Cookie Policy

Development Placeholder Notice

This document is a development-stage placeholder and is not legal advice. Varsity Page makes no warranty that this content is suitable for production deployment or that it complies with any applicable law. It must be reviewed and finalized by qualified legal counsel (alongside the analytics implementation it describes) before public release.

1. What Are Cookies

Cookies are small text files that a website stores on your device (computer, tablet, or phone) when you visit. They let the site remember things about your visit — like keeping you signed in, saving your theme preference, or recognizing you on your next visit.

This policy also covers similar technologies, such as web beacons, pixels, and browser local storage, which serve comparable purposes. For simplicity we refer to all of them as “cookies.”

Varsity Page uses cookies to keep the service running, remember your preferences (like the schools you follow), and understand — in aggregate — how fans engage with the platform.

2. Types of Cookies We Use

We group our cookies into three categories: essential, functional, and analytics.

2.1 Essential Cookies

Essential cookies are required for Varsity Page to function. You cannot turn these off without breaking core features like signing in.

Authentication: Keeps you signed in across pages and visits.
Security: Protects against cross-site request forgery and similar attacks.
Session continuity: Maintains your active session and the school you are currently viewing.
Theme preference: Remembers whether you have chosen light or dark mode.

Examples of essential cookies:

supabase-auth-token: Authentication session token issued by our auth provider.
vp-school-context: The school you are currently viewing so navigation and sub-nav stay consistent.
vp-theme: Your selected light/dark theme preference.

Specific cookie names may change as the platform evolves. The categories and purposes above will remain accurate.

2.2 Functional / Preference Cookies

Functional cookies remember choices you have made so the platform feels personalized between visits. They are not strictly required, but disabling them will degrade the experience.

Followed schools: Quick-access cache of your followed schools so your dashboard loads faster.
Sidebar state: Whether the desktop sidebar is expanded or collapsed.
Notification preferences cache: Local cache of your notification settings to reduce server round-trips.
VP Chat continuity: A short-lived identifier that ties your recent VP Chat questions together so you can re-access them.

2.3 Analytics Cookies

Analytics cookies help us understand — in aggregate — how fans use Varsity Page so we can improve it. They also help us demonstrate fan engagement value to school sponsors through aggregated reporting (impressions, session length, page popularity).

Usage analytics: Pages viewed, features used, time on site, school engagement.
Performance monitoring: Load times, error rates, browser/device breakdowns.

Planned analytics tooling (placeholder):

Google Analytics 4 (planned): Aggregated website analytics.
Internal engagement metrics: First-party tracking of fan engagement (school follows, VP Chat queries, contest entries) used for sponsor reporting.

Note: Analytics data is aggregated. We do not link analytics events to individual fans for the purpose of identifying you to sponsors or third parties.

3. Third-Party Cookies

Some cookies are set by third-party services we use to deliver Varsity Page. These cookies are governed by the third party’s own privacy policy.

3.1 Authentication & Database

Supabase: Authentication, session management, and database access.

3.2 Infrastructure & Notifications

Google Cloud (including Firebase Cloud Messaging): Hosting, push notification delivery, and AI model access for VP Chat.

3.3 AI Providers

AI model providers (e.g., Google Gemini): Process VP Chat queries to generate responses. These providers do not set persistent cookies in your browser; they receive query data on a per-request basis.

3.4 Analytics

Google Analytics (planned): Aggregated website analytics.

We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these providers for full details of their data practices.

4. Managing Your Preferences

You have several ways to control cookies on your device.

4.1 Browser Settings

Most browsers let you control or clear cookies.

Google Chrome

1. Menu (⋮) → Settings
2. Privacy and security → Cookies and other site data
3. Choose your preferred cookie settings

Mozilla Firefox

1. Menu → Settings
2. Privacy & Security
3. Choose your cookie and tracking settings

Safari

1. Safari menu → Settings
2. Privacy tab
3. Choose your cookie preferences

Microsoft Edge

1. Menu (⋯) → Settings
2. Cookies and site permissions
3. Manage cookies and site data

4.2 In-App Cookie Banner

A cookie consent banner is planned for users in jurisdictions requiring explicit consent (e.g., EU/UK). Until that banner ships, you can manage cookies through your browser as described above.

5. Impact of Disabling Cookies

5.1 Disabling Essential Cookies

Heads up: If you block essential cookies, you will not be able to sign in, follow schools, enter contests, or use most core features of Varsity Page.

5.2 Disabling Functional Cookies

Your theme preference (light/dark) will reset on each visit.
The sidebar will reset to its default state on each visit.
You may notice slower dashboard loads while followed-school data is fetched fresh.
VP Chat will not remember your recent questions.

5.3 Disabling Analytics Cookies

All features will continue to work normally.
We will have less visibility into how the platform is used, which slows down our ability to improve it.
Aggregated sponsor reporting may be slightly less complete.

6. Updates to This Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time, especially as we add or change cookies (for example, when the planned analytics stack or cookie consent banner is implemented). When we make material changes we will:

Update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy.
Provide in-app or email notice to registered users for significant changes.

7. Contact Us

Questions about how we use cookies?

Privacy contact: privacy@varsitypage.com

General contact: support@varsitypage.com

Last Updated: 2026-05-23

This Cookie Policy is effective as of 2026-05-23. It is a development-stage placeholder and must be reviewed by qualified legal counsel before production deployment.