Cookies
A cookie is a small note a website asks your browser to keep, so it can recognise you from one page to the next. This page lists every cookie this site sets, why, and for how long. None of them track you.
Why there is no consent banner
Consent is needed for cookies that track you. This site sets none.
Page views are counted without a cookie and **without storing your IP address**. To tell five visitors from fifty, we keep a scrambled code made from your connection and browser, which changes every day — so yesterday's visits cannot be linked to today's, and the code cannot be turned back into your IP address.
The cookies below are strictly necessary: they keep you signed in, stop forms being sent from other websites in your name, and complete the sign-in you asked for. Cookies like these do not need consent under the European ePrivacy rules or their UK equivalent, so there is nothing to ask you about.
The cookies
| Cookie | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|
PHPSESSID |
The sign-in cookie. Keeps you signed in to your account or your panel, and carries the code that stops forms being sent from other websites | Up to a day; you are signed out sooner after 8 hours without using it |
mo_oauth |
Only if you use Continue with Google, Microsoft or Apple: links the sign-in you started here to the answer that comes back | 10 minutes |
mrd_sandbox |
Only on the demo studio: keeps your own private copy of the demo while you try it | 7 days (the copy itself is reset after 30 minutes unused) |
mrd_no_stats |
Records that you asked not to be counted. Only set if you opt out | One year |
mrd_preview |
No longer set. It belonged to the style previewer, which has been retired; if your browser still holds one from an earlier visit, it expires on its own | — |
That is the complete list for this site. No advertising cookies, no third-party cookies, no tracking pixels. When you pay, Stripe may set its own cookies on its checkout pages, under Stripe's own privacy policy — none of them are set here.
Photographers' own websites
Everything above is about this site. Client galleries, booking pages and photographers' own websites set a few cookies of their own to keep a gallery visitor's favourites and access together; the photographer is responsible for those.
A photographer can also add Google Analytics to their own website (in Website → Site settings, on the Analytics tab). If they do, Google's tracking cookies are set on that website from the first page a visitor opens. Meridian does not show a cookie notice or consent banner on the photographer's website when they do this, so it is up to the photographer to:
- say in their own privacy notice that they use Google Analytics, and
- ask visitors' permission first where the law requires it. Whether it does depends on where their visitors are: visitors in the UK or Europe, for example, generally have to agree before tracking cookies are set.
If you are a photographer and are not sure, the simplest choice is to leave Analytics id empty. Your studio already counts gallery visits and downloads for you without any of this (see insights).
Ask not to be counted
You do not have to, and it makes no difference to how the site works.
If your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, we already honour it and you are not being counted.
Otherwise, open the cookie preferences page on this site, untick Count my visits, and press Save preference. That sets one cookie — mrd_no_stats — which exists only to remember that you asked. It is the only way to remember a preference without signing in. Tick the box again to remove it.
Turning cookies off in your browser
You can block or delete cookies in your browser's settings. If you block the sign-in cookie you will not be able to sign in or complete a purchase, because there is no other way for the site to know one page visit came from the same person as the last.
Questions
Raise a support ticket and we will answer. Our privacy notice covers everything else we hold.