Cookie Policy

Version: 1.0 — Draft | Prepared: 27 October 2026

Draft — pending legal and technical verification. This policy records findings from a limited browser and source-code check. It is not a completed audit of all pages, devices, third-party requests or production services. Cookie purposes, providers and durations must be verified before this policy is finalised.

1. Who We Are

SMEChatbot.com is a trading name of Empirical Management Consulting Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 06510103.

Registered office: Please refer to our Companies House record for the current registered office.

2. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that websites or services can place on a browser or device. They may support functions such as security, fraud prevention, remembering settings or measuring usage. Similar technologies include local storage and other browser identifiers.

3. Cookies on Our Website

In an initial test of the public SMEChatbot.com homepage using a fresh Chrome Incognito session, no cookies or local-storage entries were observed for the website domain. A limited search of website files also found no references to several common analytics and advertising scripts. These observations do not establish that no cookies or similar technologies are ever used.

The chatbot shown on the homepage at the time of this review is a visual demonstration, not a live chat service. Any future operational chatbot will require a separate review of its storage and tracking behaviour.

4. Cookies Encountered During Stripe Checkout

Customers who select a package may be redirected to a payment page hosted by Stripe. During a test of Stripe's Sandbox Checkout, the following cookies were observed. Cookie domains and exact behaviour can vary with payment method, region, browser and Stripe configuration.

Cookie	Observed context	Likely purpose (to verify)
`__stripe_mid`	Stripe-hosted Checkout	Payment security and fraud prevention
`__stripe_sid`	Stripe-hosted Checkout	Payment-session security and fraud prevention
`_cf_bm`	hCaptcha-related domain loaded during Checkout	Automated-traffic or bot protection
`hmt_id`	`api.hcaptcha.com` during Checkout	Anti-abuse or browser identification; exact function to verify

Verification needed: Confirm each cookie's exact provider, purpose, category and lifespan against current vendor documentation and a production-browser audit. No expiry duration is asserted here because it has not yet been validated.

5. Essential and Optional Cookies

Cookies genuinely necessary to provide a service requested by the user or to protect a payment transaction may be exempt from the usual consent requirement under applicable UK rules. Whether a particular cookie qualifies depends on its actual function, not merely its name or provider.

Non-essential analytics, advertising or other tracking technologies generally require consent before they are used. At the time of the initial audit, no such tracking was identified on the homepage, but this finding must be reviewed if the website changes.

6. Third-Party Payment Services

Stripe operates the hosted Checkout page and may use its own cookies and related security technologies. Third-party content used in Checkout, including bot-protection services, may also store cookies. Stripe's handling of data on its hosted payment pages is described in its own privacy and cookie information.

See Stripe's Privacy Policy for further information. The presence of a third-party cookie does not, by itself, establish whether consent is required.

7. Managing Cookies

You can inspect, block or delete cookies through your browser's privacy settings. Restricting cookies required for payment security or checkout functionality may prevent a transaction from working correctly.

If SMEChatbot.com introduces non-essential cookies or similar technologies that require consent, we will implement an appropriate consent mechanism before enabling them.

8. Other Personal Data

Cookies are only one part of how personal information may be processed. For details about customer enquiries, payment information, service delivery and individual rights, see our Privacy Policy.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy when website functionality, payment services, tracking technologies or applicable requirements change. The version and date at the top of this page will be updated when the policy is revised.

10. Contact

Questions about cookies or privacy can be sent to info@smechatbot.com.

Empirical Management Consulting Ltd, trading as SMEChatbot.com. Registered in England and Wales, company number 06510103.