Cookie Policy

1. What cookies and similar storage are

Cookies are small text files that a website places in your browser. They let the site, or a third party whose code runs on the site, recognise your browser on later visits or across pages. Browsers also offer other kinds of storage. One of them is localStorage, a small storage area where a website can save a piece of information that stays on your device until you delete it or the site removes it. Tracking tools can also use scripts and invisible pixels that send information about your visit to the tool's provider. In this policy, "cookies" covers all of these: cookies, localStorage, scripts, and pixels. They are useful for measuring and improving a website, but they can also follow your activity, which is why the law requires your consent for anything that is not strictly necessary.

2. How consent works on this site

When you first visit, you see a cookie banner with three options. "Accept all" enables the analytics and marketing categories described in section 4. "Only essential" enables neither: no analytics, no marketing cookies, and none of the tags in section 4 may store anything on your device. "Cookie preferences" opens a panel where you can switch each category on or off individually and confirm your own combination. Choosing "Only essential" does not limit your use of the site in any way.

One exception is described here because we want it stated plainly rather than discovered: the Google tag loads for every visitor, in a restricted mode called consent mode. Until you consent to the marketing or analytics category, that tag stores nothing on your device, sets no cookies, and sends only anonymous, cookieless signals that cannot be linked to you. Google uses these anonymous signals for aggregate, statistically modeled measurement of our advertising. Only if you enable a category does the tag switch to normal operation for that category, with the storage described in section 4. All other tools in section 4 do not load at all until their category is enabled.

The legal basis for everything in section 4 is your consent, under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and the rules on cookies and similar technologies. You can withdraw or change your consent at any time using the "Cookie preferences" link in the footer of every page. Withdrawing a category stops its tags: the page reloads, hard-gated tools no longer load, and the Google tag returns to the anonymous cookieless mode. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing that took place while your consent was active.

3. Strictly necessary storage

One entry in your browser's localStorage is used without consent, because it exists only to remember the choice you made on the cookie banner. Without it, we could not honour your decision and the banner would reappear on every page.

Beyond this entry, the only processing that happens regardless of your consent choice is what is strictly required to deliver the site to your browser: our hosting provider, Railway Corporation (USA), and our content delivery and security provider, Cloudflare, Inc. (USA), acting as our data processors, process server logs including IP addresses for security and delivery of the website. The anonymous, cookieless consent-mode signals described in section 2 also occur regardless of your choice, but they store nothing on your device and carry no identifier. Details are in our Privacy Policy.

• Name: aion-cookie-consent-v2
• Type: localStorage entry, not a cookie in the technical sense
• Purpose: remembers your choice per category, analytics and marketing, from the banner or the preferences panel
• Duration: stays in your browser until you clear your site data or change your choice via "Cookie preferences"

4. The two consent categories and the tools in each

Consent is per category. Enabling a category allows the tools in it to set their own cookies or browser storage under their own names and to send data about your visit to their provider. Each provider may process this data in the USA. For how those transfers are safeguarded, through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses as applicable, see the international transfers section of our Privacy Policy.

Analytics category, for understanding and improving the site:

• Google Analytics 4, provided by Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC. Helps us understand how visitors use the site: which pages are viewed, how visitors arrive, and how they move through the site. Processing may occur in the USA.
• Microsoft Clarity, provided by Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited and Microsoft Corporation. Records session replays and heatmaps, meaning recordings of how visitors scroll and click through pages, so we can find and fix usability problems. It cannot see what you type into the booking or medical screening forms, which run in separate frames operated by their own providers. Processing may occur in the USA.

5. Marketing category

The marketing category measures whether our advertising works. We do not use this data to build audience profiles or remarketing lists from visitors to this site:

• Google Ads tag, provided by Google Ireland Limited and Google LLC. Measures whether visits and consultation bookings came from our Google ads, so we can account for our advertising. Without marketing consent it runs only in the anonymous, cookieless consent mode described in section 2. Processing may occur in the USA.
• Meta Pixel, provided by Meta Platforms Ireland Limited. Measures visits and bookings that come from our activity on Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. It does not load at all without marketing consent. Processing may occur in the USA.

6. Service cookies when you book or pay

Some features on this site are provided by third parties and set their own cookies only at the moment you actually use them. These are not tracking tags and they are separate from the analytics consent above. They exist to make the feature itself work:

• Calendly. When you open the online booking calendar, Calendly sets the cookies needed to run the scheduling widget.
• Stripe. When you make a payment, Stripe sets cookies used for secure payment processing and fraud prevention. Without them the payment cannot work.
• Vibey. Our consultation and contact forms are powered by Vibey. Any storage the form uses exists to deliver the form itself, not to track you across other websites.

7. How to control cookies in your browser

The simplest control is the banner itself and the "Cookie preferences" link in the footer. Beyond that, every modern browser lets you view, block, and delete cookies and site data, including localStorage, in its privacy or site settings. You can also set your browser to reject third-party cookies entirely or to clear all site data when you close it.

One practical note: if you clear this site's data, you also delete the aion-cookie-consent-v2 entry, so the banner will appear again on your next visit and no category will be enabled until you make a new choice.

8. Changes and contact

We may update this policy, for example if we add, remove, or replace a tool. The date at the top always shows the current version. If a change means we need new consent, for example a new analytics or marketing tag, the tag will not load until you have accepted it via the banner or "Cookie preferences".

Questions about this policy or about your data can be sent to L. A. Business Consultancy Ltd, Kyriakou Matsi 11, 7th Floor, Office 701, 1082 Nicosia, Cyprus, by email at [email protected], or by phone at +357 99 842210. Your rights over your data, including access, erasure, and withdrawal of consent, are described in our Privacy Policy.

If you believe we have handled your data unlawfully, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection in Cyprus, www.dataprotection.gov.cy.