Cookie Policy
Browsing arborists on this directory leaves a small trail in your browser. This page sets out precisely what that trail is, who reads it, what it never records about the tree in your yard, and how to switch it off if you would rather it did not exist.
Australian Arborist Directory ("we", "our", "us") publishes listings for arborists, tree loppers, stump grinders and vegetation management crews across Australia at auarborist.directory. Like nearly every site you visit, ours stores small files in your browser, and third parties we rely on do the same. Continuing to use the site means you accept the cookies described below, and you can withdraw that acceptance at any time using the browser controls in section 6.
This policy is the detailed companion to section 4 of our Privacy Policy. Where the two touch on the same ground, read them together.
1. The Short Version
You do not need an account to use this directory, and there is nothing here to log into. That keeps the cookie picture unusually simple.
What cookies here do
- Keep pages loading and rendering properly
- Count, in aggregate, which suburb pages and cost guides get read
- Let Google serve and measure the ads that pay for the site
What they never do
- Record details of your tree, your job or your quote
- Store your name, phone number or address
- Pass anything about you to a listed tree business
Enquiries on this site go straight to the arborist you choose to contact. No cookie captures that conversation, because we are never part of it.
2. What a Cookie Actually Is
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to keep. On the next page load, the browser hands it back, which is how a site recognises that the person reading the Brisbane tree removal page is the same person who read the stump grinding guide two minutes earlier. Similar technologies, including local storage and the invisible pixels embedded in ad code, do much the same job and are covered by this policy wherever we mention cookies.
Cookies fall into four groups, and the difference matters when you decide what to block:
- Session cookies vanish the moment you close the browser
- Persistent cookies sit on your device until they expire or you clear them
- First-party cookies are set by auarborist.directory itself
- Third-party cookies are set by another company whose code runs on our pages, most often Google
Nearly every cookie you will pick up on this site falls into that last group. We set very little ourselves.
3. The Cookies This Site Uses
Three categories, and that is the lot. Cookie names and lifespans are set by the providers below and can change without notice from us, so treat the durations as indicative.
| Category | Who sets it and what it does |
|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | Set by us and by Cloudflare, which serves the site. These keep pages loading, protect the directory from scraping and abuse, and remember nothing about you between visits. They cannot be switched off and still leave a working website. |
| Analytics | Set by Google Analytics, typically named _ga and _ga_ followed by a property code, and usually lasting up to two years. They tell us that a page about tree removal costs was opened a certain number of times from a certain region, which guides get read to the end, and which ones people abandon. They do not tell us who you are. |
| Advertising | Set by Google AdSense and its ad partners, typically named __gads, __gpi and IDE. They select which ads appear beside a listing, cap how often you see the same one, and measure whether an ad was clicked. Ads may be personalised based on your earlier browsing on this and other websites. |
Advertising is the only reason this directory can stay free to search and free for a tree business to be listed on. We would rather say that plainly than bury it.
4. What These Cookies Do Not Touch
Because we ask you for so little, there is very little for a cookie to hold. The following never enter one:
- The species, height or condition of the tree you are asking about
- Whether a limb is over a roof, a fence line or power lines
- Any quote figure an arborist gives you, or whether you accepted it
- Your name, email, phone number or street address
- Anything you write to a tree business through the contact details on their listing
If you send us a message through the Contact page, we receive whatever you put in that message. That is an email, not a cookie, and it is handled under our Privacy Policy.
5. Third-Party Cookies and Embedded Content
Google is the main third party whose code runs on this site, through Analytics and AdSense. Some pages also carry embedded content such as maps, and a listing may link out to an arborist's own website or social profile. Any embedded or linked service can set its own cookies once you interact with it.
We do not control those cookies, cannot read them, and cannot delete them for you. Google's handling of the data it collects on partner sites is described in its privacy and terms for partner sites. For any other third party, the answer sits in their own policy, not ours.
Clicking through to an arborist
The moment you leave this directory for a tree business's own website, you are on their turf and under their cookie policy. Vetting the business, and reading how they handle your information, is a step we cannot take for you.
6. Managing and Disabling Cookies
Every cookie described here can be blocked or removed from your side, without asking us.
- Block or clear cookies in your browser. Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge all expose this under privacy settings, where you can block third-party cookies, delete what is already stored, or ask to be warned before a cookie is set.
- Turn off ad personalisation at Google. Visit Google My Ad Center to stop ads being tailored to your browsing. You will still see ads, they will simply stop being about you.
- Opt out of other advertising vendors. Use the industry tool at aboutads.info to opt out across many networks at once.
- Browse privately. A private or incognito window discards cookies when you close it, which is useful if you are comparing arborists on a shared computer.
Blocking cookies will not lock you out of anything here. Every listing, every suburb page and every cost guide stays fully readable with cookies switched off. You will lose nothing but the personalisation of the ads and our ability to see which pages are working.
7. Do Not Track and Consent Signals
Browsers vary in how they broadcast a tracking preference, and there is no single standard we can honour reliably across all of them. Rather than promise something we cannot enforce on a third party's code, we point you to the direct controls in section 6, which take effect regardless of what your browser is signalling.
Australian privacy law does not currently require a cookie consent banner in the way European law does. If that changes, or if we introduce a cookie that goes beyond the categories above, this page will be updated before it is deployed.
8. Changes to This Cookie Policy
We revise this policy when the tools behind the site change or when the law requires it. Revisions are published here with a new date at the top of the page, and the version you are reading is always the current one.
9. Contact
If something in this policy is unclear, or you believe a cookie is being set on our pages that is not described here, tell us through the Contact page and we will look into it. For the broader picture of what we collect and why, read our Privacy Policy, or see How This Site Works for how listings are compiled.
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