Legal
Cookie Policy
Version 2026-10-29 (v7) · English
Pending final Belgian privacy-lawyer sign-off before launch.
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small text file your browser stores on your device when you visit a website; the site can read it again on later visits. In Belgium, cookies and similar techniques (such as localStorage and sessionStorage) are governed by Art. 10/2 of the Belgian Act of 30 July 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data — the Belgian implementation of the European rules on cookies and online privacy.
The rule is simple: anything that is not strictly necessary to deliver the service you asked for requires your prior explicit consent.
Cookies we use today
A note on the “Type” column: terms like HttpOnly, Secure and SameSite=Lax are standard security attributes. They stop other websites or malicious scripts from reading or misusing the cookie. You do not need to do anything with these settings.
| Cookie / token | Type | Purpose | Lifetime | Consent needed? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
fotofee_sid | First-party, HttpOnly + Secure + SameSite=Lax | Opaque session id. Needed to keep you logged in. | Valid for 8 hours; automatically renewed on use; maximum 30 days. | No — strictly necessary (Art. 10/2 §2 exemption) |
fotofee_csrf | First-party, Secure + SameSite=Lax (JS-readable intentionally) | Protects your account against unwanted actions by others (CSRF protection). | Tied to fotofee_sid. | No — strictly necessary |
__Host-fotofee_oauth | First-party, HttpOnly + Secure + SameSite=Lax | Keeps your Google sign-in safe (protection against forged logins). | 10 minutes. | No — strictly necessary |
fotofee_locale | First-party, no personal data | Remembers your chosen language (en / nl / fr). | 1 year. | No — this cookie stores your own language preference and is not used to track you |
fotofee_consent | First-party, no personal data | Remembers your banner choices so you are not asked again on every page. Contains a random 16-byte identifier specific to this browser — not linked to your IP, fingerprint, or any third-party identifier. | 6 months. | No — needed to remember your banner choice; without it you would be asked on every page |
Our website also keeps a few things in your browser’s own storage (local storage, session storage and IndexedDB). While you are signed in: your name and email address (to show who is signed in), the list of your books and your unsaved edits. While you set up a book: the answers you type, such as names, dates and a dedication, until the book is made or you close the tab. At checkout: the check of your delivery address, until you close the tab. And: your display theme, recent prices and a promo code you entered. They stay on your device and are not sent to anyone else. They are needed for the site to work, so we do not ask for your consent. When you sign out, or when you come back after your session has expired, we remove your name, email address and the list of your books; you can clear the rest in your browser.
Cookies that activate only if you opt in
Only the Analytics row below can load today, and only after you switch it on. Functional and Marketing are not loaded; they are listed so you know what we would propose if we ever did, and so the banner has the granular categories ready.
| Category | Examples | What they would do | Default state |
|---|---|---|---|
| Functional | None today. Future: an editor layout preference. | Improve the experience between sessions without analysing your behaviour. | OFF by default. |
| Analytics | Cloudflare Web Analytics (Cloudflare, Inc.) and performance measurement by Sentry (Functional Software Inc., storage in the EU). | To count visits and measure how fast our pages load: page address without search terms, referring page, browser type, country, load times. Neither tool sets a cookie or stores anything in your browser, and neither builds a profile of you. | OFF by default. Loaded only after you switch on “Analytics”. Even without a cookie, these tools ask your browser to send us information, so they need your consent. You can withdraw it at any time in the cookie settings at the bottom of every page. |
| Marketing | None today. | Conversion tracking or retargeting. | OFF by default; never re-enabled without fresh consent. |
We do not load
- Google Analytics, Mixpanel, PostHog, Hotjar, or any behavioural analytics.
- Facebook Pixel, Google Ads tag, LinkedIn Insight, or any retargeting / advertising tracker.
- Any third-party cookie on the marketing site or in the editor.
We do not use third-party advertising consent frameworks (such as the IAB TCF). The Belgian Data Protection Authority has found that such systems do not always comply with data-protection law. Fotofee’s consent module is our own, managed directly by us — no data is shared with third-party advertising networks. If we ever introduced an advertising tag we would tell you and update this page.
How to manage cookies
- In the banner. Your first visit shows three equally prominent buttons on the first layer: Reject all, Customise, Accept all. No pre-ticked boxes. The three buttons are visually equivalent in size, colour and placement; “Reject all” is as easy and visible as “Accept all”, as the Belgian Data Protection Authority and European guidelines require. This is not a dark pattern: one click rejects everything, with no further navigation required.
- Via Cookie settings at the bottom of every page. at any time.
- In your browser. All major browsers let you delete or block cookies. Fotofee keeps working without the functional / analytics / marketing cookies; the strictly-necessary ones must be allowed for you to stay logged in.
Your choices are recorded
Each time you make a choice in the banner we record:
- Which categories you accepted or rejected.
- The text version of the banner you saw.
- A timestamp (UTC).
- The value of the
fotofee_consentcookie, a random identifier for this browser, and your Fotofee account id if you were logged in. We do not record your IP address, user-agent string or any other browser-derived signal in the consent record.
This record is the proof of your choice — the supervisory authority can ask us to demonstrate that you made a banner choice, and we must be able to produce it (Art. 7(1) GDPR).
These records are retained for 24 months. That window is aligned with our retention of marketing-consent records and of our audit logs (see Privacy Notice §8 and §2). After 24 months the consent record is deleted; if you revisit the banner, a fresh consent event is recorded.
Updates to this policy
If we introduce a new cookie or change the purpose of an existing one, we update this page and re-prompt you in the banner.
Contact
Questions: dpo@fotofee.be.
Your right to complain
If you believe we have processed your personal data unlawfully (including in connection with cookies), you have the right under Art. 77 GDPR to lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority (Autoriteit Gegevensbescherming / Autorité de protection des données), Drukpersstraat 35 / Rue de la Presse 35, 1000 Brussels — dataprotectionauthority.be. You may also complain to the supervisory authority of your habitual residence, or take judicial action under Arts. 78–79 GDPR.