Cookie Policy
Last updated: 11 August 2026. This Cookie Policy explains how Balmevo Health Ltd (company number SC394821), of 22 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AN, uses cookies and similar technologies on balmevo.info, in accordance with the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and the UK General Data Protection Regulation. It should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains our wider data protection practices.
1. Scope of this document
This policy covers cookies, local storage and comparable technologies set on your device when you visit balmevo.info, including the homepage, the order form, and all product and legal information pages. It does not cover cookies that may be set by a courier's own website once you leave balmevo.info to track a delivery, nor cookies set by unrelated third-party sites reached through outbound links, since those fall under the privacy notices of the organisations operating those sites. It applies equally to visitors browsing on desktop, tablet and mobile devices, and to both first-time visitors and returning customers. We review the cookies actually set on the site at least twice a year to confirm this document remains accurate.
2. What a cookie is and what we collect through them
A cookie is a small text file placed on your device by a website, which can later be read by that website to recognise your browser on return visits or to store simple preferences such as language or consent choices. Through cookies and equivalent local storage, we may collect a randomly generated identifier that does not, by itself, reveal your name or contact details, together with technical information such as pages visited, time spent on a page, approximate device type and, for analytics cookies, an approximate geographic region derived from your IP address. We do not use cookies to collect your name, delivery address, telephone number or any information you type into the order form; that information is transmitted separately when you submit the form and is described in our Privacy Policy rather than this Cookie Policy. No cookie on this site is used to build a profile for automated decision-making that produces legal effects concerning you.
3. Legal basis for setting cookies
Strictly necessary cookies are set on the basis that they are essential for the site to function as you request, for example keeping the order form working during your session, and PECR does not require consent for this category, though we still disclose them here for transparency. Analytics and preference cookies beyond the strictly necessary category are set only after you actively consent through the cookie banner or Cookie Settings modal, in line with PECR regulation 6 and the consent standard under UK GDPR Article 4(11), which requires a freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication. Marketing cookies, where present, are likewise set only after affirmative consent and are switched off by default. You may withdraw consent at any time, with the same ease with which it was given, by reopening Cookie Settings from the footer link available on every page of the site.
4. Cookies used on this site, with names and lifespans
| Cookie name | Category | Purpose | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|
| balmevo_session | Strictly necessary | Maintains form state and security token during your visit | Ends when browser closes |
| balmevo_consent | Strictly necessary / preference | Remembers your cookie consent choices | 12 months |
| _ga | Analytics | Distinguishes unique visitors for aggregated statistics | 13 months |
| _gid | Analytics | Distinguishes visitor sessions within a 24-hour window | 24 hours |
| _gat | Analytics | Limits the rate of requests sent to Google Analytics | 1 minute |
| balmevo_marketing_opt | Marketing | Records opt-in for marketing measurement, set only after consent | 90 days |
This table reflects the cookies our systems are configured to set; a small number of additional short-lived technical cookies may occasionally be set by our content delivery network purely to route traffic efficiently, and these do not store information capable of identifying you personally.
5. How to manage or withdraw your preferences
On your first visit to balmevo.info you are shown a cookie banner offering three choices: Accept All, Reject, and Cookie Settings, and no analytics or marketing cookie is set until you make a choice. You can change your mind at any time by selecting the "Cookie Settings" link in the footer of every page, which reopens the same modal and lets you switch analytics and marketing cookies on or off individually, while strictly necessary cookies remain active because the site cannot function correctly without them. If you prefer, you can also control cookies directly through your browser settings, which typically allow you to block or delete cookies from specific sites, though doing so outside our consent tool may affect how your preference is recorded on return visits. Clearing your browser's cookies will reset your consent choice, and you will be shown the banner again on your next visit.
6. Third parties who may set cookies through this site
Where you consent to analytics, Google Ireland Limited sets the _ga, _gid and _gat cookies described above as part of the Google Analytics service, and processes the resulting data under its own published privacy terms in addition to our instructions as controller. Where you consent to marketing measurement, a small number of advertising partners may set cookies to measure whether a marketing campaign led to a visit, but only once you have opted in, and we do not permit these partners to combine that data with information that identifies you by name. Our website infrastructure, provided by Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, does not itself set tracking cookies but may use short-lived technical cookies for load balancing. We do not knowingly allow social media "share" buttons that set tracking cookies before consent is given.
7. Retention of cookie data and related information
Cookie identifiers themselves expire automatically according to the lifespans set out in the table above, after which your browser will delete them without any action on our part. Aggregated analytics data derived from cookie identifiers is retained by our analytics provider for no longer than fourteen months from collection, in line with the retention window we have configured, after which it is automatically deleted or irreversibly aggregated so that individual sessions can no longer be reconstructed. Records of your consent choice itself, stored in the balmevo_consent cookie and a corresponding server-side log entry, are retained for twelve months so that we can demonstrate compliance with PECR if asked to do so by a regulator. If you exercise your right to object or withdraw consent, we stop setting new analytics or marketing cookies from that point forward, though we cannot retroactively delete aggregated statistics that no longer identify any individual.
8. International transfers relating to cookie data
Where analytics cookie data is processed by Google Ireland Limited, that data may be transferred to Google's group companies outside the United Kingdom and European Economic Area as part of its global infrastructure, and such transfers are governed by Standard Contractual Clauses together with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, as described in our Privacy Policy. We configure Google Analytics with IP anonymisation enabled specifically to reduce the risk associated with any such transfer. Marketing cookie data, where set, is likewise subject to contractual safeguards with the relevant advertising partner before any transfer takes place outside the UK or EEA. We do not permit any cookie-related data to be transferred to a jurisdiction that lacks either an applicable adequacy decision or contractual safeguards recognised under UK data protection law.
9. Complaints and contact procedure
If you have questions or concerns about our use of cookies, please email [email protected] with the subject line "Cookie Query", or write to Balmevo Health Ltd, 22 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2AN. We aim to acknowledge cookie-related enquiries within three working days and to provide a substantive answer within fourteen calendar days, which is typically faster than our general data protection response time because cookie queries are usually narrower in scope. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF, telephone 0303 123 1113, which is the supervisory authority responsible for enforcing PECR in the United Kingdom. You are also free to raise a complaint with the ICO directly at any point without contacting us first, although we would welcome the opportunity to resolve the matter with you beforehand.
10. Changes to this policy and revision log
We update this Cookie Policy whenever we add, remove or change the purpose of a cookie on balmevo.info, and we will always update the "last updated" date at the top of this page when we do so. Where a change introduces a new category of cookie that requires consent, we will re-prompt the cookie banner so that your consent remains current and specific to the technologies actually in use. Version 2.2, dated 11 August 2026, added the cookie table with named cookies and exact lifespans and clarified the retention period for consent records. Version 2.0, dated 4 February 2026, introduced the three-tier cookie banner (Accept All, Reject, Cookie Settings) described throughout this document. Version 1.0, dated 9 September 2025, was the first cookie notice published at the launch of balmevo.info and covered strictly necessary cookies only, before analytics cookies were introduced.