Cookie Policy

This policy is a working draft prepared for launch and should be reviewed by counsel before publication.

The short version

This site sets one category of cookies, analytics, and only after you accept the notice. Decline, and no cookies are set. Your choice is remembered in your browser's local storage either way.

What declining does not stop is an anonymous count of page views and actions. Two measurement tools run for every visitor, whatever you choose, and neither stores anything on your device when you have not accepted: there is nothing for the notice to switch off, because nothing is being kept. Accepting lets the Google Analytics one set its cookie and recognise you as the same visitor across visits. Declining leaves it counting, unable to tell one visit from another or to know you anywhere else. Both are described below.

The cookies

Cookie	Provider	Purpose	Consent
_ga, _ga_*	Google Analytics 4	Recognises a returning visitor, so visits can be counted as one person	Required. The cookie is set only after acceptance; the anonymous count runs either way
serene-consent (local storage)	Serene Bay	Remembers your accept/decline choice	Strictly necessary
serene:intro (session storage)	Serene Bay	Skips the opening sequence on repeat views in the same tab	Strictly necessary
amelia-chat:… (local storage)	Amelia	Remembers that you have chatted here, so a reply can show on the chat button	Only once you start a chat

Measurement without cookies

Where you have not accepted, Google Analytics runs in Google's "consent mode", denied. It sets no cookie and writes nothing to your device, keeps no identifier for you, and cannot connect this visit to any other visit here or to anything you do on another site. What reaches Google is the pages you read and the actions you take on them (a form sent, a question in the FAQ opened, a WhatsApp or other outside link followed), with no cookie or identifier and no way back to you. Google may use them to estimate the totals it cannot measure directly, but only once the site has enough visitors for it to do so. Accept, and the cookie in the table above is set and the ordinary measurement begins.

Our listing platform, Amelia, counts page views and enquiry actions (a form sent, a WhatsApp or phone link followed) using PostHog, hosted in the EU and run in its cookieless mode. It sets no cookies and writes nothing to local or session storage, makes no recording of your visit (no session replay), and reports page addresses with their query strings removed. With each page view or action it records an approximate location (country, region and town or city, worked out from your connection; your IP address is never stored) and your browser's language. It never reads what you type into a form, and it cannot recognise you from one day to the next; within a day, visits from the same browser and connection are counted as one visitor, using a code worked out on PostHog's servers that is not stored on your device and cannot be traced back to you.

One exception: if you open a link Amelia sent you personally, the pages you read and the enquiry actions you take during that visit (a form sent, a WhatsApp or phone link followed) are noted against your enquiry, so the advisor you are already talking to can see what you looked at and what you did. The link is held in memory for that visit and is gone when you close the tab.

Changing your mind

Clear this site's data in your browser and the notice will ask again. To withdraw analytics consent specifically, decline when re-asked: the cookie stops and the count returns to anonymous. To object to the anonymous count as well, write to privacy@serene.com.

What we don't do

No advertising cookies, no cross-site tracking, no fingerprinting, no third-party marketing pixels.