What a cookie is, on this site
A cookie is a small text file that a site stores on your browser so that the site can remember something from one page to the next. FirmBoard uses cookies on the marketing site and, once you have an account, inside the application. This policy says which cookies those are, why they exist, and how you can refuse the ones that are not required for the site to function. It should be read with the privacy policy, which explains the wider handling of personal information. A cookie is one tool. It is not a separate product, and it is not a way for us to follow you across the web.
Some cookies are set by FirmBoard. Some are set by a provider that does a job for us, such as measuring whether the marketing site loaded. We do not allow advertising networks to drop cookies on this site in order to build a profile of you for other companies. If that ever changes, this page will name the network before the cookie is set.
Cookies the site cannot run without
Essential cookies keep the product honest. One remembers that you are signed in, so you are not asked for a password on every click. One remembers a security token that stops another site from submitting a form as if it were you. One may remember that you have already seen a short notice, so we do not show it on every page of the same visit. These cookies are tied to the session or to a short fixed life. They are not used to advertise. If you block them, the marketing pages may still open, but the application will not be able to keep you signed in, and a form may refuse to send.
The demonstration on the marketing site runs in your browser. It may use the ordinary storage of that page so that a button you pressed stays pressed while the tour is open. That storage is cleared when you close the tour or the tab. It does not contain a real client, because the tour does not contain real clients.
Cookies that remember a preference
If you choose a setting that should survive a refresh, such as a dismissed notice, we store that choice in a cookie or in local storage. The choice is read only to honour it. It is not joined to a client file. You can clear it by clearing the site data for this domain in your browser. The next visit will behave as a first visit, which is the result most people want when they clear a browser.
Cookies that tell us the site is working
We may use a limited analytics cookie to count visits, to see which pages fail to load, and to see whether the contact form is reached. The count is used to operate the marketing site. It is not used to identify the clients inside a practice, and it is not sold. Where the analytics tool can be configured to avoid storing a full network address, we configure it that way. If you refuse optional cookies, the essential cookies still work and the pages still open. You simply will not be part of the aggregate count.
We do not use cookies to retarget you with ads on other websites. We do not embed social-network buttons that set tracking cookies merely because a page loaded. A link to a social profile is an ordinary link. It sets a cookie only if you choose to open that other site, and then the cookie belongs to that site, under its own policy.
How long cookies stay
A session cookie expires when you close the browser, or when you sign out, whichever the product is built to do. A preference cookie lasts for a limited number of months and then expires. An analytics cookie, if we set one, lasts no longer than the period the tool needs in order to tell a returning visit from a new one, and we choose the shorter setting the tool allows. We review this list when we add a page or a provider. A cookie that no longer has a job is removed from the site rather than left in place because it was convenient once.
How you control them
Most browsers let you block cookies, delete the ones already stored, or warn you before a new one is set. The control usually lives in the privacy or security section of the browser settings. Blocking every cookie will stop the sign-in cookie as well, so the application will not remember you. Blocking only third-party cookies is enough to refuse the optional measurement described above, while the sign-in cookie, which is first-party, continues to work. Private-browsing modes discard cookies when the window closes. That is a reliable way to use the marketing site without leaving a preference behind.
If you are a staff member using a firm computer, your firm may also set a browser policy. FirmBoard cannot override a restriction your own administrator applied. If the application then fails to keep a session, the cause is often that restriction, and your own administrator is the person who can allow the first-party cookie for this domain.
Email and similar technologies
A message we send, such as a reply to the contact form or a newsletter you joined, may contain a plain link. We do not rely on invisible tracking images to watch whether you opened a message. The newsletter has a way to unsubscribe in the message itself. Transactional mail about your account, such as a notice that a payment failed, is part of the service and is not a marketing list. You cannot unsubscribe from a security notice while the account is open, because that notice exists to protect the firm.
Changes and contact
We will update this policy when the cookies we set actually change. The date on the page is the date of the version you are reading. A new analytics provider, or a decision to stop using one, will be reflected here before it is relied on. Questions about cookies can be sent to info@firmboard.app or to info@firmboard.app. Post will reach us at FirmBoard, 40 Wynford Drive, Toronto, ON, Canada. If you would rather we explain a specific cookie in a sentence instead of a policy, ask and we will name it.