Privacy Policy

What VSThiran does not currently do

As the website is built today, VSThiran does not include any of the following:

• No user accounts, sign-up or login system
• No payment or subscription system
• No advertising system in the application
• No server-side file upload or file processing system

Because there is no account system, VSThiran does not ask you for a name, address or any similar personal detail in order to use the tools.

VSThiran does use Google Analytics, but only if you agree to it. That is described in the next section.

Google Analytics, only if you agree

VSThiran uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how many people visit the site, roughly where they come from, and which tools are used. An earlier version of this page said no analytics was in use; that changed when this section was added.

It is off until you turn it on. The first time you visit, a small notice at the bottom of the page asks whether you agree. Nothing is loaded from Google and no analytics cookie is set unless you choose Accept. If you choose Decline, the Google Analytics script is never requested at all and the site behaves exactly as it did before analytics existed.

Your choice is remembered in your own browser using localStorage, under the key vsthiran:analytics-consent. Clearing site data for this website forgets the choice, and the notice will appear again.

• Google signals is turned off, so your visit is not associated with a signed-in Google account
• The user-ID feature is not used, so VSThiran sends no identifier of its own
• Search term tracking and form interaction tracking are both turned off
• Google Analytics is not connected to Google Ads
• Google Tag Manager is not used, and there is no other analytics provider

If you accept, Google Analytics sets two cookies in your browser, named _ga and _ga_QYWZJDBFTZ. They hold a randomly generated identifier that lets Google Analytics recognise a returning browser. They do not contain your name or contact details, and they expire after two years unless you clear them sooner.

When you view a page with analytics accepted, Google receives the address and title of that page, the page you arrived from, your IP address, your browser and device type, your operating system, your screen size and language, and an approximate location derived from your IP address. Google states that Google Analytics 4 does not log or store individual IP addresses.

What you type into the tools is still not sent anywhere, whichever choice you make. The calculators, the converter and the QR code generator all run in your browser, and their values are never included in anything sent to Google. The only thing recorded about tool use is which tool was opened, by its short name, such as bmi-calculator.

You can change your mind at any time by clearing site data for this website in your browser settings, which will bring the notice back. Google also publishes a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics on every site, and blocking cookies or using your browser’s private mode will prevent it as well.

Advertising and Google AdSense

VSThiran does not display advertising today. This section is here so the information is public before that changes, rather than added quietly afterwards.

If VSThiran shows advertising through Google AdSense, third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a visitor’s prior visits to this website or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on visits to this site and other sites on the internet.

You can opt out of personalised advertising at any time using Google Ads Settings (adssettings.google.com). You can also opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies for personalised advertising at www.aboutads.info.

More detail on how Google uses information from sites that use its services is published at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Cookies, gathered in one place

A cookie is a small file a website can ask your browser to store. VSThiran uses, or may use, three kinds, each covered individually above: essential cookies (none are currently set, since there is no account or login system), analytics cookies (see “Google Analytics, only if you agree” - off unless you accept), and advertising cookies (see “Advertising and Google AdSense” - not currently in use).

You can view, block or delete cookies at any time in your browser’s settings. Blocking all cookies may stop optional features, such as remembering your analytics choice, from working as intended, but the tools themselves do not depend on cookies to function.

Your rights, wherever you are

Because VSThiran has no account system, there is very little information tied to an individual visitor to access, correct or delete - the sections above already describe exactly what exists: Google Analytics data, only if you accepted it, and the recently-used-tools list, which is stored only in your own browser and never reaches VSThiran at all.

If you are visiting from the United Arab Emirates, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or anywhere else, and you have a question about how VSThiran handles information, or want help understanding your options for a specific case, email hello@vsthiran.com. Since VSThiran itself never receives your name or another way to identify you individually, the most direct way to remove your analytics data going forward is to decline or withdraw consent using the notice on this site, or use Google’s own opt-out browser add-on.

Files and information you use with the tools

As of this update, every one of the 116 tools on VSThiran - including the calculators, converters, the QR code generator, and the PDF and data workspaces - reads and processes what you give it in your own browser, on your own device. Your browser downloads the tool's code and runs it locally; the file or values you provide are not uploaded to a VSThiran server in order to produce the result you see.

This applies specifically to the PDF workspace (merging, splitting, organising, watermarking, signing, numbering, compressing and converting a PDF) and the data workspace (profiling, cleaning, de-duplicating, matching and comparing a spreadsheet). Opening a PDF or spreadsheet in either workspace loads it into your browser tab's own memory - not a VSThiran database - and every operation you run there reads and rewrites that copy in place, on your device.

A practical consequence of this: that copy exists only for as long as the browser tab is open. It is not saved to disk, not written to a VSThiran server, and not kept anywhere after you close the tab or reload the page - reloading starts the workspace over, empty, on purpose. This is described in more detail on the workspace pages themselves.

There is currently no tool on VSThiran that works any other way.

This section describes the tools that exist today. If a future tool needs to send information somewhere in order to work, that will be stated plainly on the page for that tool and this policy will be updated to match.

What this does and does not mean

Being processed locally is a statement about how the tools handle your files and data, not a general claim that no network activity of any kind occurs while you use this website. Loading the page itself, and - if you have agreed to it - Google Analytics recording that a tool was opened, both involve ordinary network requests, and those are covered in the sections above and below.

It is also not a certification of compliance with any particular data protection law. This page describes, as accurately as it can, what the code on this site actually does. It is not a statement that VSThiran is "GDPR compliant" or compliant with any other specific framework, and no such claim should be inferred from it.

Recently used tools and browser storage

When you open a tool, VSThiran saves that tool’s short name in your own browser using localStorage, under the key vsthiran:recent-tools. This is what allows the "Recently used" list to appear on the home page.

localStorage is a storage area inside your own web browser. It is not a VSThiran database and its contents are not transmitted to VSThiran. The list holds only tool names, never any values you typed into a tool.

You can clear it at any time by clearing site data for this website in your browser settings. If you do, the "Recently used" section simply stops appearing.

External resources loaded by the website

Most of what the site needs is served directly from VSThiran. The typefaces used across the site are downloaded when the site is built and served from VSThiran itself, so displaying them does not involve a request to a font provider.

There is one exception. The illustrative images on the guide and comparison cards are loaded from Unsplash (images.unsplash.com). When your browser fetches one of those images, Unsplash receives the ordinary technical information that any web request includes, such as your IP address and browser type. That happens directly between your browser and Unsplash, and their own privacy terms apply to it.

Hosting and server logs

VSThiran is a website, so it has to be served from somewhere. Web hosting providers commonly keep standard access logs, which typically record information such as IP address, browser type, the page requested and the time of the request. VSThiran does not add any tracking of its own on top of this, but it would be wrong to claim that no record of a visit exists anywhere.

Children

VSThiran does not knowingly collect information from anyone, including children, because it does not operate a system that gathers personal information.

Changes to this policy

This policy describes how the website works today. If tools are added that handle information differently, this page will be updated to describe the change, and the "last updated" date at the top will change with it.