Cookie Policy
We set the cookies the site needs to work, and one more only if you say yes to it.
Last updated
A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to keep. Most sites use them to follow you around the internet. We use one to remember that you are signed in.
What we set
- mesteel_token — your sign-in session. Set when you log in, cleared when you log out. It lasts 8 hours, or 30 days if you tick "remember me". It is marked httpOnly, so scripts on the page cannot read it.
- googtrans — the language you chose with the globe button at the top of the page, so the next page opens in it. Set only when you pick a language other than English, removed when you switch back, and kept for a year. Your browser keeps a copy of the same choice in its own storage.
- mes_consent — your answer to the cookie bar, so we stop asking. Set when you press Accept or Decline, lasts 12 months, and holds one word: granted or denied.
- _ga, _ga_* — Google Analytics, and only after you accept. They count a visit and tell one visit from the next. Decline, and these are never set.
That is the list. Until you answer the bar at the foot of the page, the only cookies this site sets are the sign-in one, once you sign in, and the language one, once you choose a language.
Reading the site in another language
The globe button translates the page with Google Translate. Nothing is sent to Google until you open the language list or have already chosen a language: then your browser loads Google's translation script, and the text of the page you are reading is sent to Google to be translated. Google may set cookies of its own when it does, and its policy applies to them. Company names, contact details and prices are marked so that they are never translated. Choose English to stop.
What we do not set
No advertising cookies. No retargeting pixels. No social media trackers. Nothing that follows you to another website — the analytics above counts pages on this one and has its advertising features switched off.
Banner advertising on this site is served by us and counted by us. An impression is recorded against the campaign, not against you, and no cookie is involved.
Turning them off
Your browser can block or delete cookies from its settings. Blocking ours means you will not be able to stay signed in — everything you can read without an account will still work.
Other people's content
Our news pages carry news from our own newsroom. Where a news item embeds something hosted elsewhere, that provider may set its own cookies, and their policy applies to it.
Questions: Contact us.