LEGAL · COOKIES

The four cookies. That’s it.

LADLE does not use ad trackers, session-recording tools, cross-site analytics, or marketing pixels. We set four cookies to make the app work; three of them are first-party and one appears only when you’re on a Stripe checkout page.

WHAT WE SET

NAME

PURPOSE

LIFETIME

TYPE

ladle_session

Keeps you signed in across page loads. Required.

30 days (rolling)

First-party, httpOnly, secure

ladle_prefs

Remembers your theme, sidebar collapsed state, chat draft. Not required — the app works without it, but you'll re-set your preferences each session.

365 days

First-party

ladle_csrf

Protects against cross-site request forgery on form submissions. Required for signup, settings changes, cancel.

Session

First-party, httpOnly, secure

__stripe_*

Set by Stripe during checkout for fraud prevention and payment session state. Only present when you're on a Stripe checkout page.

Per Stripe (typically 1 year)

Third-party (Stripe), on checkout only

WHAT WE DON’T SET

No trackers. Ever. This is a deliberate operating decision.

One product analytics tool, opt-out available: PostHog (US cloud). We count pageviews and button/link clicks — never form input values, never chat content, never session recordings. Turn off from Settings → Data → Product analytics; the toggle sets a local flag PostHog reads on load.
No Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Segment, or equivalent third-party product analytics beyond the single PostHog tool above.
No Meta Pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag, TikTok Pixel, or any ad platform tracking.
No session-recording tools (FullStory, Hotjar, LogRocket) — we do not replay your sessions. PostHog session recording is explicitly disabled in our client config, not just opt-in.
No cross-site tracking, no fingerprinting, no data brokers.
Server logs capture aggregate anonymized usage patterns (page views, response times) — used for capacity planning and incident debugging, retained 30 days, not correlated to individuals or shared with third parties.

MANAGING COOKIES

Turn them off if you want. Some things stop working.

Every modern browser lets you block cookies from specific sites via Settings → Privacy. If you block ladle.chat cookies entirely: the app can’t sign you in (ladle_session), can’t protect form submissions (ladle_csrf), and can’t remember your preferences (ladle_prefs). Payment is unaffected because Stripe manages its own cookies at the checkout stage. There is no cookie banner because there’s nothing to consent to beyond the operational cookies above; European visitors are covered by GDPR’s exception for strictly-necessary cookies.

If you find a cookie we set that isn't listed here, tell us.

Email privacy@ladle.chat. We treat missing entries as bugs.

Email privacy Watch it work

$20/MO · CANCEL ANYTIME · $0.80/MEAL · RECEIPTS MONTHLY

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