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What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. They help websites remember your preferences, measure performance, and serve relevant content. We use the term "cookie" loosely throughout this page to also cover similar technologies like localStorage and sessionStorage.
Our cookie categories
We use four categories. Only Necessary cookies are set automatically. All others require your consent via the cookie banner. You can change your decision at any time by clicking Manage Cookies in the footer.
Necessary cookies Always Active
Required for the site to function. They cannot be disabled.
If you are only reading the site, we set no cookies at all. Anonymous visits to public pages — tools, news, the AI directory — are served without a session, so nothing is stored on your device. The first two cookies below appear only once you use a page that needs one: a form (contact, newsletter, tool request) or signing in.
RECATOOLS First-Party · Set by RECATOOLS / RECASYS
Cookies we set ourselves to keep the site working — sessions, CSRF protection, and your consent decision.
| Name | Purpose | Duration | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| recatools_session | Maintains your session on form pages and while you are signed in. | 2 hours | Cookie · first-party |
| XSRF-TOKEN | Prevents cross-site request forgery on form submissions. | 2 hours | Cookie · first-party |
| rt_consent | Stores your cookie consent decision. | 1 year | Cookie · first-party |
Cloudflare · Set by Cloudflare, Inc.
CDN and bot protection. The __cf_bm cookie is required to deliver the site over Cloudflare's edge network.
| Name | Purpose | Duration | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| __cf_bm | Cloudflare bot management — distinguishes humans from bots. | 30 minutes | Cookie · third-party |
Analytics cookies Consent Required
Help us understand how visitors use the site so we can improve it. Used only with your consent.
Google Analytics 4 · Set by Google LLC
Aggregated, anonymised traffic and engagement metrics. Set only after you grant analytics consent.
| Name | Purpose | Duration | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Distinguishes users for analytics. | 2 years | Cookie · third-party |
| _ga_* | Persists session state for GA4 properties. | 2 years | Cookie · third-party |
RECATOOLS tool metrics · First-party — no cookie, no third party
Anonymous daily counters recording whether an in-browser tool could complete a step — for example, whether an image tool could read a photo's saved quality. Sent only after you grant analytics consent. No cookie is set and no identifier is stored.
| Name | Purpose | Duration | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| (no cookie) | One-way counter sent to recatools.com when you add a photo to certain image tools. Records the outcome only — never the file, its name, or its contents. | Not stored on your device | None · first-party request |
Advertising cookies None Set
We do not currently serve advertising, and no advertising cookies are set on RECATOOLS. No ad-network script is loaded on any page. If we enable advertising in future, every cookie involved will be listed here and will require your consent before it is set.
Functional cookies Consent Required
Remember your preferences across visits for a better experience.
RECATOOLS Preferences · Set by RECATOOLS / RECASYS
Remembers your preferences across visits — language and tool-specific settings. Items marked localStorage are held by your browser on your device and are never sent to us.
| Name | Purpose | Duration | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| rt_lang | Language preference. | 1 year | Cookie · first-party |
| rt_currency_rates | Caches exchange rates so the currency converter loads quickly and keeps working offline. | Until cleared | localStorage · first-party |
| rt_voted_tools | Local list of tools you have voted for on /request-a-tool/. | Until cleared | localStorage · first-party |
How to manage cookies
- Cookie banner — adjust your preferences using the consent banner shown on first visit. Click Manage Cookies in the footer to change settings at any time.
- Browser settings — most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies. Note that blocking necessary cookies will break site functionality.
- Google opt-out — Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
- Ad personalisation — Google Ads settings.
Global Privacy Control (GPC)
We honour the GPC signal. If your browser sends a GPC header, we automatically reject non-essential cookies without requiring you to interact with the cookie banner.
Updates to this policy
We update this policy when we add or remove cookies, or when a vendor changes their cookie list. Each update produces a new dated version that is auditable in our system. Questions or requests: [email protected].