Cookie Policy

1Introduction

This Cookie Policy explains how URBYN (Pty) Ltd ("URBYN", "we", "our" or "us") uses cookies and similar technologies when you visit www.urbyn.co.za.

One thing is always on and is not part of the choice. It is a note your browser keeps of the answer you give us, together with the version of this Policy you were shown, so that we do not have to ask you again on every page. It is not a cookie, it is not used for advertising or analytics, and it is not sent to us. The website itself needs nothing stored on your device in order to work.

Everything else is optional, and we ask you once, the first time you visit. A banner appears with two buttons: Essentials only, and Accept all. Essentials only refuses both optional purposes; Accept all agrees to both. If you would rather decide them one at a time, a link on the banner opens three switches: the essential one, which is always on and cannot be turned off, and the other two, which are yours to set — analytics, and advertising.

Analytics covers Google Analytics, which shows us how visitors move through the site. Advertising covers two things together: measuring which of our adverts brought someone to the site, and letting Google show URBYN adverts to you again on other websites and apps. Both are described in more detail in sections 3 and 4.

The two are independent. You may switch one on and leave the other off, and refusing either changes nothing about the website. The whole site, including booking an inspection, works exactly the same.

Nothing optional is stored on your device unless you allow it. Continuing to browse is not an answer, and we do not treat it as one.

You may change your mind at any time. Press the Cookie preferences button at the foot of any page and the banner comes back, so you can change your answer or set the two switches one at a time. What that does is set out in section 5.

Your choice decides what Google may store and use. It does not decide whether Google is contacted at all: the Google tag loads on every page, for every visitor, before anyone is asked anything. This is explained in full in section 4A.

2What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device when you visit a website.

They help websites remember information about your visit, improve functionality, enhance security and provide a better browsing experience.

Some cookies are used to tell one visitor apart from another. Where a cookie does that, we treat it as personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), the South African law that governs personal information. Which cookies do that is set out in sections 4 and 4A.

3How URBYN Uses Cookies

URBYN may use cookies and similar technologies to:

• •Remember the answer you give on the cookie banner.
• •Keep the website working correctly and securely.
• •Remember other choices you make, such as website settings.

We set no cookie of our own for any of these. The only thing we store on your device without asking is the note of your answer, and that is not a cookie.

If you switch analytics on, we also use cookies to understand how visitors move through the site and which pages they use.

If you switch advertising on, we also use cookies to:

• •Measure whether someone who clicked one of our adverts went on to make a booking request.
• •Show URBYN adverts to people who have already visited this website, on other websites and apps in Google's advertising network. This is called remarketing.

The analytics cookies are Google's, set through Google Analytics. The advertising cookies are Google's too, set through Google Ads. Both are described in section 4, and section 4A explains what the Google tag does whatever you choose.

There are three things we do not do. We do not sell your personal information. We do not use these cookies to find out who you are. And we set no advertising or analytics cookie unless you switch it on: if you leave a switch off, or have not yet answered, none of them are placed on your device.

4Types of Cookies We May Use

Essential Cookies

We set no essential cookies. The website needs nothing stored on your device in order to work, including booking an inspection.

The one thing we do store without asking is not a cookie. It is a note kept in your browser recording the answer you gave on the cookie banner and the version of this Policy you gave it under, so that you are not asked again on every page. It is never sent to us and it is used for nothing else.

Analytics Cookies

These are Google Analytics cookies. They are optional. They are set only if you switch analytics on, and if you switch it off, or have not yet answered, none of them are set.

They tell us how visitors use the website so that we can improve it: which pages are opened, in what order, and how long people stay.

This is not only a total count. With your permission, Google Analytics stores a code on your device that tells one browser apart from another, so that several visits from the same browser are counted as one returning visitor rather than several new ones.

Two cookies are used, both set on urbyn.co.za:

• •_ga, which tells one visitor apart from another.
• •_ga_98Q6TELGP1, which keeps track of your current visit. The letters and numbers at the end identify our Google Analytics account.

Google sets both to last up to two years, counted from your most recent visit. Browsers shorten that themselves, and we do not control it. Chrome will not keep a cookie of this kind for more than 400 days, and Safari deletes it after seven days if you do not return before then.

Your browser sends Google your internet address whenever it contacts Google, as it does with any website, and Google uses it to work out an approximate location, such as the city. Google states that it does not log or store internet addresses in Google Analytics.

Google explains how it collects and uses information from websites that use its services on its own page, How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services, at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Functional Cookies

These cookies remember choices you make, such as language preferences or other website settings, to provide a more personalised experience.

Advertising Cookies

These are Google's cookies, set through Google Ads. They are optional. They are set only if you switch advertising on, and if you switch it off, or have not yet answered, none of them are set.

They do two things, not one:

• •They let Google match a click on one of our adverts to a booking request made afterwards, so that we can tell which adverts are worth paying for.
• •They let Google recognise your browser later and show you URBYN adverts on other websites and apps in Google's advertising network. This is called remarketing.

On urbyn.co.za, Google's tag sets a cookie called _gcl_au. It records that an advert click brought you here, and it lasts 90 days. Where our Google Analytics account is linked to our Google Ads account, Google also stores a cookie here whose name begins _gac_, for 90 days, and a short-lived one called FPLC that lasts about 20 hours, for the same purpose.

On Google's own websites, including google.com and doubleclick.net, Google stores its own cookies under its own policies. We can remove some of these and not others, as section 5 explains.

We do not send Google the details you type into our booking form, and we do not upload customer contact details to Google.

Third-Party Cookies

Some features on our website may rely on third-party service providers, such as payment processors.

The only third party that sets cookies on this website is Google, through Google Analytics and Google Ads, as described above.

These providers may place their own cookies in accordance with their own privacy and cookie policies.

4AThe Google Tag on Our Website

Every page on urbyn.co.za loads a small piece of software from Google, called a tag.

It loads for everyone, on every page, before we ask you anything and whatever you answer. Your choice does not decide whether Google is contacted. It decides what Google is allowed to store, and what it is allowed to do with what it receives.

We use the tag for three things:

• •Google Analytics, which tells us how visitors move through the site.
• •Google Ads conversion measurement, which tells us which of our adverts led to a booking request.
• •Google Ads remarketing, which lets Google show URBYN adverts to people who have already visited this website, on other websites and apps in Google's advertising network.

Before you answer

Until you answer, the tag arrives already instructed to store nothing. It writes no cookie on your device and reads nothing from it. The same is true for as long as you leave both optional switches off.

If you switch analytics on

Google Analytics may then store cookies on urbyn.co.za that tell one browser apart from another, so that several visits from the same browser are counted as one returning visitor rather than several new ones. Those cookies, and how long they last, are listed in section 4.

If you switch advertising on

Google may then store and read advertising cookies, match a click on one of our adverts to a booking request made afterwards, and use your visit to show you URBYN adverts on other websites and apps in its advertising network.

Cookies are then set both on urbyn.co.za and on Google's own websites, including google.com and doubleclick.net. We can remove some of those and not others, as section 5 explains.

The two switches are independent. You may turn one on and leave the other off.

If you leave them off

Turning a switch off does not make you invisible to Google.

With analytics off, no analytics cookie is set and nothing is read from your device. Google Analytics is still sent a signal each time you open a page. It carries no cookie, and nothing in it joins one page view to the next, or one visit to another. Google uses signals like these to estimate how much traffic a website has.

With advertising off, no advertising cookie is set and nothing is read from your device. We still send Google Ads a signal when something we count happens, such as a booking request being submitted successfully. It carries no cookie and no advert-click identifier, so it cannot be matched to the advert you clicked, or joined to your other visits. Like every request your browser makes to any website, it still carries your internet address, the kind of browser you are using and the address of the page you are on. The booking-request signal is sent when the request reaches us, which is before any payment.

You do not have to switch either of them on. If you leave both off, the whole website works exactly as it otherwise would, including booking an inspection. Nothing is withheld from you. All we lose is some of our own counting.

If you change your mind

Withdrawing puts you back where you started. The tag is told to store nothing again, the cookies our own site set for that purpose are deleted, and your later page views and booking requests send the same signals as those of someone who has never answered.

It does not reach backwards. Cookies Google has already set on its own websites stay where they are, and if Google has already added you to an advertising audience, withdrawing here does not take you out of it. How to withdraw, and how to reach those cookies through your browser, is set out in section 5.

What a cookie-free signal still carries

Every request your browser makes to any website carries your internet address (also called your IP address), the kind of browser you are using and the address of the page you are on. Requests to Google are no exception. What a cookie-free signal does not do is let Google tie that visit to a person, or join it to your other visits.

Under POPIA an internet address can be personal information. URBYN treats the identifiers set by its advertising and analytics tags as personal information under POPIA.

Google's two roles, and where the information goes

For advertising, Google decides for itself what it does with the information it receives, and answers for that itself, under its own privacy policy. For Google Analytics, Google handles the information on our instruction.

This information goes to Google outside South Africa, and Google may process it in any country where it or its suppliers have premises. South African law does not treat any other country as automatically providing an equivalent level of protection, and Google's standard terms contain no safeguard written for South Africa. So we cannot promise you that it has the same protection once it leaves the country.

Where you switch a purpose on, what we rely on to send that information is your consent. That is one of the reasons the choice has to be yours to make rather than ours to assume.

Some information reaches Google before you answer and whatever you answer, because the tag loads on every page and our fonts are loaded from Google too. That is limited to what any request to any website carries, described above, and it cannot be declined while we load those two things from Google. Our Privacy Policy says more about information processed outside South Africa.

4BFonts, and Why They Are Not Part of This Choice

Our pages are displayed in fonts that your browser fetches from Google as each page loads. This is not the tag described in section 4A, it is not a cookie, and it stores nothing on your device.

It happens on nearly every page of this website, for every visitor, before any question is asked, and you cannot switch it off while we load our fonts from Google.

It does disclose your internet address and the browser you are using to Google, and that information goes outside South Africa. Our Privacy Policy says more about it.

5Managing Cookies

There are two ways to manage cookies on this website. Each one reaches different cookies.

On this website

A Cookie preferences button sits at the foot of every page. The website puts it there itself, so it is present unless you have turned JavaScript off in your browser. Press it and the banner comes back, so you can turn advertising or analytics on or off, or take back an answer you have already given.

Turning a switch off does two things. It tells Google's tag to stop storing and using information for that purpose, and it deletes the cookies set for that purpose on urbyn.co.za. Your other answer stands, and we keep it.

Taking back your answer altogether does a third thing as well. It forgets what you told us, so the banner asks you again on your next page.

Either takes effect immediately, in the browser you are using. Neither needs an email, a written request or any proof of who you are.

Your answer is kept in your own browser. It is not sent to us and we keep no copy of it.

Withdrawing works forwards, not backwards. It stops further use. It does not undo what Google has already received, and it does not remove you from an advertising audience you have already been added to. Information Google already holds is governed by Google's own policies.

Cookies stored on Google's own domains cannot be removed by URBYN.

If we change this Cookie Policy, any answer already given lapses and we ask you again. Your answer applies only to the version of this Policy you were shown.

If you would rather ask us, or you object to us using your information for advertising at all, email info@urbyn.co.za.

In your browser

Browser settings are the second route, and they matter for two reasons. They are the only way to reach the cookies Google has stored on its own websites. And they are the only route if you have turned JavaScript off, because the website needs it to put the Cookie preferences button on the page.

Most web browsers allow you to:

• •View stored cookies.
• •Delete existing cookies.
• •Block all cookies.
• •Block cookies from specific websites.
• •Receive notifications before cookies are stored.

You can also manage Google's own advertising cookies at Google's Ads Settings page, adssettings.google.com. The Network Advertising Initiative, a body that many advertising companies belong to, offers a wider opt-out covering all of them at www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

Blocking cookies in your browser will not stop you using this website or booking an inspection. It may mean the cookie banner comes back each time you visit, because the note of your answer is kept in your browser too.

6Changes to This Policy

URBYN may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our website, technology or legal obligations.

The latest version will always be published on our website.

7Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding this Cookie Policy or how URBYN uses cookies, please contact us:

URBYN (Pty) Ltd

Registration Number: 2025/684427/07

Website: www.urbyn.co.za

Email: info@urbyn.co.za

Telephone: +27 69 055 1241

14 Sandpiper Place, Hout Bay, Cape Town, Western Cape, 7806