Cookie Policy

What cookies are

Cookies are small text files a site stores in your browser; similar technologies include pixels (tiny images that report a page view), local storage, and scripts. They can be first-party (set by thegaygency.com) or third-party (set by a tool we run, like an analytics provider). "Session" cookies expire when you close the browser; "persistent" cookies last for a set period.

We use these technologies in three groups: essential, analytics, and advertising. Only the essential group runs without your consent.

Essential (always on)

These make the site work and cannot be switched off: the Termly consent manager's own cookies, which remember the choices you make so we can honor and prove them (persist about one year); hosting and security cookies from Vercel used for load balancing and abuse prevention (session); and short-lived state the booking flow needs, such as remembering a reservation while you pick a time slot.

Our forms also carry invisible anti-bot fields and timing checks. These are not cookies and store nothing in your browser; they only inspect the submission itself for automation.

Analytics (consent required)

Google Analytics 4 measures how the site is used — pages visited, how you arrived, what device you use — so we can improve it. Cookies: _ga and _ga_* (persist up to two years). Data is shared with Google as our processor; IP addresses are truncated by GA4's design.

We keep analytics retention at or below Google's defaults, and we do not use analytics data to identify you by name.

Advertising and audience tools (consent required)

Google Ads conversion tracking measures whether our ads led to a visit or booking. Cookies: _gcl_au and related (persist about ninety days).

Meta Pixel measures our Facebook and Instagram campaigns and can add your browser to advertising audiences on those platforms. Cookies: _fbp and, when you arrive from an ad, _fbc (persist about ninety days).

AudienceLab is a visitor-identification and audience-building tool: it can associate your visit with identifiers and identity data to help us understand and reach our audience. It uses cookies, local storage, and pixel scripts.

Because these tools disclose identifiers and activity to advertising companies, some state laws treat them as "sharing" or a "sale" of personal information. They stay off until you consent, and refusing them never blocks any feature of the site.

Embedded content

Guides on this site embed campaign videos using YouTube's privacy-enhanced player (youtube-nocookie.com), which is designed not to set advertising cookies until you press play. When you play a video, YouTube (Google) may set cookies and collect viewing data under its own policies.

Your choices

Consent banner: the first time you visit, the Termly banner asks what you allow. You can reopen it and change your answer at any time via the Consent Preferences link in the site footer area, and your new choice takes effect immediately.

Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends the GPC signal, we treat it as an opt-out of advertising cookies automatically.

Browser controls: every major browser lets you block or delete cookies; blocking essential cookies may break parts of the site.

Platform opt-outs: Google ad settings at adssettings.google.com, Meta ad preferences in your Facebook or Instagram settings, and industry opt-outs at optout.aboutads.info also limit how those companies use data about you.

Changes and contact

Tools and cookie lifetimes change; we review this list when we add or remove a tool and update the "Last updated" date above. Questions about cookies or this policy: use the contact form at thegaygency.com/contact.

For how the data behind these tools is used, shared, and kept, and the rights you have over it, read the Privacy Policy alongside this page.