Essential by default. Optional cookies by choice.

Cookies in use

Signal uses essential cookies and limited device storage. Google Analytics is optional and is loaded only after you accept analytics cookies. Selected public guides and published news articles are prepared for non-personalised Google AdSense ads, subject to Google’s site approval and regional privacy checks. UK, EEA and Swiss visitors need a completed advertising opt-in; US visitors have separate opt-out controls. Trade, private account, diagnostic and valuation tools do not load the advertising service.

Cookie settings

What cookies are

Cookies are small text records stored by a website in your browser. Similar technologies include local storage, browser caches and identifiers that let a service remember a session or choice. Some are essential to provide a feature you request. In the UK, EEA and Switzerland, Signal requires opt-in before its optional analytics or advertising cookies are used. The US advertising controls are described below.

Essential cookies

• Supabase authentication cookies — normally sb- followed by the project reference and auth-token, sometimes split into numbered parts: keep email or Google sign-in secure and refresh the session. The authentication library can set a browser lifetime of up to 400 days and update it during session refresh. This is not a promise that a sign-in remains valid for that long; server session controls and browser limits also apply. Signing out clears the active authentication session.
• signal_auth_return_to: remembers the safe Signal page to return to after sign-in. It lasts up to 15 minutes and is removed after the callback completes.
• signal_cookie_preferences_v1: records the version and choices made in the cookie control. It lasts for about six months, after which Signal asks again. This is essential because it records that optional technology should remain off.
• Cloudflare __cf_bm: the hosting security layer uses this bot-management cookie to distinguish legitimate traffic from automated abuse. It expires after about 30 minutes of inactivity and may be refreshed during use. It is sent securely, cannot be read by page JavaScript and is not an advertising cookie.

IP addresses and server security records

Signal records trustworthy network IP addresses and their latest observation time when people use site pages and services, including signed-out visitors. A verified signed-in account can also be linked to its latest observed IP. This helps an authorised administrator investigate abuse and manage network restrictions.

This security record is stored on the server. It does not add a cookie, read browser storage, create a device fingerprint or keep a list of the pages you view. It is separate from consent-based analytics. Rejecting optional cookies does not turn off necessary server access checks.

Routine IP observations expire after 30 days and are cleared in batches during later traffic; active restriction and investigation records are handled separately. The privacy notice explains the legitimate-interests basis, access controls, retention, shared-network risks and your right to object or ask for review. Agreeing to these terms or cookie choices is not consent to unlimited tracking.

Optional categories

• Google Analytics 4 — optional: measures visits to selected public pages, using _ga and _ga_R1LBFEKVM8 cookies for browser and session identifiers. Signal configures these cookies for up to 183 days without extending their expiry on each visit. Browser limits may shorten this. Google receives the public page category, basic browser/device information and network information needed to receive the request. Signal does not send names, emails, phone numbers, registration numbers, recordings, diagnostic answers, URL query strings or account identifiers as analytics event data. Private account, admin, trade-workspace, sign-in and individual vehicle/case pages are excluded. Advertising signals and personalisation are disabled.
• No Google Analytics request is made before opt-in. Use Cookie settings to withdraw permission; Signal removes the running analytics frame and clears its accessible _ga cookies on this site. Other open Signal tabs check for changed consent within 15 seconds or on focus. Withdrawal stops future collection; it does not retrospectively erase data already received by Google. See Google’s privacy policy and Signal’s privacy notice.
• Google AdSense — optional advertising: Google Ireland Limited supplies non-personalised ads on eligible public editorial pages, subject to site approval. These do not use your previous browsing to choose ads, but may use cookies for repeat-ad limits and aggregated reporting. Google receives the public page URL, privacy-choice status and basic request, browser/device and network information. UK, EEA and Swiss delivery requires completed opt-in through Google’s certified consent message. US delivery requires a positive first-party US country check and ready Google privacy signals without a sale, sharing or targeted-advertising opt-out. A US opt-out or Global Privacy Control pauses ads entirely; missing or unknown privacy information keeps them paused. Accepting analytics does not authorise ads.
• Advertising cookies and lifetime: Google ad products may use advertising cookies such as __gads, which can last up to 13 months. Which cookies are set depends on consent, the ad served and browser restrictions. Cookie lifetime is separate from how long Google retains reports. The consent message identifies relevant providers and purposes. See how Google uses cookies, Google’s advertising cookie information and how Google uses information from partner sites.
• Google advertising privacy records: Google’s published European message records choices using the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework; its US state message uses the IAB Global Privacy Platform. Browser records remember and communicate your decision and are separate from signal_cookie_preferences_v1 and your Signal account. The relevant message identifies purposes, providers and available choices. The privacy service necessarily receives network and browser information when presenting or recording a choice; loading it does not itself authorise an ad request.
• US country check: Signal uses Cloudflare’s country information from the server request when available. Otherwise, the browser can read Cloudflare’s diagnostic response on Signal’s own domain, using only its host and country fields. That response also includes connection and network details, including an IP address; Signal discards those other fields and does not retain them or send them to an advertising provider. The privacy decision keeps only US — yes, no or unknown — and whether Global Privacy Control is signalled. This check sets no advertising cookie and does not save an IP address, state, city or advertising location profile. A non-US or unknown result does not enable US advertising. Separate security records remain governed by the section above.

Other device storage

• Diagnostic sign-in draft — signal-diagnostic-save-draft-v1: if you choose to save a result while signed out, the result and vehicle/symptom details are temporarily kept in session storage in that tab. The original recording is excluded. The draft can be resumed for 30 minutes and is removed after successful saving, when an expired draft is detected, or when the tab storage is cleared. This supports the save action you requested; it is not tracking.
• Running-cost drafts — signal-running-costs: followed by a vehicle reference: choosing to save a draft stores the cost assumptions in that browser. There is no automatic expiry. The draft remains until overwritten or cleared through browser site-data settings; signing out or deleting the server vehicle record does not automatically clear it. Avoid saving private cost information on a shared device.
• Ordinary browser cache: images, styles and application files may be cached to make repeat visits faster. Your browser controls their lifetime.

Google and external services

Choosing “Continue with Google” takes you to Google, where Google may use its own cookies under its policies. Signal does not set Google sign-in cookies before you choose that route.

A submitted diagnosis is processed online through Signal and OpenAI. Signal passes the written clues and, when supplied, prepared sound and selected still images to OpenAI from its server. This request does not set an OpenAI cookie in your browser and does not activate optional analytics or advertising cookies. Saving a private case or publishing a recording is a separate action described in the privacy notice.

The AdSense publisher meta tag and ads.txt file verify the relationship between the domain and the publisher account. They are plain site records and do not themselves store information on your device. Advertising and its consent message are restricted to eligible public guides and published news articles; private records, Trade, diagnostic and valuation workflows are excluded.

Email reminder and marketing choices

Marketing email consent is a separate account preference stored on the server, not a cookie choice. It is off until you expressly opt in. Marketing emails are plain text; Signal adds no tracking pixel or click-tracking link. Clearing cookies does not unsubscribe you. Use News and email updates in your driver or trade settings, or the unsubscribe link in an email. Marketing opt-out does not stop login codes or change optional vehicle reminders.

Your optional vehicle-reminder subscription and consent record are stored with your account on the server, not as an analytics or advertising cookie. Signal’s reminder template is plain text and contains no tracking pixel. Signal does not use reminder opens or clicks for marketing or profiling.

Cookie choices, clearing browser storage and signing out do not subscribe or unsubscribe you. Use the separate reminder control in your garage, or follow a reminder email’s stop link and confirm. The email-link confirmation does not require sign-in; keep that link private. Merely opening the link does not change the preference. A supported email-client unsubscribe action can submit the stop request directly.

The privacy notice explains the reminder information processed by Signal and Resend and the separate retention of consent and delivery records.

Your choices

You can reopen Cookie settings from the footer. You can also block or delete cookies and site data in your browser. Blocking essential authentication cookies means sign-in and private account areas may not work.

Signal does not treat scrolling, continued browsing or silence as European advertising consent. Analytics remains off everywhere until you accept it. Cookie settings control Signal’s separate analytics choice; they do not grant or withdraw Google advertising consent, change a US opt-out or subscribe you to marketing emails.

To manage advertising choices, open a public driver guide or published news article. For European consent, select Advertising privacy choices in the footer. For applicable US state choices, select Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information to open Google’s standard confirmation dialog. Ad requests pause while you review a privacy message. Declining the required European purposes, opting out in the US or sending Global Privacy Control keeps ads paused. You can still use the guide and all Signal tools. Changing a choice does not delete data already received by Google or other providers. You can also delete existing advertising cookies through your browser.

Cookie settings control optional cookie categories, not the online processing needed when you submit a diagnosis, save a private case, publish an advert or request vehicle reminder emails. Clearing browser data does not erase information already saved to your Signal account.

Changes and contact

This policy will be updated before a new analytics, advertising or similar provider is activated. Questions can be sent to info@signalautomotive.uk.

Read the ICO’s guidance on storage and access technologies. Signal uses analytics opt-in everywhere, advertising opt-in for the UK, EEA and Switzerland, and the separate US privacy controls described above.