Effective date: 1 July 2026
This Cookie Policy explains how Meadow Labs Limited, 7 Bearú Mhór, Cois Bhearú, Athy, Co. Kildare, R14 D363, Ireland ("Meadow", "we", "us"), uses cookies and similar technologies, what each one is for, and how you control them.
It sits alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains the personal data we collect and your rights over it. Read the two together.
1. Where this policy applies
This policy covers our website at meadowapp.ie, including the blog, pricing and contact pages, and the Meadow platform, meaning the web application you sign in to and the Meadow app for iOS and Android.
The two are treated differently, and the difference matters. Advertising cookies run on the website only. There is no advertising inside the Meadow platform. Children, families and staff using Meadow are never profiled, tracked across other sites, or advertised to. Nothing a childcare service records in Meadow is used for advertising, and no advertising provider receives it.
We do use analytics in the platform, to see which features are used and where people get stuck. It records pages and events against a meaningless identifier, never the content of what you are looking at.
Everything a childcare service records inside Meadow about children, families and its own staff belongs to that service, and is covered by How Meadow handles your childcare service's data.
2. What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store on your device. When you come back, the browser sends the file to the website, which can then recognise your browser. Cookies are how a site keeps you signed in between pages, remembers a preference, or counts a visit.
We also use similar technologies that are not cookies but work the same way, and we treat them under the same rules. These are local storage, a larger store in your browser that the Meadow platform uses to remember your preferences, and tags and pixels, small pieces of code or invisible images used to record that something happened, such as arriving on our website from an advertisement.
Where this policy says "cookies", it means all of these.
3. First-party and third-party cookies
A first-party cookie is set by the site you are visiting, in our case meadowapp.ie. A third-party cookie is set by another organisation whose code runs on the page, such as an advertising provider.
Most of the cookies we use are first-party. The only third-party cookies we use are the advertising cookies described below, and only if you accept them.
4. Session and persistent cookies
A session cookie lasts until you close your browser. A persistent cookie stays for a set period, or until you delete it. We use both. The lifetime of each cookie is shown in the cookie declaration at the bottom of this page.
5. The types of cookies we use
Necessary cookies
These make the site and the platform work. They keep you signed in, remember the language you chose, and record the answer you gave in the cookie banner so we do not ask you again. Without them you could not use Meadow.
The law does not require us to ask your permission for these, because you have asked for the service they deliver. You cannot turn them off through our banner, though you can block them in your browser, at the cost of the site working.
Advertising cookies
We advertise Meadow to childcare services, mainly on Google. Advertising cookies let us see which advertisements bring people to our website, so we do not keep paying for advertisements that do not work.
These run only on meadowapp.ie, only after you accept them, and never inside the Meadow platform. Our advertising provider is Google Ireland Limited, which acts as a separate controller for this data. See Google's privacy policy and how Google uses data from sites that use its services.
If you refuse, no advertising cookie is set and nothing that can identify you is sent. Google's tag still loads on our website, but it is held in a restricted mode in which it may report only that an anonymous visit happened, with no identifier and no cookie. Refusing changes nothing about how the website works.
Analytics cookies
Analytics tells us which parts of Meadow are used and where people run into trouble, so we know what to fix and what to build next. It records the pages you open and a small set of events, such as signing in, against a meaningless identifier that is not your name or your email.
We use PostHog for this, on its European servers. We have deliberately turned off the parts of it that would be intrusive: it never records your screen, never captures what you type or what is on the page, and never shows you surveys. It only receives the handful of events we send it by name, so children's information cannot reach it.
Analytics cookies are set only if you accept them.
Marketing email
We do not run a newsletter yet. When we do, our marketing emails will contain a small pixel that tells us whether the email was opened and whether a link was clicked, so we can tell whether our emails are useful. Every marketing email will carry an unsubscribe link. Transactional email, such as an invitation or a sign-in code, is not tracked this way.
6. The full list of cookies
The declaration at the bottom of this page is the live list of cookies found on meadowapp.ie, naming each one with its purpose and lifetime. It is produced by our consent tool, which scans the website every month, so it stays current as the site changes.
That scan can only reach pages that are open to the public. Once you sign in to the Meadow platform, the cookies used are the necessary and analytics ones described in section 5, and no others. No advertising cookie is ever set there.
7. How we ask for your consent
The first time you visit one of the website pages listed in section 1 you are shown a cookie banner. Until you answer it, only necessary cookies are set, and the advertising tag is held in its restricted mode. Nothing is pre-ticked, refusing is exactly as easy as accepting, and refusing does not limit any part of the website.
Your answer is remembered for 12 months, after which we ask again. We also ask again if we add a cookie that your previous answer did not cover.
The banner appears on our website. Analytics in the Meadow platform follows the same choice, so accepting or refusing on the website settles it for both.
We use Cookiebot, a consent tool operated by Usercentrics A/S in Denmark, to ask the question and record your answer.
8. How to change or withdraw your consent
You can change your mind at any time, and it takes effect immediately.
On our website. Use the cookie declaration at the bottom of this page. It shows your current choice and carries a link to change or withdraw it. Withdrawing stops any further use of advertising cookies. It does not undo what happened while your consent was in force.
In your browser. Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies, for all sites or for one. Deleting our cookies will also delete the record of your choice, so you will be asked again on your next visit. Blocking necessary cookies will stop you being able to sign in to Meadow. The instructions differ by browser and are in its help pages, usually under privacy or site settings.
On your device. Mobile operating systems offer their own advertising controls, such as Apple's App Tracking Transparency and Android's setting to delete or reset an advertising ID.
9. Changes to this Cookie Policy
We may update this policy as the site changes or as the law does. The effective date is shown at the top. Where a change means we would collect something materially different, we will ask for your consent again rather than rely on the answer you gave before.
10. Contact us
If you have a question about this policy or about how we use cookies, email us at james@meadowapp.ie, or write to Meadow Labs Limited, 7 Bearú Mhór, Cois Bhearú, Athy, Co. Kildare, R14 D363, Ireland.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28, www.dataprotection.ie.