Cookie Usage Policy
Last updated: March 2025
We believe you should understand exactly how sparkly-shine.com collects and uses information when you visit our financial comparison platform. This document explains our approach to cookies and similar tracking methods — written in plain language that actually makes sense.
Your Cookie Preferences
Current Status: Checking preferences...
You have control over non-essential tracking on our platform. Essential cookies needed for basic site functionality will remain active, but you can decline all other tracking methods.
What Actually Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that websites store on your device. They help sites remember your preferences and understand how you interact with different pages. Think of them as digital bookmarks that help our platform serve you better.
When you compare financial products on sparkly-shine.com, cookies help us remember your search filters, keep your session secure, and understand which comparison tools are most useful. Some cookies are temporary (they vanish when you close your browser), while others stick around to remember your preferences for future visits.
How We Use These Tracking Tools
Our financial comparison platform relies on several types of cookies, each serving a specific purpose. Here's the honest breakdown of what we use and why:
Essential Cookies
These keep our platform functioning. They manage your session, remember your comparison selections as you browse, and maintain security. We can't disable these — without them, our comparison tools simply wouldn't work.
Functional Cookies
These remember your preferences like which Australian state you're searching from, your preferred currency display format, or whether you've dismissed certain notifications. They make your experience more personalized.
Analytics Cookies
We use these to understand how people navigate our comparison tools. Which filters get used most? Where do visitors spend time? This data helps us improve our platform, but it's never linked to your personal identity.
Marketing Cookies
These track your interaction with financial product comparisons to show relevant information across the web. If you decline these, you'll still see content from us — it just won't be tailored to your browsing patterns.
Specific Cookies We Deploy
We believe in transparency. Below you'll find the actual cookies active on sparkly-shine.com, what they do, and how long they persist on your device:
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| session_id | Maintains your active session while comparing financial products | Session only | Essential |
| user_location | Remembers your Australian state for location-specific comparisons | 30 days | Functional |
| comparison_filters | Saves your preferred comparison criteria and search parameters | 7 days | Functional |
| analytics_visitor | Tracks aggregate usage patterns to improve our platform | 2 years | Analytics |
| marketing_consent | Records your cookie preference choices | 1 year | Essential |
| display_preferences | Remembers interface choices like table view vs card view | 90 days | Functional |
Quick Decision Guide: Do You Need to Take Action?
Taking Control Through Your Browser
Beyond our decline button above, your browser gives you direct control over cookies. Every major browser lets you view, manage, and delete cookies manually. The process varies slightly by browser, but the concept remains consistent.
Chrome (Desktop and Mobile)
- Navigate to Settings, then Privacy and Security
- Select Cookies and Other Site Data
- Choose your preferred blocking level or manage specific sites
- View all cookies currently stored and delete selectively
Firefox
- Access Options or Preferences menu
- Select Privacy & Security from the sidebar
- Adjust Enhanced Tracking Protection settings
- Manage cookie exceptions for individual websites
Safari
- Open Safari Preferences (Mac) or Settings (iOS)
- Navigate to Privacy section
- Configure cookie blocking preferences
- Use Manage Website Data to view and remove stored cookies
Edge
- Click Settings and More, then Settings
- Select Cookies and Site Permissions
- Choose Manage and Delete Cookies
- Adjust blocking levels or manage site-specific permissions
Blocking all cookies might affect how our comparison tools function. Essential cookies are required for basic platform operations, but you can safely decline functional, analytics, and marketing cookies if privacy is your primary concern.
Third-Party Tracking on Our Platform
Some cookies on sparkly-shine.com come from external services we use to run our financial comparison platform. For instance, our analytics provider sets cookies to measure platform usage, and certain financial product providers may set cookies when you interact with their comparison listings.
We carefully select third-party services that respect user privacy, but these external providers have their own privacy policies that govern how they handle data. When you decline non-essential cookies using our tool above, we signal your preference to these third-party services as well.
Analytics and Measurement
We currently use analytics tools to understand how Australians interact with our comparison features. This includes tracking which filter combinations people use most, how long visitors spend reviewing different financial products, and which comparison criteria matter most to our users.
This data gets aggregated and anonymized. We never connect your comparison browsing to your personal identity or share individual browsing patterns with financial institutions featured on our platform.
Data Retention and Your Rights
Different cookies persist for different durations, as outlined in our table above. Session cookies vanish immediately when you close your browser. Persistent cookies stick around for the specified timeframe unless you delete them manually or use our decline tool.
- You can withdraw cookie consent at any time using the decline button at the top of this page
- Your browser's private or incognito mode prevents most persistent cookies from saving
- Clearing your browser's cookie cache removes all stored cookies immediately
- Essential cookies will reset when you revisit our platform, as they're required for basic functionality
- Your preference choices get stored locally so we remember your decision on future visits
If you've previously accepted cookies and now want to decline them, click the button at the top of this page. Your new preference takes effect immediately, and we'll remove non-essential cookies from your device.
How Cookies Improve Your Experience
Let me give you concrete examples of how cookies actually help when you're comparing financial products on our platform:
Say you're comparing mortgage rates across Australian lenders. Functional cookies remember that you're searching in Queensland and that you prefer to see rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage. Without these cookies, you'd need to re-enter these preferences every time you navigate to a new page or return to our platform.
Analytics cookies help us notice that users frequently switch between our mortgage comparison and savings account comparison tools. This insight led us to create a quick-switch feature in early 2025, saving users several clicks. Without usage data, we'd be guessing about which improvements would actually matter to Australians comparing financial products.
Marketing cookies enable more relevant content. If you've been researching credit cards on our platform, you might see educational content about reward point strategies when you visit financial news sites. These aren't random ads — they're contextually relevant resources based on your recent comparison activity.
Mobile Applications and Other Platforms
This policy specifically covers our website at sparkly-shine.com. If we launch mobile applications or other platforms in the future, we'll provide separate documentation explaining how those platforms handle tracking and data collection.
Currently, all comparison tools operate through our web platform, which uses standard browser-based cookie technology as described throughout this document.
Changes to This Cookie Policy
We update this policy when our cookie usage changes or when regulations require adjustments. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects our most recent revision. Significant changes will be communicated through our platform with adequate notice before taking effect.
If we introduce new cookie categories or significantly expand our tracking methods, we'll seek fresh consent rather than relying on previous agreements. We take these obligations seriously — your trust matters more than our data collection convenience.
Questions About Our Cookie Usage?
We're genuinely happy to clarify anything about how we use cookies on sparkly-shine.com.
Email us at contact@sparkly-shine.com
Call us at +61 3 9348 7100
Write to us at 2 Casey Ave, South Mackay QLD 4740, Australia