What Cookies Are and How They Work
Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device (computer, tablet, or mobile phone) when you visit a website. They allow the website to recognize your device on subsequent visits, remember your preferences, and provide a more consistent experience across sessions.
Cookies are set either by the website you are visiting directly (first-party cookies) or by third-party services operating on that website's behalf (third-party cookies). Each cookie has a name, value, expiration date, and the domain to which it belongs.
Similar technologies — including web beacons, pixel tags, local storage objects, and session storage — may also be used alongside cookies for equivalent purposes. All references to "cookies" in this policy encompass these related technologies unless stated otherwise.
Why We Use Cookies on Our Platform
We use cookies for four primary purposes:
- To keep the platform functioning correctly and securely for all users (essential operations).
- To remember your preferences and settings so you don't have to re-enter them on every visit.
- To understand how users interact with our platform so we can identify bugs and improve usability.
- To fulfill our legal and compliance obligations, such as maintaining session security during authenticated access to financial services.
We do not use cookies to build advertising profiles, track your behavior across unrelated third-party websites, or sell your browsing data to data brokers or marketing platforms.
Category 1 — Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly necessary cookies are essential for the platform to operate. They cannot be disabled because the site cannot function without them. These cookies do not collect any personally identifiable information beyond what is required to maintain the security and integrity of your session.
Examples of what strictly necessary cookies handle on our platform:
- Maintaining your authenticated login session while using the exchange or wallet.
- Implementing Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection on all form submissions and API calls.
- Load balancing requests across our infrastructure to ensure platform stability.
- Enforcing security controls such as rate limiting and bot detection on login and trading endpoints.
- Storing your cookie consent preferences so we do not re-display the consent banner on every page load.
Strictly necessary cookies are always active and do not require your consent under applicable US law. They are typically session cookies that expire when you close your browser, or short-lived persistent cookies set for security purposes.
Category 2 — Functional Cookies
Functional cookies allow us to remember choices you have made and provide enhanced, personalized features. Without these cookies, some of the platform's convenience features may not work as expected.
Functional cookies on the Dire-money platform may include:
- Remembering your preferred display currency and unit format (e.g., BTC vs. satoshis).
- Storing your preferred chart time intervals and data view settings on the exchange dashboard.
- Remembering your chosen language or regional settings if these options are introduced.
- Maintaining your two-factor authentication (2FA) device trust status for a limited period where you have selected "remember this device."
Functional cookies are optional. You may disable them through our consent tool, though doing so will mean your preferences are not retained between sessions. These cookies do not track your activity across other websites.
Category 3 — Analytics Cookies
Analytics cookies help us understand how visitors and users interact with our platform. The data collected is aggregated and used solely to improve the platform's performance, usability, and content.
Analytics information we may collect with your consent includes:
- Which pages are most frequently visited and how long users spend on each page.
- Where users drop off in multi-step flows such as account registration or the KYC verification process.
- Which features are used most frequently and which may be causing confusion or abandonment.
- Technical data such as browser type, device category, and general geographic region (country-level only).
- Referral sources, so we understand how users discover our platform.
Analytics cookies are optional. Any third-party analytics providers we use are contractually prohibited from using this data for their own purposes or sharing it with other third parties. We retain analytics data in aggregated form only; we do not store individual-level browsing histories beyond 90 days.
Category 4 — Security and Fraud Prevention Cookies
In addition to strictly necessary session security cookies, we may employ additional cookies or fingerprinting techniques specifically to detect and prevent fraudulent activity, account takeovers, and unauthorized access attempts.
These cookies may:
- Assign a temporary device identifier to detect unusual login patterns across sessions or devices.
- Track failed authentication attempts to trigger additional verification steps.
- Flag access from IP addresses associated with prior suspicious activity on our platform.
- Support our fraud detection vendor in identifying high-risk transaction patterns.
Security and fraud prevention cookies are considered a subset of strictly necessary cookies for regulated financial services platforms and are active regardless of your analytics or functional cookie preferences. They do not track your activity on other websites.
First-Party vs. Third-Party Cookies
First-party cookies are set directly by Dire-money (under the dire-money.com domain) and are only accessible to us. The majority of cookies on our platform are first-party cookies.
Third-party cookies may be set by external service providers who operate technology on our platform under contract with us. These may include:
- Identity verification (KYC) providers: May set session-scoped cookies to maintain the state of your identity verification workflow.
- Analytics providers: May set cookies to track aggregated usage patterns, subject to your analytics consent choice.
- Security and fraud prevention vendors: May set cookies or use fingerprinting to identify suspicious device behavior.
We do not permit any third-party advertising networks or data brokers to set cookies on our platform. All third-party providers are bound by contractual data processing agreements that restrict how they may use information collected through our platform.
Session Cookies vs. Persistent Cookies
Cookies can be categorized by their lifespan:
- Session cookies exist only for the duration of your browser session. They are deleted automatically when you close your browser tab or window. We use session cookies for authentication tokens and CSRF protection.
- Persistent cookies remain on your device for a defined period after your session ends. They are used for remembering your consent preferences, device trust status, and certain functional settings. Our persistent cookies have lifespans ranging from 30 days (device trust) to 13 months (consent preferences), in line with regulatory guidance.
You can view and delete individual cookies using your browser's developer tools or privacy settings at any time.
Your Cookie Consent Choices and How We Record Them
When you first visit our platform, we display a cookie consent banner that allows you to choose which categories of optional cookies you accept. Your choices are saved locally in your browser using localStorage under the key dire_money_cookie_consent.
We record the following consent choices:
- Essential: Always active. Cannot be disabled.
- Functional: Active only if you select "Accept All" or enable functional cookies in preferences.
- Analytics: Active only if you select "Accept All" or enable analytics cookies in preferences.
You may update your preferences at any time by clicking "Manage Preferences" in the cookie banner, which you can re-access via a link in the site footer (coming soon). Your consent record includes a timestamp of when you last updated your preferences. We do not transmit your consent preferences to our servers; they are stored only in your browser.
If you clear your browser data, your consent preferences will be erased and the consent banner will reappear on your next visit.
How to Manage Cookies Through Your Browser
In addition to our on-platform consent tool, you can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to:
- View all cookies currently stored by websites you have visited.
- Delete individual cookies or all cookies for a specific domain.
- Block third-party cookies from all websites.
- Set your browser to notify you when a site attempts to set a cookie.
- Enable "Do Not Track" signals (note: we acknowledge this signal but it does not override strictly necessary cookies).
Please note that disabling all cookies, including strictly necessary ones, will prevent you from logging into your Dire-money account or using exchange and wallet features. We strongly recommend using our on-platform consent tool to manage optional cookies rather than disabling cookies at the browser level.
Browser-specific guidance can be found in the help documentation for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control
Some browsers and browser extensions allow you to send a "Do Not Track" (DNT) or Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal to websites indicating that you do not wish to be tracked. Dire-money acknowledges these signals and will treat them as a request to disable optional analytics cookies. Strictly necessary and security cookies are not affected by DNT or GPC signals, as they are required for the platform to function safely.
We do not use cross-site tracking or behavioral advertising, so the practical effect of DNT or GPC on our platform is limited to disabling optional analytics cookies that would otherwise require your explicit consent.
Updates to This Cookie Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy periodically to reflect changes in the cookies and technologies we use, or to comply with new legal requirements. When we make material changes, we will:
- Post the updated policy with a new effective date on this page.
- Notify registered users by email if the changes materially affect how we handle personal data through cookies.
- Reset the cookie consent banner where required so you can review and re-confirm your preferences.
We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we use cookies. Continued use of our platform after an updated policy is posted constitutes your acceptance of the changes.
For questions about this Cookie Policy or to exercise any applicable privacy rights, please contact us at info@dire-money.com or +1-206-555-0198.