Cookie Policy

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. We always use cookies that are strictly necessary to make the site work — for example to keep you logged in. In addition, with your consent, we use optional analytics cookies to understand how the platform is used. These are off by default and are only set after you actively opt in. Personalised advertising and measurement is a separate optional choice, also off by default: only if you opt in can partner ad views and clicks be associated with your account or session and a partner purchase be attributed to your click. It uses the existing session rather than an extra advertising cookie, and the partner you visit receives a click reference.

Essential cookies

These are required for the site to function and cannot be disabled.

Optional analytics cookies (PostHog)

With your consent, we use PostHog — a product-analytics service hosted in the European Union (Frankfurt, Germany) — to understand which features are used and where the platform can be improved. PostHog assigns you a pseudonymous identifier; we never share your name or e-mail address with it, and it does not track you across other websites. These cookies are only set after you opt in via the cookie banner.

With the same consent, we may also record how the interface is used (session replay): a technical reconstruction of navigation and interactions that helps us find usability problems. Everything you type is masked, media is excluded, payment forms are handled by our payment provider and are not part of recordings, and console and network-payload recording are disabled. Masking is a safeguard, not a guarantee that arbitrary content can never appear in a recording. Recordings are viewed by our team for this purpose. New recordings are configured to expire after 30 days; expiry does not mean immediate physical deletion, older recordings can keep earlier settings, and metadata or exported copies have separate lifecycles. Withdrawing your consent stops recording immediately.

Server-side measurement — without cookies

Independently of the above, we count page views on our own servers without setting a cookie for it. We record the page, the referring website, the device and browser type and coarse location (country, and sometimes region or city), grouped by an identifier that changes daily. These statistics do not keep your IP address. They are pseudonymous, not anonymous, and rely on our legitimate interest in proportionate service measurement.

Without advertising consent, partner ads are chosen by weighted random rotation and no advertising cookie or advertising identifier is added; page views showing a partner card are counted within the same server-side page statistics. With advertising consent and any required platform permission, following a partner link can transmit campaign parameters and a click reference to the partner. Without that permission, our redirect omits those identifiers. A participating partner may report an order or lead resulting from such a click back to us. With advertising consent, ad views and clicks can also be associated with your account or session, as described above. Arrivals through our own campaign links are recorded on our servers without an extra cookie.

Own campaign links and registration

Campaign-link attribution is a separate optional choice, called “Campaign links”; “Accept All” in the cookie notice includes it. If it is on, the existing server-side session holds the campaign code and information identifying that decision. No separate campaign cookie is added. We use the existing session cookie to connect the permitted visit with a later signup only while that decision remains valid. A visit made without this permission, or one whose permission was withdrawn or has expired, is not attributed after a later opt-in. Without this permission, links still work and visits may still be counted without associating them with your new account. Turn off “Campaign links” in cookie preferences or in the website’s Settings → Data & ads. Turning off personalised partner advertising alone does not change this separate choice. This choice is also separate from the membership-time invitation programme and from PostHog analytics.

Invitations

The membership-time invitation programme does not set the former tp_ref cookie; the updated website deletes it when received. A code travels in invitation links and signup forms or app requests. In the app it is kept in process memory and is cleared on removal, sign-in or process exit; it is not saved in a persistent referral store. There is no automatic app-store recovery of an invitation. You can type a code or open a direct invitation link.

If you select provider sign-in after “Use invitation”, the existing browser session cookie leads to the sign-in’s own security state, which carries a random reference to that attempt; the selected code, notice version and provider are held in our server cache for at most 30 minutes, usable only by that attempt, and removed when it finishes or expires. The session cookie normally lasts seven days, which does not make the referral hold valid for seven days.

The account attribution and qualification checks rely on legitimate interest under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, separately from advertising or analytics consent. Device storage and access are assessed separately under § 25 TDDDG. Transient operations strictly necessary to carry an invitation you expressly request through signup can fall under § 25(2)(2); using an existing session cookie does not exempt unrelated tracking. Ignore or remove the invitation (×) to sign up without attribution; only “Use invitation” links the accounts. Afterwards use Settings → Privacy → “Stop counting me”, or contact support. Privacy Policy Section 8 explains the checks, objection, recipients and retention.

Third-party connections

All fonts, scripts, and stylesheets of the platform are hosted on our own servers — your browser does not contact any content-delivery networks or font providers to load our pages. Your browser only connects to a third party in these specific situations:

• Stripe — loaded on checkout pages only, to process payments securely. Stripe may set its own cookies on those pages for fraud prevention.
• Cloudflare Turnstile — loaded on the login, signup, and public submission forms to protect them against automated abuse, without tracking you across websites.
• PostHog (EU-hosted) — only after you have opted in to analytics, as described above.
• External media — public portfolio pages can show media from YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, SoundCloud, TikTok and Instagram. They first appear as a preview served by us; your browser connects to the provider only when you tap that preview or when you have allowed the optional External media category, which loads all players as soon as a page opens. That choice is kept for 180 days and can be withdrawn at any loaded player or in the portfolio Cookie Policy. Community and chat link cards use our own previews; opening the link connects to the external site.

Your choices

Analytics cookies are off by default — we only set them after you choose "Accept All" or enable analytics under "Manage Preferences" in the cookie banner. You can change your mind at any time: withdrawing consent stops analytics immediately and tells the analytics SDK to stop and reset its browser state; records already collected are not erased by this and you can request their erasure separately. Withdrawing is as easy as consenting — just use the button below. Personalised advertising is a separate choice in the same preferences; External media on public portfolios and an invitation you choose to use at signup are decided where they appear. You can also view and delete cookies through your browser settings; note that deleting the session cookie will log you out.

Contact

For questions about our use of cookies, contact us at service@thepending.app.