A little memory, and a bit of counting.
Like most websites, we use cookies and browser storage. Most of it remembers how you like the place: your theme, wallpaper, and reading layout. With your OK, some of it helps us see which pages work, so we can fix the ones that don’t.
What the site needs to work, such as keeping you signed in, runs without asking. Anything optional waits for a yes in the fortune cookie, and a Global Privacy Control signal from your browser counts as a no.
What stays in this browser
- Display preferences
- Theme, wallpaper, transparency, reading width, sidebar choices, and your answer to the fortune cookie use local storage. Display choices remain until you reset them or clear the browser’s site data; your answer is kept for six months. None of it is an advertising profile. If you minimize the fortune cookie without answering, this tab remembers that until you close it.
- A list you drop on the desktop
- A CSV you drop on the desktop is read in your browser and kept in this tab’s session storage, so it survives a reload. If you open it in the workspace, it’s handed over the same way. Closing the tab removes it. Nothing is uploaded until you save an import.
- A contact draft
- If sending a message needs another try, its draft stays in this tab’s session storage. A successful send removes it. Browser session restoration can keep it longer; your browser’s site-data controls can remove it.
- Counting visits
- If you accept the fortune cookie, analytics tools count visits and show how pages and features are used, on this website and in the workspace. They set their own cookies, kept no longer than 13 months, and receive your IP address, your browser and device, and the pages you visit. It’s for making SpecStream better, not for advertising. Each tool is listed below with its cookies.
- Account and payment flows
- Signing in or making a payment can require security, session, and recovery information. Resetting appearance here does not sign you out, remove private work, or authorize a payment. Payment providers have their own storage and privacy notices.
Everything stored, and for how long
| Name | What it’s for | How long |
|---|---|---|
| finder_sidCookie | Keeps you signed in, or keeps your work if you haven’t signed up yet | Up to 14 days |
| __Host-specstream_deviceCookie | Recognizes this browser, so we can tell you when a new device signs in to your account and give the free work once per person. It holds a random value, not who you are | 90 days |
| __Host-specstream-oauthCookie | Completes signing in with Google or Microsoft | 10 minutes |
| __Host-specstream-linkCookie | Completes adding Google or Microsoft sign-in to an existing account | 15 minutes |
| __Host-specstream-securityCookie | Completes signing in or setting up a passkey | 10 minutes |
| __Host-specstream-samlCookie | Completes signing in through your company’s single sign-on | 10 minutes |
| finder_native_connectionCookie | Completes connecting a tool to your workspace | 10 minutes |
| __Host-specstream-refCookie | Remembers the invitation you followed, so you and the person who invited you get the referral balance | 30 days |
| specstream:cookie-noteLocal storage | Your answer to the fortune cookie | 6 months |
| specstream:colorMode, specstream:siteSettings and the display keysLocal storage | Theme, wallpaper, transparency, reading width, and sidebar choices | Until you reset them |
| specstream:cookie-note-tuckedSession storage | Keeps the fortune cookie tucked in the corner if you minimize it | Until you close the tab |
| specstream:contact-draftSession storage | A message draft, if sending needs another try | Until it’s sent or you close the tab |
| _gaCookie, only if you accept | Google Analytics, by Google: counts visits and shows which pages work, without advertising features | 13 months |
| _ga_2JDH2ZL40MCookie, only if you accept | Google Analytics, by Google: counts visits and shows which pages work, without advertising features | 13 months |
Payment pages are run by our payment provider, which sets its own cookies under its own privacy notice.
Put the room back as you found it
Reset this website’s display preferences and reload the page. Your account, saved work, and contact draft stay untouched. Other open tabs keep their current view until reloaded.
Your choice stays yours
Declining is as easy as accepting, and saying no changes nothing else about the site. Your answer is kept for six months, then the fortune cookie asks again. Change it any time with “Cookie choices” at the bottom of every page. We won’t treat your choice of wallpaper as permission to track you.
For the French rules behind this approach, see the CNIL’s guidance on cookies and trackers. For account data, research, and your rights, read our privacy policy.