Pooch AI — Cookie and Local Storage Policy
Effective date: 15 July 2026 Last updated: 18 August 2026
1. About this policy
This policy covers two different things, with two different controllers. Read the section that applies to you.
- Sections 2 to 6 — the Pooch AI chat widget and the Pooch AI storefront analytics pixel, when they are installed on a merchant's Shopify store. The merchant whose store you are visiting is the controller of this data. Pooch acts as that merchant's processor, and where consent is required the merchant is responsible for obtaining it through the store's consent-management banner.
- Section 7 — our own website at
pooch-ai.com. Pooch is the controller there, and nothing a merchant configures on their store affects it.
It should be read together with our Privacy Policy.
2. Cookies and similar technologies
A cookie is a small text file stored on your device by a website.
We also use technologies that are not cookies but work similarly, and this policy covers them equally:
- Local storage (
localStorage) — data stored by your browser that persists until it is cleared. It is not transmitted automatically with every request as a cookie is. - Session storage (
sessionStorage) — the same, but cleared when you close the browser tab. - Web pixels — a script that reports events, such as viewing a product, to a server.
Most of the identifiers we use are local storage or session storage, not cookies. Browser settings that block or delete cookies may not remove them. See §8 for how to clear them.
3. Strictly necessary
These are required for the chat to work. They cannot be switched off through a consent banner without breaking the widget, and in most jurisdictions they do not require consent.
| Name | Type | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
chatbot_session_id | Local storage | Until cleared | Identifies your conversation so it can be continued and so the assistant can authenticate your messages to our API. |
__pooch_state_sync__ | Local storage | Until cleared | Remembers the state of the widget — whether it is open, minimised, and its appearance — so it is consistent as you move between pages and tabs. |
pooch:last_activity:* | Local storage | Until cleared | Records when you last sent a message, so the assistant can tell whether you are returning to an existing conversation. |
pooch:page_session:* | Session storage | Current tab session | Records that the widget has already been opened on this page, so the same event is not counted twice. |
pooch_tooltip_dismissed | Session storage | Current tab session | Remembers that you dismissed the greeting prompt, so it is not shown again. |
4. Analytics
These are not strictly necessary. They allow a returning visitor to be recognised and allow chat activity to be linked to activity elsewhere on the store.
In the EEA, the UK, and other jurisdictions with equivalent rules, these require your prior consent.
| Name | Type | Duration | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
pooch_visitor_id | Cookie and local storage | Cookie: 12 months. Local storage: until cleared. | A randomly generated identifier that recognises you as a returning visitor, so conversations and store activity can be associated across visits. It does not contain your name, email address, or any information you have given us. |
pooch_active_session | Local storage | Until cleared; treated as current only for 30 minutes | Records which conversation is active, so that activity elsewhere on the store can be attributed to it. |
5. Storefront analytics pixel
Where the merchant has enabled it, Pooch installs a web pixel on the store. This is a first-party pixel operated by Pooch on the merchant's behalf. It is not an advertising pixel and it does not send data to any advertising network.
The pixel reports the following events to us: page viewed, product viewed, product added to cart, cart viewed, checkout started, and checkout completed.
For those events it reports: the pooch_visitor_id described in §4; identifiers
that Shopify assigns to your browser, your customer account (if you are signed in),
your cart, your checkout, and your order; the product and variant concerned; the
monetary value and currency of the event; and the event data Shopify provides to
the pixel.
This tells the merchant whether a conversation with the assistant led to a purchase. It is analytics, it is not strictly necessary, and in the EEA, the UK, and equivalent jurisdictions it requires your prior consent. The merchant is responsible for obtaining that consent and for configuring the pixel accordingly.
6. Third-party cookies
The widget and the pixel set no third-party cookies. Every identifier described in sections 3 to 5 is set by Pooch, in the first-party context of the store you are visiting. We do not use advertising networks, cross-site trackers, or third-party analytics services in the widget or the pixel.
This does not apply to our own website — see §7, where we do use a third-party analytics service.
The store you are visiting will set its own cookies, including Shopify's, which are outside the scope of this policy and are described in the merchant's own cookie policy.
7. Our own website (pooch-ai.com)
This section applies only to pooch-ai.com, the site you are reading now. It does
not apply to the widget on a merchant's store, and a merchant's consent settings
have no effect on it. Pooch is the controller of this data.
We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages people read and how they arrive. Google acts as our processor for it and is a third party for the purposes of §6.
We ask for your consent before it runs. A consent banner, provided by Cookiebot, appears on your first visit. Google Analytics is held in a blocked state until you accept the statistics category — if you decline, or simply ignore the banner, it never loads and none of the cookies below are set.
| Name | Type | Duration | Purpose | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
CookieConsent | Cookie | 12 months | Records the choice you made in the consent banner, so you are not asked again on every page. | Strictly necessary |
_ga | Cookie | 2 years | Distinguishes one visitor from another. | Statistics |
_ga_4LPML1SLZY | Cookie | 2 years | Holds analytics session state for this site. | Statistics |
We use analytics for aggregate audience measurement only: pages viewed, referring site, approximate location derived from IP, and device and browser type. We do not run advertising networks, remarketing, or cross-site ad tracking on this site, and we do not sell or share this data.
Withdrawing consent. Reopen the consent banner at any time from the consent
icon shown on this site and change your selection. If the icon is not visible,
clearing your site data for pooch-ai.com will cause the banner to appear again
on your next visit. Withdrawal stops further collection; it does not by itself
delete identifiers already stored, so clear your site data as well if you want
them removed (see §8).
You can also block or clear these through your browser (§8), or install Google's opt-out browser add-on, which stops Google Analytics on every site you visit.
Cookiebot is our processor for consent records. The CookieConsent cookie is
strictly necessary in the sense used in §3: without it we cannot remember that
you declined, and would have to ask again on every page.
Preview pages. Pages under /demo/ are one-to-one previews built for a single
merchant from their own public product catalogue. They are not indexed and are not
linked from anywhere on this site. Analytics runs on them on the same terms as the
rest of the site, and records that a page was opened.
8. Your choices
Consent. Where the merchant has deployed a consent-management banner, use it to accept or reject the analytics category. Withdrawing consent stops further collection, but does not by itself delete identifiers already stored — see below.
Clearing identifiers. Because most of what we use is local storage rather than cookies, clearing cookies alone may not remove it. To remove everything, clear "site data" (not just cookies) for the store's domain in your browser settings. Instructions: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge.
Browser controls. Most browsers let you block cookies and site data entirely. Doing so will prevent the chat widget from working correctly.
Do Not Track. There is no accepted standard for how to respond to a Do Not Track browser signal, and we do not currently respond to it. We do honour consent choices communicated to us by the merchant's consent-management platform.
9. Changes
We may update this policy. Where a change materially affects what we store on your device, we will notify merchants at least 30 days before it takes effect. The "last updated" date above reflects the current version.
10. Contact
Questions about this policy: privacy@pooch-ai.com.
Requests about your personal data should go to the merchant whose store you visited — they are the controller. See our Privacy Policy, §10.