Cookie policy

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small file stored on your device by a website and sent back to the site on each visit — for example, to keep you logged in. We also use browser local storage (localStorage), which serves a similar purpose. This policy covers both cookies and audience measurement trackers.

The COLLABme mobile app does not use cookies: it keeps the same information in your device's secure storage, and embeds the measurement tool as a software component rather than a script. This policy covers all three forms — cookies, browser local storage, device secure storage — because they serve the same purpose.

Our approach

COLLABme does not run targeted advertising and does not sell any data. The only non-essential trackers — audience measurement — are off by default, on the site as well as in the web and mobile applications, and are only enabled after your explicit consent. Refusing does not degrade your use of the platform in any way.

We should be precise on one point, however: our heatmap tool, Microsoft Clarity, sets cookies on Microsoft domains when it is active, one of which (MUID) also serves advertising and cross-site recognition purposes at Microsoft. We do not use them and have no access to them, but we cannot prevent them from being set as long as you consent to audience measurement. Refusing is enough for them never to be set.

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are essential for the service to function and do not require consent:

• Session cookies (prefix __Secure-authjs) — maintain your login across pages and COLLABme applications; duration approximately 30 sliding days.
• Anti-CSRF cookie (prefix __Secure-authjs) — protects forms against forged requests; session duration.
• External login cookies (state, PKCE, nonce) — secure the login process via Google or LinkedIn; expire after 15 minutes.
• NEXT_LOCALE — stores your interface language (French, Dutch, English); approximately 1 year.

Storage on your device

Your browser's local storage keeps preferences that only leave your device when necessary for the service:

• collabme_consent_v1 — your consent choice for trackers; kept until you modify it.
• cm_anon_id — anonymous analytics ID, created only after your consent and deleted if you withdraw it.
• Interface preferences — active organisation, theme, display settings, unsent message drafts.
• collabme_consent_v1 (mobile app) — your measurement consent choice, kept in the device's secure storage. It is specific to the app: accepting or refusing on the site does not carry over to the app, and vice versa.

Analytics (requires consent)

If you accept, three tools help us understand how the platform is used. They are active on the public site, on the web applications and on the mobile app, as detailed below.

• PostHog (hosted in the European Union) — usage statistics on the public site: pages viewed, journeys, features used.
• Microsoft Clarity, on the site and the web applications — heatmaps and anonymised replay of journeys (clicks, scrolling, cursor movement) to spot friction points in the interface. The content of input fields is masked and never recorded.
• Microsoft Clarity, in the mobile app — recording of the screens displayed and of gestures (taps, scrolls), for the same purposes. Input fields, conversations and message previews are masked before any recording. The mobile app's measurement project is separate from the web one.
• Our own product events (first-party) — collected on our servers: pages and screens viewed, actions taken (applying, publishing, searching, sharing, switching facet), with no IP address kept, no search text or message content, and no full page address — the identifiers it contains are replaced before sending. Linked to the anonymous identifier cm_anon_id and purged after 13 months.

Measurement does not apply to minors' accounts

COLLABme welcomes students, some of whom are minors. Journey recording and heatmap tools — Microsoft Clarity, on web as well as mobile — are never enabled for an account identified as belonging to a minor, whatever choice is made in the consent banner. This exclusion is enforced by the platform itself: it depends on no setting and cannot be lifted.

It relies on the date of birth declared in the profile. Until that is filled in, we cannot know that an account belongs to a minor: we would rather say so than imply an absolute guarantee. Aggregated usage statistics remain, for these accounts as for others, subject to your consent — and to that of the legal guardian where it is required.

Manage your consent

On your first visit, a banner lets you accept, refuse, or customise analytics tracking. Until you respond, no analytics trackers are set and no events are sent.

You can change your mind at any time, and withdrawing must be as easy as agreeing. On the site, the « Manage my cookie preferences » button at the bottom of this page erases your choice and offers you the banner again. In the web applications, the same control sits in your settings, under « Privacy ». In the mobile app, it sits under Settings → Privacy.

Withdrawal, wherever you express it, deletes the anonymous measurement identifier, stops the recording in progress and interrupts event sending; cookies already set by Microsoft Clarity are erased. A choice applies to the surface on which you express it: the site, the web applications and the mobile app each keep their own. You can also delete cookies from your browser settings, or uninstall the mobile app.

Third-party cookies

Some cookies are set not by us but by services the platform uses:

• Microsoft Clarity, if you consent to audience measurement — _clck (measurement identifier, kept up to one year) and _clsk (links the pages of a single visit, one day), set on our domain; plus CLID, MUID, ANONCHK, MR and SM, set by Microsoft on its own domains. None is set until you have accepted, and refusing erases them.
• Google and LinkedIn, if you sign in through them; Stripe, if you pay for a subscription. These services operate on their own domains, set their own cookies there and govern them under their own policies.

Questions

For any questions about this policy: info@collabme.be. To understand how we process your personal data beyond cookies, see our privacy policy.