Privacy & Legal

The short version

• No sign-up, no login, no user accounts, and no personal profiles.
• No advertising, no ad networks, and no marketing cookies.
• No third-party analytics — there is no Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or similar on this site.
• No consent banner, because we only use storage that is strictly necessary to make the site work.
• Our own analytics are anonymous and aggregated — they measure pages and searches, not people.
• We never sell, rent, or trade your data.

Who runs this site

Asciify is an independent project. For any privacy or legal question, the fastest route is email: legal@asciify.dev. The operator is the “controller” of any personal data described here within the meaning of the GDPR.

What we measure, and why

Aggregate site analytics. Each page view is recorded as a single anonymous, sampled data point using Cloudflare Analytics Engine. A data point contains only: the page area (ASCII, Unicode, or other) and the normalized path; a coarse country that Cloudflare derives at the network edge (for example DE or US); the referring website’s domain (or “direct”); the general device type, browser, and operating system inferred from your browser’s User-Agent (for example “mobile / Chrome / Android”); whether the request looked like a bot or search-engine crawler; and the HTTP status. These points are aggregated and statistically sampled. They contain no IP address, no cookie or device identifier, and no fingerprint. We cannot single you out from them, reconstruct your session, or follow you across pages or sites. We use them only to see which characters, pages, and countries are popular so we can improve the catalogue and the site.

Search analytics.When you use the search box, the text you type is sent to our search API so matching characters can be returned — that is how search works. Because results update as you type, partial queries reach the API too (typing “arrow” may send “arr” along the way). When a search leads you to copy a character, we additionally store an anonymous record of the search term, the character you copied, its rank in the results, and the page path. These records help us understand which characters and phrasings people look for, so we can improve search ranking and add anything missing. They are not linked to any account, cookie, or persistent identifier; a random per-search id may be attached to group the events of a single search together, but it is not tied to you or your device.

Server and security logs. Like every website, when your browser connects to us it necessarily reveals your IP address and User-Agent to the server. Our infrastructure provider, Cloudflare, processes these transiently to deliver the site and to protect it against attacks, abuse, and excessive automated traffic (rate limiting). We do not store your IP address in our own databases or link it to your activity.

Cookies and local storage

We use no advertising, marketing, or cross-site tracking cookies, so there is nothing to consent to. The only data stored on your device is strictly necessary to make features you asked for work, and it never leaves your device on its own:

• Theme (themecookie and local storage) — remembers whether you chose light or dark mode so the page doesn’t flash the wrong colours.
• Home preference (asciify_mode cookie and local storage) — remembers whether you prefer the ASCII or the Unicode home page.
• Interface preferences (local storage) — your recently copied characters and layout choices, such as compact tables, shown for your convenience and never uploaded.
• Navigation state (session storage) — scroll position and back-navigation targets, which your browser erases when you close the tab.

Because all of this is strictly necessary or explicitly requested by you, EU and German law (Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive, and §25(2) TDDDG — the German Digital Services Data Protection Act, formerly the TTDSG) does not require a cookie-consent prompt.

Legal basis for processing (GDPR)

For visitors in the EU/EEA and the UK, processing rests on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interests): operating a secure, working website and understanding its aggregate usage, balanced against your privacy — which is precisely why the analytics are anonymous and carry no personal identifiers. The strictly-necessary storage on your device is covered by §25(2) TDDDG. If we ever rely on consent for anything, we will ask for it explicitly first.

Who we share data with

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal data, and we share nothing with advertisers, data brokers, or third-party analytics companies. The only processor involved is Cloudflare, Inc., which provides our hosting, content delivery, security and rate-limiting, the analytics engine, and the database, acting on our behalf under a data-processing agreement. We may disclose information only if we are legally required to, or where necessary to protect the site’s or others’ rights and safety.

International data transfers

Cloudflare operates a global network, so some processing may take place on servers outside your country, including in the United States. Such transfers are covered by appropriate safeguards, including the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

How long we keep it

Operational logs that may contain IP addresses are short-lived and are used only for delivery, security, and abuse prevention. Our aggregate analytics and search records contain no personal identifiers and may be retained to observe long-term trends; because they are anonymous, they cannot be traced back to you.

Your rights

If you are in the EU/EEA or the UK, the GDPR gives you the right to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to the processing of your personal data, and the right to data portability. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data-protection supervisory authority — in Germany, the authority of your federal state. To exercise any right, email legal@asciify.dev.

One privacy-friendly limitation is worth stating plainly: because our analytics and search records hold no identifier for you, we normally have no way to find or link that data to a specific person. In that situation Article 11(2) GDPR applies — we may be unable to action a request unless you can provide additional information that lets us identify the relevant data.

United States & California

We do not “sell” or “share” personal information as those terms are defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA), and we do not use it for cross-context behavioural advertising. California residents have the right to know what personal information is collected, to request deletion, and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights; requests can be sent to legal@asciify.dev. The categories we handle are limited to internet or network activity (aggregate page and search usage) and transient technical identifiers (IP address and User-Agent, processed for security), as described above.

Children

Asciify is not directed at children under 13 (or under 16 in the EU/EEA), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone. Because the site has no accounts and collects no identifying data, it does not knowingly process children’s personal data.

Emoji and third-party content

Character names and code points come from the Unicode® Standard. Emoji artwork from various vendors is shown for reference and comparison and is served from asciify.dev; loading these images involves no third-party tracking. Full credits and licenses are listed in the site footer under “Privacy & legal.”

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or how we use it, we will update this page and revise the date at the top. Significant changes will be made clear here.

Contact

Questions about privacy or anything legal can be sent to legal@asciify.dev.