Hardship HubCookies policy
This page explains what cookies Hardship Hub Pty Ltd (ACN 695 494 181) uses on this website and why. It sits alongside our Privacy Policy— the Privacy Policy tells you how we handle your information generally; this one drills into the small browser-storage mechanics.
1. What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file a website stores in your browser so it can recognise you on your next visit. We also use browser localStorage, which works similarly but is scoped to our site. Both are collectively referred to as “cookies” for the rest of this page.
2. Our approach
We keep cookies to a minimum. Specifically, we:
- Don’t use cookies to build advertising profiles on you.
- Don’t sell cookie data to third parties.
- Don’t follow you across unrelated sites.
3. Cookies we use
3.1 Essential (always on)
These are needed for the site to function. You can’t opt out of them and still use Hardship Hub.
| Name | Purpose | Storage / expiry |
|---|---|---|
| Better Auth session | Keeps you signed in between pages. | HTTP-only cookie; cleared on log out or session expiry. |
hardshiphub_app_token | Lets you resume an in-progress application without re-typing. | localStorage; cleared on submit, cancel, or log out. |
hardshiphub_cookie_consent | Remembers your cookie-banner choice so we don’t keep asking. | localStorage; ~12 months, or until you clear it. |
| CSRF token | Protects form submissions from cross-site request forgery. | Session cookie; cleared when you close the browser. |
3.2 Analytics
We use Umami, a privacy-respecting first-party analytics tool that helps us understand which pages work and which don’t. Umami is cookieless— it doesn’t store anything in your browser to identify you across visits, and it doesn’t share data with any ad network or retargeting platform. Because there’s no cookie to consent to, it loads regardless of your cookie-banner choice. IP addresses are anonymised before storage.
If you’d still rather opt out, the simplest path is to enable Do Not Track in your browser, install a content blocker, or block the host analytics.vertial.com in your network settings.
4. Changing your choice
You can change your mind at any time by clearing hardshiphub_cookie_consent from your browser’s site data; next page load, the banner re-appears and you can choose again. You can also block cookies entirely in your browser settings — in that case, we’ll treat you as if you chose “Essential only” and some features (staying signed in, resuming an application) won’t work.
5. Third-party cookies
When you go through a flow that hands you off to a third party, that third party sets its own cookies under its own policy. We don’t read those cookies and they don’t read ours. The third parties we currently use are:
- Stripe— when you pay your $49 application fee. Stripe sets cookies to detect fraud and support its hosted payment form.
- Zai— when you set up your direct debit for ongoing Temporary Hardship Plan payments. Zai sets cookies on its hosted screens for the same reasons.
- Our identity-verification provider — used only during onboarding to verify your ID document.
We also rely on standard server request logs (IP address, user-agent, request path, timestamp). These are not cookies, but they collect similar information at the HTTP layer. See our Privacy Policy for how those logs are handled.
6. Updates to this policy
If we change the cookies we use in a way that needs fresh consent, we’ll bump the consent version so the banner reappears. Smaller clarifications are published here with an updated date.
7. Questions
Email privacy@hardshiphub.com.auif you’re not sure about anything on this page.