A. What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device (computer, smartphone, or tablet) when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, provide a better user experience, and help website owners understand how their site is being used.
Cookies contain information that is transferred to your device's hard drive. They allow us to recognize your device and store information about your preferences or past actions, making your next visit easier and the site more useful to you.
Types of Cookies We Use
Cookies can be categorized in several ways:
1. By Duration
- Session Cookies: Temporary cookies that expire when you close your browser. These help us track your activities during a single browsing session.
- Persistent Cookies: Cookies that remain on your device for a set period of time or until you manually delete them. These help us recognize you when you return to our site.
2. By Origin
- First-Party Cookies: Cookies set directly by WeRead when you visit our website.
- Third-Party Cookies: Cookies set by external services we use, such as analytics providers or advertising networks.
3. Similar Technologies
In addition to cookies, we may use similar technologies including:
- Web Beacons (Pixel Tags): Tiny graphics embedded in web pages and emails that allow us to track whether a page was viewed or an email was opened.
- Local Storage: Technology that allows websites to store data locally on your browser, similar to cookies but with greater storage capacity.
- Session Storage: Similar to local storage, but data is cleared when the browser tab is closed.
B. How WeRead Uses Cookies
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies for several purposes. Below is a detailed breakdown of each category:
1. Essential Cookies (Strictly Necessary)
These cookies are necessary for the website to function properly and cannot be disabled in our systems. They are usually set in response to actions you take, such as logging in, setting privacy preferences, or filling in forms.
Examples of Essential Cookies:
- Authentication: Remembering that you are logged in so you don't have to re-enter your credentials on every page
- Security: Detecting and preventing fraudulent activity, abuse, and security threats
- Session Management: Maintaining your session state as you navigate through the application
- Load Balancing: Distributing traffic across our servers to ensure optimal performance
- Cookie Consent: Remembering your cookie preferences and consent choices
Legal Basis: These cookies are strictly necessary to provide the service you have requested, and consent is not required under most privacy laws (including GDPR).
2. Analytics and Performance Cookies
These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. This helps us improve the Service and understand which features are most useful.
What We Track:
- Number of visitors to our site and specific pages
- How long users spend on each page
- Which pages users visit before and after our site
- User flow through the site (navigation patterns)
- Technical information: browser type, device type, operating system, screen resolution
- Geographic location (country/region level only, not precise location)
- Page load times and performance metrics
- Error messages and crashes
Analytics Tools We Use:
- Plausible Analytics (or similar privacy-friendly analytics): We use a lightweight, privacy-focused analytics tool that does not use cookies and does not collect personal data. This tool provides us with aggregate statistics without tracking individual users.
- Google Analytics 4 (if applicable): We may use Google Analytics in a privacy-enhanced mode with IP anonymization enabled. Google Analytics helps us understand user behavior and improve our service. You can opt out using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Legal Basis: We process this data based on our legitimate interest in understanding how users interact with our Service to improve it. Where required by law, we obtain your consent before placing analytics cookies.
3. Functionality and Preference Cookies
These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make (such as your preferred language, age range settings, or reading preferences) to provide a more personalized experience.
Examples of Preference Cookies:
- Language Preferences: Remembering your preferred language (English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese)
- Reading History: Storing your recently scanned books and generated questions locally on your device (using localStorage)
- Age Range Settings: Remembering the age range you selected for question generation
- UI Preferences: Remembering your display preferences, such as text size or theme
- Onboarding Progress: Tracking whether you've completed the initial tutorial or setup
Legal Basis: We use these cookies based on your consent or our legitimate interest in providing you with a customized user experience.
4. Marketing and Advertising Cookies (If Applicable)
We currently do not use marketing or advertising cookies on our site. If we decide to use such cookies in the future to deliver targeted advertising or track the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns, we will update this policy and obtain your consent where required by law.
If we introduce marketing cookies, they would be used to:
- Deliver relevant advertisements to you on other websites
- Limit the number of times you see an advertisement
- Measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns
- Track conversions from ads to our website
C. Third-Party Cookies and Services
In addition to our own cookies, we may allow trusted third-party services to place cookies on your device when you use our website. These third parties may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites.
Third-Party Services We Use
1. Analytics Providers
- Plausible Analytics (or similar): Privacy-friendly analytics that do not use cookies or collect personal information
- Google Analytics 4 (if applicable): Web analytics service with IP anonymization enabled. Learn more about Google's Privacy Policy.
2. Hosting and Infrastructure
- Vercel: Hosting platform for our website and application. Vercel may use cookies for load balancing and security purposes. See Vercel's Privacy Policy.
- Supabase: Database and authentication services. See Supabase's Privacy Policy.
3. Payment Processors (If Applicable)
If you make a purchase, our payment processor (such as Stripe) may set cookies to process your transaction securely. We do not have control over these cookies. See your payment processor's privacy policy for more information.
4. Email Service Providers
- ConvertKit (or similar): Email marketing service used for newsletters and product updates. ConvertKit may use tracking pixels to track email opens and link clicks. See ConvertKit's Privacy Policy.
Third-Party Responsibility
We carefully select third-party services that respect user privacy and comply with applicable data protection laws. However, we do not have control over how these third parties use cookies or collect data. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third-party services to understand their practices.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these third-party services.
D. Your Choices and Control Over Cookies
You have several options to manage and control cookies on your device:
1. Browser Settings
Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can set your browser to:
- Block all cookies
- Block only third-party cookies
- Delete cookies when you close your browser
- Accept cookies only from specific websites
- Receive a notification before a cookie is stored
How to manage cookies in popular browsers:
2. Cookie Consent Tool (If Implemented)
Depending on your location and applicable privacy laws, we may provide a cookie consent banner when you first visit our site. This banner allows you to:
- Accept all cookies
- Reject non-essential cookies
- Customize your cookie preferences by category
You can update your cookie preferences at any time by accessing the cookie settings link in our website footer or contacting us.
3. Opt-Out of Analytics
If you wish to opt out of analytics tracking:
- Google Analytics: Install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on
- Plausible Analytics: Plausible does not use cookies or track personal data, so no opt-out is necessary
4. Do Not Track (DNT)
Some browsers support a "Do Not Track" (DNT) feature that signals to websites that you do not want your online activity tracked. Currently, there is no industry-wide standard for honoring DNT signals.
At this time, WeRead does not respond to DNT signals. However, we respect your privacy and use privacy-friendly analytics tools that minimize data collection.
5. Mobile Device Settings
If you access WeRead through a mobile app, you can control tracking through your device settings:
- iOS: Settings → Privacy → Tracking → Disable "Allow Apps to Request to Track"
- Android: Settings → Google → Ads → Opt out of Ads Personalization
6. Impact of Disabling Cookies
Important: If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that:
- Some parts of our Service may not function properly
- You may need to manually adjust preferences each time you visit
- You may not be able to log in or access certain features
- Your user experience may be degraded
Essential cookies are necessary for the Service to function and cannot be disabled if you want to use our website.
E. Changes to This Cookies Policy
We may update this Cookies & Tracking Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or other factors.
When we make changes, we will:
- Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page
- For material changes, provide notice through our website or via email (if you have an account)
- Obtain your consent again if required by law (e.g., if we introduce new types of cookies that require consent)
We encourage you to review this Cookies Policy periodically to stay informed about how we use cookies and how you can protect your privacy.
Your continued use of the Service after we post changes to this Cookies Policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.
F. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Cookies & Tracking Policy or our use of cookies, please contact us:
WeRead Support
Email: support@weread.app
We will respond to your inquiries within a reasonable timeframe, typically within 30 days.