Cookie Policy | TopoTopic

1. Overview

This Cookie Policy explains how TopoTopic uses cookies and similar technologies on topotopic.com. Cookies are small text files stored on your device by your browser. Under Austrian law (section 165(3) of the Telecommunications Act 2021, implementing the EU ePrivacy rules), storing or reading information on your device requires your consent unless it is strictly necessary for a service you request.

We group cookies and device storage into three categories:

Essential: required to run the Service: authentication, security, consent storage, and core operation. These are used without consent because the Service cannot work without them.
Analytics: optional usage measurement, including Google Analytics and PostHog. Third-party analytics scripts and their network requests stay off until you grant analytics consent, and first-party analytics identifiers are managed under the same consent category.
Preference: remember settings such as display options and your current assistant conversation.

Recording and transcription controls (such as speaker labels and audio retention) are product feature settings, not cookie categories. Contract acceptance is recorded server-side; cookies only cache acceptance status for performance.

For broader information about data handling, see our Privacy Policy and Legal Notice / Imprint.

2. Consent and how to change it

On your first visit, a consent banner offers "Accept all", "Essential only", and per-category customization with equal prominence. Analytics defaults to off. Your choice is stored in an HTTP-only consent cookie, in browser storage, and, when you are signed in, server-side.

You can change or withdraw your choice at any time in Settings, Privacy, or through the cookie preferences control on public pages. Withdrawing analytics consent stops future optional analytics collection from that browser; it does not disable essential cookies needed for sign-in, security, or legal version checks, and it does not retroactively delete analytics records collected while consent was enabled (those expire on the schedules in the Privacy Policy).

Consent is stored per browser and device. Changing consent on one device does not automatically update another. When you enable analytics, the page reloads once so the browser security policy that blocks analytics endpoints can be replaced with one that permits them.

3. Cookies we set

Cookie names can vary by environment; in production most carry the __Host- or __Secure- prefix for additional protection, and all are set with the Secure flag and SameSite restrictions. The table lists the production names with their purpose and typical lifetime.

Cookie	Category	Purpose	Typical lifetime
`__Host-topotopic-session / topotopic-session`	Essential	Signed-in session (HTTP-only).	Up to 60 minutes
`__Host-topotopic-refresh / topotopic-refresh`	Essential	Session renewal token (HTTP-only).	Up to 7 days (30 days with remembered device)
`__Host-topotopic-browser-session-binding`	Essential	Binds your session to this browser as a security check (HTTP-only).	Matches the renewal token
`__Host-topotopic-remember-device`	Essential	Stores a remembered-device sign-in preference when you choose it (HTTP-only).	Up to 30 days
`__Host-topotopic-refresh-bridge`	Essential	One-time marker that prevents sign-in redirect loops (HTTP-only).	60 seconds
`__Secure-topotopic-email-verification`	Essential	Links your signup browser to the email verification step (HTTP-only).	Up to 48 hours
`topotopic_oauth_link / __Host-topotopic-google-callback-canary`	Essential	Integrity checks during Google sign-in and account linking (HTTP-only).	Minutes
`webauthn-auth-challenge / webauthn-auth-state (and registration variants)`	Essential	Passkey sign-in and registration ceremony state (HTTP-only).	5 minutes
`__Host-tt-consent / tt-consent`	Essential	Stores your cookie consent choices (HTTP-only).	180 days when accepted, 30 days when declined
`__Host-tt-legal / __Host-tt-legal-proof`	Essential	Caches accepted Terms, Privacy, and Cookie Policy versions for faster checks (HTTP-only). Server-side acceptance records remain authoritative.	Up to 365 days
`tt_surface`	Essential	Stores an internal interface selection marker (HTTP-only).	Up to 30 days
`topotopic_bot_guard`	Essential	Marks browser sessions to help identify automated traffic (HTTP-only).	15 minutes
`topotopic-session-id`	Analytics	Random analytics session identifier that keys first-party usage measurement when analytics is enabled.	Up to 30 days
`__Host-tt-analytics-session`	Analytics	Signed copy of the analytics session identifier (HTTP-only).	Up to 30 days
`__Host-tt-acquisition / topotopic-acquisition`	Analytics	Remembers how you arrived (campaign, referrer, landing page) for consented measurement.	Up to 30 days
`topotopic-experiments`	Analytics	Stores experiment assignment state. Written only after you enable analytics.	Up to 1 year
`consent-analytics-enabled`	Analytics	Signals your analytics consent state to analytics scripts.	Matches the consent cookie
`_ga and _ga_* (Google Analytics)`	Analytics (third party)	Google Analytics measurement identifiers. Set only after you enable analytics.	Up to 2 years (set by Google)
`ph_* (PostHog)`	Analytics (third party)	PostHog measurement identifier, set on our domain because PostHog requests are routed through it. Set only after you enable analytics.	Up to 1 year (set by PostHog)
`vault_prefs`	Preference	Stores certain Vault display preferences.	Up to 120 days
`topotopic-chat-id / topotopic-chat-uuid`	Preference	Tracks your current assistant conversation context.	Up to 1 year

Some cookies may be set temporarily for specific flows (for example authentication hand-offs) and may not appear in the table above. Legacy consent cookie names from older sessions are migrated and cleared automatically.

When paid billing is enabled and you open a checkout or billing page, Stripe (our payment processor) sets its own cookies (for example __stripe_mid and __stripe_sid) to run the payment flow and prevent fraud. Google sign-in pages set Google cookies during the sign-in flow under Google's own policies.

4. Browser storage

Besides cookies, the Service uses browser storage (localStorage, sessionStorage, and IndexedDB) on your device:

Consent record: a copy of your cookie choices, so the banner does not reappear on every page.
Sign-in support: short-lived markers that coordinate sign-in, sign-out across tabs, and the legal acceptance check.
Preferences: display settings, panel layouts, language and capture settings, and dismissed hints.
Drafts and offline caches: unsent content, per-conversation view state, and an offline cache of learning content (IndexedDB).
Analytics support (consent-gated): analytics identifiers, first-visit attribution, and deduplication markers used only when analytics is enabled. A per-tab session marker may exist in sessionStorage for request diagnostics; analytics events are sent only after consent.
Error diagnostics: error monitoring may briefly use session storage to assemble a crash report.

5. Managing cookies in your browser

Most browsers let you remove or block cookies and clear site data. Doing so may prevent parts of the Service from working (for example sign-in and session management), and clearing site data will show you the consent banner again.

You can also review our Privacy Policy for the analytics providers behind the optional categories and the retention that applies to measurement data.