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Cookie Policy

Last updated:
Minimal Cookie Usage

Simple Cookie Approach

StepDoc uses cookies only for essential functionality like keeping you logged in. No tracking, no advertising, no unnecessary data collection. Just the basics to make the service work.

🍪 What We Use Cookies For

🔐

Authentication Only

Keep you logged in securely

💳

Payment Processing

Handle subscription billing

🚫

No Tracking

No analytics or advertising cookies

Cookies We Use

🔐 Authentication Cookies

Essential
Purpose: Keep you securely logged in to your StepDoc account
Duration: Session-based (expires when you close browser) or up to 30 days if "Remember me" is selected
Data stored: Encrypted session token, user ID reference
Provider: Supabase (our authentication service)

Why it's necessary: Without this cookie, you'd need to log in every time you visit the site or refresh the page.

🛒 Session Management

Essential
Purpose: Manage your browser session and prevent unauthorized access
Duration: Temporary (deleted when you close your browser)
Data stored: Session ID, security tokens
Provider: StepDoc

Why it's necessary: Protects against security attacks and ensures you're accessing your own account data.

🚫 What We Don't Use

Not Used
  • ❌ No Google Analytics or tracking cookies
  • ❌ No advertising or marketing cookies
  • ❌ No social media tracking pixels
  • ❌ No behavioral profiling cookies
  • ❌ No cross-site tracking cookies
  • ❌ No performance monitoring cookies

Privacy Promise: We believe in minimal data collection. If it's not essential for the service to work, we don't use it.

Third-Party Services & Their Cookies

🔐 Supabase (Authentication)

Authentication Provider

What they do: Handle secure user authentication and account management

Cookies they may set:

  • sb-access-token - Authentication token (essential)
  • sb-refresh-token - Token renewal (essential)

Duration: Session-based or up to 1 hour for security

Privacy policy: Supabase Privacy Policy

💳 Stripe (Payment Processing)

Payment Processor

What they do: Securely process payments and manage subscriptions

Cookies they may set:

  • __stripe_mid - Fraud prevention (essential for payments)
  • __stripe_sid - Payment session management (essential)

Duration: 1 year for fraud prevention, session-based for checkout

Privacy policy: Stripe Privacy Policy

Note: Stripe cookies only appear when you're making a payment or managing billing

📍 Important to Know

These third-party cookies are only set when you actively use those services (logging in or making payments). They don't track you across other websites or collect unnecessary data about your browsing habits.

Managing Your Cookies

🔧 Browser Settings

You can control cookies through your browser settings:

Chrome
  1. Click the three dots menu → Settings
  2. Go to Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data
  3. Choose your cookie preferences
  4. Manage exceptions for specific sites
Firefox
  1. Click the hamburger menu → Settings
  2. Go to Privacy & Security
  3. Find Cookies and Site Data section
  4. Adjust settings and exceptions
Safari
  1. Safari → Preferences
  2. Click Privacy tab
  3. Choose "Block all cookies" or customize
  4. Manage website data for specific sites
Edge
  1. Click the three dots menu → Settings
  2. Go to Cookies and site permissions
  3. Click Cookies and site data
  4. Manage permissions and exceptions

⚠️ Blocking Essential Cookies

Important: If you block or delete our essential cookies, StepDoc won't work properly. You'll experience issues like:

  • Being logged out constantly
  • Unable to access your account
  • Payment processing problems
  • Loss of session data

We only use cookies that are necessary for the service to function.

🧹 Clearing Cookies

To clear StepDoc cookies specifically:

  1. Go to your browser's developer tools (F12)
  2. Navigate to the Application/Storage tab
  3. Find Cookies in the left sidebar
  4. Select stepdoc.app or our domain
  5. Delete individual cookies or clear all

Note: You'll need to log in again after clearing authentication cookies.

🔍 Inspecting Our Cookies

Want to see exactly what cookies we set? You can inspect them:

  1. Right-click on our website → Inspect Element
  2. Go to Application tab → Cookies
  3. Click on our domain to see all cookies
  4. View name, value, expiration, and purpose

We encourage transparency - feel free to check what we're storing!

Cookie Consent & Legal Compliance

🇪🇺 GDPR Compliance (EU Users)

Under GDPR, we're required to inform you about cookies and get consent where necessary:

  • Essential cookies: No consent required (they're necessary for the service)
  • Optional cookies: We don't use any, so no consent needed
  • Your rights: You can request information about what cookies we use

🍪 ePrivacy Directive

We comply with EU cookie laws by:

  • Only using strictly necessary cookies
  • Being transparent about what we collect
  • Providing clear information about third-party services
  • Respecting your browser's Do Not Track settings

🏖️ CCPA Compliance (California Users)

Under California privacy law:

  • We don't sell personal information (including cookie data)
  • You can request details about information we collect
  • You can request deletion of your data
  • We don't discriminate based on privacy choices

Updates to This Cookie Policy

We may update this cookie policy when:

  • We change how we use cookies (unlikely, given our minimal approach)
  • Legal requirements change
  • We add new essential functionality that requires cookies

When we update this policy, we'll:

  • Change the "Last updated" date at the top
  • Notify you via email for significant changes
  • Post a notice on our website

Questions About Cookies?

🍪 Cookie Questions

privacy@mystepdoc.com

🛠️ Technical Support

privacy@mystepdoc.com

📋 Data Requests

privacy@mystepdoc.com

We typically respond to cookie and privacy questions within 5 business days.