VividCarat Cookie Policy

Last updated: April 2026

This Cookie Policy explains what cookies and similar tracking technologies are, how VividCarat uses them on vividcarat.com, and how you can control them. It applies to every visitor of our website — whether you're browsing sapphire listings, submitting a sourcing request, or completing a purchase.

This policy should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which describes how we handle personal data in general. If the two documents ever appear to conflict, the stricter interpretation — the one more protective of your privacy — prevails.

1. What Cookies Are

A cookie is a small text file that a website places on your browser or device when you visit it. Cookies allow a site to recognize your browser on subsequent visits, remember your preferences, and — in some cases — track your activity across different sites for analytics or advertising purposes.

When we refer to "cookies" in this policy, we also mean functionally similar technologies:

• Pixels and tracking beacons (small image files used by advertising platforms to measure ad performance).
• Local storage and session storage (data saved by your browser for the current session or longer).
• Software development kits (SDKs) embedded in third-party services we use.

For simplicity, this document uses "cookies" to cover all of these.

2. Why We Use Cookies

VividCarat uses cookies for a deliberately narrow set of purposes:

• To make the website function correctly (remember your language, your cookie preferences, your session).
• To understand which content is useful to gemstone buyers so we can improve it (e.g. do buyers read our Burma ruby guide to the end, or do they leave after two paragraphs?).
• To measure the effectiveness of our advertising — specifically, whether visitors who arrive through Google Ads go on to submit a sourcing request.
• To prevent fraud and abuse, such as automated bots scraping our content or submitting fake contact forms.

We do not use cookies for behavioral retargeting across unrelated websites, for building advertising profiles about you, or for selling data to third-party advertising networks.

3. Categories of Cookies We Use

We group cookies into four standard categories. When you visit the site for the first time, only strictly necessary cookies are active. All other categories remain disabled until you give explicit consent through our cookie banner.

3.1 Strictly Necessary Cookies (always active)

These cookies are essential for the website to function. Without them, basic features such as navigation, form submission, and security protection would not work. Because of this, they are exempt from the consent requirement under GDPR and PECR.

3.2 Analytics Cookies (opt-in)

These cookies help us understand aggregate visitor behavior — which pages are most read, where buyers drop off, which gemstone categories drive the most interest. The data is aggregated and does not identify you personally. They are only set after you accept analytics cookies in our banner.

Google Analytics is configured with IP anonymization enabled, so your full IP address is never stored on Google's servers. We do not enable Google Signals, cross-device tracking, or advertising features within GA.

3.3 Advertising / Conversion Cookies (opt-in)

These cookies measure whether an ad campaign successfully brought a buyer to the site and led to a sourcing inquiry. We use them purely for conversion attribution — not for retargeting, audience building, or cross-site profiling. They are only set after you accept advertising cookies.

If you decline advertising cookies, our ads still work — we just can't measure which specific campaigns delivered buyers, which means we spend budget less efficiently. It does not affect your browsing experience in any way.

3.4 Functional Cookies (opt-in)

These cookies enable optional convenience features, such as embedded video players or chat widgets. They are set only if you accept functional cookies and interact with the relevant feature.

If a feature requiring functional cookies is present on a page and you have not consented, we display a placeholder with an option to enable the feature for that session only.

4. Third-Party Cookies

Some cookies above are set by third parties (Google, YouTube) rather than directly by vividcarat.com. We do not control how these providers collect or process data once it reaches them. Their practices are governed by their own privacy policies:

• Google (Analytics and Ads): policies.google.com/privacy
• YouTube: policies.google.com/privacy (covered by Google's policy)

All third-party cookie integrations are blocked by default until you give explicit consent. This is enforced server-side through our consent management platform — it is not merely a visual checkbox.

5. How to Manage Your Preferences

You have three independent layers of control:

5.1 On Our Website

Our cookie banner appears on your first visit and any time your stored preferences expire or are cleared. You can choose to:

• Accept all cookies — enables all four categories.
• Reject all non-essential cookies — leaves only strictly necessary cookies active.
• Customize — toggle each category individually (analytics, advertising, functional).

To change your choice later, click "Cookie Settings" in the footer of any page. Your decision takes effect immediately and applies to all subsequent browsing on our site.

5.2 In Your Browser

All major browsers allow you to block or delete cookies directly. This affects every website you visit, not just ours:

• Chrome: Settings → Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data
• Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data
• Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
• Edge: Settings → Cookies and site permissions → Manage and delete cookies

Note that blocking strictly necessary cookies may prevent certain features of the site — including contact forms and the checkout process — from working correctly.

5.3 Through Opt-Out Tools

You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking across all websites using Google's official browser add-on: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

6. Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers offer a "Do Not Track" (DNT) signal. Because there is no universally agreed standard for how websites should respond to DNT, we do not rely on it as the primary control mechanism. Instead, we treat the choice you make in our cookie banner as authoritative. If you wish to browse without analytics or advertising cookies, decline them in the banner.

We do, however, honor the newer Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal where it is legally recognized (currently in California under CCPA/CPRA). When a GPC signal is detected from a browser in a jurisdiction where it is binding, we treat it as an opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information — which in our case is already our default policy.

7. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy when we add or remove tools from the site, or when legal requirements change. The "Last updated" date at the top will reflect the most recent revision. If we introduce a new cookie category or a materially new type of tracking, we will re-prompt you for consent rather than relying on your previous choice.

8. Contact

Questions about this Cookie Policy, or about a specific cookie you've noticed on the site, can be directed to:

Email: [email protected] Subject line for cookie questions: "COOKIE POLICY" Phone: +1 (602) 610-1709

— Russell, VividCarat