Cookie Policy

Last updated: 1st March 2026

This Cookie Policy explains how St Mary Saints (“Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our“) uses cookies and similar technologies to recognize you when you visit our website at https://www.stmarysaints.com (“Website“). It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them.

In some cases we may use cookies to collect personal information, or that becomes personal information if we combine it with other information.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by website owners in order to make their websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.

Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, St Mary Saints) are called “first-party cookies.” Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called “third-party cookies.” Third-party cookies enable third-party features or functionality to be provided on or through the website (e.g., advertising, interactive content, and analytics). The parties that set these third-party cookies can recognize your computer both when it visits the website in question and also when it visits certain other websites.

Why do we use cookies?

We use first-party cookies for essential website functionality and Google Analytics cookies to understand how visitors use our site.

Current Cookie Usage:
– Essential cookies: Required for site operation
– Analytics cookies: Google Analytics only
– Advertising cookies: None currently

Future Changes:
When we implement advertising networks in the future, we will update this policy and provide clear cookie consent options before enabling advertising cookies.

How can I control cookies?

Currently, you can control cookies through your browser settings. We do not yet have a Cookie Consent Manager as we are not using advertising cookies. When we implement advertising networks, we will add a Cookie Consent Manager to allow granular cookie preferences.

Performance and functionality cookies:

These cookies are used to enhance the performance and functionality of our Website but are non-essential to their use. However, without these cookies, certain functionality (like videos) may become unavailable.

Name:

wpEmojiSettingsSupports

Purpose:

This cookie is utilized to enable emoji support on pages using WordPress.

Provider:

stmarysaints.com

Service:

WordPress

Type:

html_session_storage

Expires in:

session

Analytics and customization cookies:

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our Website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our Website for you.

Name:

_ga

Purpose:

Records a particular ID used to come up with data about website usage by the user

Provider:

.stmarysaints.com

Service:

Google Analytics View Service Privacy Policy

Type:

http_cookie

Expires in:

1 year 1 month 4 days

Name:

_ga_#

Purpose:

Used to distinguish individual users by means of designation of a randomly generated number as client identifier, which allows calculation of visits and sessions

Provider:

.stmarysaints.com

Service:

Google Analytics View Service Privacy Policy

Type:

http_cookie

Expires in:

1 year 1 month 4 days

SmartFrame Cookies (When viewing pages with embedded images)

These cookies are set by SmartFrame when you view a page containing one of their embedded images. They are used to deliver the image service, measure engagement, and cap ad frequency.

Name:
sf_session
Purpose:
Tracks user session for image interaction analytics
Provider:
smartframe.io
Service:
SmartFrame Analytics
Type:
http_cookie
Expires in:
Session

Name:
sf_freq_cap
Purpose:
Ensures you don’t see the same ad too many times within images
Provider:
smartframe.io
Service:
SmartFrame Advertising
Type:
http_cookie
Expires in:
24 hours

Name:
sf_uid
Purpose:
Anonymous user identifier for analytics and performance
Provider:
smartframe.io
Service:
SmartFrame Analytics
Type:
http_cookie
Expires in:
30 days

Name:
__cf_bm
Purpose:
CloudFlare bot detection and security (used by SmartFrame)
Provider:
smartframe.io
Service:
CloudFlare
Type:
http_cookie
Expires in:
30 minutes

How can I control cookies on my browser?

As the means by which you can refuse cookies through your web browser controls vary from browser to browser, you should visit your browser’s help menu for more information. The following is information about how to manage cookies on the most popular browsers:

In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit:

What about other tracking technologies, like web beacons?

Cookies are not the only way to recognize or track visitors to a website. We may use other, similar technologies from time to time, like web beacons (sometimes called “tracking pixels” or “clear gifs”). These are tiny graphics files that contain a unique identifier that enables us to recognize when someone has visited our Website or opened an email including them.

This allows us, for example, to monitor the traffic patterns of users from one page within a website to another, to deliver or communicate with cookies, to understand whether you have come to the website from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website, to improve site performance, and to measure the success of email marketing campaigns. In many instances, these technologies are reliant on cookies to function properly, and so declining cookies will impair their functioning.

Do you use Flash cookies or Local Shared Objects?

Websites may also use so-called “Flash Cookies” (also known as Local Shared Objects or “LSOs”) to, among other things, collect and store information about your use of our services, fraud prevention, and for other site operations.

If you do not want Flash Cookies stored on your computer, you can adjust the settings of your Flash player to block Flash Cookies storage using the tools contained in the Website Storage Settings Panel. You can also control Flash Cookies by going to the Global Storage Settings Panel and following the instructions.

Please note that setting the Flash Player to restrict or limit acceptance of Flash Cookies may reduce or impede the functionality of some Flash applications, including, potentially, Flash applications used in connection with our services or online content.

Do you serve targeted advertising?

Not currently. We do not serve targeted advertising or use advertising cookies at this time.

When we reach sufficient traffic levels, we plan to implement advertising networks like MediaVine. At that point:
1. We will update this Cookie Policy
2. We will implement a Cookie Consent Manager
3. We will provide clear opt-out mechanisms
4. Third-party advertising cookies may be used

Until then, we only use essential and analytics cookies as described above.

SMARTFRAME EMBEDDED IMAGES

Our website uses SmartFrame image streaming technology to display editorial images. When you view a page containing a SmartFrame image, SmartFrame may set cookies and use similar tracking technologies for the following purposes:

– Performance Monitoring: To measure how users interact with images (zoom, full-screen, viewing time)
– Advertising Frequency Capping: To ensure you don’t see ads too often within images
– Security: To protect against bot traffic and abuse
– Analytics: To understand which images are most engaging to readers

For a complete list of cookies used by SmartFrame and detailed information about their data practices, please refer to SmartFrame’s official documentation:
– SmartFrame Cookie Policy: https://smartframe.io/cookie-policy/
– SmartFrame Privacy Policy: https://smartframe.io/privacy-policy/

You can manage cookies through your browser settings as described in the “How can I control cookies on my browser?” section above.

How often will you update this Cookie Policy?

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to the cookies we use or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. Please therefore revisit this Cookie Policy regularly to stay informed about our use of cookies and related technologies.

The date at the top of this Cookie Policy indicates when it was last updated.

Current Cookie Status:

ACTIVE:
– Essential WordPress cookies (wpEmojiSettingsSupports)
– Google Analytics cookies (_ga, _ga_#)
– SmartFrame cookies (sf_session, sf_freq_cap, sf_uid, __cf_bm) [when viewing pages with embedded images]

NOT ACTIVE:
– Advertising cookies
– Social media cookies
– Retargeting cookies
– Affiliate cookies

We will clearly announce before activating any additional cookie categories.