Privacy and cookies

Before you answer the cookie bar, nothing is sent to PostHog, Meta or anyone else. The one exception is our own visit record on the Choice Lab page, described below. The site stores two things in your browser: a random id, and any campaign tags that were on the link you arrived through. Both stay on your device. We cannot see them and nobody else is given them.

The random id has no name attached and is not linked to anything about you. It exists so that if we are testing two versions of a page, you see the same one each visit rather than a different one every time.

Two services start, and only then:

PostHog, which records which pages you visit and what you click, so we can see where people lose interest. It runs on PostHog’s EU servers and your data stays in the EU.

The Meta pixel, which tells Meta that someone who clicked one of our ads reached the site. This is how we work out whether advertising is worth paying for.

We keep our own record of the visit: how long you stayed, how far you scrolled, how long you spent on each part of the page, how much of the video you watched and which buttons you pressed, along with the campaign link that brought you, your browser’s time zone and language, and whether you are on a phone. It has no name attached, and it goes to our own server, not to an analytics company. If you press a booking button, open the calendar or watch half the video, a summary of the visit is sent to us on Telegram.

This starts before you answer the cookie bar, because it stores nothing new in your browser: the visit id is forgotten when you leave the page. If you accept, we also link the visit to the PostHog recording of it. If you reject, it stops straight away.

Neither service ever loads, and the Choice Lab visit record stops. There is nothing running in the background and nothing to switch off later. The site works exactly the same.

The calendar is run by TidyCal. When you book, TidyCal passes us your name, email, phone number if you gave it, the time you chose and your answers to its questions. We store those and send them to the team on Telegram so the right person is ready for the call.

We also look your company up on the Companies House public register, from the company you named or your email address, so we know who we are speaking to before the call.

The form asks for your name, email, phone number, and some questions about your company. We store your answers, and we store which campaign link brought you here, so we know which ad to credit. We are sent an alert so that somebody can call you.

The form saves each step as you go, so if you give us an email and then leave, we still have the email. That is deliberate, and it is why it is worth saying here.

We look your company up on the Companies House public register to save asking you questions we can answer ourselves. That is public data and comes from the register, not from you.

If you accepted cookies, we also tell Meta that a lead came in, using a one-way scrambled version of your email and phone number so they can match it to the ad you clicked without us handing over your actual details. If you rejected, we do not.

Google Cloud and Firebase host the site and store the form responses. PostHog and Meta receive what is described above, and only with your agreement. Telegram carries the alert that tells us to call you, and the Choice Lab visit summary described above. Nobody buys this data from us and we do not sell it.

Clearing this site’s cookies and site data in your browser resets your answer and the cookie bar comes back.

You can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, by emailing hello@meridiancompany.co.uk. We will answer within a month. If we handle it badly you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.