Privacy policy

The operator named in the imprint is responsible for this website.

The site is hosted by Cloudflare, Inc. When you visit, Cloudflare processes technical data such as your IP address and browser type to deliver the pages and protect them from attacks (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Cloudflare is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

To see how many people visit and which pages are read, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics. It loads a small script from Cloudflare that counts page views and measures loading times. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, does not fingerprint your browser and does not follow you across other websites. We only see totals, such as page views per page, country, browser and referring site (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our interest is to improve the site).

To learn which pages help and whether readers come back, we use Google Analytics 4, a service of Google Ireland Limited. It loads a script from googletagmanager.com and, if allowed, sets cookies that recognise your browser on later visits. We see statistics such as pages viewed, how visitors arrived, approximate country, device type and whether a visitor is new or returning. We do not use it to identify you, and we do not link it to advertising.

In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, Google Analytics sets no cookies unless you press "Allow" (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). Until then, Google receives only cookieless signals without identifiers. Elsewhere it is on by default (our interest in improving the site). You can change your choice at any time with "Analytics settings" at the bottom of every page, or block it with your browser settings. Google may process data in the United States; Google is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Google keeps analytics data for the period we set, at most 14 months.

All processing happens in your browser. Photos you open in our HEIC converters are not uploaded to our servers or stored by us. The HEIC converters load an open-source program library (heic2any) from cdnjs.cloudflare.com, operated by Cloudflare; your photos are never sent there.

Guides show a video placeholder. Nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play. When you do, the video loads from youtube-nocookie.com, operated by Google Ireland Limited, which then receives your IP address and may set cookies according to Google’s privacy policy (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, your consent by pressing play).

At the end of each guide you can answer Yes or No and, after No, pick a reason from a short list and, if you like, type your device and system version (for example "Galaxy A57, One UI 8.5"). We store only the totals per guide (for example 12 Yes, 3 No, 2 "The option isn't on my device", 1 "Galaxy A57, One UI 8.5") on Cloudflare, so we know which guides to check again on our own devices. Please do not type anything else into that field. We do not store your IP address or any identifier with your answer. Your browser remembers in local storage that you already answered, so you are not asked twice.

When you send a message through the form on the contact page, we store your name (if you give it), your email address and your message on Cloudflare and forward them by email to our inbox through our email provider Bird, so we can reply (Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR). Stored messages are deleted automatically after 90 days. To stop spam, we also keep a count of messages per network for one day as a scrambled code that cannot be turned back into your IP address. The form uses no cookies and no third-party scripts.

When you thank one of our reviewers on their profile page, we store your message, the name you give (optional), your email address (optional) and the page you wrote from on Cloudflare. Nothing reaches the reviewer until we have read and approved the message. Approved messages are emailed to the reviewer through our email provider Bird; your email address is passed on only if you tick "share my email" (Art. 6(1)(a) and (f) GDPR). Each message is deleted automatically 90 days after it was written, approved, rejected or sent, whichever is last. To stop spam, we keep a count of messages per network for one day as a scrambled code that cannot be turned back into your IP address.

When you tick a step as done, your browser remembers it in local storage on your device. We cannot see it. You can clear it at any time in your browser settings.

Fonts are served from our own server. No connection is made to Google Fonts.

This site shows advertisements delivered by Google AdSense, a service of Google Ireland Limited. Google and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to show and measure ads, and, if you agree, to personalise them based on your visits to this and other websites.

Visitors from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are asked for their choice in a consent message before any advertising cookies are set (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can change your choice at any time through the "Privacy and cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page that shows ads; it opens Google's consent message again. Without consent, Google may show non-personalised or limited ads; limited ads do not use personal data for personalisation.

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user'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 and/or other sites.

You can also manage ad personalisation in your Google account at adssettings.google.com, and opt out of personalised ads from many vendors at youronlinechoices.eu (EU) or aboutads.info/choices. More about how Google uses data from sites that use its services: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

You have the right to access, correct, delete and restrict the processing of your data, to data portability and to object, and the right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority. Contact us at hello@howtosimply.com.