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.

Analytics tooling we use:

PostHog (product analytics): Records a small set of named product events — signing in, entering a giveaway, starting a donation, starting a VP Chat conversation, claiming a prize — so we can see which parts of Varsity Page fans actually use. No analytics cookie is set and no data is sent to PostHog until you accept below.
Internal engagement metrics: First-party tracking of fan engagement (school follows, VP Chat queries, contest entries) used for sponsor reporting. This data stays in our own systems and is not shared with a third-party analytics provider.

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

What our analytics deliberately does not do

Varsity Page shows student information that schools have chosen to publish — rosters, athlete photos, and team pages. That information is published for fans to see on our pages; it is not ours to hand to an outside company. So our analytics is configured to make that impossible rather than merely discouraged:

No session recording. We never film or replay your screen, on any page.
No automatic click capture. We only record the specific named events listed above. We do not collect the text of whatever you happen to tap, which is how a student’s name could otherwise leave our systems.
No names or emails in analytics. If you are signed in, your activity is tagged with a random account identifier only. Your email address and display name are never sent to our analytics provider.
No message content. What you type into VP Chat is never included in an analytics event.

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

PostHog: Product analytics for the named events described in section 2.3. PostHog cookies are set only after you accept analytics cookies, and no request is made to PostHog before then. Analytics requests are served through varsitypage.com rather than PostHog’s own domain, so that routine tracker-blocking does not silently break the engagement reporting schools rely on — the data collected is the same either way.

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

Varsity Page shows a cookie banner the first time you visit. What it offers depends on where you are:

EU, UK, EEA and Switzerland: analytics is off until you choose Accept. Nothing is sent to our analytics provider before then, and closing the banner without choosing leaves analytics off.
United States: analytics is on by default, and the banner offers Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information to turn it off.
Everywhere else, and when we cannot tell: we apply the stricter opt-in rule above.

You can change your mind at any time. Use the button below, the Cookie Preferences link in the site footer, or Settings → Discovery & Privacy if you have an account. Any of them reopens the banner showing your current choice. Withdrawing consent is exactly as easy as giving it.

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. Rejecting analytics also stops the events we record on our servers when you donate, enter a giveaway, or start a VP Chat conversation — the choice covers both, not just your browser.
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.