Cookie Policy

1. Changes and updates to this Policy

• All changes to this Policy are made and published in the manner described in the Privacy Policy. We will publish the updated Policy at https://askwatch.ai/cookies and change the date at the top of this page.
• If we ever start using cookies for advertising, targeting or profiling, we will ask for your consent before setting them and will update this Policy first.

2. What cookies are

• Cookies are small pieces of data that a website stores on your device when you browse and use online services. They enable features that a website cannot provide without remembering something between requests, for example, keeping you signed in.
• Session cookies are stored only temporarily and are deleted when you close your browser. Persistent cookies remain on your device until they expire or you delete them; they are given an expiry date, and when that date is reached the browser deletes them. A cookie without an expiry date is a session cookie.
• Cookies may be first-party (set by the website you are visiting) or third-party (set by another domain whose content is loaded on the page).
• In some cases, cookies are used to process data that is personal data, such as identifiers linked to your account or device. The use of such cookies is regulated by data protection laws, which give you rights to control how this data is collected and processed.

3. Cookies we use

• Most of the cookies we use are essential, or “strictly necessary”. They are required for the Platform to work correctly and securely: without them we cannot keep you signed in or remember a check you have started. Because they are strictly necessary, they do not require your consent.
• We also use one measurement tool, Google Analytics, described in Section 3.3. It counts visits and shows us which pages and features are used, so that we can decide what to build and fix next.
• We do not use advertising, targeting or profiling cookies, we do not use web beacons (also known as “pixels”, “1×1 GIFs” or “clear GIFs”) on our pages or in our emails, and we do not use browser local storage or session storage.
• All cookies we set, including the measurement cookies, are first-party cookies: they are set on our own domains and are not readable by other websites.

3.1 The website

• The website at https://askwatch.ai sets only the measurement cookies described in Section 3.3.

3.2 The web application

The web application at https://app.askwatch.ai sets the following cookies:

• aw_anon: identifies an anonymous visitor who started a check without an account, so that the check and its report stay available to that visitor. Expires after 30 days.
• aw_draft: remembers the check in progress. Expires after 30 days.
• sb-…-auth-token: keeps you signed in after you enter the one-time code sent to your email address. It may be split into several cookies ending in .0, .1 and so on. Kept for up to 400 days or until you sign out.
• sb-…-code-verifier: a short-lived cookie used only while you are signing in, to complete the sign-in securely.
• You can refuse these cookies by changing your browser settings (see Section 5), but you will then not be able to sign in or continue a check you have started.

3.3 Measurement

Both https://askwatch.ai and https://app.askwatch.ai set two cookies for Google Analytics, our measurement provider:

• _ga: tells one visitor from another so that repeat visits are not counted as new ones. Expires after two years.
• _ga_MH9E6ZSPG5: keeps the state of the current visit for the same purpose. Expires after two years.

They are set on both addresses on purpose: a visit that starts on the website and continues into the web application is then counted once rather than twice.

What reaches Google is deliberately limited. Page addresses are reduced to the shape of the page before they are sent, so that report sharing links, account identifiers and anything typed into a search box inside the Platform stay in your browser. Google Signals and advertising personalisation are switched off, and we do not allow this data to be used to personalise advertising.

You can refuse these cookies through your browser settings (see Section 5) or by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on. Refusing them has no effect on how the Platform works for you.

4. Third-party requests

Some features of the website and the Platform load content from, or send data to, third parties. We do not set cookies for them, but the requests reach their servers:

• Website icons. To show the icon (favicon) of a website, for example a competitor’s domain or a cited source, your browser loads it from Google’s favicon service. Google receives the request, including your IP address and the domain whose icon is shown.
• Embedded videos. Blog posts may embed YouTube videos in privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com). Nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play. Once you do, YouTube may set its own cookies, which are governed by Google’s privacy policy.
• Error reports. When an error occurs in your browser, a report about it (including technical data such as your browser, device and IP address) is sent to Sentry, our error monitoring provider, so that we can fix it. Sentry does not set cookies.

5. How to control and delete cookies

You can delete cookies and block them from being set at any time by choosing the appropriate settings of your browser:

• Google Chrome (desktop and Android)
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari on Mac
• Safari on iPhone and iPad

Signing out of the Platform also removes the sign-in cookies.

6. Processing of data collected through cookies

• Where the data we process through cookies and the requests described above is personal data, its processing is governed by the Privacy Policy. For example, our authorised personnel may access this data, and it may be processed on our behalf by the service providers listed in the Privacy Policy. For more information on our practices, see the Privacy Policy.

7. Contact us

• If you have any questions regarding this Policy, please contact us at hello@askwatch.ai.