Cookie Policy
Last updated: November 2, 2026
1. What this covers
This page lists the cookies and browser storage that StartEase (https://www.startease.app), operated by VentureEase Academy, uses — what each one is for and how long it lasts. It is the detail behind the "Cookies and Local Storage Choices" section of our Privacy Notice.
Cookies are small files a site asks your browser to keep. Browsers also offer two other stores that work like cookies but are never sent to us with a request: local storage, which persists until it is cleared, and session storage, which is emptied when you close the tab. We use all three, and they are listed together below because your browser lets you clear them together.
2. Two categories, and only one of them is a choice
We group everything into two categories, and we ask about the second one:
- Essential — what the site needs in order to work: keeping you signed in, remembering the partner portal you arrived through, holding your place in the assessment, and remembering the cookie choice you made. These have no toggle, because switching them off would break the pages you are trying to use.
- Analytics — optional. Nothing in this category runs until you turn it on. Declining costs you nothing on this site.
We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, we do not sell what we collect, and we do not embed third-party social or advertising scripts on our pages.
3. Essential cookies
| Name | What it is for | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|
PHPSESSID |
Your sign-in session, and the partner portal you arrived through. Set for every visitor so that forms and sign-in work. | Until you close your browser. A signed-in session also ends after 24 minutes of inactivity. |
se_rm |
Keeps you signed in on this device. Set only if you tick "Remember me" when you sign in. | 14 days. Signing out, changing your password or resetting it deletes it. |
cookie_consent |
Whether you allowed analytics on the banner — a single word, accepted or declined, with nothing in it that identifies you. It exists so that our own server can honour your choice: without it your decision would live only in this browser, where the server cannot see it. Unlike the others, this site’s own scripts can read it, because the banner is what writes it. |
A year if you allowed analytics. 30 days if you declined — which is when we ask you again. |
startease_portal |
Returns you to the partner institution's portal you last visited, so you keep seeing that institution's programs. | 30 days. |
All four are sent only to this site, over HTTPS, and cannot be read by JavaScript on other sites.
4. Cloudflare Turnstile — a third-party security check
Our Contact Us form and our sign-up form are protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, which tells people apart from automated scripts. It is not loaded when you simply read a page. The code is fetched from Cloudflare only when you start filling in the Contact Us form, so a visitor who never uses that form makes no request to Cloudflare and receives no Cloudflare cookies. Once it runs, Cloudflare may set its own cookies; we do not set them, cannot read them, and do not list them here because they are Cloudflare’s to define — see Cloudflare’s privacy policy. We receive only a pass or fail.
⚠ This is a security service, not analytics, so it is deliberately not behind the analytics toggle. Our public forms send email to an address the submitter types, from our mail server — without this check they can be used to send mail in your name, so it protects you as much as us. The statement in section 2 that nothing in the analytics category runs until you turn it on remains true and is unaffected by this section.
5. Essential browser storage
These stay in your browser and are never sent to us automatically. We read them with JavaScript on the pages that need them.
| Name | Store | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
se_cookie_consent | Local | The choice you made on the cookie banner, and when you made it. Without it we would ask you on every page. |
se_quiz_session, se_quiz_answers, se_quiz_progress | Local | Your place in the ETI assessment, your answers so far, the follow-up questions chosen for you, your result's identifier and, if you are signed in, your account number — so you can close the tab and carry on later in this browser. |
se_quiz_result | Local | A finished result from an assessment you took without signing in, kept so it can be saved to your account if you register or sign in. |
se_game_anonymous_id | Local | A random identifier, created only if you play a game without signing in, so your scores can appear on the leaderboards. It holds nothing about you. If you later play signed in on the same browser, those scores move to your account. |
se_boo_invite_token | Session | A Business Boo invitation you arrived with, held for the length of the visit so your result can be sent back to whoever invited you. |
| Milestone drafts | Session | Answers you have typed into a training milestone but not yet submitted, so a reload does not lose them. |
se_exit_shown | Session | Records that we have already shown you one Pro offer this visit, so you are not shown it again. |
6. Analytics — optional, and off until you turn it on
If you choose “Accept All”, or turn Analytics on under “Customize”, we count visits and record a handful of events (which pages are opened, and steps such as starting or finishing sign-up) so we can see what people actually use. This is our own software running on our own server — the measurements are not sent to an analytics company, and there is no third-party script involved.
Turning it on sets one cookie:
| Cookie | Kept for | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
SE_AH |
180 days | A random identifier, created the first time you visit a page after allowing analytics, so that several page views can be recognised as one visit rather than counted as strangers. It is first-party (set by startease.app, sent nowhere else), it is set only after you opt in, and it holds nothing about you — it is random, not derived from your name, email or account. Your browser’s scripts cannot read it, and neither can ours: it is HttpOnly, so only our server ever sees it. If you decline, or have not answered the banner, it is never set at all. |
How long we keep the measurements. The detailed records are deleted after 90 days. What survives is a daily count — how many visits, how many of each event — with nothing in it that points to a person or a browser.
Google Analytics is not in use. There is wiring for it in the code and no measurement ID configured, so it has never run for anyone; we are removing that wiring. If that ever changes, this page will say so before it does.
Nothing in this category happens before you opt in. If you have not answered the banner, analytics is off.
7. Your choices, and how to change them
- The banner. On your first visit, a banner asks. "Accept All" turns analytics on; "Customize" lets you save with Analytics off. Nothing optional loads until you press one of them.
- Change it at any time. Use the Cookie preferences link in the footer of any page — it reopens the banner on the toggles, showing the choice currently in force.
- If you have an account. Settings → Analytics Preferences saves the choice to your account, so it follows you to your other devices rather than being remembered only in one browser.
- If you decline, we ask again after 30 days, in case you change your mind. That is the only reason the banner reappears.
- With JavaScript off, or if you clear this site's data, the banner has nothing stored to read — so optional analytics stays off, and you will be asked again on your next visit.
- In your browser. Every browser can block or clear cookies and site data for a single site. Clearing ours removes everything listed above, including your saved choice, and signs you out.
8. Other companies
Payments are taken on PayPal's own site. We do not receive your card details, and PayPal's cookies are set on PayPal's pages under their policy, not on ours. If you follow a link from StartEase to another site in the VentureEase ecosystem, or to any other site, that site's own cookie policy applies once you are there.
9. Changes and contact
If the cookies we use change, we update this page and the date at the top of it. Questions about anything here: use the contact form at the foot of any page, the Support tab in Settings if you have an account, or info@ventureease.org.
See also our Privacy Notice and Terms & Conditions.