The document
Cookie Policy
This policy separates the technology needed to deliver a requested service from optional analytics and commercial attribution. It also records an honest launch boundary: the preference interface is active, no unnamed optional provider is treated as active by implication, and future integrations must respect the choice recorded there.
Scope and legal framework
This policy explains how Sell Any Mobile stores information on, or accesses information from, a computer, phone, tablet or other device. It covers traditional browser cookies and similar technologies such as local storage, pixels, tags, link identifiers and software development kit functions where they perform the same kind of storage or access.
The principal UK rules are regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, as amended, together with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 where the resulting information is personal data. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 introduced additional exceptions, including a narrowly defined statistical-purpose exception. We apply the rules by purpose rather than assuming that every analytics technology is exempt or that every cookie requires the same choice.
The live technology register
Cookie names and providers can change when infrastructure or recycler connections change. We do not invent provider names or fixed durations before an integration is selected. The live preference centre is the operational control for optional categories. Any future provider must be identified with its purpose and duration before it is enabled.
The first-party sam_cookie_preferences record remembers the visitor’s choices for six months. Those periods are category limits, not a claim that every future provider technology lasts that long. The exact live entry takes priority.
Strictly necessary technologies
These technologies perform a function essential to a service the user requests or to transmission over a network. Depending on the live implementation, examples can include load balancing, fraud and security controls, preserving a comparison or form state during a session, and remembering cookie choices so the preference control does not repeatedly interrupt the same device.
We do not ask for consent where a PECR exception applies, but we still explain the use. The exception is interpreted from the user’s perspective. A technology does not become strictly necessary simply because it is useful to us, supports revenue or makes reporting easier.
Service statistics and analytics
Statistics can show how many visits reach a page, which searches are used, where journeys stop, how long pages take to respond and which parts of the comparison experience need improvement.
We may use the statutory statistical-purpose exception without consent only where the sole purpose is producing aggregate statistics about use in order to improve the service, individual-level information is not retained longer than needed to aggregate it, the results are not used to make decisions about a person, clear information is provided and a simple, free objection route remains available.
If an analytics configuration identifies or tracks people, combines data for another purpose, supports advertising, retains individual histories, or otherwise falls outside that narrow exception, it is disabled until valid consent is given. Where personal data is processed, the Privacy Policy also applies.
Recycler referral and attribution tracking
Sell Any Mobile is free for consumers. A recycler pays us a flat £5 fee only when it successfully receives a device introduced through the platform. Direct integrations or affiliate-network technology can record that the route began with Sell Any Mobile and later confirm the successful receipt.
This is referral attribution, not a cookie needed to run search or comparison. It can involve an identifier added to an outbound link, storage on a device, or information exchanged between Sell Any Mobile, a network and the recycler. It does not change the recycler price shown to the seller and must not influence ranking or prominence.
Because the purpose is commercial attribution and ad-affiliation measurement, we do not treat it as strictly necessary or as exempt aggregate analytics. Any storage or access technology used for this purpose requires prior consent. Refusing it does not prevent a person from browsing prices, although it can mean that the completed introduction cannot be attributed through that particular technical route.
Consent, objection and preference controls
Optional technologies remain off until the visitor takes a clear positive action. Continuing to browse, silence, a pre-ticked option or acceptance hidden in general terms is not consent. Rejecting all optional categories is presented alongside accepting them, and analytics and affiliate attribution can be chosen separately.
The preference centre is available from the first-visit notice and through the Cookie settings control in the footer. A visitor can return at any time, change either optional category and save a new choice. It also provides a simple, free means of objecting where PECR requires one. A withdrawal stops future use under that consent and triggers appropriate deletion or instruction to relevant recipients where UK data protection law requires it. Strictly necessary functions remain active because the requested service could not otherwise be delivered.
Searching, browsing devices and comparing recycler prices remain available whether optional cookies are accepted or rejected.
Launch configuration and provider accuracy
At the date of this policy, the consent interface is active but no final analytics or attribution provider is enabled. We therefore do not claim that a particular supplier cookie is active. The interface exposes each saved category decision so an integration can be gated cleanly, and no optional provider may be connected outside that gate.
Before a provider is activated, its live entry must be added to the preference information and this policy reviewed. The launch configuration must block it until the relevant consent is granted, name the third party, record the choice and preserve the equally accessible route to change it. If the website and this policy ever conflict about an active optional technology, the technology should be paused while the record is corrected.
Third parties and outbound websites
Analytics suppliers, consent-management services, affiliate networks and direct recycler integrations may operate technology on our behalf or for a role described at the point of choice. Where consent is requested for a third party, the party must be named rather than described only as an unspecified partner.
Clicking through to a recycler takes the user to an independent website. That recycler and any network it uses may set their own technologies under their own policy and controls. Sell Any Mobile does not control storage or access that begins after the user leaves our site, although we remain responsible for technologies we cause to operate on our own service.
If information is transferred outside the UK, the safeguards described in our Privacy Policy and GDPR Compliance statement apply.
Browser and device controls
Most browsers let users view, block or delete cookies for all sites or for one site. Private browsing, device privacy settings and content blockers may provide additional control. Browser help pages explain the exact steps because menus differ by browser and version.
Blocking all storage can remove a saved preference and may affect a requested function, such as keeping a temporary comparison state or preserving a security session. Blocking referral attribution does not reduce the price a recycler offers, but may prevent Sell Any Mobile from confirming that a successfully received device came through our service.
Browser settings do not replace our duty to obtain consent where PECR requires it, and a user should not have to reconfigure their whole browser merely to refuse one optional category on this site.
Duration, records and review
We set duration according to the minimum period needed for the stated purpose. Session technologies end with the session where practical. Persistent preference records may remain for up to 12 months so a choice can be respected. Referral windows are ordinarily shorter and are constrained by the relevant direct or network arrangement. Statistical information is aggregated and individual-level inputs removed as soon as reasonably possible where the statistical exception is used.
We retain proportionate evidence of consent, refusal, objection and withdrawal so we can honour the choice and demonstrate compliance. The evidence is not repurposed for marketing or profiling.
We audit active technologies after material code, supplier or commercial changes and on a planned cycle, checking ownership, purpose, duration, data access, exception or consent status and whether the technology remains necessary.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when legislation, ICO guidance, website functions or suppliers change. The current version and date appear on this page. A material change to an optional purpose or provider requires fresh information and, where necessary, a new consent choice before the changed use begins.
Minor drafting or contact-detail corrections do not make an earlier valid choice invalid, but they are still recorded through the updated date.
Cookie questions and complaints
For a question about a category, provider, duration, consent record or objection, email [email protected] or use the form below. Include the browser and approximate date if the question concerns a particular preference, but do not send passwords or device contents.
You may also raise a data protection concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.