Cookie Policy.
How this website uses cookies, and the control you have over them.
Overview
This policy explains the cookies PCI’s website uses, what they do, and how you can control them. The aim is to be transparent and to use only what is needed for the site to work and improve.
At a glance
Types of cookies we may use
- Essential cookies needed for the site to function
- Analytics cookies that help us understand and improve the site
- Preference cookies that remember your settings
Your control
PCI applies this consistently and documents what it does, so the approach can be checked and improved. Final detail is published as the institute matures, and is governed by the related policies below.
Common questions
Can I turn cookies off?
Yes — you can control or block cookies through your browser settings.
Do cookies collect personal data?
Where they do, it is handled under the data-protection policy.
Will this policy change?
Yes — updates are published here as the site develops.
Why this matters
Clear policies matter because they are how fairness is made real. A certification body that treats everyone consistently — on eligibility, conduct, security, impartiality and appeals — is one whose decisions can be trusted, and whose credential therefore means the same thing for everyone who holds it. These pages set out those commitments plainly.
PCI states its position honestly, including where processes are still being established. The aim is not legal cover for its own sake but genuine, transparent governance — the substance that lets a credential, and the body behind it, earn and keep professional trust.
- Substance over marketing
- Fair, transparent process
- Honesty about our status
- Responsible, governed use of AI
Founding-stage document · Version 1.0 — effective date to be confirmed · Reviewed under PCI governance. PCI makes no claims of accreditation or recognition beyond what is true today.
What each category actually does
Cookie policies often list categories without saying what they mean in practice. Here is what each category does on this site — and what it never does.
Essential
Remember your consent choice, keep a sign-in session working, and let forms function. The site cannot operate without these, which is why consent frameworks treat them differently.
Preferences
Small conveniences, such as remembering a choice you have made so you are not asked again on every visit. Losing them costs you repetition, not function.
Analytics
Aggregate, low-detail usage measurement to see which pages help and which confuse. Used only to improve the site, and only where you have accepted it.
What is absent matters too: this site does not use advertising cookies, does not build cross-site tracking profiles, and does not sell data collected by cookies. Personal data handling more broadly is covered by the privacy policy.
Managing cookies in practice
You have layered controls, and "essential only" is a genuine option, not a dark pattern:
- The banner on your first visit lets you accept all cookies or keep to essential ones — both choices are one click
- Your browser can block, restrict or delete cookies for this site specifically or for all sites; every mainstream browser documents this in its settings
- Changing your mind is always possible: clear this site's cookies in your browser and the consent banner will appear again on your next visit
Be aware of the trade-off at the essential layer: blocking all cookies at browser level can break sign-in and enrolment flows, because the site loses the ability to keep your session. Declining analytics, by contrast, costs you nothing functional. For how personal data within any cookie is protected, see the data protection policy.
Questions visitors ask about cookies
Do you sell data collected by cookies?
No. Cookie data is used to run this site and, where you have consented, to understand aggregate usage so the site can be improved. It is not sold, and it is not used to build advertising profiles of you here or elsewhere.
Why does the consent banner sometimes reappear?
Your choice is stored on your device, in your browser. If you clear cookies or site data, switch to a different browser or device, or use a private browsing window, that stored choice is not there — so the site must ask again. It is a consequence of the choice living with you rather than on a server tracking you.
Keep going
What we set, and what we don’t
This site runs with a light footprint: strictly-necessary storage for things like sign-in and enrolment progress, and — only if enabled — privacy-respecting analytics to understand aggregate use. We do not run advertising trackers or sell browsing data.
Your browser controls remain yours: blocking non-essential storage will not break reading the site, though signed-in features naturally require it. Material changes to this policy are announced, not slipped in.