What this policy covers
This policy explains how Piano Fantasy uses cookies and similar technologies on pianofantasy.com. It applies to all visitors, regardless of where you are in the world — though the opt-in consent banner described below is shown specifically to visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.
Piano Fantasy is operated by Lars Nelissen, a Dutch sole proprietor (eenmanszaak) registered at Sint Ursulahof 24, 5995CG, Kessel, The Netherlands.
For how we handle your personal data more broadly, see our Privacy Policy.
What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file that a website places on your device when you visit. Your browser stores it and sends it back to the site on future visits, so the site can recognise you or remember your preferences.
Beyond cookies, websites can also use local storage (browser memory that persists between sessions), session storage (memory that clears when you close the tab), and tracking pixels (tiny invisible images that signal when a page or email has been opened). This policy covers all of these technologies.
There are two useful distinctions to know:
- First-party vs. third-party. A first-party cookie is set by pianofantasy.com itself. A third-party cookie is set by an external service — such as Google Analytics or Microsoft Clarity — loaded on our pages.
- Session vs. persistent. Session cookies disappear when you close your browser. Persistent cookies remain on your device until they expire or you delete them; they can last from a few minutes to several years, depending on how they are set.
How we use cookies — by category
Strictly Necessary
These cookies are required for the site to function. They handle things like maintaining your session, protecting forms against cross-site request forgery (CSRF), and storing your cookie-banner choice so we do not ask again on every page load. Without them, core features of the site would break.
Consent required in the EU: No — these are exempt under the ePrivacy Directive and GDPR because they are essential to a service you have actively requested.
Retention: Session, or up to 12 months for preference storage.
Analytics and Performance
We use Google Analytics 4, Ahrefs Analytics, and — on a small number of pages — Microsoft Clarity to understand how visitors use the site: which pages are visited, how long people stay, where they come from, and where they leave. This helps us improve the site over time.
The data collected is aggregated. We do not use it to identify individual visitors or build personal profiles for advertising.
- Google Analytics 4 sets the
_gaand_ga_<container>cookies. These expire after two years from your last visit (browsers typically cap this closer to 13 months in practice). Google's privacy policy is at policies.google.com/privacy. - Ahrefs Analytics is a lightweight, cookieless-by-design usage tracker. On this site it is loaded through the same consent gate as our other analytics tools, so it does not run at all until you opt in. Ahrefs' privacy policy is at ahrefs.com/privacy-policy.
- Microsoft Clarity records anonymised session replays and heatmaps, currently active only on our homepage, Pro Member, Super Fingers, and Store pages (not site-wide). It sets the
_clckcookie (persists one year) and_clskcookie (session). Clarity masks all form-input content by default; under its "Balanced" masking mode (which we use) it also masks numbers and email addresses shown on the page before recording. Microsoft acts as an independent data controller for the data Clarity collects — not merely a processor acting on our instructions — and handles it under its own privacy statement at privacy.microsoft.com. Data is processed via Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited; where it leaves the EU/EEA/UK, that transfer is governed by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Session recordings are retained for up to 30 days; aggregated heatmap data is retained for up to 9 months.
Consent required in the EU: Yes. None of these three tools loads its script or sets a cookie until you have actively opted in via the consent banner on this site. We have configured Google Analytics 4 to respect your choice through Google Consent Mode v2 — visiting from the EU/EEA/UK/Switzerland, your analytics-storage signal starts "denied" and only switches to "granted" after you accept. We have also disabled Google Analytics' own ad-signal sharing outright (allow_google_signals and allow_ad_personalization_signals are both off), so GA4 never shares data toward Google Ads or DoubleClick audiences regardless of your analytics choice.
Retention: GA4 cookies expire between one and two years from your last visit. Clarity session recordings: up to 30 days. Clarity heatmaps: up to 9 months. Ahrefs does not set a persistent identifying cookie.
Preferences
These cookies remember lightweight choices you make on the site — for example, whether you have dismissed a modal or saved a display preference. They make your experience more consistent across visits.
Consent required in the EU: Preference cookies that go beyond what is strictly required to deliver a service you requested require consent. Where we set these, we ask for it.
Retention: Up to 12 months.
Marketing and Advertising
We do not use any marketing or advertising cookies, and we do not offer a Marketing category in our cookie banner. Piano Fantasy does not run retargeting campaigns, display advertising networks, or third-party affiliate tracking pixels — and we have explicitly turned off Google Analytics' own ad-audience signal sharing (see above). Cookies on this site fall into exactly two categories: Strictly Necessary and Analytics.
If that changes in the future, this policy will be updated and EU visitors will be asked for explicit consent before any marketing cookies are set.
Third-party cookies and tools
The following external services are active on pianofantasy.com. Google Analytics 4, Ahrefs Analytics, and Microsoft Clarity load only after you accept analytics cookies in the consent banner:
| Service | Purpose | Where active | Provider privacy / cookie page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 | Usage analytics | Site-wide | policies.google.com/privacy |
| Ahrefs Analytics | Usage analytics | Site-wide | ahrefs.com/privacy-policy |
| Microsoft Clarity | Session recording, heatmaps | Homepage, Pro Member, Super Fingers, Store | privacy.microsoft.com |
| Google reCAPTCHA | Form spam protection | Contact + help forms | policies.google.com/privacy |
We do not use Facebook Pixel, advertising networks, or any other third-party tracking tools beyond those listed here.
How long cookies last
Cookie lifetimes vary by type:
- Session cookies are deleted automatically when you close your browser.
- Persistent cookies remain on your device for a set period — anything from a few minutes to up to two years. In practice, most modern browsers cap first-party persistent cookies at around 13 months even if the cookie itself was set with a longer expiry.
- Google Analytics 4 cookies (
_ga,_ga_<container>) expire up to two years from your last visit (browser-capped closer to 13 months in practice). - Microsoft Clarity cookies (
_clck,_clsk) expire after one year or at the end of your session, respectively; the underlying recording/heatmap data itself is deleted from Microsoft's servers after 30 days (recordings) or 9 months (heatmaps).
You can view and delete cookies on your device at any time using your browser settings (see below).
Your choices
On-site consent banner
If you are visiting from the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, you see a consent banner on your first visit, before any analytics cookie is set. The banner shows two toggles — Strictly Necessary (always on, not part of this choice) and Analytics (on by default; you can switch it off before deciding) — and two one-click options: "Only necessary" denies analytics outright, regardless of what the toggle shows, and "Allow selection" saves whatever the toggles show at the moment you click (so leaving Analytics on and clicking it grants analytics; switching Analytics off first and then clicking it denies analytics). Nothing is set until you click one of these two options. Your decision is remembered for 12 months; after that, we ask again. You can revisit and change your decision at any time — from anywhere — via the link.
Visitors outside those regions do not see the banner. Analytics cookies default to on for those visitors, governed by this policy and our standard opt-out controls below — unless your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, in which case we treat that the same as an opt-out and analytics stays off by default for you too.
Browser-level controls
Every major browser lets you view, block, or delete cookies independently of our banner:
Keep in mind that blocking strictly necessary cookies will prevent parts of the site from working correctly.
Do Not Track
Some browsers can send a “Do Not Track” (DNT) signal. There is currently no consistent technical standard for how websites should respond to this signal, and the third-party tools we use (Google Analytics, Ahrefs, Microsoft Clarity) do not treat it as a formal consent mechanism. Our consent banner is the reliable way to control analytics tracking.
Updates to this policy
If we make significant changes to how we use cookies, we will update this page and revise the effective date at the top — and if you are an EU visitor, your existing consent choices will be reset so you can review the changes.
Contact
Questions about this policy or how your data is handled?
Email: support@pianofantasy.com
Post: Lars Nelissen / Piano Fantasy, Sint Ursulahof 24, 5995CG Kessel, The Netherlands
For broader data and privacy questions, see our Privacy Policy.