Cookie policy.

Hangout FC uses a small set of first-party cookies we control, plus standard browser storage. Strictly necessary cookies run sign-in, account security, checkout, and finding an unstarted Ask question. They do not wait for a banner.

Optional cookies (site stats, partner attribution, and ads measurement) stay off until you press Accept on the Optional cookies bar or in Cookie settings. Reject and no choice yet are treated the same: those tools do not load. Sign-in and checkout still work.

These technical items are required to make our service work and do not require your consent.

• Supabase authentication cookies that keep you signed in across browser sessions after you confirm your email code.
• Session and routing cookies that monitor secure login status, protect account pages, and return you to the right screen after sign-in.
• A short-lived Hangout FC checkout-context cookie needed to handle payment flows with our billing partner, Paddle.
• A short-lived Hangout FC ask-draft cookie (hfc-ask-draft) that holds only an opaque id so email sign-in and checkout can find your unstarted question. Host-only; about one day. Strictly necessary — Reject and no choice yet still set it. It is not Accept-only.
• A Hangout FC security cookie used to check that account actions come from this site.

These load only after Accept, and only on public pages and sign-in — not inside the signed-in member app.

Marketing analytics (Vercel)

Our marketing pages and sign-in funnel use Vercel Web Analytics. It does not set its own tracking cookie, tracks aggregated page counts only, and does not record your activity across separate websites. It does not wait for the cookie bar. Query strings sent to Vercel omit click ids and other sensitive parameters; campaign labels in the URL may remain.

Site analytics (Ahrefs)

After Accept we load an Ahrefs analytics script on public pages and sign-in to understand aggregated traffic and SEO performance. If you Reject, we do not load Ahrefs. This is not used to sell your data to ad brokers.

Affiliate attribution (FirstPromoter)

After Accept, when you arrive through a promoter or affiliate link (for example a URL containing an fpr parameter), FirstPromoter may set its own cookie so we can attribute sign-ups and paid memberships to that promoter. On a new account sign-up we may send your email to FirstPromoter solely for that matching. If you Reject, we do not load FirstPromoter; sign-up still works. See our privacy policy for how we share data with processors.

Ads measurement

After Accept we may measure ads (including conversion events sent to X) so we can tell whether a campaign click led to a trial start. Those events may include a click id, a hashed email, and the network address we see — not a dump of your account. Unset and Reject do not run that measurement.

Campaign labels

After Accept, campaign labels from a marketing URL (source, medium, campaign, and content) persist in a first-party cookie for about thirty minutes, so they survive when you move to a public page without those tags in the address bar. They are saved once to your account on first sign-up, as described in our privacy policy. Reject and no choice yet do not set that cookie; Reject also clears it. We never store a click id or email in that cookie.

These are cookies we set on our own host. We list our names here. We do not guess the file names used by third-party vendors.

• hfc-optional-cookies — your optional-cookies choice (accept or reject). Host-only; about one year.
• hfc-twclid — short-lived ads click id, only after Accept, so we can measure a trial start if you leave the campaign URL. Host-only; about thirty minutes.
• hfc-campaign-utm — campaign labels (source, medium, campaign, content) after Accept, so they persist while you browse public pages before sign-up. Host-only; about thirty minutes. Never a click id or email.
• hfc-x-start-trial — one-time trial conversion event id after you start the free week. Host-only; about ten minutes.
• hfc-ask-draft — opaque id only for an unstarted Ask question, so OTP and checkout can find it. Host-only; about one day. Strictly necessary. Reject and no choice yet still set it; it is not Accept-only.
• hfc_checkout_context — short-lived checkout context for Paddle (strictly necessary).
• hfc-csrf — security token for account actions (strictly necessary).

We store specific settings locally on your device using browser storage rather than sending them to our servers on every request.

Local storage

Remembers visual choices like light, dark, or system theme, along with your default output language for Press Box, Dossiers, and The Booth(nine languages, with regional variants). This stays on your device until you clear it in your browser settings.

Session storage

Used for temporary navigation — such as remembering your place when moving between feed posts and lists — and checkout redirect parameters. Session storage clears when your tab or browser session ends. This session may remember that the first-wait note already showed if the account write failed.

Use Cookie settings on this page to Accept or Reject optional cookies. The bar on public pages and sign-in does not block this page: you can choose here even if you have not chosen yet.

If you Accept and later Reject, we stop loading new optional tools and clear our first-party ads and campaign cookies. We cannot reliably delete third-party cookies already set by those tools. You can also clear cookies in your browser.

You can block, limit, or clear cookies and storage through your browser settings. If you disable essential cookies, you will not be able to sign in or maintain an active membership session on Hangout FC. Blocking optional cookies may limit our ability to measure traffic, credit promoters, or measure ads; the product still works.

Clearing storage may reset your theme, language, and navigation defaults.