Cookies

Last updated: September 4, 2026

This page lists what this website sets in your browser, who sets it, what it's for and how long it lasts. We ask before turning on anything beyond what the site needs to run, and this page is where you can check what that choice covers.

What we set and why

When you first visit, a banner asks you to accept cookies or accept essential only. Choosing "Accept cookies" turns on Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, which help us understand how the site is used so we can improve it. Choosing "Accept essential" keeps those two off; the cookies below marked essential are set either way, because they are what makes the site and our AI chat assistant work at all. You can change your mind at any time by clearing your browser's site data for this domain and reloading the page.

Turning on Microsoft Clarity also sets a group of Microsoft cookies (MUID, SRM_B, MR, SM and ANONCHK, below) that Microsoft's own documentation describes as part of its advertising and cross-site identity infrastructure, alongside their analytics use. Clarity sets these automatically as part of its script, as a side effect of running Clarity rather than of any advertising tag on this website: this website carries no Bing or Microsoft advertising tag, and we can't switch off Microsoft's advertising use of these cookies while keeping Clarity's analytics.

Every cookie measured on this website, and the purpose and lifetime of each.
Cookie	Set by	Purpose	Lifetime
`_ga`	Google Analytics .breathewithsteve.com	Counts you as one returning visitor across pages and visits, so we can see roughly how many people use the site.	400 days
`_ga_N6GVQ9J742`	Google Analytics .breathewithsteve.com	Google Analytics 4's record for this specific website property, used alongside `_ga` to build visit and session counts.	400 days
`_clck`	Microsoft Clarity .breathewithsteve.com	Identifies you as one visitor to Microsoft Clarity, so the session recordings and click maps we use to see how the site is actually used can be grouped by visitor rather than by single page view.	365 days
`CLID`	Microsoft Clarity .clarity.ms	Clarity's own visitor identifier, used alongside `_clck` for the same purpose.	365 days
`_clsk`	Microsoft Clarity .breathewithsteve.com	Groups your page views into a single Clarity session. It expires quickly, so a new visit starts a fresh session.	1 day
`MUID`	Microsoft .bing.com and .clarity.ms	Microsoft's own published description: identifies your browser across Microsoft's sites, and is used by Microsoft for advertising, site analytics and other operational purposes. Clarity uses it to link your visit into one session; the advertising use belongs to Microsoft, not to us. This website carries no Bing or Microsoft advertising tag; this cookie is set here as a side effect of the Clarity script.	390 days
`SRM_B`	Microsoft (Bing) .c.bing.com and .c.clarity.ms	Set on Microsoft's domains alongside `MUID`. We haven't found a Microsoft-published description naming this specific cookie; independent cookie audits place it in Microsoft's advertising and targeting cookie set rather than analytics. This website carries no Bing or Microsoft advertising tag; it arrives here as a side effect of the Clarity script, and we can't say more than that with confidence.	390 days
`MR`	Microsoft .c.bing.com and .c.clarity.ms	Microsoft's own published description: indicates whether to refresh `MUID`, the identifier above.	7 days
`SM`	Microsoft Clarity .c.clarity.ms	Microsoft's own published description: used in synchronizing `MUID` across Microsoft's domains.	Session
`ANONCHK`	Microsoft Clarity .c.clarity.ms	Microsoft's own published description: indicates whether `MUID` is transferred to `ANID`, a cookie used for advertising. Clarity does not use `ANID`, so this is always set to 0.	Session
`__cf_bm`	Cloudflare, for our AI chat assistant .leadconnectorhq.com and .filesafe.space	Bot management for our AI chat assistant's provider: it tells them a request is a real browser and not an automated attack. Strictly necessary, so it's set before any cookie choice is made. See the section below.	Session

Our AI chat assistant

Our AI chat assistant always loads on this site, whatever you choose in the cookie banner, so that anyone can talk with us right away without first accepting cookies. Its provider sets the __cf_bm cookies listed above for bot protection before you make any choice. That cookie isn't something we can switch off and still offer a working chat, and we're not describing the widget as cookie-free: it does set a cookie, and this is what it's for.

Videos on our pages

The Vimeo and YouTube videos on this site don't load automatically. Each one loads only once you choose to load it, by clicking the button in its place. Loading a video fetches it from Vimeo or YouTube, which sets its own cookies under that provider's terms, separate from the cookies listed above.

Contact

Questions about this page? DM us on Instagram @breathewithsteve or use our contact page.