Cookies

Soft Atlas stores as little as possible in your browser: what the platform needs to work, what carries a step you started across sign-up, and an anonymous measurement of visits that you can switch off. No advertising networks, no cross-site tracking, no third-party retargeting, and no third-party audience measurement.

A cookie is a small text file stored in your browser when you visit a website. Some of what we store sits in your browser's local storage instead, which works the same way as far as your privacy is concerned, so both are described here.

These are required for the platform to function and cannot be switched off. The sign-in cookies are set by NextAuth, the authentication library that powers Soft Atlas sign-in.

• Session cookie (name: next-auth.session-token or __Secure-next-auth.session-token on HTTPS): keeps you signed in across page loads. It expires when you sign out or when the session duration lapses.
• CSRF cookie (name: next-auth.csrf-token): protects sign-in and sign-out actions against cross-site request forgery attacks.
• Callback/state cookies: short-lived cookies used during the OAuth or email sign-in flow to preserve state across redirects. They are deleted once authentication completes.
• Contact import cookie (name: atlas_contact_import_state): set only while you import your contacts from Google, to check that the answer coming back from Google belongs to the import you started.
• Language cookie (name: NEXT_LOCALE): remembers the language you picked, for one year.
• Your preferences and drafts, in local storage: the view you chose for a table, your recent searches, a message you started writing, and which notices you have already seen. They never leave your browser.

When you follow an invitation, a partner link or a "Claim this page" button and then create your account, these cookies carry that choice through sign-up, so the account you create gets what the link promised you. Each is set only when you use such a link, and holds nothing but the link's own value.

• Invitation cookie (name: atlas_ref): the invitation you followed, kept for 24 hours.
• Partner cookie (name: atlas_partner): the partner network whose link you followed, kept for 30 days.
• Claim cookie (name: atlas_claim): the company page you asked to claim, kept for 24 hours.

We count visits to understand which pages are read and how people move through the site. This measurement is our own: the data is not sent to anyone, and the figures are only ever read as totals, including the view counts a company sees for its own page.

• Visit identifier, in local storage (name: atlas_session): a random identifier that ties the pages of one visit together, and starts again after 30 minutes without activity. With it we record the pages you view, the kind of site that sent you (for example LinkedIn, Google or none), any campaign tag in the address, your country and browser type, and whether the visit looks human.
• Home version cookie (name: atlas_home_variant): when you open the home page without being signed in, it notes which version of the page you saw, for 30 days. It holds the name of that version and nothing else. If you then create an account, we add one to that version's count for the day, without recording who you are: the version is never written on your account. We also measure how far down the home page you read and whether you click, without any identifier.

When you are signed in, the pages you visit are also counted against your account, so that we can tell how members use Soft Atlas. This is described in our Privacy Policy.

You can stop all of this measurement on this browser at any time. It then sends nothing and keeps no identifier, and the home version cookie and the first-visit cookie described below are deleted. Your choice is kept in your browser's local storage.

On your first visit, a cookie named atlas_ft records, for 90 days, the kind of site that sent you (for example LinkedIn, Google or none), any campaign tag in the address, the first page you saw and the date. It is written once and never overwritten. If you then create an account, this information is saved on your account, so that we know how members found Soft Atlas. It is never used for advertising and never shared.

The button above also refuses this cookie: it is deleted and never set again on this browser, and an account you create from it carries no channel.

Soft Atlas uses Sentry to capture JavaScript errors and server-side exceptions. When an unhandled error occurs, Sentry records a diagnostic report that includes the error message, a stack trace, the URL, the browser version, and the operating system. This information is used solely to identify and fix software bugs.

Session replay is not used. We do not record or reconstruct your screen activity, mouse movements, or keystrokes. Sentry only receives error events, not a continuous recording of your session.

We rely on our legitimate interest in maintaining a stable and secure platform as the legal basis for this processing. Error data is retained for 90 days and is not used for advertising or profiling.

Under the GDPR and the French data protection rules enforced by the CNIL (the French data protection authority), consent is required before a site stores or reads anything on your device, unless it is strictly necessary for a service you asked for, or it is audience measurement that meets the conditions the CNIL sets. That is why we show no consent banner:

• The sign-in, contact import and language cookies, and your preferences and drafts, are strictly necessary for the service, or keep a choice you made.
• The invitation, partner and claim cookies only carry a link you chose to follow, to the account you then create.
• Our audience measurement and our home page test are used only by Soft Atlas, produce totals, are never shared, use identifiers that last no more than 30 days, and you can object to them with the button above.
• The first-visit cookie (atlas_ft) is used only by Soft Atlas, never for advertising, never shared, and you can refuse it with the same button.
• Our error-monitoring data (Sentry) is processed under legitimate interest for platform stability and security, and does not require consent.

Note: Soft Atlas also collects certain usage data linked to your account (for example, to improve the product and support moderation). This does not involve any additional cookie, and it is described in our Privacy Policy, which covers all processing of personal data, whether or not it involves a cookie.

You can control and delete cookies through your browser settings. The major browsers provide dedicated cookie management interfaces:

• Chrome: Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
• Firefox: Settings > Privacy & Security > Cookies and Site Data.
• Safari: Preferences > Privacy > Manage Website Data.
• Edge: Settings > Cookies and site permissions > Cookies and site data.

Please note that blocking or deleting the strictly necessary cookies described above will prevent you from signing in to Soft Atlas, as the platform requires those cookies to authenticate your session.

If you have questions about our use of cookies, contact us at hello@softatlas.io.