COOKIE NOTICE
iO-Sphere Cookie Notice
The cookies and similar technologies we use on io-sphere.io — which ones we set, who sets them, what they are for, and how to manage your preferences.
Last updated
1. About this notice
This Cookie Notice explains the cookies and similar technologies (such as local and session storage) that we use on our website at io-sphere.io. It sits alongside our Website Privacy Notice and gives you the specific detail of each cookie we set, who sets it, what it is for, and how long it lasts.
If you have any question about the cookies on our website, contact our Data Protection Lead at dpo@io-sphere.io.
2. About cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small text files that a website asks your browser to store on your device. They are used to make websites work, to remember things about your visit, and to measure how the website is performing. Some cookies are set by us; others are set by third parties whose technology runs on our pages.
Where the law refers to “cookies”, the same rules generally apply to other ways of storing information on your device, including local storage and session storage in your browser. We refer to all of these together as “cookies” in this notice.
Cookies do not, on their own, identify you personally. Some of the cookies described below are used to recognise your device across visits or to link a form submission to an advertising click; where this is the case, the cookie value combined with other information we hold may amount to personal data. Our Website Privacy Notice explains how we handle that personal data.
3. How we categorise our cookies
We group our cookies into four categories:
- Strictly necessary cookies: essential for our website to work. Without them, parts of the site would not function. These do not require your consent.
- Functional cookies: help the site work the way you expect, for example by remembering choices you have made.
- Analytics cookies: help us understand how visitors use the site so we can improve it.
- Marketing and attribution cookies: used to measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and (where you have given consent) to support advertising on third-party platforms.
Sections 4 to 7 below list each cookie we set, by category.
4. Strictly necessary
These are the cookies and similar technologies we set so our website functions correctly. They cannot be switched off in our cookie banner.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime | Set when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cookie-consent | iO-Sphere | Records your cookie preferences (analytics on/off; marketing on/off) so we honour them on later visits. Stored in your browser's local storage. | Until cleared | When you make a choice in our cookie banner |
| io_session_id | iO-Sphere | A short-lived identifier for your browser tab that lets us link a form submission back to the page you saw it on, for conversion measurement. Stored in your browser's session storage and removed when the tab closes. | Tab session | On first page view in a tab |
5. Functional
We do not currently set any cookies in this category through our own scripts. Some third parties whose embeds appear on the site (in particular HubSpot, which provides the forms used on pages such as the contact, data analytics, and apprenticeships pages) set cookies that have functional aspects. Those are listed in Section 7.
6. Analytics
We do not currently run a general-purpose web analytics tool (such as Google Analytics) on our website. We measure visitor behaviour through our own server-side analytics built on Google BigQuery; that processing is described in the Website Privacy Notice and does not rely on a third-party analytics cookie.
7. Marketing and attribution
7.1 First-party marketing-attribution cookies
These cookies are set by us, in our own name, on first-party domains. They capture campaign and click identifiers from the URL when you arrive at our site, so we can:
- understand which campaign or referrer sent you to us;
- attribute any subsequent enquiry or application to the right campaign;
- avoid double-counting the same enquiry against multiple campaigns; and
- detect anomalies in paid-advertising traffic patterns.
These cookies contain only campaign and click identifiers — they do not contain your name, email address, or anything you have typed into our site. They are set on arrival and do not require third-party scripts to run. You can clear them at any time using your browser's controls.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime | Set when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| io_fbc | iO-Sphere | Meta click identifier captured from the URL when you arrive from a Meta (Facebook or Instagram) advert. Used to attribute the visit to the right Meta campaign at form submission via the Meta Conversions API. | 90 days | First arrival from a Meta ad |
| io_fbp | iO-Sphere | First-party browser identifier used to associate your visits across pages for conversion measurement. Acts as a fallback identifier when the third-party Meta Pixel has not been loaded. | 90 days | First arrival |
| io_gclid | iO-Sphere | Google Ads click identifier captured from the URL when you arrive from a Google ad. Used to attribute conversions back to the right Google Ads campaign. | 90 days | First arrival from a Google ad |
| io_msclkid | iO-Sphere | Microsoft Advertising click identifier captured from the URL when you arrive from a Microsoft (Bing) ad. Used to attribute conversions back to the right Microsoft Advertising campaign. | 90 days | First arrival from a Microsoft ad |
| io_ttclid | iO-Sphere | TikTok click identifier captured from the URL when you arrive from a TikTok ad. Used to attribute the visit to the right TikTok campaign at form submission. | 90 days | First arrival from a TikTok ad |
| io_utm_source | iO-Sphere | Records the UTM source parameter from the URL (e.g. ‘google’, ‘linkedin’, ‘newsletter’) so we can attribute later activity to the right source. | 90 days | Arrival with a utm_source parameter |
| io_utm_medium | iO-Sphere | Records the UTM medium parameter (e.g. ‘cpc’, ‘email’, ‘social’). | 90 days | Arrival with a utm_medium parameter |
| io_utm_campaign | iO-Sphere | Records the UTM campaign name parameter. | 90 days | Arrival with a utm_campaign parameter |
| io_utm_term | iO-Sphere | Records the UTM term parameter (typically the keyword for paid search). | 90 days | Arrival with a utm_term parameter |
| io_utm_content | iO-Sphere | Records the UTM content parameter (typically the creative or variant within a campaign). | 90 days | Arrival with a utm_content parameter |
7.2 Third-party advertising cookies
Third-party advertising cookies are set by our advertising partners on our pages. We do not load the Meta Pixel or TikTok Pixel unless you have given consent to marketing cookies through our cookie banner. HubSpot's cookies, also listed below, are set when a HubSpot form embed loads on the page.
Meta Pixel
If you accept marketing cookies, we load the Meta Pixel script (from connect.facebook.net). Meta will then set the following cookies on the io-sphere.io domain:
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime | Set when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _fbp | Meta | Meta browser identifier used for advertising measurement and remarketing on Meta's platforms (Facebook, Instagram). | 90 days | When you accept marketing cookies |
| _fbc | Meta | Meta click identifier, set when you arrive at our site through a Meta advert (i.e. the URL contains a fbclid parameter) AND you accept marketing cookies. | 90 days | When you accept marketing cookies on a visit from a Meta ad |
TikTok Pixel
If you accept marketing cookies, we load the TikTok Pixel script (from analytics.tiktok.com). TikTok will then set the following cookies on the io-sphere.io domain to support conversion measurement and advertising on TikTok's platforms:
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime | Set when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| _ttp | TikTok | TikTok browser identifier used for advertising measurement and remarketing on TikTok. | 13 months | When you accept marketing cookies |
| _tt_enable_cookie | TikTok | Indicates that the TikTok Pixel is permitted to set cookies in this browser. | 13 months | When you accept marketing cookies |
| ttwid | TikTok | TikTok visitor identifier used for advertising measurement. | 1 year | When you accept marketing cookies |
| ttcsid | TikTok | TikTok session identifier supporting conversion measurement. | Browser session | When you accept marketing cookies |
| ttcsid_<pixel_id> | TikTok | Property-specific TikTok session identifier, suffixed with our TikTok pixel ID, supporting conversion measurement. | Browser session | When you accept marketing cookies |
HubSpot
Pages on our website that include a contact, enquiry, or application form (for example /contact-us, /data-analytics, our landing pages, and our apprenticeships pages) embed a HubSpot form. When the form loads, HubSpot sets the cookies below to support the form's functionality and to link a submission back to a visitor record. These cookies are set on .io-sphere.io. We use them to support our customer-relationship management; HubSpot uses them in accordance with its own privacy policy.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime | Set when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| __hstc | HubSpot | Tracks visitors for HubSpot analytics, including timestamps of first visit and last visit. | 6 months | When a page with a HubSpot form loads |
| __hssc | HubSpot | Indicates the current HubSpot session. | 30 minutes | When a page with a HubSpot form loads |
| __hssrc | HubSpot | Indicates that a HubSpot session has restarted in this browser. | Browser session | When a page with a HubSpot form loads |
| hubspotutk | HubSpot | HubSpot visitor token. Matches the visitor to a HubSpot contact record when a form is submitted. | 13 months | When a page with a HubSpot form loads |
8. Managing your preferences
You can manage your cookie preferences in two ways:
- Using our cookie banner:the cookie banner that appears the first time you visit our website offers two options — Accept All or Reject All. Accept All permits all the cookies described in this notice. Reject All means we do not load the third-party Meta Pixel or TikTok Pixel (Section 7.2). The strictly necessary cookies (Section 4) and the first-party attribution cookies (Section 7.1) are set regardless of your choice; HubSpot's cookies (Section 7.2) are set on any page that includes a HubSpot form, also regardless of your choice. Your selection is saved in your browser's local storage under the key
cookie-consentand respected on subsequent visits. You can reopen the banner at any time using the “Cookie preferences” link in our website footer. - Using your browser: you can configure your browser to refuse cookies, to alert you when cookies are set, or to clear cookies that have already been set. The way you do this depends on which browser you use; the help pages for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge all have step-by-step instructions.
If you reject non-essential cookies and similar technologies, some features of our website may behave differently. In particular, you may see less relevant advertising on other websites, and we may have less accurate information about how our marketing is performing.
9. Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Our website does not currently respond automatically to “Do Not Track” browser signals or to the Global Privacy Control specification. We rely on the cookie banner and your browser settings for the expression of preferences. If you would like us to respond to a specific preference, please contact dpo@io-sphere.io.
10. International transfers
Some of the cookies described in Section 7 are set by providers located outside the United Kingdom: Meta (United States and Ireland), TikTok (Ireland, with onward transfers to the United States and other jurisdictions where TikTok operates), and HubSpot (United States). Where personal data is transferred outside the United Kingdom as a result of these cookies, we rely on the same transfer mechanisms described in our Website Privacy Notice — typically the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses, or the UK extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the supplier is certified.
11. Changes to this notice
We review this notice at least every six months and whenever we add, remove, or materially change a cookie set on our website. The current version date is shown at the top of this page.
12. Contact
Questions about this notice should be sent to dpo@io-sphere.io, or by post to:
Data Protection Lead, iO-Sphere Limited, 102 Middlesex Street, London E1 7EZ.