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LegalCookies and browser storage
Nothing that tracks an ad click is stored until you say yes.
This is the cookie notice for simsandsonselectric.co, the site of Sims & Sons, an electrician in Chicago working out of Lakeview. People find us through paid ads on Google and Microsoft, sometimes Meta. Those ads drop small identifiers. Below is every one of them, what it does, how long it sits in your browser, and the switch that turns it off.
In effect fromLast updated October 2, 2026
01 · Categories
Three kinds of storage, one of them always on
Only the strictly necessary kind runs without asking. Analytics and advertising wait for your Allow.
Strictly necessary. These keep the site doing what you asked it to do. The record of your cookie choice lives here, and so does the token that lets the support chat find your conversation again when you come back to the page. Neither one is used to follow you anywhere else. They cannot be switched off from the banner, because without the first we would ask you the same question on every page, and without the second the chat would forget you mid-sentence.
Analytics. Page counts and rough paths through the site. Which page someone landed on from an ad, whether they got as far as the contact form, whether the electrical page or the plumbing page gets read. We use it to fix pages that lose people. It runs through the Google tag and stays off until you allow storage.
Advertising. Conversion measurement for the ads that brought you here. When you click a Sims & Sons ad, the platform adds an identifier to the link. If you allow storage, that identifier is kept so the platform can tell us an ad led to a call or a sent job. No ad cookie is written before you choose.
02 · Every cookie
Every name, who sets it, how long it stays
If a cookie or storage key is not on this list, this site does not set it.
Lifetimes are the maximums the platforms publish. Clearing your browser removes all of them sooner. Third-party cookies are written by the platform named, under its own domain, and only after you press Allow.
| Name | Set by | Category | What it is for | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|
site_consent_v2 | This site, browser local storage | Strictly necessary | Remembers whether you pressed Allow or Decline, so the banner stays away and the tags load or stay off to match. | 6 months, then we ask again |
| Chat token | This site, browser local storage | Strictly necessary | Links your browser to your support chat conversation so you can close the panel and pick up the thread later. Written only once you start a chat. | Until you clear storage; the transcript itself is kept 12 months |
_gcl_au | Google Ads | Advertising | Holds the click so a later call or form send can be counted against the Google ad that brought you. | 90 days |
_ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics, via the Google tag | Analytics | Tells one visit from another and counts pages seen. | Up to 2 years |
_uetsid | Microsoft Advertising (UET tag) | Advertising | Ties the pages of one session to a Microsoft ad click. | 1 day |
_uetvid, MUID | Microsoft Advertising | Advertising | Recognises a returning browser for conversion counts on Bing ads. | Up to 13 months |
_fbp, _fbc | Meta Pixel | Advertising | Counts visits and contacts that came from a Meta ad, on campaigns that run there. _fbc holds the fbclid. | 90 days |
03 · Ad platforms
Where the paid clicks come from
Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising send traffic here today. Meta Ads does when a campaign is running.
Someone types "emergency electrician chicago" at two in the morning and an ad for us shows up. That is most of how new customers reach this site. Each platform tags its own click with a parameter on the end of the address:
gclidfrom Google Ads, operated by Google Ireland Ltd and Google LLC.msclkidfrom Microsoft Advertising, operated by Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd.fbclidfrom Meta Ads, operated by Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, where a campaign runs there.
The parameter arrives in the address bar whether you allow cookies or not. That part is the platform's doing, not ours. What changes with your choice is whether it gets written to storage and handed back to the platform when you call or send a job. Declined, it goes nowhere.
We use the platforms to measure and buy ads. None of them has reviewed or vouched for this business, and nothing on this site says they have.
04 · Consent Mode v2
Four switches, all off by default
Google Consent Mode v2 starts every visit at denied and only flips to granted when you press Allow.
Before any Google tag loads, the page sets the consent mode defaults below to denied. Press Allow and all four are set to granted. Press Decline, or withdraw later, and they go back to denied at that moment, on that page, without a reload. The Microsoft and Meta tags follow the same choice.
If your browser sends Global Privacy Control (the Sec-GPC header), we treat that as a decline and do not ask you again.
ad_storageDefault: deniedWhether advertising cookies such as _gcl_au may be written.
ad_user_dataDefault: deniedWhether data about you may be sent to Google for advertising.
ad_personalizationDefault: deniedWhether that data may be used to show you ads later on.
analytics_storageDefault: deniedWhether analytics cookies such as _ga may be written.
05 · Your choice
Change your mind here, any time
The banner asks once. The button below and the footer link reopen it whenever you like.
On your first visit a bar sits at the bottom of the screen with two buttons, Decline and Allow. It does not cover the page. You can read every word of this site, call, or send a job without touching it. Whatever you press is written to site_consent_v2 and kept for 6 months.
To change it, use the button here or "Cookie settings" in the footer of any page. Withdrawing takes effect straight away. Ad cookies already written by a platform are left in your browser until they expire or you clear them, but nothing new is read or sent once you have declined.
Stored choice: not set on this device yet
06 · If you decline
Saying no costs you nothing
Every page, the phone link, the job form and the chat work the same after a Decline.
What stops: the analytics and ad tags stay off, the four Consent Mode signals stay denied, and no click identifier is stored or passed back to Google, Microsoft or Meta. We lose the ability to say which ad paid for itself. That is our problem, not yours.
What keeps working: everything you came for. The tap-to-call number, the job form that posts to us directly, the support chat, the price bases on every service page. A tripped main at 3 a.m. gets the same answer either way. Call 312-282-1170. Someone picks up.
Blocking all cookies in the browser itself is fine too. The only thing you lose is the remembered choice, so the bar shows up again next visit.
07 · Their policies
What the platforms say they do
Once a platform holds the data, its own privacy terms govern it, so here are theirs.
- Google: policies.google.com/privacy, and how Google uses data from sites like this one at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
- Microsoft: the Microsoft privacy statement at privacy.microsoft.com/privacystatement.
- Meta: facebook.com/privacy/policy.
Our own handling of what you send us, including retention periods and how to ask for a copy or deletion, is in the privacy notice. The rules for using the site are in the terms.
08 · Questions
Ask about a specific cookie
Name the cookie and the page you saw it on. We answer from the shop.
Write to [email protected] or post a letter to Simsandsonselectric, 1338 W Eddy St, Chicago, Illinois 60657, United States. If you found something in your browser from our domain that is not in the list above, tell us. Either it gets added with a straight explanation or it gets removed.
Data requests about what we hold on you are answered within 14 days. The steps are in the data request section of the privacy notice.