Cookie policy
Last updated: 27 August 2026
1. In short
SprinklerMap uses only two categories of things that write to your device. Necessary cookies make the site work and are not negotiable. Advertising and analytics cookies — Google AdSense, Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity — are the only thing we ask you about, and we load them only if you say yes.
Until you choose, none of those scripts is loaded at all. It is not that we show you less targeted ads or coarser statistics: we show no ads, we measure nothing, and neither Google nor Microsoft receives any request from your browser.
2. Necessary cookies
They keep you signed in, remember the language you picked and store your cookie choice itself. The site does not work without them, so they need no consent and cannot be switched off here: you can only block them in your browser settings, accepting that the site will stop behaving as intended.
Some of these are not technically cookies but localStorage entries. Legally that changes nothing — it is still a write to your device — so we list them alongside the rest.
| Name | Type | Set by | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| sm_consent | Cookie | SprinklerMap | 6 months | Stores your cookie choice and the identifier of the record in our consent log. |
| jwt | localStorage | SprinklerMap | Until sign-out | Keeps you signed in without asking for credentials on every page. |
| user_data | localStorage | SprinklerMap | Until sign-out | Name, email and profile identifier, so the interface can show them. |
| selected_language, manual_language_selection, i18nextLng | localStorage | SprinklerMap | Persistent | Remembers the language you picked instead of resetting it every visit. |
| lang_banner_dismissed | localStorage | SprinklerMap | Persistent | Stops the language-switch notice you already dismissed from coming back. |
| sprinklermap:unit-system | localStorage | SprinklerMap | Persistent | Remembers whether you work in metres or feet. |
3. Advertising and analytics cookies (only with your consent)
SprinklerMap is free and pays for itself with Google AdSense. If you consent, your browser loads the Google script, which may set the cookies listed below to serve ads, avoid showing you the same ad ten times, measure results and spot fraudulent clicks. With consent active, ads may also be personalised to your interests.
In the "Cookie settings" panel you can choose each of these three tools independently: AdSense ads, Google Analytics 4 (which counts visits and the paths taken between pages) and Microsoft Clarity (which produces anonymous heatmaps and session recordings). Accepting one does not mean accepting the other two.
If you refuse, none of this happens and none of these cookies are created. You can change your mind whenever you like from the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page.
Google acts as an independent controller for advertising. How it uses data collected on its partners’ sites is described at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
| Name | Type | Set by | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| __gads | Cookie | Google (google.com) | 13 months | Measures ad performance and limits how often you see the same ad. |
| __gpi | Cookie | Google (google.com) | 13 months | Identifier used for ad personalisation. |
| IDE | Cookie | Google (doubleclick.net) | 13 months | Links an ad impression to later actions in order to measure its effectiveness. |
| test_cookie | Cookie | Google (doubleclick.net) | 15 minutes | Only checks whether the browser accepts cookies. |
| Anti-fraud signals | Network requests | Google (adtrafficquality.google) | Session | Detects invalid ad traffic and fraudulent clicks. |
| _ga, _ga_G-X7V3PJW8Q3 | Cookie | Google (sprinklermap.com) | 2 years | Google Analytics: tells visits and sessions apart, to count how many people use the site and which pages they read. |
| _clck, _clsk | Cookie | Microsoft (sprinklermap.com) | 1 year / 1 day | Microsoft Clarity: links together the pages of a single session, for heatmaps and recordings. |
| MUID | Cookie | Microsoft (clarity.ms) | 13 months | Browser identifier Microsoft uses to recognise sessions across the sites that run Clarity. |
4. Statistics that use no cookies
To see how many people visit, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which sets no cookies, does not fingerprint the browser and does not follow people across sites. That is why it is not in the banner: there is nothing on your device to consent to. It stays on for people who refuse, which is how we still see overall traffic without Google Analytics.
Inside the editor we also collect anonymous statistics on which tools get used. Events are grouped by a random identifier that lives only in the page’s memory and disappears on reload: it is never written to your device and is not linked to your account.
5. Google Maps
When you open the editor the site loads Google Maps: without the map the tool does not exist. It is therefore part of the functionality you asked for rather than extra tracking, and it is not covered by the banner. Google may however set its own cookies on its own domains when the map loads. If you would rather it did not, you can read the informational pages without ever opening the editor.
6. Changing your mind
The "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page reopens the panel and lets you withdraw or grant consent at any time: withdrawing is exactly as easy as granting (GDPR Art. 7(3)). Withdrawal takes effect immediately: we delete from your device the analytics cookies we had written (_ga, _clck and similar) and reload the page, so scripts already running actually stop. Cookies living on Google’s own domains are beyond our reach: for those, the Google controls mentioned above apply.
If you make no choice, we do not immediately ask again: the banner stays away for as long as your choice is valid, that is 6 months, or until we materially change the text of this policy.
You can also delete cookies from your browser settings, and manage Google ad personalisation in your account at https://myadcenter.google.com.
7. The consent log
GDPR Art. 7(1) requires us to be able to demonstrate that consent was given. So when you accept or refuse, we record on our servers: a random identifier (the same one held in the sm_consent cookie), the choice made, the version of this policy, the language and the page where the banner was shown, the country the request came from, the browser type and the date.
We do not store your IP address in the clear: we keep only a non-reversible cryptographic fingerprint of it, enough to tie a dispute to the matching record. The log holds neither your name nor your email, and is not cross-referenced with your account.
We keep these records for 24 months. If you want to know what is recorded for you, or ask for its deletion, write to us quoting the identifier found in the sm_consent cookie.