Cookie policy

ToolShelf sets no cookies at all until you allow it to. Two things can set them, Google Analytics and Google ads, and neither is loaded unless you say yes. This page lists what they set, what ToolShelf stores without cookies, and how to change your mind.

Your choice

You were asked once, in a bar at the bottom of the page. This is the same question, and answering it here has the same effect.

What Google Analytics sets

If you allow it, ToolShelf loads Google Analytics, which counts visits and shows which tools people actually use. That is what decides which tools get built next.

Google Analytics sets two cookies on this domain:

• _ga: distinguishes one browser from another, so two visits from the same device are not counted as two people. Expires after two years.
• A second cookie whose name begins with _ga_ and ends with the site measurement ID. It keeps track of the current visit. Expires after two years.

Neither one carries anything you type into a tool, because those values never leave the page you typed them into and are not available to any other script on it. What Google receives is the page you are on, roughly where in the world you are, and the kind of browser and device you used.

What Google ads set

If you allow it, ToolShelf loads Google AdSense, which pays for the hosting. Google and its advertising partners then set cookies to choose which ads to show you, to stop you seeing the same one repeatedly, to measure whether an ad worked, and to detect fraudulent clicks.

On this domain that means cookies named __gads, __gpi, __eoi and FCNEC. Google also relies on cookies set on its own domains, mainly doubleclick.net and google.com, which no script on ToolShelf can read or delete. You control those through Google My Ad Center and your browser settings.

Ads never have access to what you enter into a tool. Those values stay inside the page you typed them into and are not readable by any other script on it.

What happens if you say no

Nothing is loaded. This is worth stating precisely, because most sites mean something weaker by it: there is no request to Google at all, not a request with tracking turned off. You can check that yourself by opening your browser’s network tab and reloading the page after refusing. Nothing from googletagmanager.com or googlesyndication.com appears.

Refusing changes nothing else. Every tool works exactly the same way, because none of them ever needed analytics or ads to run. You see fewer ads, which is the whole of it.

If you allow them and later change your mind, the cookies listed above are deleted the moment you refuse, Google Analytics is switched off, and the page reloads. The reload is the point: a script already running cannot be unloaded and an ad already drawn cannot be taken back, so without it the page would claim a state it was not in.

What ToolShelf stores without a cookie

Two items, both using local storage rather than a cookie:

• Theme preference: whether you chose the light theme, the dark theme, or to follow your system setting. Stored under the key toolshelf-theme, and only once you use the theme switch in the header.
• Your answer to the question above: so you are not asked again on every page. Stored under the key toolshelf-consent. It records “granted” or “denied” and nothing else, no identifier and no date.

Why those are not cookies

Cookies are sent to the server with every request you make, which is what makes them useful for tracking. Local storage is not. It stays on your device and is only ever read by the page itself. Neither of those two items has ever been transmitted anywhere, and there is no server-side code here that could receive them.

The distinction matters for consent rules, which generally exempt storage that is strictly necessary for something you asked for. A theme you explicitly chose, and a record of the answer you gave so you are not pestered for it again, both fall into that category.

Removing them

Clearing site data for ToolShelf in your browser settings removes all of it, cookies and stored settings together. The site carries on working: it reverts to following your system light or dark setting, and it asks the analytics question again.

Managing cookies generally

Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies for a site, usually under privacy or site settings. Blocking cookies for ToolShelf breaks nothing here. Browser extensions that block trackers will also stop these scripts loading, which has the same effect as refusing. More detail on the advertising side is in the privacy policy.

Questions

Email hello@toolshelf.online if you want more detail about anything on this page.