Cookie Policy

Last Updated: 18 November 2025

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

PipeAlign™ ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Cookie Policy explains what cookies are, how we use them on our website (PipeAlign.co.uk), and your rights to control our use of them, in line with UK data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).

For full details on how we handle your personal data, please review our Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about this policy, you can reach us via our Secure Channel page.

1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files placed on your device (e.g., computer or smartphone) when you visit a website. They're widely used to make websites run more efficiently and to provide "intel" to site owners.

  • Session Cookies: These are temporary and expire once you close your browser.

  • Persistent Cookies: These remain on your device for a set period of time.

  • First-party Cookies: These are set by the website you are visiting (PipeAlign).

  • Third-party Cookies: These are set by a domain other than the one you're visiting (e.g., Google Fonts).

2. How We Use Cookies (Decoding Our Intel)

Our website is built on the Squarespace platform. We use a minimal number of cookies to ensure our site is secure, functional, and provides a valuable experience. The cookies we use fall into the following categories:

a) Strictly Necessary Cookies (Essential Systems Cookies)

These cookies are essential for the core functionality of our website and can't be switched off. They’re required for tasks such as navigating the site, protecting against security threats (such as cross-site request forgery, or CSRF), and remembering your cookie consent choices. Since these cookies are strictly necessary for the service you request (browsing the website), we don't need to obtain your consent to place them.

  • Provider: Squarespace

  • Purpose: To enable core site functionality, security features, and manage your cookie consent preferences.

  • Examples of Necessary Cookies:

    • crumb: Prevents CSRF for a secure browsing session. (Session)

    • ss_cookieAllowed: Remembers your cookie consent choice. (Persistent, 30 days)

    • ss_cid /ss_cpvisit: Identifies unique visitors and tracks their sessions for functional purposes. (Persistent, 2 years)

b) Performance and Analytics Cookies (Mission-Metrics Cookies)

These cookies allow us to gather anonymous "intel" about how operatives (visitors) use the public-facing areas of our website, such as our "The Decryption Files" blog. They help us understand which briefings are most engaging and how we can improve the user experience. These are non-essential and will not be set without your affirmative consent.

  • Provider: Squarespace Analytics

  • Purpose: To collect data about website traffic, page views, and user activity, helping us understand user behaviour.

  • Consent: We'll only set these cookies if you give us your explicit consent by selecting "Accept all" on our cookie banner or by enabling them in the "Manage cookies" settings. They are switched off by default.

  • Example Analytics Cookies:

    • ss_cvr / ss_cvt: Identifies unique visitors and tracks their sessions on a site for analytics purposes.

c) Marketing Cookies (Outreach Intel Cookies)

  • Purpose: In the future, we may wish to use marketing cookies or tracking pixels from trusted third-party platforms (such as LinkedIn) to measure the effectiveness of our outreach campaigns and to understand how users arrive at our "The Decryption Files" blog. For example, we might use a LinkedIn Insight Tag to understand how users who engage with our content on LinkedIn later interact with our website.

  • Current Status: We do not currently use any marketing cookies on our website.

  • Consent: Should we introduce these, they'll be switched off by default. We'll only ever activate these cookies with your explicit, prior consent, given via our cookie banner.

3. Tracking Technologies in Emails (Email Intel Beacons)

In addition to website cookies, we use a standard technology known as a web beacon (or "intel pixel") within our outreach emails (which may contain strategic intel and links to our blog posts), sent via our partner Apollo.io. When an email containing a beacon is opened, this tiny, invisible image is downloaded, providing a "signal" that the email has been opened. This "signal" helps us understand engagement rates, allowing us to improve the relevance of our strategic communications.

Crucial Note: This non-essential tracking is only used when the recipient has provided valid, specific consent for marketing emails, or when contact is permissible under the charitable soft opt-in rules (once in force, and if applicable), which allow marketing on the legal basis of legitimate interests, provided a clear opt-out is always included.

4. Third-Party Services: Google Fonts

To ensure a professional and consistent look for our website, we use Google Fonts. When your browser requests these fonts, it must contact Google's servers. While Google Fonts doesn't set cookies, this process involves sending your IP address to Google so they can send the font files to you. This is based on our legitimate interest in presenting our website content professionally. For full transparency, we recommend you review Google’s own privacy policies.

5. Your Choices and How to Manage Cookies

You're in control. When you first visit our website, you'll see a cookie banner giving you clear, upfront choices:

  • Accept all: This consent allows us to place all types of cookies (including Performance and Analytics) on your device.

  • Decline all: Reject all non-essential cookies. Only "Strictly Necessary" cookies will be used.

  • Manage cookies: This feature lets you selectively enable or disable different categories of non-essential cookies.

You can change your preferences at any time. You can also block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

To manage cookies on popular browsers, please see the links below:

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

To exercise your right to access, rectify, or erase your data, or to withdraw consent, please use the form on our Secure Channel (/secure-channel) page.

6. Changes to this Cookie Policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. Please revisit this Cookie Policy regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.