Privacy and troubleshooting

What it sends, and why#

When the page loads#

The script asks Subcontext for the agent's name and details, so it can show the panels. Nothing about the visitor or your form is sent at this point.

When a visitor clicks a help icon#

Each click starts a new, short conversation about that one question. The agent is told:

The answers already in your form are never sent, only labels, help text and choices. What the visitor types into the help panel is sent.

The agent is asked to reply in one to three sentences, to stay on this question, and to pick from the listed choices where there are any.

A visitor who opens help on five questions has five short conversations.

Where the visit came from#

Each conversation also records some basic facts about the visit, so you can see in your reports where people came from:

• the page address (without anything after a #), the page title and the previous page (referrer),
• whether the page is shown inside a frame, and if so the outer website,
• the visitor's language and time zone.

From the page address, Subcontext keeps only the campaign tags people commonly use: UTM tags (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content, utm_id) and ad click ids (gclid, gbraid, wbraid, fbclid, msclkid, ttclid, li_fat_id). Any other part of the address after the ? is dropped. UTM tags are taken from the address the visitor arrived on, so you don't pass them yourself.

Linking to a quote#

applicationContext: { id, share_token } links each new conversation to an insurance application the visitor has started with Subcontext. The agent can then see the answers already given on the quote form and earlier help chats.

The Subcontext quote form does this for you. Outside the quote form you'd only have these values if your own code created the application through the Subcontext API. A wrong value doesn't cause an error. The chat isn't linked.

Where the conversations show up#

• Form guide chats don't appear in your dashboard inbox (each icon click would be a new entry). When a chat is linked to an application, you'll find it on that application's page.
• They're counted in your analytics, under the form guide.

What's stored in the visitor's browser#

A random visitor id, in the browser's local storage under the name subcontext_formguide. Nothing else is stored, and no cookies are set. If your site lists what it stores in a cookie policy, add this entry.

Privacy and security#

• There's no secret on your page. The agent id is public, like the address of a chat widget. Anyone who has it can start a form guide or webchat conversation with that agent from any website. If an agent shouldn't be public, don't make it live.
• Any website can use it. The form guide doesn't check which website it's on. The Form guide channel switch is how you turn it on or off.
• Each conversation is private. Starting a conversation gives the visitor's browser a one-off pass for that conversation only. The live connection that brings the agent's replies only works with that pass, and only for that one conversation.
• Rate limits. Subcontext limits how many requests one IP address can make in a short time (currently 300 in 5 minutes). Above that, requests are refused and the panel says Please slow down.
• Safe display. The agent's replies are cleaned before they're shown, so they can't run code on your page. The panels are sealed off from your page (in a "shadow root"). Your CSS doesn't change them, and theirs doesn't affect your page. Your theme values only apply inside the panels.
• What it adds to your page. Only the help icons (<span data-formguide-icon>) and an empty holder <div> for each panel.
• Quote links. The share_token in applicationContext works like a password for that application. It's sent securely and isn't stored with the conversation.

Content security policy#

A content security policy (CSP) is a header some websites send to say which other sites the page may load from or talk to. If your site sends one, add these:

Troubleshooting#

Open your browser's developer console first. Messages from the form guide start with [Subcontext.FormGuide]. For more detail, add data-debug="true" to the snippet, or debug: true to attach().

Nothing appears#

With attach(), the same Agent not available (...) message is the error your .catch() receives.

A field has no icon#

Check each of these:

• The field has no label the guide can find. Add a <label for="...">, or data-formguide-field-label="Your question".
• It's an input of type hidden, submit, button, reset, image or file. These never get icons.
• It's been left out by data-formguide="skip", exclude or fieldRules.
• With attach(), it's outside the container.
• It's a question made of buttons without data-formguide-field on the element around them.

Problems with the JSON attributes#

Problems inside the panel#

If you're still stuck, email hello@subcontext.com with the page address and what the console shows.