Cookie Policy

1. Overview
In short
Essential cookies keep you signed in and secure and are always on. Analytics is off until you allow it. Preference cookies remember choices you make. This page lists the current first-party cookie families by name, with their purpose and lifetime.
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 and advertising measurement, including Google Analytics, Google Ads conversion attribution, and PostHog. Google receives measurement identifiers, events, and available ad-click identifiers to associate sign-ups and first sessions with advertisements. Ad personalization remains disabled. 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.
Reviewing or acknowledging this policy does not enable optional cookies. Analytics and preference choices are separate from accepting the Terms or acknowledging privacy notices.

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 |
__Secure-topotopic-email-verification-attempt | Essential | Carries a staged email-verification attempt through confirmation (HTTP-only). | 10 minutes |
topotopic_oauth_link | Essential | Binds a Google account-linking attempt to the signed-in account (HTTP-only). | 10 minutes |
__Host-topotopic-google-callback-canary | Essential | Verifies that a durable Google sign-in callback completed (HTTP-only). | Up to 60 minutes |
__Secure-next-auth.state / __Secure-next-auth.pkce.code_verifier | Essential | Protects Google OAuth authorization and callback integrity (HTTP-only). | 15 minutes |
__Secure-next-auth.callback-url | Essential | Returns you to the requested TopoTopic page after Google sign-in. | Browser session |
__Host-next-auth.csrf-token | Essential | Protects authentication requests against cross-site request forgery (HTTP-only). | Browser session |
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) |
_gcl_au and _gcl_aw (Google Ads measurement) | Analytics (third party) | Remembers the Google advertisement click that brought you here so we can measure which advertisements lead to sign-ups. Set only after you enable analytics. No advertising personalization. | Up to 90 days (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 |
Development environments can use the same names without the __Host- or __Secure- prefix. 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.
Questions about cookies and consent: support@topotopic.com.