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Cookie Policy
This Cookie Policy explains how SoftwareHope uses cookies and similar technologies to recognize you when you visit our website. It explains what these technologies are and why we use them, as well as your rights to control our use of them.
1. What are Cookies?
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are widely used by website owners in order to make their websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
Cookies set by the website owner (in this case, SoftwareHope) are called "first-party cookies". Cookies set by parties other than the website owner are called "third-party cookies".
2. Why We Use Cookies
We use first-party and third-party cookies for several reasons. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our website to operate, and we refer to these as "essential" or "strictly necessary" cookies. Other cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our Online Properties.
The categories we use are:
- Strictly Necessary: Authentication, security, fraud prevention, payments, and storage of your privacy choices. These cannot be disabled through our consent tool.
- Analytics: Anonymous visitor and session measurement, navigation analysis, product interaction measurement, and Microsoft Clarity session insights. These remain off until you consent.
- Marketing: Advertising measurement and retargeting technologies. These remain off until you consent.
- Affiliate: Referral and partner-conversion attribution. These remain off until you consent.
3. Cookie and Storage Inventory
| Name | Category | Purpose | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| sh_consent | Necessary | Stores your privacy choices and consent version. | 180 days |
| sh_bt | Necessary | Security, abuse prevention, and browser trust continuity. | Security-configured duration |
| next-auth.* | Necessary | Secure sign-in and authenticated session management. | Session/configured duration |
| sh_vid | Analytics | Recognizes an anonymous browser for aggregate site analytics. | 1 year |
| sh_sid | Analytics | Groups anonymous activity into a measurement session. | 30 minutes |
| _clck, _clsk | Analytics | Microsoft Clarity usage insights on approved public pages. | Set by Microsoft; duration may vary |
| sh_ref | Affiliate | Attributes an eligible referral to a partner. | 7 days |
| sh_first_touch, sh_attribution | Analytics storage | Stores consented acquisition and referral context in browser storage. | Persistent / browser session |
Third-party services may change their cookie names or durations. We periodically review this inventory and update it when our technology providers or configurations change.
4. Controlling Cookies and Withdrawing Consent
You can accept all, reject non-essential technologies, or choose individual categories in our consent panel. Use the Privacy Choices control in the website footer at any time to change or withdraw your consent. Rejecting non-essential technologies does not prevent access to the Site or account login, although analytics-dependent personalization may be unavailable.
You can also use browser controls to remove or block cookies. Browser-level Global Privacy Control signals are honored for marketing and affiliate tracking where applicable.
5. Consent Records and Changes
We store your choice in a first-party necessary cookie for up to 180 days. We may ask again sooner if our purposes, providers, or consent categories materially change. A new consent-policy version invalidates the previous preference so you can make a fresh informed choice.
6. Contact Us
If you have any questions about our use of cookies or other technologies, please contact us using our Contact Form.