Motoring Insider Cookie Policy

This policy explains how we use cookies and similar technology when you use motoringinsider.co.uk. It adds detail to section 8 of our Privacy Notice, which explains how we collect and use personal data and what rights you have.

1. Cookies And Similar Technology

Cookies are small text files stored by your browser. We also use the browser's local and session storage, which work in a similar way. Some of these are set by us (first-party) and some by the services we use (third-party).

We group them as our cookie banner does:

Strictly necessary: needed for the site to work, for security and to remember your cookie choices. These are always on.
Analytics: Google Analytics and PostHog, which tell us how the site is used and record anonymised session replays so we can fix problems.
Marketing: Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and campaign measurement, which tell us which adverts and partner links bring visitors and sales. This includes our affiliate attribution cookie.

When you first visit, analytics and marketing cookies are switched on and our banner tells you that we use cookies. You can switch either group off at any time by choosing Preferences in the banner, or Change Cookie Settings at the end of this page, and then Reject Non-Essential or Save Choices. When you switch a group off, we delete its cookies from our domain and reload the page so that its tags stop.

2. Strictly Necessary

Name	Purpose	How long	Type
mi_cookie_consent	Remembers your analytics and marketing choices.	6 months	First-party
mi_cookie_notice	Remembers that you have answered the cookie banner, so it stops showing.	6 months	First-party
vcuk_checkout_draft	Carries the registration you confirmed, and any partner tag in your visit, between the free check, payment and confirmation steps.	60 minutes	First-party
vcuk_mot_code	Links the email code we send you to the vehicle you are checking.	15 minutes	First-party
vcuk_garage_session	Keeps you signed in to My Garage.	30 days, or 7 days without use	First-party
vcuk_garage_pending, vcuk_garage_magic	Complete a My Garage sign-in from an emailed code or link.	15 to 20 minutes	First-party
vcuk_guest_report_ (followed by part of the order number)	Lets you open a report you bought without signing in, from the link in your email.	60 minutes	First-party
vcuk_share_ (followed by a code)	Lets you open a report someone shared with you.	Up to 60 minutes	First-party
affiliate_session_v1	Keeps an affiliate signed in to the affiliate portal.	30 days	First-party
sb- (followed by our project code)	Keeps our staff signed in to the admin area. Not set for customers.	Session	First-party
__stripe_mid, __stripe_sid	Set by Stripe on the payment page to prevent fraud.	1 year; 30 minutes	Third-party (Stripe)
Cloudflare Turnstile	A security check on our affiliate forms. It may store data in your browser to tell people from bots.	Session	Third-party (Cloudflare)
cgc-report-garage-dismissed: (session storage)	Remembers that you closed the "save to My Garage" prompt on a report, for this browser tab.	Until the tab is closed	First-party

3. Analytics

Name	Purpose	How long	Type
_ga	Google Analytics: tells visits apart.	2 years	First-party (Google)
_ga_ (followed by our property code)	Google Analytics: keeps the state of your visit.	2 years	First-party (Google)
mi_purchase_sent_ (followed by the order reference), local storage	Stops a purchase being counted twice in our analytics and advertising reports if you reload the confirmation page. Only set when analytics or marketing cookies are on.	Until cleared	First-party
ph_ (followed by our project key)_posthog, cookie and local storage	PostHog: tells visits apart and records how pages are used, including anonymised session replays. Text you type is masked.	1 year	First-party (PostHog)

Google Analytics and PostHog send data to Google and PostHog. We use PostHog's EU region.

4. Marketing

Name	Purpose	How long	Type
mi_affiliate_ref	Remembers the tag from a partner's link, so a purchase within 30 days is credited to that partner. Only set with marketing cookies on. A later visit from our own advertising removes it.	30 days	First-party
_gcl_au	Google Ads: links ad clicks to purchases.	90 days	First-party (Google)
_uetsid	Microsoft Advertising: links ad clicks to purchases in this visit.	1 day	First-party (Microsoft)
_uetvid	Microsoft Advertising: links ad clicks to purchases across visits.	13 months	First-party (Microsoft)
MUID	Microsoft Advertising: identifies your browser across Microsoft's sites.	13 months	Third-party (Microsoft, bing.com)
Google advertising cookies	Google may set its own cookies on its domains (such as google.com and doubleclick.net) to measure ads.	Up to 13 months	Third-party (Google)

When you arrive through a partner's link, we always record the partner's tag with an order you place in that visit, whatever your cookie choices, because the tag is part of the link and the checkout step cookie above. The 30-day mi_affiliate_ref cookie is only used if marketing cookies are on.

5. Changing Your Choice

Use Change Cookie Settings below, or clear the cookies for motoringinsider.co.uk in your browser. Clearing them shows the banner again on your next visit. You can also block cookies in your browser settings, but parts of the site, such as checkout and My Garage, may then not work.

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