A short page, because there is very little to tell you.
The short version. We do not use cookies to track you, and there is no consent banner on this site because there is nothing to consent to. The few things we keep in your browser are there only because you used a feature that needs them — your price-alert watch list, and your choice of desktop layout on a phone. The one exception is YouTube: if you press play on one of our videos, YouTube may set its own cookies, and nothing is loaded from YouTube until you do.
UK law (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations) requires your consent before a site stores anything on your device — unless that storage is strictly necessary to provide the service you asked for. Analytics, advertising and profiling cookies all need consent. We do not use any, so there is nothing to ask you about.
If that ever changes, a banner will appear and it will ask before anything is set, not after.
| Name | What it is | How long |
|---|---|---|
sg_watches |
Browser storage, not a cookie. Set only when you tap a bell to watch a guitar: the guitars you are watching and the price when you started, so the bells stay lit and your watch list shows when you come back. It never leaves your device. Strictly necessary — it exists only because you asked for it. | Until you remove the guitar, or clear your browser's site data |
sg_toast_seen |
Browser storage, not a cookie. A one-word note that we have already shown you the “your watch list is saved on this device” message, so it only appears once. Part of the watch feature above. | Until you clear your browser's site data |
sg_desktop |
Session storage, not a cookie. Set only if you tap “switch to desktop” on a phone, so we stop sending you back to the mobile layout on every page. Strictly necessary — it exists only because you asked for it. | Until you close the tab |
__cf_bm and similar |
Our host Cloudflare may set a strictly necessary security cookie to tell human visitors from bots and keep the site up. It is not used to profile you or to advertise. | Set by Cloudflare, typically minutes to hours |
| YouTube (only if you press play) | Our homepage shows a still from our latest YouTube video. The still comes from our own server and nothing is requested from YouTube until you press play. Pressing play loads YouTube's video player (youtube.com); from then on YouTube (Google) may store cookies or similar data on your device, under Google's own privacy and cookie policies. Pressing play is your choice to load it. | Set by YouTube |
We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, a small script from Cloudflare, our host. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and does not fingerprint or identify you — it reports totals only, such as page views and roughly which country and type of device visits come from. That is why it needs no consent. See the privacy notice for more.
When you click a “view at” link, you leave this site. The retailer, and where relevant the affiliate network that records the referral, will set their own cookies on their own domains.
That is how a referral gets credited, and it is outside our control — we cannot read those cookies or switch them off. Each retailer publishes its own cookie policy, and that is what governs your visit once you are there.
Every browser lets you block or delete cookies and site storage, usually under Settings → Privacy. Blocking everything will not break this site — you lose the watch list saved in your browser and the desktop-layout preference described above. Price-alert emails you have confirmed keep coming until you unsubscribe. It may, however, stop retailers from crediting us for a referral.
Email info@thestringgauge.co.uk. See also our privacy notice for what we record when you click through to a shop.