Cookie Policy
Last updated September 2026 · Applies to spiritofmathcontest.com, the contest platform and the shop.
This page explains which cookies and similar technologies our sites use, what we collect with them, and how you can change your mind. It supplements the Spirit of Math Privacy Policy, which covers everything we do with personal information.
Change your choice at any time: . Withdrawing analytics consent also asks our server to strip the visitor id from every page view it recorded for that browser.
The short version
Nothing beyond essential cookies is set until you choose. If you do nothing, only the essential ones are used and we count page views without any identifier. If you accept analytics, we set one cookie of our own with a random id. If you accept marketing, HubSpot's script loads. We never sell personal information, and we do not store your IP address with page views.
Essential — always on
These are needed for the sites to work and need no consent.
| Name | What it does | Kept for |
|---|---|---|
| som_access, som_refresh | Keeps you signed in on the contest platform. | 1 hour / 30 days |
| som_csrf | Protects signed-in actions against forged requests. | 30 days |
| Shop cart (browser storage) | Remembers what you put in the shop cart. | Until you clear it |
| Stripe, Shopify | Set by our payment and shop providers during checkout only. | Session |
| som.cookieConsent.v1 (browser storage) | Remembers the choice you made in the cookie banner, so we do not ask again. | 13 months |
Analytics — Spirit of Math only, with your consent
Our own analytics runs on our own servers; no advertising network is involved. For each page view we record the page, the site, the time, the referring website's domain (never the full address) and any campaign tags in the link. Before you consent, that is all — there is no identifier, so two visits cannot be linked. After you consent, the visit also carries the random id below, and if you later sign in to the contest platform, or arrive from a link in an email we sent you, we may link that id to your account or email address so our team can see that you visited. We keep this for 13 months, then delete it automatically.
| Name | What it does | Kept for |
|---|---|---|
| som_vid | A random id (32 characters) so we can tell that two visits came from the same browser. It is not your name or email, and it is created only after you accept analytics. | 13 months |
Marketing — HubSpot, with your consent
HubSpot is the customer-relationship system we use for marketing. If you allow marketing cookies, its tracking script records your visits and may connect them to a contact record if you have given us your email address. HubSpot's own policy describes its cookies in detail.
| Name | What it does | Kept for |
|---|---|---|
| __hstc, hubspotutk, __hssc, __hssrc | HubSpot's visitor tracking, used to measure our marketing campaigns. Loads only if you allow marketing cookies. | Up to 13 months (set by HubSpot) |
Legal basis
Essential cookies are used on the basis of our legitimate interest in running a working, secure site. Analytics and marketing cookies are set only with your consent (GDPR Article 6(1)(a) and the ePrivacy rules; PIPEDA and CASL in Canada). Page counts with no identifier rely on our legitimate interest in understanding how the sites are used; they cannot identify anyone.
Who processes this data
Our sites are hosted by Vercel, our backend by Railway, and our database by Supabase; these providers store the data on our behalf and do not use it for their own purposes. HubSpot processes marketing data only when you allow marketing cookies. Some of these providers operate outside Canada and the EU; transfers are covered by their standard data-processing terms.
Your rights
You can withdraw consent at any time with the Cookie settings button above. You can also ask us for a copy of the browsing data we hold against your email address, or ask us to erase it, by writing to [email protected]. If you are in the EU or UK you may also complain to your data-protection authority.
Who we are
Spirit of Math Schools Inc., Toronto, Canada, is the data controller for these sites.