Cookies Policy

1. What cookies are

A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store. On your next request the browser sends it back, which is how a site can recognize you and keep you signed in as you move from page to page. Some technologies do a similar job without being cookies — local storage is the one we use — and this policy covers those too.

2. Cookies we set

We set a small number of cookies from our own domain. Each one has a job, and we do not set any of them for advertising:

• auth_token — keeps you signed in to the app. Set when you log in, removed when you log out, and expires after 30 days.
• csrf_token — protects forms and requests against cross-site request forgery. Expires after 24 hours.
• lang — remembers the interface language you chose. Expires after 12 months.
• ig_oauth_flash and ig_oauth_flash_code — carry an error message back into the app when connecting an Instagram account fails, so we can tell you what went wrong. They expire after 5 minutes.
• ref_partner — set only if you arrive through a referral link. It stores the referral code so the referral can be credited if you later sign up. Expires after 90 days.

The first four are strictly necessary: without them you cannot sign in, and the app will reject your requests. Because they are required to deliver the service you asked for, they do not need your consent.

3. Analytics, and what we do not use

On the public pages of this website we run no analytics at all — no counters, no pixels, no third-party scripts. Nothing here follows you before you sign in.

Inside the app it is different. Once you sign in we use Yandex Metrica to see how the product is used: which screens people open, and where they get stuck. It stores its own cookies in your browser, with names beginning _ym_, and on most screens it also records the session so that we can replay how it went. We switch that recording off wherever other people's data is on the screen — the inbox, contacts, broadcasts, the website chat and the payment pages. Yandex processes this data on its own servers in Russia. If you would rather not be tracked, block mc.yandex.ru in your browser or with an extension: the app works without it.

We use no advertising or profiling cookies anywhere, and we load no advertising scripts. We also take no payments at the moment: access is free during our early launch, we do not collect payment details, and the prices shown on the site are indicative. So there is no payment provider setting cookies here either.

If we add advertising or payments later, or change how we measure usage, we will update this policy first, and where the law requires consent we will ask for it before setting those cookies.

4. Cookies set by other companies

When you connect a messaging channel, we send you to that platform to sign in and authorize access. Meta (for Instagram) and Telegram may set their own cookies during those login and authorization steps. Those cookies belong to them and are governed by their own policies; we cannot read them or switch them off.

5. Local storage and the website chat widget

Our website chat widget, which you install on your own site, does not use cookies. It stores a randomly generated visitor identifier in the browser's local storage so that a returning visitor sees the conversation they already had with you, and it remembers whether that visitor dismissed the cookie notice or gave the consent you configured. This data stays in the visitor's browser and is cleared when they clear site data for your site.

If you install the widget, the people who visit your site are your visitors: telling them about it and collecting any consent your law requires is your responsibility, as set out in our Terms of Service.

6. How to control cookies

Every major browser lets you see the cookies a site has stored, delete them, and block new ones. Look for "Cookies and site data" in your browser's privacy settings. You can also delete the local storage described above from the same screen.

Please note that blocking the strictly necessary cookies means you will not be able to sign in to Chatonaut or use the app.

7. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service changes — for example, if we start taking payments or add analytics. We will post the new version on this page and change the date at the top.

8. Who sets these cookies, and how to reach us

The cookies in section 2 are set by Individual Entrepreneur Dmitrii Yuryevich Kiselev, a sole proprietor registered in Russia, who operates Chatonaut:

If you have a question about this policy, email us at support@chatonaut.com. For the wider picture of what data we handle and why, see our Privacy Policy.