Cookie Policy

Last updated: April 23, 2026

1. What Are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, to provide website owners with information about how their site is used, and to enable personalised advertising.

Cookies are not harmful to your device and do not contain viruses. They are simply data files. Most web browsers accept cookies by default, but you can choose to block or delete them through your browser settings.

This Cookie Policy explains what cookies we use, why we use them, and how you can manage your cookie preferences.

2. How We Use Cookies

QuackPDFTools uses cookies for the following purposes:

• Functionality: To remember your dark/light mode preference across visits
• Analytics: To understand how users interact with our tools (via Google Analytics)
• Advertising: To display relevant ads that help fund the free service (via Google AdSense)
• Security: To help protect against abuse and fraud

We do not use cookies to track the files you process, to identify you personally, or to store any document content.

3. Types of Cookies

By Duration

• Session cookies: Temporary cookies that expire when you close your browser. Used to maintain basic functionality during a single visit.
• Persistent cookies: Remain on your device for a set period or until deleted manually. Used to remember your preferences on future visits.

By Origin

• First-party cookies: Set directly by QuackPDFTools. Used for preferences and basic functionality.
• Third-party cookies: Set by external services like Google Analytics and Google AdSense. Used for analytics and advertising.

By Purpose

• Essential/Strictly necessary: Required for the website to function. Cannot be turned off.
• Preference/Functional: Remember your settings and choices (e.g., dark mode).
• Analytics/Performance: Help us understand how visitors use the site.
• Advertising/Marketing: Used to show relevant advertisements.

4. Cookies We Use

Cookie Name	Type	Purpose	Duration
theme	Preference	Stores your light/dark mode preference	1 year
cookie_consent	Essential	Records your cookie consent choice	1 year
_ga	Analytics	Google Analytics — distinguishes users	2 years
_ga_*	Analytics	Google Analytics — maintains session state	2 years
_gid	Analytics	Google Analytics — distinguishes users (short-term)	24 hours
IDE	Advertising	Google AdSense — used for targeted advertising	13 months
ANID	Advertising	Google advertising — ad personalisation	13 months
NID	Advertising	Google — stores preferences for Google services	6 months

5. Third-Party Cookies

We use third-party services that set their own cookies on your device. We have no direct control over these cookies. The third-party services we use include:

• Google Analytics — for website usage analytics
• Google AdSense — for serving advertisements
• Google Fonts — for loading web fonts (may set cookies)

You can learn more about how these services use cookies in their respective privacy policies.

6. Google AdSense Cookies

We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on QuackPDFTools. Google AdSense uses cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our website and other websites on the internet. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our site and/or other sites on the internet.

You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings. Alternatively, you can opt out of third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising by visiting www.aboutads.info/choices.

Note that even if you opt out of personalised ads, you may still see non-personalised advertisements on our site.

7. Google Analytics Cookies

We use Google Analytics (GA4) to understand how visitors find and use QuackPDFTools. This helps us improve the service. Google Analytics collects information such as:

• Pages visited and time spent on each page
• Which tools are used most frequently
• General geographic location (country/city level only)
• Browser type and device type
• How you arrived at our site (search engine, direct, referral)

This data is anonymised and aggregated. We cannot use it to identify individual users. We have enabled IP anonymisation on our Google Analytics setup.

You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

8. Your Cookie Choices and Controls

Browser Settings

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings preferences. You can typically:

• View cookies stored on your device
• Delete individual cookies or all cookies
• Block all cookies from being set
• Block third-party cookies only
• Set up notifications when cookies are set

Instructions for managing cookies in popular browsers:

• Chrome: Settings → Privacy and Security → Cookies and other site data
• Firefox: Options → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data
• Safari: Preferences → Privacy → Manage Website Data
• Edge: Settings → Privacy, search, and services → Cookies

Note: Blocking all cookies will prevent our dark mode preference from being saved and may affect other website functionality, but it will not prevent you from using our PDF tools.

9. Local Storage

In addition to cookies, QuackPDFTools uses browser local storage to save your theme preference (dark/light mode) and certain tool settings between sessions. Local storage is similar to cookies but is stored locally on your device and is not transmitted to our servers.

Local storage data set by QuackPDFTools:

• theme: Stores "light" or "dark" based on your preference

You can clear local storage through your browser's developer tools or by clearing all site data.

10. GDPR and CCPA Compliance

For EU/EEA Users (GDPR)

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we are required to have a legal basis for setting non-essential cookies. For analytics and advertising cookies, we rely on your consent. A cookie consent banner is displayed on your first visit, giving you the option to accept or decline non-essential cookies.

For California Users (CCPA)

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), California residents have the right to opt out of the sale of their personal information. While we do not "sell" personal data in the traditional sense, advertising cookies may constitute a "sale" under CCPA definitions. You may opt out by:

• Using the cookie consent controls provided on our site
• Visiting Google's Ad Settings to opt out of personalised advertising
• Using the Do Not Track browser signal (we honor this where technically feasible)

11. Changes to This Cookie Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in technology, legislation, our operations, or for other reasons. When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about our use of cookies, please contact us:

• Contact form: quackpdftools.com/contact.html
• Email: privacy@quackpdftools.com