Privacy Policy
1. Overview
Sort & Visualize is a static website with no accounts, no database and no server-side processing. Everything the visualiser does happens in your browser. We do, however, embed three Google services — AdSense (advertising), Google Analytics (audience measurement) and Google Fonts (typefaces) — and those services collect limited technical data, as described below.
This policy explains what data is involved when you use the site, who receives it, what choices you have, and how to exercise your rights. It is written to describe what the site actually does rather than to cover every hypothetical, and it is updated when the site changes.
2. Data We Collect
We collect nothing on our own servers. There is no backend to collect it with. Specifically, Sort & Visualize itself:
- Does not ask for your name, email or contact details to use the visualiser
- Does not log your IP address on any server we operate
- Does not require or offer user accounts
- Does not transmit your arrays, algorithm choices or settings anywhere
The contact form is worth being explicit about: it does not submit to a server. It assembles
a mailto: link and hands it to your own email application, so your message
travels from your email provider to our inbox and never passes through this website.
The third-party services listed in section 4 do receive data directly from your browser — typically your IP address, user-agent, approximate location derived from the IP, and the page you are viewing. We do not receive that data in identifiable form; we see only aggregated reports.
4. Third-Party Services
Three third-party services run on this site. There are no others — no heatmaps, no session recording, no advertising networks besides AdSense, and no social media trackers.
Google AdSense (advertising). Advertising is what keeps the site free. Google LLC is a third-party vendor that uses cookies and similar technologies to serve and measure ads, and — with your consent — to personalise them based on your visits to this and other sites. You can opt out of personalised advertising at any time at Google Ads Settings or via aboutads.info/choices, and you can read how Google uses data from partner sites on the Google Privacy & Terms page.
Google Analytics 4 (audience measurement). We use Google Analytics to understand which guides people read and how they arrive, so we know what to write next. It is configured with IP anonymisation enabled, and analytics cookies are governed by your consent choice in the same way as advertising cookies. We do not use Analytics to build advertising audiences or to identify individual visitors. Google's Privacy Policy applies to the data it receives, and you can install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to block it everywhere.
Google Fonts (typefaces). The site's typefaces are served
from fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com, so your browser
requests those files from Google and Google therefore receives your IP address as part of that
request. Google Fonts does not set cookies for this purpose.
We have no control over how these providers process the data they receive, which is why their own policies are linked above rather than summarised here.
5. Consent & Your Choices
On your first visit a consent banner appears. Nothing is assumed from you continuing to browse — the choice is the buttons.
Technically, this is implemented with Google Consent Mode. For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, the four consent signals Google's tags read — advertising storage, advertising user data, ad personalisation and analytics storage — all start as denied, and stay denied until you choose otherwise. While they are denied, ad requests are sent with identifiers redacted. Outside those regions the tags are permitted by default and the banner lets you turn them off.
Changing or withdrawing your choice. Use the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of any page. It reopens the panel with your current choices, and withdrawing consent is exactly as easy as granting it. You can also clear this site's data in your browser settings, which resets everything including your theme preference.
Beyond this site, most browsers let you block or delete third-party cookies entirely, and the opt-out links in section 4 apply across every site that uses those Google services.
6. Your Rights (GDPR, UK GDPR, CCPA)
Because we hold no personal data ourselves, there is usually nothing on our side for us to retrieve, correct or erase. Requests about data collected by Google should be directed to Google, which acts as its own controller for that processing. We will help you route a request if that is unclear.
If you are in the EEA or the UK, the GDPR and UK GDPR give you the right to access your data, have it corrected or erased, restrict or object to its processing, receive a portable copy, and withdraw consent at any time. Where consent is our legal basis — which it is for advertising and analytics cookies — withdrawing it stops that processing going forward. You also have the right to complain to your national data protection authority.
If you are a California resident, the CCPA and CPRA give you the right to know what personal information is collected and to whom it is disclosed, to request deletion, to correct inaccurate information, to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising, and not to be discriminated against for exercising those rights. We do not sell personal information for money. Choosing to reject advertising cookies in the banner, or opting out through Google Ads Settings, is how you opt out of the sharing involved in personalised advertising here.
To exercise any of the above, or if you are unsure which applies, write to us via the contact page.
7. Data Retention
- On our side: nothing. We operate no server-side storage, so there is no retention period to state.
- On your device: the localStorage values in section 3 stay until you clear this site's browsing data. They have no expiry of their own.
- With Google: retention is governed by Google's own policies for AdSense and Analytics, not by us.
- Emails you send us stay in the maintainer's mailbox for as long as needed to deal with them. Ask and we will delete the thread.
8. Children's Privacy
Sort & Visualize is written for a general audience — mainly students, educators and developers — and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, and we do not request age or identity information from anyone. Because advertising and analytics services on this site use cookies, we would not encourage use by children under 13 without a parent, guardian or teacher involved. If you believe a child's personal data has been collected through a third-party service on this site, contact us and we will help you raise it with the relevant provider.
9. Changes to This Policy
When the site's data practices change, this page is updated and the “Last updated” date at the top is revised. Material changes — adding a new third-party service, for example — will be reflected here before or as they take effect. The commitment to minimal collection and to describing accurately what actually runs on the site does not change.
10. Contact
Questions about this policy, or a request under any of the rights above, can go through the contact page. Privacy enquiries are answered personally rather than by a form, so please allow a couple of working days.