1. The short version

• Essential cookies always run. Without them the site does not work.
• Analytics we run first-party, on our own server, and share with no one.
• Advertising cookies from our ad platforms currently run when you visit. We are deploying a consent banner so you can refuse them in one click; until it is live, §4 tells you exactly how to opt out today.

2. What a cookie is

A small file a website stores on your device, and reads back on your next visit. The same rules apply to similar technologies — local storage, pixels, tags and SDKs — and this page covers all of them.

3. What we use, by category

3.1 Strictly necessary — always on, no consent required

These are exempt from consent under regulation 6(4) of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, because the service you asked for cannot be provided without them.

3.2 Analytics — first-party, no consent required

Since 5 February 2026 the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 added an exception to PECR regulation 6 for first-party statistical analytics used solely to understand how your own service is used. Our Matomo install meets that description: it is hosted by us, the data goes nowhere else, and we do not use it for advertising. We tell you about it here because transparency is still required even where consent is not.

If you would rather not be counted, tell us at support@itradeaims.net and we will exclude you, or enable Do Not Track in your browser, which Matomo honours.

3.3 Advertising and measurement — consent banner being deployed

Being honest about where we are. These currently load when you visit. We are deploying a consent banner with Google Consent Mode v2, after which none of them will run until you accept. Until that is live, §4 sets out how to refuse them yourself, and we will not pretend the choice is already there.

These companies act as independent controllers for their own advertising purposes, and their own privacy policies apply in addition to ours.

4. Refusing advertising cookies

4.1 Today. Until our consent banner is live, you can refuse the advertising cookies in §3.3 by any of these, and every part of this site keeps working either way:

• your browser’s cookie settings, or a private window;
• a tracking-protection or content-blocking extension;
• the ad platforms’ own controls — Google Ads Settings, Meta’s Ad Preferences, and the equivalent in your TikTok, LinkedIn and Pinterest accounts.

We cannot switch these off for you individually: they are set in your browser by those companies, not by our server, so until the banner is live the controls above are the ones that work. Our own Matomo analytics is different — it honours Do Not Track, and we can exclude you from it on request at support@itradeaims.net.

4.2 Blocking every cookie at the browser also blocks the essential ones in §3.1, so you would not be able to stay logged in. The banner, when it lands, will let you refuse just the advertising ones.

4.3 When the banner is live. Accept and Reject will be equally prominent, in the same place, at the same size, with no pre-ticked box. Your choice will be stored for 12 months and changeable from a Cookie settings link in the footer. We will update this page and its version number on the day it ships.

5. What we removed

We previously ran Hotjar, which recorded browsing sessions on itradeaims.net. It was switched off on 31 August 2026 and we no longer record sessions on any of our sites.

Older versions of our policy told visitors to configure their browser to refuse cookies instead of offering a choice on the site. That was not an adequate consent mechanism, and it is being replaced by the banner described in §4.3.

6. Keeping this page accurate

We re-check what actually loads on our sites and update the tables above whenever it changes, and in any case twice a year. The version number and effective date at the top tell you which revision you are reading. If you find something running that is not listed here, tell us at support@itradeaims.net — that is a bug, and we will fix it.