Nothing for ads or measurement is stored until you press Allow.

01. Three kinds of storage, and only one of them runs without asking

We sort everything the site stores into three categories. The first is switched on because the site cannot work without it. The other two stay off until you allow them in the banner at the bottom of the screen.

Strictly necessary

One key remembers your cookie choice so the banner does not reappear on every page. If you open the support chat, a second item holds a token that links your browser to that conversation, so you can close the tab and come back to the same thread the next morning. Neither of these identifies you to an advertiser. Neither is shared with one.

Analytics

Measurement cookies from Google count visits and tell us which pages people read before they call. We use the counts to decide things like whether the class timetable needs to sit higher on the programs page. They are aggregated. We do not look at an individual visitor's path, and we could not tell you who read what.

Advertising

Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and Meta Ads send paid traffic to this site today. When you arrive from one of those ads, the platform's tag can store the click identifier it attached to the link, so that a later inquiry can be counted against the ad that brought you. That is how we find out which ads lead to a phone call and which ones waste money. This category is off by default.

02. Every key, by name

The table scrolls sideways on a narrow phone. Durations are the maximum; clearing your browser storage removes any of them sooner. Items marked analytics or advertising are never written while your choice is Decline or while you have not chosen.

The site does not use cookies for a login, a cart or a payment. There is no account to sign in to and nothing is sold here. The inquiry form sends what you type to our server when you press send; it does not leave anything behind in your browser.

03. Which ads send people here, and the marker each one adds

Three platforms. Each adds a short code to the end of the link when you click its ad, and the address bar shows it when you land.

• Google Ads adds gclid. Operated by Google Ireland Ltd and Google LLC.
• Microsoft Advertising adds msclkid. Operated by Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd.
• Meta Ads adds fbclid, on the campaigns we run there. Operated by Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd.

The code arrives in the address whether you allow cookies or not; that part is the platform's doing and happens before our page loads. What you control is whether the site writes it into storage and reports it back. With Decline, the identifier sits in the address bar for that one page view and goes nowhere. With Allow, the matching cookie from the table above keeps it for up to 90 days, so an inquiry you send next week can be counted against the ad.

We see totals from these platforms: clicks, calls, inquiries per campaign. We do not receive your name from them, and we do not send them what you wrote in a form or a chat.

04. Consent Mode v2 and its four switches

Google's Consent Mode v2 is a set of four signals the site sends to every Google tag before the tag does anything. Microsoft's tag reads the same choice from our consent script. The four signals are:

• ad_storage: may an advertising cookie be written.
• ad_user_data: may data about this visit be sent to the ad platform for measurement.
• ad_personalization: may this visit be used to show you ads elsewhere later.
• analytics_storage: may a measurement cookie be written.

On every page load, all four start at denied. They stay denied until you press Allow. Press Decline, or withdraw an earlier Allow, and the site sets all four back to denied at that moment, on the page you are reading, without a reload. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal (the Sec-GPC header), the site records that as Decline and does not ask you again.

While the signals are denied, Google's tags may still send a cookieless ping that says a page was viewed. It carries no identifier we can match to you, and Google models totals from it. We mention it because people ask, and because it is the part most cookie statements leave out.

05. How you choose, and where to change your mind

On your first visit a strip appears at the bottom of the screen with two buttons, Decline and Allow, the same size and the same weight. It never covers the page and you can read, call or send an inquiry without touching it. Until you press one, the site behaves as if you had declined.

To change the choice later, use the Cookie settings link in the bottom row of every page's footer, or the button below. It reopens the same strip. Your new choice replaces the old one in site_consent_v2 straight away, and we keep the record of the choice for 12 months before the strip asks again.

Open cookie settings

Clearing cookies and site data for northwell.us.com in your browser settings also removes the choice, and the strip will return on your next visit.

06. If you press Decline

Everything a visitor comes for keeps working. You can read every page, see the class timetables and fees on the programs page, send the inquiry form on the contact page, open the support chat and call the desk. A guide will call you back the same as anyone else. Nobody at the desk can see what you chose.

What stops: no analytics cookie is written, no ad cookie is written, the click identifier is not stored, and the ad platforms are not told that your visit led to an inquiry. You may still see our ads elsewhere, because an ad platform decides that on its own records, not ours. Declining here only affects what this site stores and sends.

07. The platforms' own rules

Once a cookie from Google, Microsoft or Meta is written, what that company does with the data is set out in its own documents, not ours. Read them directly:

• Google: policies.google.com/privacy, and how Google uses data from sites that run its tags at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
• Microsoft: the Microsoft privacy statement at privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement.
• Meta: facebook.com/privacy/policy.

How we handle what you send us through the form and the chat, how long we keep it and how to get a copy is in the privacy notice. The rules for booking a class are in the terms of use and booking.

08. Asking about one particular cookie

If you find something in your browser from northwell.us.com that is not in the table above, tell us its name and we will explain it or remove it. Write to [email protected] with "Cookies" in the subject, call +1 (779) 555-3858, or write by post to Northwell, 71 Mill Street, Unit B, Austin, Texas 43086, United States.

Cookie questions go to the same desk that books classes. A request about your personal data is answered within 7 days; the route for that is on the data request part of the privacy notice.