Cookie Policy

1. Why there's no "accept cookies" banner

PeerRise doesn't run advertising trackers, analytics, or performance-monitoring cookies (no Google Analytics, no Vercel Analytics, nothing that profiles you across visits), so there's no cross-site tracking or ad-targeting cookie to ask your permission for. Every cookie below exists to make signing in, paying, or spam prevention work — not to track you around the web. That's why you won't see a consent pop-up: there's nothing optional to consent to.

2. Authentication (Clerk)

Set the moment you sign in, so you stay signed in as you move between pages.

• __session — a signed JWT that proves you're signed in. Expires automatically; deleted when you sign out.
• __client_uat — a timestamp used to detect when a session was revoked elsewhere, so a signed-out device can't keep using a stale login.
• clerk_active_context — remembers which account is active if you manage more than one (e.g. a parent account linked to a student).

3. Spam & bot prevention (Cloudflare Turnstile)

On forms that have been targeted by spam (like Feedback or Apply as Tutor), we use Cloudflare Turnstile — a CAPTCHA replacement that checks you're a real visitor without asking you to solve puzzles. It only loads on a form after our own system has flagged unusual activity, not for every visitor. When it does load, Cloudflare's widget can set its own cookies (scoped to Cloudflare's domain, not ours) to remember you've already passed the check. We never receive the cookie itself — only a pass/fail result.

4. Payments (Stripe)

Set during checkout or card verification — never anywhere else on the site.

• __stripe_mid / __stripe_sid — Stripe's own fraud-prevention cookies. They help Stripe recognize a returning device to catch stolen-card attempts; we never see or store your card number, and these cookies aren't used by PeerRise for anything else.

5. Your device, not a cookie: light/dark mode

Your light/dark mode choice is saved with localStorage under the key peerrise-theme — technically not a cookie (it's never sent to our server on every request the way a cookie is), but we're listing it here anyway since it's still information stored on your device. Clearing your browser's site data removes it and resets you to light mode.

6. What we don't use

• No advertising or ad-retargeting cookies.
• No third-party analytics, performance monitoring, or tracking pixels.
• No cross-site tracking of any kind.

7. Your choices

Because every cookie here is required for signing in, paying, or blocking spam, there's no toggle to turn one off and keep using an account — but you're always free to block or clear cookies from your browser settings. Doing so will simply sign you out and require you to verify a card again the next time you book.

8. Contact

Questions about this policy? Email hello@peerrise.net. See also our Privacy Policy for what account data we collect beyond cookies.