1. Two different things

This page covers two separate subjects, and it is worth knowing which one you are reading about.

Sections 2 to 5 describe what this website, www.vitalsentinel.com, stores in your browser. This is the part the banner asks you about.
Section 6 describes what our tracking scripts store on our customers' websites. If you arrived here from a notice on somebody else's site, that is the section you want.

2. Before you choose anything

Before you answer the banner, we store nothing in your browser and read nothing from it. We do still count the page view and measure how fast the page loaded, because both of those are worked out on our servers from the request your browser already sends. Nothing of ours is written to your device to make it happen. The exceptions are the anti-abuse check on two of our free tool pages and anything Cloudflare's own network layer sets while serving this site. Neither is ours, and both are described in Section 3.

Our own scripts do read three things from the browser without storing anything: the window height while you scroll, so we can work out how far down the page you got; whether the browser reports itself as automated, so we can filter out bots; and whether you have set a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control preference, so that we can honor it. None of those values is transmitted.

3. What we store, item by item

Name	Type	Set when	Lasts	Purpose
`vs_cookie_consent`	Local storage	As soon as you answer the banner	Until you withdraw it or clear your browser storage	Your answer to the cookie banner, the time you gave it, and the version of the purposes it was given against. Stored so we do not ask again.
`vs_vid, vs_vid_exp`	Local storage	Only after you accept	180 days	A random visitor identifier and its expiry date, so a returning visit is recognized as the same visit rather than a new one.
`vs_sid`	Local storage	Only after you accept	30 minutes of inactivity	A session identifier grouping the pages of one visit.
`vs_fv, vs_fa`	Local storage	Only after you accept	Until you withdraw your choice or clear your browser storage	The timestamp of your first visit and the source that first brought you here, so we can tell which channels bring people who come back.

vs_cookie_consent

Your answer to the cookie banner, the time you gave it, and the version of the purposes it was given against. Stored so we do not ask again.

Type:: Local storage
Set when:: As soon as you answer the banner
Lasts:: Until you withdraw it or clear your browser storage

vs_vid, vs_vid_exp

A random visitor identifier and its expiry date, so a returning visit is recognized as the same visit rather than a new one.

Type:: Local storage
Set when:: Only after you accept
Lasts:: 180 days

vs_sid

A session identifier grouping the pages of one visit.

Type:: Local storage
Set when:: Only after you accept
Lasts:: 30 minutes of inactivity

vs_fv, vs_fa

The timestamp of your first visit and the source that first brought you here, so we can tell which channels bring people who come back.

Type:: Local storage
Set when:: Only after you accept
Lasts:: Until you withdraw your choice or clear your browser storage

We also use Ahrefs Web Analytics to see which pages on this marketing site get read. It is a third-party script and it is not part of the application, so it receives nothing about your account or any website you monitor with us.

Two of our free tools, the Raw vs Rendered comparison and the Cookie Scanner, show a Cloudflare Turnstile check before they will run. Its script is loaded from challenges.cloudflare.com as soon as one of those two pages opens, so your browser contacts Cloudflare directly and Cloudflare receives your IP address and examines your browser in order to tell a person from a script. Your IP address is sent to Cloudflare a second time, from our side, when we verify the answer. The check is there to stop automated abuse of the two tools that cost us money every time they run, not to measure you, which is why it loads whether or not you have answered the banner. We store nothing of our own on your device on those pages; what the Cloudflare script itself does is governed by Cloudflare's own terms. Because that script is theirs and not ours, we cannot list here what it stores on your device, and we do not read it. The same limit applies site-wide: this site is served through Cloudflare's network, so Cloudflare's own protective layer may set something of its own on any page. That is Cloudflare acting as our hosting provider under its own terms; it plays no part in what we measure and we do not read it.

4. What accepting and declining do

Accept raises our own Web Analytics script to its "persistent" level. It stores the identifiers in the table above, so a visit next week is recognized as the same person rather than a new one.

Decline keeps everything at the default level: nothing is stored on or read from your device storage, and any identifiers stored from a previous acceptance are cleared. It does not stop measurement altogether, and we would rather say so than let you infer otherwise. We still count the page view and still collect page performance data for that visit, grouped under a server-side identifier that is scoped to this site and regenerated regularly, so it cannot connect your visits across days or to any other site.

Whichever you choose, we record the answer, the time you gave it, and the version of the purposes it was given against. If we ever change what we are asking for, that version changes and we ask you again rather than treating your old answer as covering something new.

5. Changing or withdrawing your choice

There is a Cookie choices link at the bottom of every page on this site. Clicking it deletes the record of your answer, drops our scripts back to the default level, and reopens the banner so you can answer again. Withdrawing is meant to be exactly as easy as accepting was, which is what Article 7(3) of the GDPR requires.

You can also clear the entries yourself from your browser's storage settings, or use your browser's private browsing mode, which discards everything when you close the window.

Withdrawal applies from that point onward. It stops further collection and clears what was stored on your device; it does not retroactively unmake measurements already collected. If you want those removed as well, that is an erasure request – email privacy@vitalsentinel.com.

6. Our tracking scripts on other people's websites

If you landed here from a cookie notice on a website that uses VitalSentinel, this section is for you. What that site stores depends on a setting its operator chose.

"none" – the default. Nothing is written to or read from your device storage. No cookie, no local storage, no session storage, no IndexedDB.
"session". A session identifier (vs_sid) in session storage, cleared when you close the browser.
"persistent". The same local storage entries listed in Section 3, with the visitor identifier lasting 180 days. In this mode only, and only where the operator has configured a cookie domain in order to track across their subdomains, a vs_vid cookie is also set with a 180-day lifetime. That cookie is the only one our tracking scripts ever set. Signing in to the application at app.vitalsentinel.com also sets cookies, but those keep you logged in and are unrelated to tracking.

Our RUM script stores nothing on your device at any of these levels.

Raising the level above the default requires the website operator to obtain your consent first. That is their obligation, not ours, because they decide what to collect and why. If you want collection stopped on a particular site, contact its operator.

Whatever that site's banner says, a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal from your browser wins. If you send one, we resolve no visitor or session identity for you and run no engagement measurement, even if the site's consent tool tells us you accepted. Your page view is still counted.

7. Questions

Email privacy@vitalsentinel.com. For the wider picture, see our Privacy Policy and the list of sub-processors who receive data.

Cookie Policy