The Klaro website has no cookies by default

Cookies are a mechanism used to make the web stateful. In other words, they help browsers and servers remember who you are, accross multiple visits.

In this sense, cookies are useful. For instance, they allow a web site to remember that you closed an ad banner (or the cookie banner itself), so that it does not open again everytime you come back. They also help implementing persistent carts on e-shops, and are sometimes used to improve web security. Last, they help developers and marketing teams improve website content, thanks to analytics platforms.

Unfortunately, the mechanism has not been designed with privacy in mind. Nowadays, about 90% of cookies are used to track your visits accross different sites. They assist in the construction of a gigantic distributed database about who we are, what we like, what we are looking for, what we are buying, etc. The main aim is to serve relevant advertisement -- for instance on Facebook, Google search and Twitter -- and not really to build a mass surveillance system. Yet while the former objective might be defended by some (if a website presents ads, let them be relevant at least), the risk for the system to be misused is far too high.

For this reason, at Klaro we've decided to switch cookies off by default on our website, and restrict their use as much as possible everywhere else. In particular, our website and application have no advertisement or analytics trackers (You can find complete details of our endeavour at the end of this post).

Let us be clear: this is completely at our disadvantage. A startup navigates in uncertainty, and knowing visitors and users is required to help navigate towards a profitable business. In addition, we have no revenue from embedding ad banners, and we won't ever sell your data.

Yet you can still help us to make Klaro a success:

• Our marketing team is almost blind. Yet our relevant metrics are the number of projects you create, the templates you use, the business plans we sell. Please do create projects, use our templates, buy our business plans.

• Our user experience team is almost blind. Please share with us what you like, what you dislike. Talk to us at info@klaro.cards.

• We are a lean startup, which means we try to keep costs not too high, and are attentive to keep a balance between costs and revenue. The best way to help us is to buy a license or upgrade if possible. We are always open to meet business angels who share our values, and to create win-win partnerships around Klaro with other freelancers and companies. Talk to us at info@klaro.cards.

We hope you appreciate our effort in making the world a little bit better.

What cookies are used?

• We do NOT use Google Analytics, Google Ads or Facebook Ads trackers, and have the firm intention to resist installing such mechanisms in the future.

• We use and recommend Simple Analytics, which provides us with most important figures about website visits without any cookie.

• We do use Tidio for the chatbot (the window that opens when clicking the purple icon in the bottom right of the screen) and Tidio requires cookies. We are not 100% satisfied with that, especially because Tidio tracks a lot of information. For this reason, we do not include Tidio by defaut on the website, but embed it dynamically the first time you try to join us, asking you to accept cookies only then. You are not exposed to Intercom cookies until you chat with us or use our app.

• We do use Stripe for electronic payments in the app, and Stripe requires cookies to work. Stripe is not included on our website itself, so you are not exposed to those cookies until you actually use our application. We are in the process of clarifying exactly how those cookies are used.

• The contact forms on our landing pages integrate HubSpot, for easier customer relationship management. That integration installs tracking cookies, and is dynamically installed only if your accept them. Otherwise, the form simply sends us an email, and we reencode data manually into HubSpot!

• When you use the chatbot, which requires cookies, we keep an internal cookie to remember... that you accepted those cookies. This way, we can avoid asking you to accept cookies everytime you talk with us.

• The same applies when hiding the "Book a Demo" banner: to prevent opening it again and again when you navigate from page to page, we use a internal cookie to remember your choice. This cookie cannot be used to identify you personally.

You will find all details and your rights in our official Cookies and Privacy policies.

Edit: 26th of June, 2020

• We used to use Intercom for the chatbot. We switched to Tidio, that is slightly better from a privacy point of view.

• Simple Analytics introduced.

• HubSpot introduced on our landing pages, only if the visitor explicitely accept tracking cookies.