Privacy policy

This policy covers ToolShelf at toolshelf.online. It is written to be read, so it is specific about what actually happens rather than listing everything a website could conceivably do.

The short version

There are no accounts, and nothing you type into a tool is sent to us or stored anywhere. Two things on the site do talk to somebody else, Google Analytics and Google ads, and neither is loaded at all unless you allow it. You are asked once and can change the answer at any time.

What you type into a tool

Every calculation on ToolShelf runs in your own browser, on your own device. The amounts, weights, prices and percentages you enter are never transmitted to a server, never written to a database, and never logged. They exist in the page while it is open and are gone when you close or reload it.

This is a consequence of how the site is built rather than a promise about how we behave: there is no server-side code that receives those values, so there is nothing to collect them with.

Information stored in your browser

ToolShelf stores two items, both using your browser’s local storage rather than a cookie: your theme preference (light, dark, or follow the system setting), and your answer to the analytics question. Both stay on your device, are never sent to us, and clearing your browser data removes them.

The cookie policy covers this in more detail.

Server logs

ToolShelf is served by a third-party hosting provider, which keeps standard access logs so the site can be kept running and secure. These typically record the IP address a request came from, the page requested, the time, and the browser’s user-agent string.

Those logs are a normal part of operating any website. They are not combined with anything you enter into a tool, are not used to build a profile of you, and are not sold or shared for marketing.

Analytics

ToolShelf uses Google Analytics to count visits and see which tools people find useful, which is what decides what gets built next.

It is not loaded unless you allow it. That is stronger than it usually means: refuse, and no request is made to Google at all, rather than a request being made with tracking switched off. You can confirm it in your browser’s network tab.

Where you do allow it, Google receives the pages you visit on ToolShelf, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and the sort of browser and device you are using. It does not receive anything you typed into a tool, because those values are not available outside the page you typed them into. Google is the data processor for that information and its own privacy policy applies to what it does with it.

If you change your mind, the analytics cookies are deleted immediately and the script is switched off. The cookie policy lists the cookies and has the control.

Advertising

ToolShelf displays advertising supplied by Google AdSense, which is what pays for the hosting. Like analytics, it is loaded only where you have agreed to it, and the same answer covers both.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your previous visits to this and other websites.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies lets it and its partners serve ads to you based on your visits to ToolShelf and elsewhere on the internet.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising in Google My Ad Center, or opt out of third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info.

Advertising never has access to the figures you enter into a tool, because those values are not available outside the page you typed them into. Refusing ads costs you nothing on this site: no tool is gated behind them and none behaves differently.

Where ads are shown, Google acts as an independent controller of the data it collects for them, and its own description of how it uses data on partner sites applies.

Consent

Analytics and advertising cookies are set only where you have agreed to them, and one answer covers both. Everyone is asked, not only visitors in regions whose law requires it, because writing two versions of the site is how one of them ends up wrong. You can withdraw or give consent at any time from the cookie policy, and refusing has no effect on any tool.

Children

ToolShelf is a general-audience utility site and is not directed at children. It does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, of any age.

Your rights

Data-protection law in the UK, the EU and elsewhere gives you rights to access, correct, export and delete personal data held about you. In ToolShelf’s case there is very little to exercise those rights against, because no account exists and no calculation data is retained. If you want to know what is held in connection with your use of the site, email hello@toolshelf.online and you will get a straight answer.

Links to other sites

Pages here sometimes link to other websites. Those sites have their own privacy practices, and this policy does not apply to them.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that affects what is collected or how it is used, the date at the top of this page will change with it. Substantive changes will be described rather than quietly slipped in.

Contact

Questions about this policy go to hello@toolshelf.online.