Cookies, and your choices.

What a cookie is

A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. Some are essential — without them you couldn't stay signed in. Others help us understand how people find Shoepal and measure our advertising. We only set that second kind with your consent.

Essential cookies (always on)

These are needed for Shoepal to work, so they don't require consent under the UK's PECR rules.

• Sign-in (Supabase). Cookies beginning sb- keep you signed in and your session secure.
• shoepal_consent. Remembers your cookie choice, in a short code such as a1m0 (analytics on, marketing off). It lasts about six months, then we ask again.
• shoepal_onboarding. Carries your sizes, shoe type, styles and any shoe picks from the homepage to your first profile. It goes when you close your browser.
• shoepal_pending_signup. Lasts 24 hours after you sign up with an email address. If you press “Change my email”, it lets us remove the earlier sign-up that was never verified.
• shoepal_active_profile. Remembers which profile the “Shoes for” switcher is on, for a year.
• shoepal_new_profile. Holds a new profile's details while you finish adding it. It goes when you close your browser.
• shoepal_post_block. Lasts 15 minutes and shows a one-off follow-up prompt after you block someone.
• Stripe. When you subscribe, Stripe sets cookies on its own secure pages for fraud prevention and to run checkout — only while you're paying.

Other things we keep in your browser

These aren't cookies, but they work in a similar way.

• shoepal-cookie-reading (session storage). Notes that you followed the link to this page from the cookie dialog, so you can read it before choosing. It's cleared as soon as this page has read it.
• shoepal:swap-prompt-dismissed (local storage). Remembers when you pressed “Not yet” on the “Did you swap?” card in a chat, so it stays hidden on that device for 30 days. There's one for each chat where you've pressed it.
• Push notifications. If you turn on push, your browser installs our service worker and holds a subscription for this device. You can turn it off in Settings or in your browser.

Analytics & advertising (only with your consent)

We set these only if you agree. Choose Accept for both, or Configure to pick analytics and marketing separately. Choose Essential only and none of them are set.

• Google Analytics (analytics). Cookies beginning _ga help us understand how people use the site so we can improve it.
• Google Ads (marketing). Where we're running these ads, cookies such as _gcl_au measure whether they're working and support remarketing.
• Meta (Facebook) Pixel (marketing). The same, for advertising on Facebook and Instagram, using cookies such as _fbp.

Our lawful basis for these is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. If you do, we delete these cookies from your browser where they were set on our own site.

What loads before you choose

The Google Tag Manager container loads from Google on every page, before you've made any choice, because it's what applies your choice. Until you say yes, it sends no analytics or advertising data and sets no cookies. Google's servers do see your IP address and the address of the page, as with any file your browser downloads.

Other websites

Shoe pictures load directly from retailers' websites, so those retailers can see your IP address when your browser shows one, and their own cookie rules apply to anything they set. The same goes for any retailer site you visit from a link, including links that may earn us a commission. We say so next to those.

Your choices

When you first visit, our cookie dialog offers Essential only, Accept and Configure. Pressing Escape counts as Essential only. You can change your choice whenever you like:

Cookie settings

You can also clear or block cookies in your browser settings. Blocking the sign-in cookies will mean you can't stay logged in.

Related

• Privacy policy — how we handle your personal data more broadly.
• Contact — any cookie or privacy question.

Last reviewed: October 2026.