SynthCheck › Cookie Notice

Cookie Notice

Cookie Notice

This page has two parts: the short text shown in the consent banner, and the full explanation.

Part 1 — Consent banner text

We would like to set advertising cookies

SynthCheck is free and funded by ads. Your images never leave your browser and are never uploaded — that does not change whatever you choose here.

We would like to let Google and its advertising partners store and read cookies on your device to show personalised ads and measure them. This needs your consent, and you can change your mind at any time.

Our own visitor statistics are cookieless and are not part of this choice.

Buttons

Reject all Manage options Accept all

Rejecting is one click, exactly like accepting. If you reject, you will still see ads, but they will be chosen from the page content rather than from a profile of you.

Cookie Notice · Privacy Policy

Part 2 — Full explanation

Last updated: 11 August 2026

What we mean by "cookies"

A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. This notice covers cookies and any equivalent technology that reads or writes data on your device, including localStorage, pixels, and device identifiers.

The unusual thing about this site

SynthCheck is a static website with no backend. There is no session to keep, no login to remember, and no shopping basket. So we have no functional need for cookies of our own, and we set none.

Everything below is either a preference stored on your own device, or an advertising cookie set by a third party after you consent.

Category 1 — Strictly necessary

We set no strictly necessary cookies. There are none, because there is no server-side session to maintain.

What we do store is two preference values in your browser's localStorage. They never leave your device, are never sent to us or to anyone else, and cannot be used to identify or track you. They exist only so the site behaves sensibly on your next visit.

Name What it stores Set by Lifetime
sc-theme Whether you chose the light or dark theme SynthCheck, on your device Until you clear site data
sc-consent Your advertising consent choice, so we do not ask again on every page SynthCheck, on your device Until withdrawn or cleared; re-asked at least every 12 months

Storing your consent choice is itself exempt from the consent requirement — it would be absurd to ask permission to remember that you said no.

If you block all storage for this site, nothing breaks. The site simply forgets your theme and shows the banner again on every visit.

Category 2 — Analytics

We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which is deliberately chosen because it is cookieless.

  • It sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device.
  • It does not fingerprint your browser or device.
  • It reports aggregate figures only: page views, referring site, country, browser and device type.

Because it writes nothing to your device, it is not part of the consent choice above. If we ever adopt an analytics product that does set identifiers, it will move behind the banner and this notice will be updated first.

Category 3 — Advertising

These are the cookies the banner is actually about.

Ads are served by Google AdSense. When you consent, Google and its advertising partners may set and read cookies and similar identifiers in your browser in order to:

  • select which ads to show you, including personalised ads based on information collected about you across other sites and services;
  • cap how often you see the same ad;
  • measure whether an ad was seen or clicked, and report performance;
  • detect invalid traffic and advertising fraud.

Typical cookies in this category include Google's __gads, __gpi, IDE and test_cookie, plus cookies set by partner ad vendors. The exact set depends on which vendors serve the ads and which purposes you allowed, so we cannot publish a fixed list that stays accurate. The live list is available in the vendor detail view of the consent panel.

Google and its partners act as independent controllers for this data. We do not receive it; we see only aggregate revenue reports.

Further reading: How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

If you are in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland:

  • No advertising cookie is set before you make a choice. The ad code does not run until then.
  • We use a consent management platform certified by Google and built on the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF v2.2).
  • Manage options lets you allow or refuse each purpose and each individual vendor.
  • Reject is presented with the same prominence as Accept. There is no pre-ticked box and no dark pattern.
  • We ask again at least every 12 months, and again if the purposes or vendors change materially.

Elsewhere, ads may be personalised by default where local law allows, and the controls below still apply.

You can change your mind at any time, and it takes effect immediately for anything set after that point.

  1. Use the "Cookie settings" link in the site footer. It is on every page. This reopens the consent panel with your current choices shown; change them and save.
  2. Or clear site data for synthcheck.app in your browser settings. That deletes the stored choice along with your theme preference, and the banner will appear again on your next visit.
  3. Or block cookies in your browser for this site, or for third parties generally. Every major browser supports this in its privacy settings.

Withdrawing consent does not make earlier processing unlawful, but it stops further processing based on that consent.

Cookies already set. Withdrawing consent stops new advertising cookies, but does not by itself erase cookies already stored by third parties. To remove those, clear cookies in your browser, or use Google's own controls.

California and similar US laws. Rejecting advertising cookies through the same footer link also serves as an opt-out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising. We honour the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as a valid opt-out.

Controls outside this site:

If you reject everything

The tool works exactly the same. Image checking is entirely local JavaScript and does not depend on ads, analytics, or storage of any kind. You lose nothing except the saved theme preference, and the ads you see become non-personalised.

Questions

hello@synthcheck.app · See also the Privacy Policy.