What cookies are
Cookies are small files a website saves in your browser so it can remember something between pages or between visits. Browsers have a few other ways of storing things too, such as local storage. We use the word “cookies” below to cover all of them, because the difference only matters to programmers.
What we use
Things the site needs to work
These do not track you, and we do not ask permission for them — without them the site cannot do what you came for.
- Your analytics setting. We save a small note in your browser saying analytics is on, and refresh it every month. If you said no to an earlier version of our cookie question, the note remembers that instead, and we keep to it for six months from when you answered.
- Keeping you signed in. When you log in, we save a sign-in cookie (
sb-<project>-auth-token, sometimes split into numbered parts because it is long) so you stay logged in as you move around the site and when you come back. It lasts up to 400 days, the longest browsers allow, and logging out removes it. Signing up, or signing in with Google, also saves a helper cookie (ending in-code-verifier) that checks a sign-in reply really belongs to the request you started. It holds nothing about you, and logging out removes it too. - Remembering a test you have started, so you can come back to it. If you are not signed in, we save a short-lived identifier for your browser (
tr_guest) when you begin a test — never before that. It lasts 30 days, it is not linked to you unless you ask us to email your results, and clearing your cookies loses it. If you later create an account or log in, the test you started moves across to your account and this cookie is removed. - Paying for a plan. When you open the payment window to buy a plan or change your card, it comes from our payment company, and they may save their own cookies to keep the payment secure, check for fraud and remember your payment choices. We don’t set or read these, and their privacy policy covers them. Nothing like this happens unless you open the payment window.
- Leaving our own team out of the numbers. On the team’s own devices we save
tr_internal, so our test runs aren’t counted as visitors. It holds nothing else and is never set for you.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages students actually use, so we know what to improve. It tells us things like how many people opened the score calculator; it does not tell us who you are.
- Cookies set:
_gaand_ga_<property>, which together recognise a repeat visit without identifying you. - How long they last: up to two years, unless you clear them yourself.
- Set when: the first page you open on this site.
Alongside them we save tr_first_visit, which remembers how you first found us: the page you first opened, the website that sent you, and any campaign tag in the link. It lasts 30 days. If you start a test or create an account in that time, we keep that note with it, so we know which places send students who actually practice.
A visit count with no cookies
We also count page visits with Vercel Web Analytics, which stores nothing in your browser: no cookies, and nothing else either. It sees the page you opened, the page that sent you, and your browser, device type and country, and it cannot recognise you on another day.
We do not use advertising cookies, and we do not let anyone use this site to build an advertising profile of you.
Turning analytics off
We do not show a cookie question: analytics is on when you arrive. If you would rather not be counted, you can block or clear cookies in your browser’s own settings, or use a browser extension that blocks Google Analytics. Both work whatever we do. Blocking every cookie may stop parts of the site working, such as staying signed in.
More on how we handle your information
Our Privacy Policy covers everything else: what we collect, why, and how long we keep it.
Contact us
Questions about cookies go to hello@toeflready.com.