Cookie Policy
Last updated: October 14, 2026
1. What Are Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, provide a better user experience, and give site owners useful information about how their site is being used.
FriendRE also uses similar technologies such as local storage and session storage (collectively referred to as "cookies" in this policy) to store preferences and session data in your browser.
2. How We Use Cookies
We use cookies for the following purposes:
Essential Cookies
These cookies are strictly necessary for the site to function. They cannot be disabled.
- Authentication session — Managed by Clerk to keep you signed in securely across pages and sessions.
- CSRF protection — Origin-based tokens that protect against cross-site request forgery attacks on form submissions and API calls.
- Cookie consent — Remembers whether you have accepted or dismissed the cookie consent banner.
- Referral — The 30-day
friendre_ref cookie remembers which member invited you so the invite can be credited when you sign up.
Functional Cookies
These cookies remember your preferences and choices to enhance your experience.
- Theme preference — Stores your light/dark mode selection so it persists across visits.
- Accessibility settings — Remembers your reading mode, font size, contrast, motion, and keyboard navigation preferences.
- Display settings — Stores preferences such as the live activity stats overlay toggle.
- PWA install prompt — Tracks whether you've dismissed the install prompt so it doesn't reappear.
Analytics Cookies
These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our site. They are only active when explicitly configured.
- Sentry session replay and performance — Masked recordings of page interactions (all text hidden, media blocked) and page-load timings that help us find bugs and slow pages. Only active when you consent to analytics cookies. Basic error reports are sent for every visitor, with your email, IP address and form data removed, because we need them to keep the site working; they set no cookies.
- FriendRE page views — Our own first-party count of which pages are visited and which link brought you here (the referring site and any utm parameters). It is stored on our servers only and never shared. The 30-day
friendre_attr cookie remembers that first visit so we can tell which channel a new account came from. If you decline analytics cookies, pages are still counted but without any identifier and that cookie is not set. - Google Analytics — Standard web analytics (visits, pages, device type), when configured. It runs on the website only, never in the mobile app, and starts with storage turned off: it sets no cookies and receives no page views until you consent to analytics cookies.
3. Third-Party Cookies
Some features on FriendRE involve third-party services that may set their own cookies:
- Clerk — Authentication provider. Sets session cookies to manage secure sign-in. See Clerk's Privacy Policy.
- Stripe — Payment processor. Sets cookies during the checkout flow for fraud detection. See Stripe's Privacy Policy.
- Cloudflare — Security challenge cookies used by Clerk's bot protection (Turnstile).
- Embedded video platforms — When you watch embedded videos, platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X may set cookies through their embed iframes.
4. Local Storage and Session Storage
In addition to cookies, we use browser local storage and session storage for:
- Theme and accessibility preferences (persisted across browser sessions)
- Display settings such as whether the Town Pulse card is shown
- Cookie consent acknowledgment
- Service worker cache for offline Progressive Web App functionality
5. Managing Your Cookie Preferences
You can control cookies through several methods:
- Browser settings — Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies through their settings. Note that blocking essential cookies will prevent you from signing in.
- In-app settings — You can manage your display and accessibility preferences from your profile settings page.
- Cookie consent banner — When you first visit FriendRE, a banner lets you accept all cookies, keep necessary cookies only, or choose by category. You can reopen it any time from "Your Privacy Choices" in the footer.
Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of the site. Essential cookies cannot be disabled as they are required for the site to operate.
6. Updates to This Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal, operational, or regulatory reasons. We will post the updated policy on this page with a revised "Last updated" date.