Cookie Policy - BrandForge

1. What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that websites place on your device (computer, phone, or tablet) when you visit them. They are widely used to make websites work, work more efficiently, and to provide information to the website owner.

Cookies can be "first-party" (set by the website you're visiting) or "third-party" (set by a different domain). They can also be "session" cookies (deleted when you close your browser) or "persistent" cookies (stored on your device until they expire or you delete them).

In addition to cookies, we may use similar technologies such as local storage and pixel tags. When we say "cookies" in this policy, we mean all of these technologies.

2. How we use cookies

BrandForge uses cookies for four purposes:

No consent needed

Essential

Required for the platform to function. Authentication, security, and basic features.

Consent required

Analytics

Help us understand how visitors use the platform so we can improve it.

Consent required

Functional

Remember your preferences like language, theme, and display settings.

Consent required

Marketing

Measure the effectiveness of our advertising. Only set with your explicit consent.

3. Essential cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary for BrandForge to function. Without them, you wouldn't be able to log in, stay authenticated, or use the platform securely. Under the Dutch Telecommunicatiewet and the ePrivacy Directive, these cookies do not require your consent.

Essential cookies handle:

Authentication — keeping you logged in as you navigate between pages.
Session management — maintaining your session state and preferences during a visit.
Security — CSRF protection, preventing cross-site request forgery attacks.
Load balancing — routing your requests to the correct server.
Cookie consent — remembering your cookie consent choices (so we don't ask you every page load).

You cannot opt out of essential cookies. If you block them, the platform will not function correctly.

4. Analytics cookies

We use privacy-friendly analytics to understand how visitors use BrandForge — which pages are popular, where people drop off, and how we can improve the user experience.

Our analytics approach

We do not use Google Analytics.
Our analytics provider processes data within the EU.
We use anonymised data — we cannot identify individual visitors from analytics data.
No data is shared with advertising networks.
IP addresses are anonymised before storage.

Analytics cookies are only placed after you give your consent via our cookie banner. If you decline, we collect no analytics data from your visit.

5. Functional cookies

Functional cookies remember your preferences and settings to provide a more personalised experience. These include:

Theme preference — whether you've selected light or dark mode.
Language preference — your selected language (if multilingual support is available).
Editor settings — layout preferences in the website builder and brand editor.
Dismissals — remembering that you've dismissed onboarding tips or banners.

These cookies are set with your consent. If you decline them, the platform will still work, but you may need to re-select your preferences each visit.

6. Marketing cookies

Marketing cookies help us measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. They track whether you visited BrandForge after seeing an ad on another platform.

We do not:

Serve targeted ads within the BrandForge platform.
Sell your data to advertising networks.
Build advertising profiles based on your platform usage.
Use retargeting pixels without explicit consent.

Marketing cookies are only set after you explicitly opt in via our cookie banner. They are used solely to measure campaign performance (e.g. "did this LinkedIn ad lead to signups"). You can withdraw your consent at any time.

7. Third-party cookies

Some cookies on BrandForge are set by third-party services that we integrate with. We carefully select these providers and only use services that meet our privacy standards.

Third-party cookies may be set by:

Payment providers (Stripe / Mollie) — for fraud prevention during checkout. These are essential and do not require separate consent.
Zoho SalesIQ — if you interact with our live chat widget. Only activated when you initiate a chat conversation.
Embedded content — if we embed videos or other content from third parties, those services may set their own cookies. We use privacy-enhanced embedding where available.

We have no control over third-party cookies. We recommend reviewing the cookie policies of these providers for details on how they use cookies:

8. Full cookie list

The table below lists all cookies used by BrandForge. This table is updated whenever we add or remove cookies.

Essential cookies

Cookie name	Provider	Purpose	Type	Expiry
`bf_session`	BrandForge	Session management and authentication	First-party	Session
`bf_csrf`	BrandForge	Cross-site request forgery protection	First-party	Session
`bf_consent`	BrandForge	Stores your cookie consent preferences	First-party	12 months
`bf_auth`	BrandForge	Authentication token (logged-in users)	First-party	30 days
`bf_lb`	BrandForge	Load balancer routing	First-party	Session
`__stripe_mid`	Stripe	Fraud prevention during checkout	Third-party	1 year
`__stripe_sid`	Stripe	Fraud prevention session identifier	Third-party	Session

Analytics cookies

Cookie name	Provider	Purpose	Type	Expiry
`_bf_analytics`	BrandForge	Anonymous page view and feature usage tracking	First-party	26 months
`_bf_ref`	BrandForge	Referral source attribution (anonymised)	First-party	30 days

Functional cookies

Cookie name	Provider	Purpose	Type	Expiry
`bf_theme`	BrandForge	Stores light/dark mode preference	First-party	12 months
`bf_lang`	BrandForge	Language preference	First-party	12 months
`bf_onboarding`	BrandForge	Tracks onboarding steps completed/dismissed	First-party	6 months
`bf_editor_prefs`	BrandForge	Editor layout and display preferences	First-party	12 months

Marketing cookies

Cookie name	Provider	Purpose	Type	Expiry
`_bf_campaign`	BrandForge	Tracks which ad campaign led to the visit	First-party	30 days
`li_fat_id`	LinkedIn	LinkedIn Insight Tag — ad conversion tracking	Third-party	30 days

This list may change as we update the platform. We review our cookies quarterly and update this page accordingly.

9. How to manage cookies

You have several options for managing cookies:

Our cookie banner

When you first visit BrandForge, you'll see a cookie consent banner that lets you accept or decline each category of non-essential cookies. You can change your preferences at any time by clicking the "Cookie Settings" link in our website footer.

Browser settings

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings. You can typically:

View what cookies are stored on your device.
Delete some or all cookies.
Block all cookies or only third-party cookies.
Set your browser to notify you when a cookie is placed.

Here are links to cookie management instructions for major browsers:

Chrome Firefox Safari Edge

Do Not Track

BrandForge currently does not respond to "Do Not Track" (DNT) browser signals, as there is no universally accepted standard for how to interpret them. However, if you decline analytics and marketing cookies via our cookie banner, we will not track your activity regardless of your DNT setting.

10. Your consent

Under the Dutch Telecommunicatiewet (implementing the ePrivacy Directive) and the GDPR:

Essential cookies do not require consent — they are necessary for the platform to function.
All other cookies (analytics, functional, marketing) require your explicit, informed consent before they are placed on your device.

We obtain consent through our cookie banner, which appears on your first visit. Consent is:

Freely given — declining non-essential cookies does not affect your access to the platform.
Specific — you can accept or decline each cookie category individually.
Informed — the banner links to this policy for full details.
Revocable — you can change your preferences at any time via the "Cookie Settings" link in the footer.

Your consent choice is stored in the bf_consent cookie for 12 months. After that, we'll ask again.

11. Changes to this policy

We review this cookie policy quarterly and update it whenever we add, remove, or change cookies on the platform. When we make changes:

We update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
If we add new categories of cookies that require consent, we will re-display the cookie consent banner.
Material changes will be announced via the cookie banner and/or email.

12. Contact

If you have questions about our use of cookies or this policy, you can reach us at:

eCommerce Services B.V. (trading as BrandForge)

Email: [email protected]

Address: Barendrecht, Netherlands

For questions about your broader data rights, see our Privacy Policy. For the full rules of using BrandForge, see our Terms & Conditions.