known cross-site trackers by default.
• Deleting cookies signs you out of accounts and clears your basket, and will reset your cookie consent choice on this site.
• Blocking all cookies will prevent checkout from working.

Some browsers and extensions send a “do not track” or global privacy signal. Where a browser sends a recognised opt-out signal, we treat it as a refusal of non-essential cookies.

Changes to this policy

We review this policy when we change the tools used on the site and when guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office is updated. The version published here is the current one.

Contacting us about cookies

If you have a question about a specific cookie, want to know what data it holds, or wish to exercise your rights under the UK GDPR, contact us at sales@coffeemachinehq.com, call 01706 216822, or write to Unit 8-12 Bentwood Road, Carrs Industrial Estate, Haslingden, Rossendale, BB4 5HH. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK supervisory authority for data protection and PECR, at ico.org.uk.