Cookie & Tracking Notice
This notice explains what we store in your browser and what you can do about it. The widget sets no cookies anywhere; this website uses two analytics tools that load only if you accept them.
The short version
The AskThis widget sets no cookies at all — not on this site, and not on any site that installs it. This notice mostly concerns our own websites, askthis.io and askthis.dev.
Two separate things are described below: the cookies and analytics on this website, and the browser storage the widget uses on publishers' websites. They are unrelated, and data never moves between them.
Cookies on this website
We use two analytics tools on our own websites, askthis.io and askthis.dev — Google Analytics 4 and Microsoft Clarity — to understand how people navigate the site so we can improve it. Both set their own cookies and process usage data under their own privacy policies. Each site is treated separately: it shows its own cookie banner and remembers its own consent choice.
Nothing loads until you say yes
These are strictly opt-in. Before you choose "Accept" in our banner, no analytics script is loaded and no analytics cookie is set. If you choose "Decline", nothing loads and we remember only your refusal. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal we skip the banner entirely and load nothing.
You can change your choice whenever you like using "Cookie preferences" in the footer of any page.
What gets set, and when
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Type | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| askthis-consent-v1 | AskThis | Remembers whether you accepted or declined analytics. This is the only thing we store before you decide anything — and it exists precisely so we do not have to ask you again. | Local storage, strictly necessary | Until you clear your browser storage |
| _ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics 4 | Distinguishes visitors and sessions to produce aggregate usage statistics. We enable IP anonymisation. | Cookie, analytics | Up to 2 years |
| _clck, _clsk, CLID | Microsoft Clarity | Measures how pages are used, including interaction heatmaps and session replay of site usage. | Cookie, analytics | Up to 1 year |
The consent record itself is stored in your browser's local storage rather than a cookie, which means it is never transmitted to us — your choice stays on your device.
Session replay
Microsoft Clarity can record how a page is used, including mouse movement, scrolling and clicks, and replay it as a session. It is configured to mask text input by default, and it runs only if you accept. If you would rather it did not run at all, decline the banner or send a GPC signal.
The widget's storage
If you are reading this because a website you visited runs the AskThis widget, this is the section that concerns you.
The widget sets no cookies, uses no advertising identifiers, and does not fingerprint your device or track you across websites.
It does write a small amount of data to your browser's session storage, which your browser clears automatically when you close the tab:
| Key | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
| at-session | A random identifier so repeated actions in one visit are not counted twice. It is not linked to your name, your email, or any other site. | Until you close the tab |
| at-pinged | Records that this visit has already been counted, to avoid double-counting a page view. | Until you close the tab |
| at-exp | Which variant you were shown, if the publisher is running an A/B test of their widget. | Until you close the tab |
Consent for the widget
The website you are visiting — not AskThis — decides whether to run the widget and what consent to ask you for first. Your consent choice, passed to us by that site's consent banner, controls whether your data may be sold or shared as part of our commercial datasets. Without consent, it never is. We honour Global Privacy Control at the network edge, and a website cannot override it.
Being straight with you: in the EU, EEA and UK we do not store or process widget events without a consent signal — no consent means they are discarded at our edge, not saved. In other regions, events are collected for the publisher's own analytics and the consent choice gates onward sale. One caveat everywhere: the widget writes a single temporary session identifier to your browser before that server-side gate applies, so the site you are visiting is still responsible for obtaining any prior consent its ePrivacy rules require. If you think a site is not doing that, tell us at privacy@askthis.io.
Full detail on what an event contains, and what it deliberately never contains, is in our Privacy Policy.
Your controls
- Cookie preferences — the link in our footer reopens the banner so you can change your mind about this website at any time.
- Global Privacy Control — a browser-level signal we honour automatically, both here and in the widget. It is the fastest way to opt out everywhere at once.
- Browser settings — you can block or delete cookies for this site. The site will keep working; we use no cookies for anything essential.
- Session storage — closing the tab clears everything the widget stored.
- Google and Microsoft opt-outs — Google offers a browser add-on to opt out of Analytics; Microsoft provides opt-out controls for Clarity in its own privacy statement.
Changes
If we add a tracking technology, or change what an existing one does, we will update this notice and — where the change needs your consent — ask you again rather than assume your earlier answer still applies. Questions go to privacy@askthis.io.
Questions about this document? Email legal@askthis.io. This document is not legal advice.