Cookies and trackers
Cookie policy
1. What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text file placed on your device (computer, smartphone, tablet) when you visit a website. It allows the site to remember information about your visit: language preferences, items in your basket, login sessions, or browsing data for analytics purposes.
Cookies contain no viruses and cannot access the files stored on your device.
2. Types of cookies used
The site apexstudioworks.com sorts cookies into four categories, the ones you find in the “Manage your preferences” panel of the consent banner.
Strictly necessary
Essential to the operation of the site, they cannot be disabled and do not require your consent. They handle your session, your basket, your account login and your language preferences.
Personalisation
They remember your actions in order to adapt your next visit.
Advertising
They are used to measure and personalise commercial communications, including on other sites.
Analytics
They help us understand how you use the site in order to improve it.
The last three categories are placed only after your explicit consent. You may accept or refuse them separately.
3. Detailed list of cookies
With your consent to analytics, we use Google Analytics 4 and Microsoft Clarity to understand journeys through our store. We measure page visits, opening the configurator, configurations added to the cart, payment choices and interactions with our help content and forms. Google measurement also includes interactions with Merchant Center listings.
Microsoft Clarity allows us to study interactions and session recordings. Input fields and free text displayed in cart configuration blocks and contact blocks are masked. Microsoft receives the data collected through Clarity and acts as an independent data controller for the purposes described in its privacy statement, including Microsoft Advertising. The processing and trackers permitted depend on your consent choices.
With your consent to advertising, the Google & YouTube app enables Google Ads conversion measurement. Its enhanced conversions feature may send Google information provided when ordering, such as an email address or phone number, after hashing. Google uses this information to match the order with an advertising interaction. This information remains personal data.
With your consent to advertising, the Facebook & Instagram app and the Apex pixel send Meta the pages and products you view, cart additions, configurator openings, contact requests, sign-ups to our emails and orders with their amount. When you place an order, your email address, phone number, name and location may be sent after hashing, to match the order with an ad seen on Facebook or Instagram. This information remains personal data.
With your consent to advertising, the ChatGPT Ads pixel sends OpenAI the pages viewed, the products viewed or added to the cart, the start of checkout, the amount of an order, contact requests and sign-ups, in order to measure the effectiveness of our ads in ChatGPT. If you arrive on the site from one of these ads, the click identifier provided by OpenAI is kept for thirty days in the _apex_oppref cookie. No email address or readable order number is sent to OpenAI, which acts as an independent data controller for this data, under its privacy policy.
Omnisend remembers your form display preferences and, depending on your cookie choices, may recognise a contact and track pages or the cart to personalise forms and marketing communications. Omnisend cookie tracking waits for your consent. Signing up for commercial communications is a separate choice.
The table lists the main trackers that may be used depending on your choices and the features you visit. Your browser may limit their lifespan or prevent some cookies from being set. Analytics and advertising cookies follow your choices for these categories.
| Category or function | Tracker | Provider | Purpose | Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Necessary | localization | Shopify | cart country | 1 year |
| Necessary | cart_currency | Shopify | cart currency | 2 weeks |
| Necessary | cart | Shopify | keep the cart | 2 weeks by default; may reach 3 months in the cart journey observed |
| Necessary | _shopify_essential | Shopify | session, checkout and security | 1 year |
| Necessary | _shopify_test | Shopify | browser compatibility | 1 minute |
| Analytics | _shopify_analytics, _shopify_y | Shopify | visit statistics | 1 year |
| Analytics | _shopify_s | Shopify | analytics session | 30 minutes, renewed with use |
| Advertising | _shopify_marketing | Shopify | marketing context | 1 year |
| Analytics | _ga, _ga_* | browser and session measurement | up to 2 years, subject to browser limits | |
| Analytics | _clck | Microsoft Clarity | link visits | 1 year |
| Analytics | _clsk | Microsoft Clarity | group pages into a session | 24 hours |
| Form preferences | omnisend-form-*-closed-at, omnisend-form-*-filled-at, omnisend-form-*-teaser-closed-at | Omnisend | remember form dismissal or completion | 365 days |
| Marketing tracking and personalisation | omnisendContactID | Omnisend | recognise a contact | 365 days |
| Marketing tracking and personalisation | omnisendSessionID | Omnisend | track a session | 30 minutes of inactivity |
| Marketing tracking and personalisation | page-views, omnisendShopifyCart | Omnisend | session activity and cart | session |
| Advertising, depending on consent and context | _gcl_* | link a conversion to an advertising interaction | 90 days | |
| Advertising, depending on consent and context | IDE, id | ad delivery and preferences | 13 months in the EEA, UK and Switzerland; 24 months elsewhere | |
| Advertising, depending on consent and context | DSID | respect advertising preferences of a signed-in account | 2 weeks | |
| Advertising | _fbp | Meta | identify the browser to measure and deliver our Facebook and Instagram ads | 90 days |
| Advertising | _fbc | Meta | remember the click on a Facebook or Instagram ad that led to the visit | 90 days |
| Advertising, depending on consent and context | fr | Meta | ad delivery and measurement linked to a Facebook or Instagram account | 90 days |
| Advertising | _apex_oppref | OpenAI (ChatGPT Ads), set by Apex Studio | link an order to a click on a ChatGPT ad | 30 days |
Clarity may also use third-party Microsoft cookies, including CLID, MUID, MR, SM and ANONCHK, to identify or synchronise a browser and manage the service context. Their presence depends on consent and the browser. Details are provided in the Clarity cookie documentation and Microsoft privacy statement. Google advertising tracker details are provided in Google documentation. Meta tracker details are provided in Meta's cookie policy.
Apex browser storage
With your consent to analytics or advertising, Apex tools also use browser storage. Two session markers link a cart addition or contact to the preceding action, with a ten-minute validity in the relevant tab. A history limited to the last fifty payment identifiers prevents the same order from being counted twice. Entries older than ninety days are removed the next time this history is processed. These markers contain only the technical references needed for these functions.
4. Consent and management of your preferences
On your first visit to apexstudioworks.com, a consent banner is presented to you. You may accept or refuse the optional cookies. Strictly necessary cookies are placed regardless of your choice, as they are essential to the operation of the site.
You may change your preferences at any time:
- Directly below, in the “Manage my preferences” module
- From the consent banner, through the “Manage your preferences” link, which lets you accept or refuse each category separately
- By deleting the site's cookies from your browser settings
- By writing to us at info@apexstudioworks.com
Manage my preferences
Refusing is as simple as accepting: both choices are presented at the same level, in the banner as here, and refusing has no consequence on your browsing or on your order.
Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out before it.
5. Management through your browser
Every browser offers its own cookie management settings. Here are the direct links to the official guides:
| Google Chrome | support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647 |
| Mozilla Firefox | support.mozilla.org |
| Safari | support.apple.com |
| Microsoft Edge | support.microsoft.com |
Disabling certain cookies may affect the operation of the site, in particular the basket and the customer account login.
6. Retention period
Each cookie's lifespan is shown in the table above. It depends on the tracker, service settings and browser limits. A cookie may be renewed during a later visit. You can change your choice using ‘Manage my cookies’ and delete cookies in your browser settings. Browsing and ordering remain available when you reject analytics or advertising. Withdrawing analytics consent stops the Apex pixel from sending new analytics events.
Data retention by analytics tools is separate from cookie lifespan: GA4 user and event data are retained for fourteen months under our setting. Clarity retains session recordings for thirty days; flagged or favourite sessions, click data and heatmaps may be retained for nine months. Aggregated reports may follow different retention rules.
7. Changes
Apex Studio reserves the right to amend this policy at any time, in particular when new features or applications are added to the site. The version in force is the one published on this page, dated in the header.
For any question relating to cookies, contact us at info@apexstudioworks.com.