Cookie Policy

This policy explains how Business Technologies NI Ltd (“BTNI”, “we”, “us”) uses cookies and similar technologies on this website and in the TechState Portal. In short: we use essential cookies, plus one first-party cookie that helps us count visits to this website. You can switch that one off at any time on this page. Nothing is used for advertising, nothing is shared, and we don’t track you across the web.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They help websites work properly — for example, keeping you signed in — and can also be used to count visits, or for advertising. We use them for the first two only.

Essential cookies

• Sign-in session — keeps you securely signed in to the TechState Portal for the duration of your session.
• Security — protects portal forms against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) and keeps your session safe.

These cookies are strictly necessary: the TechState Portal cannot work without them. They contain no advertising identifiers and are not shared with third parties.

Visit statistics

To understand how our website is used — which pages people find useful, how they arrive and whether our enquiry forms work — we count visits ourselves, on our own systems. UK law (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025) allows this without asking first, because it is used only to produce statistics that help us improve our own website, the information stays with us, and you can switch it off at any time below.

• Name: btni_stats. Set by this website only (first-party). It holds a random code — not your name, your email address or anything about your device.
• Purpose: to tell a returning visitor from a new one, and to group the pages you look at in one visit (a visit ends after 30 minutes without a page view), so we can count visits, returning visitors and which pages lead to an enquiry.
• Duration: 13 months from your first visit. It is never extended.
• What we record: the page, the website you came from and any campaign tags in our own links, the type of device and browser (for example “mobile, Safari”), your screen size and your country. We never store your IP address, the full details of your browser, or anything you type into a form.
• Who sees it: only BTNI. It is not shared with anyone, not used for advertising, not combined with other websites’ data and never used to identify you.
• How long we keep it: individual visit records for up to 13 months; after that we keep daily totals only.

When you send us an enquiry, we note where your first visit came from (for example “Google search” or “LinkedIn”) alongside it, so we know which of our efforts help people find us. We don’t attach your browsing history to your enquiry.

Switching visit statistics off

Use the switch below — it takes effect straight away and costs nothing. When it’s off we delete the statistics cookie and set a small cookie, btni_stats_off, for 13 months to remember your choice; that cookie is strictly necessary to honour it. Pages you open are then added only to anonymous totals, with nothing that links your visits together. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it exactly as if you had switched this off.

AI assistants and search engines

We also count requests from search engines and AI services that read our website — for example Googlebot or ChatGPT — by the name they give. This involves no cookies and no information about people.

What we don’t do

• No advertising or marketing cookies.
• No third-party analytics, tracking scripts or social media pixels.
• No cross-site tracking, and no “fingerprinting” of your device.
• No selling or sharing of browsing data with third parties.

Embedded content

Some pages embed content from third parties — for example, the service-area map on our About page is provided by Google Maps. When that content loads, the provider may set its own cookies under its own privacy policy; we don’t control these and they aren’t used by us to track you.

If we ever want to use cookies for anything else, we will update this policy first and ask for your consent where the law requires it.

Managing cookies

You can block or delete cookies at any time through your browser settings. Please note that blocking essential cookies will prevent you from signing in to the TechState Portal. Blocking the statistics cookie has the same effect as switching visit statistics off.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last reviewed.

Contact us

Questions about cookies or privacy? Contact Business Technologies NI Ltd, Suite 111, Lisburn Enterprise Organisation, Lisburn BT28 2BP — call 028 9244 3424 or email [email protected].