Last updated: October 2, 2026
This Cookies Policy explains how HoverReel LLC ("HoverReel," "we," "us," or "our") uses cookies and similar browser storage technologies (like localStorage and sessionStorage) across the HoverReel dashboard and the HoverReel embeddable video widget. It should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which covers the rest of how we collect and use information.
Like our Privacy Policy, this document covers three different contexts:
- The HoverReel dashboard (
app.hoverreel.com) — used by Merchants who log in to manage their video content. - The HoverReel embeddable widget — JavaScript a Merchant places on their own website, seen by that Merchant's own site visitors ("Shoppers"). The widget runs on the Merchant's own domain, not on a HoverReel domain.
- Our website (
hoverreel.com) — our marketing site, including our Guides articles and the link to apply for the beta. It is separate from the dashboard and the widget, and it is the only place we use an analytics service (see Section 2.3).
1. What Are Cookies (and "Similar Technologies")?
Cookies are small text files a website stores in your browser to remember information between visits or page loads. localStorage and sessionStorage are related browser storage mechanisms that work similarly from a privacy standpoint — a website can write small pieces of data into your browser and read them back later — even though, technically, they are not cookies. We use both cookies and this kind of local browser storage, and this policy covers both together, the way most cookie disclosures do.
2. Cookies and Storage We Use
We use only the items below. None of them are used for advertising, none of them are sold or shared with any ad network, and none of them track you across unrelated, unaffiliated websites.
2.1 On the HoverReel dashboard (Merchant-facing)
| Name | Type | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
connect.sid | Cookie (HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax, Secure when on HTTPS) | Up to 30 days | Strictly necessary. Keeps you logged into the dashboard. Without it, you cannot stay signed in. |
hoverreel_active_tab | localStorage | Persistent, until cleared | Remembers which dashboard tab (Dashboard, Library, Products, etc.) you last had open, so reloading the page doesn't bounce you back to the start. |
hoverreel_sidebar_collapsed | localStorage | Persistent, until cleared | Remembers whether you last collapsed or expanded the dashboard's sidebar navigation. |
hoverreel_library_view | localStorage | Persistent, until cleared | Remembers whether you last viewed your video Library as a list or a grid. |
hoverreel_dismissed_setup_issues_<your account ID> | localStorage | Persistent, until cleared | Remembers which configuration-issue notices you've already dismissed in the dashboard, so they don't reappear until the underlying issue changes. |
hoverreel_dismissed_opportunities_<your account ID> | localStorage | Persistent, until cleared | Remembers which performance-insight suggestions you've already dismissed on the Insights tab. |
All of the above are first-party — set directly by the HoverReel dashboard, not by any third party.
2.2 On a Merchant's website (via the embedded widget, Shopper-facing)
These are written by the HoverReel widget script into the browser of whoever is visiting the Merchant's own site — not a HoverReel domain. They are all localStorage/sessionStorage, not cookies, and none of them contain your name, email address, or any other information that identifies you as a real person.
| Name | Type | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
cv_visitor_id | localStorage | Persistent, until cleared | A randomly generated, anonymous identifier with no connection to your real identity. Used only to avoid inflating a Merchant's own video-view analytics by miscounting the same browser's repeat visits as new ones. |
cv_liked_<video ID> | localStorage | Persistent, until cleared | Remembers, per video, that you already clicked "like" in that browser, so the like isn't counted or offered again. |
cv_seen_impression_<Player ID>_<video ID> | sessionStorage | Until the browser tab/window is closed | Prevents counting the same video "impression" more than once during a single browsing session. |
cv_seen_view_<Player ID>_<video ID> | sessionStorage | Until the browser tab/window is closed | Prevents counting the same video "view" more than once during a single browsing session. |
cv_seen_milestone<25/50/75/90><Player ID><video ID> | sessionStorage | Until the browser tab/window is closed | Prevents counting the same watch-progress milestone (e.g. reaching 90% of a video) more than once during a single browsing session. |
All of the above are first-party from the Merchant's own domain's point of view — they are written by a script the Merchant chose to place on their own page, using that page's own origin, not a cross-site HoverReel cookie.
2.3 On our website, hoverreel.com
| Name | Type | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga | Cookie (Google Analytics) | 2 years | Distinguishes one browser from another so we can count visitors to hoverreel.com. If you click Deny in our cookie banner, nothing more is sent to Google Analytics; a cookie already set stays in your browser, unused, until you clear it or it expires. |
ga<ID> | Cookie (Google Analytics) | 2 years | Keeps track of your visit (session) for the same analytics. Same as above if you click Deny. |
hr_attribution | sessionStorage | Until the browser tab is closed | Remembers which link brought you to the site (its campaign tags), the first page you landed on, and the referring website's domain, so that if you click "Apply for Beta Access" we know which of our posts or articles led there. Contains nothing about who you are. |
cmplz_banner-status | Cookie (Complianz, our consent tool) | 1 year | Remembers that you've already answered the cookie banner, so it doesn't show on every page. |
cmplz_statistics, cmplz_marketing, cmplz_preferences, cmplz_functional | Cookie (Complianz) | 1 year | Remember your choice for each kind of cookie (for example, whether analytics is allowed). We use only analytics; we have no marketing cookies. |
cmplz_consented_services, cmplz_policy_id | Cookie (Complianz) | 1 year | Remember which services you agreed to and which version of this policy you saw, so we can ask again if it changes. |
About Google Analytics on hoverreel.com: we use it only to understand how visitors find and use our website (which pages are read, which links and searches bring people here). We have turned off Google's advertising features ("Google signals" and Google Ads links), we keep Google Analytics data for 14 months, and we do not use it in the HoverReel dashboard or in the widget on Merchants' sites. Google processes this data as our service provider; see how Google uses data from sites that use its services.
3. What We Do NOT Use
- No advertising or ad-retargeting cookies.
- No third-party analytics trackers such as Google Analytics, Meta (Facebook) Pixel, or similar tools in the HoverReel dashboard or the widget. Google Analytics runs only on our own website, hoverreel.com, as described in Section 2.3.
- No Meta (Facebook) Pixel or other advertising pixels anywhere, including hoverreel.com.
- No cross-site tracking cookies that follow you between unrelated websites.
- No cookies that sell or share your data with data brokers or advertisers.
4. Third-Party Code the Widget May Load
For playback and one optional sharing feature, the widget may load two small, publicly-hosted JavaScript libraries directly from a content delivery network (CDN), only when they're actually needed:
- hls.js, loaded from
cdn.jsdelivr.net, only in browsers that don't natively support the video streaming format we use. - gif.js, loaded from
cdnjs.cloudflare.com, only if a Shopper chooses to use the widget's optional "share via email" feature to generate a short animated preview.
Both are pinned to a specific, verified version and loaded with Subresource Integrity checking, so the exact code that runs is verified before it executes. Neither library sets cookies of its own; loading them does involve a network request to that CDN's own domain, which is why we're disclosing it here for full transparency, even though it isn't a cookie.
5. A Note About Shopify
If a Merchant has connected a product to Shopify's "Add to Cart" and a Shopper clicks it, that request goes directly from the Shopper's own browser to the Merchant's own Shopify store domain — not through any HoverReel server. Shopify may set its own cookies on that request as part of how its cart works. Those are Shopify's cookies, governed by Shopify's own policies and the Merchant's own site, not by HoverReel — we have no visibility into or control over them.
6. How to Control Cookies and Storage
- Browser settings: most browsers let you block or delete cookies and site data, either for all sites or per-site, through their privacy/settings menu.
- If you block or clear the dashboard's session cookie, you will be logged out and unable to stay signed in to the HoverReel dashboard — it's required for the dashboard to function.
- If you block or clear the widget's local storage on a Merchant's site, nothing breaks for you as a Shopper — the video widget still plays normally. The only effect is that view/impression counts in that Merchant's analytics may be slightly less precise (e.g. a repeat visit might be counted again), since the dedup mechanism relies on that storage being present.
- On hoverreel.com, analytics is on unless you turn it off. Click Deny in the cookie banner, or change your choice at any time with the Manage consent tab at the bottom corner of any page. You can also block cookies in your browser or install Google's opt-out browser add-on. The site works the same either way.
7. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Cookies Policy from time to time, for example when a new feature changes what we store in your browser. We will post the updated version here with a new "Last updated" date.
8. Contact Us
Questions about this Cookies Policy can be sent to:
HoverReel LLC 5151 Monroe St, Ste 250F Toledo, OH 43623 [email protected]