Cookie Policy

1. What Are Cookies and Similar Technologies

Cookies are small text files that a website can place on your device to remember information between visits. Alongside traditional cookies, websites can use similar browser technologies such as local storage and session storage, which store small pieces of information directly in your browser.

AskFredd relies mainly on browser local storage for essential preferences. The optional analytics tool (SiteBehaviour), when you enable it, may use its own cookies and/or storage.

2. Categories of Storage We Use

a) Strictly necessary (always active). Required for the site to work and set only in your own browser (first-party):

• Consent choice — a structured record (in local storage, under the name askfredd-consent) that stores your cookie preferences, their version and date, so we respect your choice and do not show the banner on every visit.
• Language preference (askfredd-ui-lang) and theme preference (theme).
• AI notice acknowledgement (askfredd-ai-consent) recording that you acknowledged the experimental nature of the tool.

b) Analytics — SiteBehaviour (optional, consent only). Activated only if you choose “Accept all” or enable the “Analytics” category in preferences. Full details in section 3.

3. SiteBehaviour — Third-Party Analytics Tool

Provider and role. SiteBehaviour is a third-party web-analytics tool acting as a data processor on our behalf. It helps us understand how people use the site so we can improve its usability and content.

When it loads. SiteBehaviour is off by default. The script is downloaded and executed only after your explicit consent to the “Analytics” category. Before consent we do not contact any SiteBehaviour domain and do not create any identifier. Declining analytics does not limit access to AskFredd in any way.

Data processed. When active, SiteBehaviour collects technical and usage data such as pages visited, clicks, scrolling and mouse movement, device/browser type, and an approximate location derived from your IP address. Because we have kept the advanced features enabled, SiteBehaviour also generates heatmaps, session recordings, page-content recording and feedback tools: these features can capture what is shown or typed on screen during a session.

Sensitive content — important warning. Because session recording and page-content recording are active, we cannot rule out that on-screen text is recorded, including the questions you type and the answers generated. For this reason we ask you to never enter your name, other people’s names, or personal or identifying health data in the search box, report notes, or any field on the site. Always phrase questions in general, educational terms.

Identifiers and storage. To function, SiteBehaviour may set one or more technical identifiers and values in your browser’s local/session storage (for example the key capture-sitebehaviour-heatmap) and load its script from the domain sitebehaviour-cdn.fra1.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com (infrastructure located in the European Union — Frankfurt).

Legal basis and retention. Processing takes place solely on the basis of your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). Usage data is retained according to the SiteBehaviour dashboard settings, for as long as needed for analytics purposes, then deleted or aggregated.

Withdrawal. You can withdraw consent at any time via Cookie preferences. On withdrawal we stop loading SiteBehaviour, remove its script and delete the known identifiers in your browser, reloading the page to ensure tracking has stopped.

4. Google Search Console

This site is registered with Google Search Console, a free Google tool that shows us how AskFredd appears in Google Search results (queries, impressions, clicks, ranking and indexing status). It is used solely to monitor and improve the site’s presence in search engines.

Ownership is verified through a static file served from our domain; Google Search Console does not set cookies on your browser through our site and provides us only aggregate statistics that cannot be linked to you individually. Google’s processing is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.

5. Consent and Managing Preferences

On your first visit we show a banner with three equally prominent choices: Accept all, Reject all and Customize. With “Customize” you can turn the “Analytics” category on or off separately; the “Strictly necessary” category is always on because it is essential.

You can change or withdraw your choices at any time via the Cookie preferences link in the footer. We store the policy version together with your choice: if we materially change the categories, we will ask for your consent again.

6. What We Do NOT Use

AskFredd does not use:

• advertising or marketing cookies;
• advertising-profiling or behavioural-targeting cookies for advertising;
• third-party cross-site tracking for advertising purposes;
• social media tracking pixels;
• fingerprinting or covert identification techniques.

We do not sell or trade data with advertisers, and we do not require you to create an account.

7. Legal Basis

Under the EU/UK ePrivacy rules and the GDPR, strictly necessary and functional storage may be used on the basis of legitimate interest in providing a working website. The SiteBehaviour analytics tool, however, is not strictly necessary and is used solely with your prior consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw at any time.

8. Third-Party and Infrastructure Cookies

AskFredd is delivered through modern hosting and AI infrastructure. Some third-party providers we rely on to run the service (for example, the hosting platform and the AI service that generates answers) may set strictly necessary technical cookies or make network requests to keep the connection secure and functional. These are limited to what is required to deliver the service.

When you follow an external link from our answers (for example to a scientific journal or a health authority), that destination website has its own cookie and privacy policies, over which we have no control.

9. Managing and Deleting Cookies

You are always in control. You can:

• use the banner or the Cookie preferences link to accept, reject or customize;
• clear your browser’s local storage, session storage and cookies at any time from your browser settings;
• use private/incognito browsing, which discards this storage when you close the window;
• configure your browser to block or delete cookies and storage for this site.

10. Users Outside the European Union

This Cookie Policy applies to all visitors worldwide. If you access AskFredd from outside the EU, the same consent-based approach to analytics applies. Depending on your location, additional local rules (such as the UK ePrivacy regulations or the California Consumer Privacy Act) may give you further rights regarding data and tracking technologies.

11. Changes to This Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy to reflect changes in the technologies we use or in applicable law. The current version will always be available on this page, with the “Last updated” date and version revised accordingly.

12. Related Information

For more detail on how we handle data in general, please read our Privacy Policy and our Disclaimer & Terms of Use.