Cookie Policy

Last updated: 25 August 2026

BuildMetricLab keeps cookies to an absolute minimum. We set no advertising cookies and no cross-site tracking cookies. The calculator pages and the Estimator set no cookies at all unless you accept the two optional analytics tools described below, or you submit one of our forms and the Cloudflare spam check sets its own short-lived cookie. There is no sign-in anywhere on this site, so there is no session cookie either.

Optional analytics — Microsoft Clarity

If you consent to analytics through the InMobi Choice consent message, we load Microsoft Clarity to understand how the calculators and the Estimator are used, through aggregated heatmaps and anonymised session replays. This helps us find confusing layouts and steps that don't work well. Clarity sets two cookies:

• _clck — identifies a returning visitor so page views group into one session. Expires after about a year.
• _clsk — links page views within a single session. Expires at the end of the session.

Text you type into calculator fields is masked in your browser before anything is sent, so the values you enter are not captured. The Estimator's whole workspace is masked the same way: a replay shows which controls someone used and where they got stuck, never your client's name and address, your prices or your margin. Clarity does not load — and these cookies are not set — unless you consent. You can withdraw consent using the Cookie preferences link in the footer, or the one on the Estimator's Your details screen; either reopens the consent message. For more, see Microsoft's Privacy Statement.

Optional analytics — Google Analytics 4

The same consent also loads Google Analytics 4 on the calculator pages — it does not run in the Estimator — which tells us which calculators are used, how visitors arrive at them, and where pages perform badly. It sets these cookies:

• _ga — distinguishes one browser from another so visits group into sessions. Expires after about two years.
• _ga_<container-id> — keeps the state of the current session. Expires after about two years.

We run Analytics for measurement only: we do not enable Google Signals, advertising features, or remarketing audiences, so your visit is not used to target ads to you, and the numbers you type into calculators are never sent to Google. The Analytics tag is not loaded, and none of these cookies are set, unless you consent — withdraw it at any time with the Cookie preferences link in the footer. For more, see Google's Privacy Policy and how Google uses data from sites that use its services.

Consent management — InMobi Choice

Your advertising and analytics consent choices are collected by InMobi Choice, a certified consent management platform, and recorded in cookies on this site: euconsent-v2 (your IAB Transparency & Consent Framework choices), IABGPP_HDR_GppString (US state privacy signals) and usprivacy, each kept for up to 13 months. These let advertising partners read and honour your choices. See InMobi's Privacy Policy.

The Estimator — no account, no cookies

The Estimator at buildmetriclab.com/estimator turns calculator results into a priced estimate you can print. It has no accounts and no sign-in, so it sets no cookies of its own — not one. Your jobs, prices and assemblies are held by your own browser, described under local storage below, and there is no copy of them on our servers.

The Estimator asks the same consent question as the rest of the site, through the same message, and honours the answer you have already given: accept analytics on a calculator page and Microsoft Clarity runs here too, with the workspace masked as described above. Decline, and no analytics loads.

One other third party can be reached from the Estimator, and only if you go looking for it: opening Report a problem loads Cloudflare Turnstile, the check that tells a person from a bot, exactly as the site's contact and feedback forms do. It is strictly necessary — without it the form would be a spam inbox — and it may set a short-lived Cloudflare cookie recording that the check passed. Close the form without sending and nothing is submitted.

Strictly necessary local storage

The Site uses browser localStorage (not cookies) for a few small, functional purposes:

• bml-theme — your chosen theme (light or dark). If the key is absent, your operating-system preference is used.

• bml-locale — the region whose calculators you last chose (UK, US, Australia or Canada), so links point at the right version.

• bml-project — your My Project take-off. When you press Save to My Project on a calculator, the tool, the inputs and the result you chose to save are kept here so you can review or print them together on the My Project page. It holds only what you explicitly save — no account, no identifiers, no tracking — and never leaves your device. Remove individual items or clear the whole list at any time from that page.

These stay on your device and are never sent to us. Calculator inputs are not stored automatically — refreshing the page resets them. Only what you deliberately save to My Project, or build in the Estimator, persists.

The Estimator does not use localStorage. Your estimates are held in IndexedDB, a larger database in the same browser, because a take-off is bigger and more structured than a setting. It holds your jobs, sections, line items and the prices you type, and none of it is sent to us. Clearing your site data deletes it and we have no copy to restore, which is why the Estimator offers an export file as a backup — keep one.

Anonymous usage logging (no cookies)

Separately, we record an anonymous, cookieless event when a calculator is used: which tool it was, the name of the figure it produced, your approximate country/region and device type (from network request headers). The values you type and the results calculated from them are not transmitted or stored. It sets no cookie, stores nothing on your device, and contains no information that identifies you. Because it does not store or access information on your device, it does not require consent.

No other tracking

Apart from the two consent-gated analytics tools described above, there are no tracking or advertising tags on this site — no Facebook Pixel, no ad network pixels, no cross-site profiling. If we add anything further that stores information on your device, we will update this page and request consent first.

Clearing data

You can clear the bml-theme and bml-project localStorage entries, the Estimator's IndexedDB data, and any Microsoft Clarity or Google Analytics cookies, at any time via your browser's site-data settings (or use Clear all on the My Project page). Clearing site data also deletes every estimate the Estimator is holding, and we have no copy to put back — export a backup first.