Cookie Policy
Last updated: 30 July 2026
This page lists every cookie that we set or permit on your device, explains what each one does, states how long it stays, and shows you how to remove or block any of them. We have written it as a working reference rather than a legal formality, so you can check a specific cookie name and find out exactly what it is for.
What cookies actually are
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store on your computer, phone or tablet. It usually contains nothing more than a short identifier and an expiry date. When you return to the site, the browser sends that file back, which is how a website recognises a returning visit without asking you to identify yourself.
Cookies cannot execute code, cannot carry a virus, and cannot read other files on your device. What they can do is link separate page views into a single session, which is why they matter for privacy even though the files themselves are trivial.
Two distinctions run through the rest of this page. A first-party cookie is set by the domain you are visiting, in our case pharmacyonweb.co.nz. A third-party cookie is set by another service loaded on the page, such as an analytics provider. Separately, a session cookie disappears when you close the browser, while a persistent cookie survives until its stated expiry date or until you delete it.
The four categories we use
Strictly necessary
These keep the site functional. They remember your cookie choice so the consent banner does not reappear on every page, and they let our security provider distinguish a human visitor from an automated request. They collect nothing for marketing purposes and cannot be switched off without breaking basic behaviour.
Analytics
These tell us which pages people read, how they arrived, and where they stopped reading. The data is aggregated: we can see that a section lost most of its readers halfway through, but we cannot see who those readers were. We use it to decide what to rewrite, not to build profiles.
Functional
These remember preferences that make the site more comfortable to use, such as your language. They are convenient rather than essential, and blocking them costs you nothing except having to set the preference again.
Affiliate tracking
When you click a button that takes you to an advertising network, that network may set a cookie recording that the click came from us. This is how we are credited and paid. The cookie holds a click identifier, not your name, email or payment details, and it does not follow you around other websites showing you adverts.
Full list of cookies
The table below covers every cookie we set or knowingly permit. Names ending in a random string vary per property, which is normal for analytics platforms. If you find a cookie on our domain that is not listed here, please tell us through our contact page and we will investigate and update this table.
| Cookie | Category | Set by | Purpose | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cookie_consent | Necessary | pharmacyonweb.co.nz | Stores your choice in the consent banner so it is not shown again | 12 months |
| PHPSESSID | Necessary | pharmacyonweb.co.nz | Keeps a single browsing session together across page loads | Session |
| __cf_bm | Necessary | Cloudflare | Bot management: separates human visitors from automated requests | 30 minutes |
| cf_clearance | Necessary | Cloudflare | Records that your browser passed a security challenge | 30 minutes |
| _ga | Analytics | Google Analytics | Assigns a random identifier used to count unique visitors | 2 years |
| _ga_<container> | Analytics | Google Analytics 4 | Holds session state for the GA4 property | 2 years |
| _gid | Analytics | Google Analytics | Distinguishes visitors within a single day for daily reporting | 24 hours |
| _gat | Analytics | Google Analytics | Throttles the request rate to the analytics servers | 1 minute |
| clickid | Affiliate | Advertising network | Records that a click on an outbound button originated here | 30–90 days |
| src / utm_source | Affiliate | Advertising network | Stores the traffic source parameter passed with the click | 30–90 days |
| ref_domain | Affiliate | Advertising network | Attributes a later sign-up to the referring page | 30–90 days |
| lang | Functional | pharmacyonweb.co.nz | Remembers the interface language you selected | 12 months |
| pref_layout | Functional | pharmacyonweb.co.nz | Remembers whether you left the table of contents open | 6 months |
Third parties in detail
Google Analytics
We run Google Analytics 4 to understand which material is read and which is ignored. IP addresses are truncated before storage, and we have not enabled advertising features, so the data is not used to build advertising audiences. Google publishes its own handling terms in its privacy policy, and you can block collection across all sites with the official opt-out extension.
Cloudflare
Cloudflare sits in front of the site to absorb attacks and speed up delivery. The cookies it sets are technical and short-lived, and they exist to tell a browser apart from a script. Their handling is covered in the Cloudflare privacy policy.
Advertising networks
Buttons on our pages about how to buy website traffic lead to the advertising platforms we cover. Once you land on such a platform, its own cookies and terms apply, and we no longer control what is set. The only thing passed from our side is a click identifier that lets the platform credit the referral. We explain the commercial side of that arrangement in our terms and conditions.
How to control cookies in your browser
Every major browser lets you block cookies, delete existing ones, or allow only first-party cookies. Changes apply to all sites, not just this one, so a strict setting may sign you out of services you use daily.
- Chrome. Settings, then Privacy and security, then Third-party cookies. You can block third-party cookies entirely or clear stored data for individual sites. Google documents the full procedure in its cookie help article.
- Firefox. Settings, then Privacy & Security. Standard, Strict and Custom modes control how much cross-site tracking is blocked, and Manage Data lets you remove cookies per domain. Mozilla explains the options in its support documentation.
- Safari. Settings, then Privacy. Safari blocks cross-site tracking by default and offers Manage Website Data for per-site removal. Apple documents this in its Safari guidance.
- Edge. Settings, then Cookies and site permissions. Edge offers Basic, Balanced and Strict tracking prevention levels alongside per-site controls, described in Microsoft's documentation.
- Phones and tablets. On iOS, open Settings, then Safari, then Block All Cookies. On Android, open Chrome, then Settings, then Site settings, then Cookies. Both apply system-wide to the browser rather than to a single site.
What happens if you block them
Blocking analytics cookies changes nothing about how the site works for you. It only means we lose the signal that would tell us a section is failing readers, so future edits are made with less information.
Blocking affiliate cookies also leaves the site fully readable, including every page explaining how to buy website traffic. The practical effect is that a network cannot attribute your visit to us, which removes our revenue from that click but costs you nothing.
Blocking strictly necessary cookies is the only case with visible consequences: the consent banner will reappear on every page load, and the security layer may challenge you more often. Every article remains accessible in all three cases, because none of our content sits behind a cookie wall.
Changes and questions
We update this page whenever a cookie is added, removed or changed, and the date at the top always reflects the most recent revision. Material changes are announced on the site rather than made quietly.
If something here is unclear, or if you believe a cookie is behaving differently from the description in the table, write to us through the contact page. Our wider approach to publishing and corrections is set out in the editorial policy.