Privacy and Cookies in Embedded Demos

An embedded demo is a page from another service running inside your page. Whatever that service sets or collects happens on your website, in front of your visitors. If it sets cookies or stores IP addresses, that can affect your cookie banner and your privacy policy. Most teams never check.

The short answer. Before you embed a demo, find out whether the embed sets cookies, what it stores about each viewer, and what the demo itself shows. Proovyt hosted pages and embeds set no cookies, analytics store no IP addresses, and viewers stay anonymous unless they send a lead form.

For more on this topic, read How to Use Interactive Demos with Marketplace Listings.

Key Takeaways

• An embed runs on your page, so its cookies and data collection affect your visitors.
• Ask whether an embed sets cookies, stores IP addresses and how it counts unique viewers.
• Proovyt hosted pages and embeds set no cookies, and analytics store no IP addresses.
• Viewers stay anonymous unless they send a lead form, which only Pro and Team demos can show.
• Content privacy matters too. Proovyt bakes blur into the pixels and publishes only the demo's screenshots.

Two Kinds of Privacy in a Demo

A demo raises two separate questions.

• Viewer privacy. What the demo collects about the people who watch it.
• Content privacy. What the demo shows, such as customer names and figures captured on screen.

Both need checking before a demo goes on a public page.

What an Embed Can Collect

An embedded demo can, depending on the tool:

• Set cookies in the visitor's browser.
• Store the visitor's IP address.
• Track the visitor across visits or across sites.
• Collect form details if the demo has a lead form.

Each of these can change what your cookie notice and privacy policy need to say.

Questions to Ask Before You Embed

1. Does the embed set any cookies? Which ones, and for how long?
2. Does it store IP addresses?
3. How does it count unique viewers?
4. Does it filter bots?
5. If it has a lead form, how is that data stored and who can see it?
6. What exactly does publishing make public?

Your privacy policy and cookie notice are legal terms for you to review. These questions give you the facts to review them against.

How Proovyt Handles Viewer Privacy

The reported numbers are views, unique viewers, completion rate and drop-off by step, for hosted links and embeds. See interactive demo analytics that matter.

How Proovyt Handles Content Privacy

• Blur is baked in. Blur is baked into the image pixels when you publish or export, so the original text is not sitting underneath.
• Only the demo is published. Publishing copies just the screenshots the demo uses, with blur baked in. The rest of your workspace stays private.
• Typed text is not captured. With HTML capture on Pro and Team, in beta, typed text is never captured.
• The extension is limited. Proovyt Capture only works on the tab you choose to record and on the Proovyt app, with no access to every site you visit.

Read how to blur sensitive data in a product demo.

Controlling Who Sees a Demo

Some demos are not for everyone. On Pro and Team:

• Password. Ask viewers for a password before the demo opens.
• Link expiry. Stop the link working after a date you choose.
• Lead form. Ask for a name and an email, and optionally a company, before the demo starts or after a step you choose.

On every plan, unpublishing takes the page down at once.

Hosting the Demo Yourself

On Creator, Pro and Team, you can export one self-contained HTML file that plays in any browser, and host it wherever you like. The demo then runs from your own server.

Your Own Account

Privacy also covers the people who make demos. Two-factor sign-in is optional for every account, with codes from an authenticator app, never by text message or email. Card details go straight to Stripe and never touch Proovyt's servers.

A Checklist Before You Embed

• The embed's cookie behavior is known and matches your cookie notice.
• Every step has been checked for names, emails and figures.
• Sensitive values are blurred or replaced.
• Demos meant for prospects only are protected with a password or an expiry date.
• Someone owns the demo and can unpublish it if needed.

Deleting Data

Privacy includes being able to remove what you no longer need.

• A demo. Unpublish it and the page comes down at once.
• Your account. Account deletion is self-serve.

Viewer Privacy in Practice

A homepage demo is often the first thing a visitor interacts with. If that demo sets no cookies and stores no IP address, it adds nothing to what your cookie notice has to cover for that page. A demo with a lead form is different, because the viewer chooses to send their details. In Proovyt that is only possible on Pro and Team, and only when you add the form.

Privacy for Demos Sent to Prospects

A demo sent to a prospect often shows more than a homepage demo. It may use their company name or figures that fit their business. Protect it.

• Add a password and send it separately from the link.
• Set an expiry date that matches the sales cycle.
• Use a lead form if you want to know who opened it.
• Unpublish it when the deal closes.

Related Guides

• How to Blur Sensitive Data in a Product Demo, what to hide on each step and how blur is baked in.
• How to Embed an Interactive Demo on Your Website, publishing, embed code, sizing and keeping the link working.
• Interactive Demo Analytics That Matter, which numbers to watch and how to act on them.
• What Is an Interactive Product Demo, the format explained, with how it is made and where it is used.