Privacy policy

Who is responsible

HexSlate is operated by GSW Solutions, registered in the Netherlands under KvK number 42115446. GSW Solutions is the controller for the personal data described below. You can reach us at contact@hexslate.com.

What the tools do with what you type: nothing

Every tool on hexslate.com runs as JavaScript inside your own browser. Text you type or paste, and files you select, are processed on your device and are never sent to us or to anyone else. We do not receive them, we cannot see them, and there is no server storing them. That holds for every tool on the site, including the ones that handle tokens, hashes and files.

To check: open your browser's network panel while you use a tool, or disconnect from the internet once the page has loaded. The tools keep working.

Analytics

HexSlate uses Google Analytics 4 to see which tools get used. Your answer to the bar picks one of three modes.

Before you answer

No cookies, no local storage, nothing written to or read from your device. Reporting runs on a random identifier made when the page loads and dropped when you close or reload the tab. It cannot recognise you on a later visit or follow you to another site.

Legal basis: our legitimate interest in knowing which tools are worth maintaining, article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Article 11.7a of the Dutch Telecommunications Act covers what is placed on your device, so it is not engaged here.

What is collected this way:

• The address and title of the page you view, and the page or search that sent you.
• An approximate location, derived by Google from your IP address at the level of city or region, plus your device type, browser and language.
• Whether a tool was used at all, and whether you copied or downloaded a result. These are recorded as the name of the tool and nothing more. The content you worked on is not part of the event and never leaves your browser.

If you accept

Adds one thing: a random identifier in the cookies _ga and _ga_<property>, expiring two years after your last visit. It lets Google recognise a returning browser. No name, no email address, nothing you entered.

It also allows the text of a JavaScript error to be reported. That is held back otherwise, because an error message could quote something you typed.

Legal basis: your consent, article 6(1)(a) GDPR and article 11.7a of the Dutch Telecommunications Act. Withdraw it with "Cookie settings" in the footer.

If you decline

The tag is switched off, any analytics cookies already set are deleted, and nothing is sent. That includes the measurement above. Every tool works the same.

In all three modes Google Ireland Limited processes this data on our instructions and may pass it to Google LLC in the United States, under the EU to US Data Privacy Framework and the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. Google deletes it after 14 months. Google Signals and ad personalisation are off for this property, so it is not used to build advertising audiences. Google's own description is at policies.google.com/privacy.

Hosting

The site is hosted on Firebase Hosting, a Google service. Like any web server, it logs the IP address, the requested file, the browser identification and the time of each request, which is necessary to deliver the pages to you and to defend against abuse. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in operating a working and secure site, under article 6(1)(f) GDPR. We do not use these logs to analyse individual visitors.

What is stored on your device

Two entries in your browser's local storage, both of which stay on your device and are never transmitted:

• theme, which remembers whether you chose the light or dark appearance.
• consent, which remembers your answer to the cookie bar so that you are not asked again on every page. It expires after one year, and then we ask again.

Neither requires consent: the first exists because you asked for it, the second to respect the answer you already gave. Clearing your browser data removes both.

Advertising

No advertising runs on HexSlate today and no advertising cookies are set. We do intend to introduce ads to cover the running costs. This page will be updated before the first ad appears, and you will be asked separately for that consent: agreeing to analytics is not agreement to advertising.

What we never do

We do not sell personal data, we do not share it with data brokers, we do not build profiles of visitors, and no decision about you is made automatically. There is no newsletter, no tracking pixel from a social network, and no third party script on the site other than Google Analytics as described above.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive it in a portable form. You can withdraw consent for analytics at any time, and withdrawing is as easy as giving it: use "Cookie settings" in the footer.

The measurement before you answer rests on legitimate interest, so article 21 GDPR gives you a right to object. No need to write to us: "Cookie settings" in the footer, then Decline, stops it on that browser straight away.

One limitation on the other rights: the analytics data is tied to a random identifier and not to you, so we cannot find "your" records or prove which ones they are. Before you answer the bar that identifier does not outlive the page. Deleting your cookies is faster and more certain than a request to us. For anything else, write to contact@hexslate.com and you will get an answer within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with how we handled it, you can complain to the Dutch data protection authority, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, at autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl.

Changes

When this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. A change that widens what is collected, such as the introduction of advertising, will be put to you as a fresh consent question rather than only published here. What the tools do with your input will not change.