Privacy policy
The text you type into these tools never leaves your browser, so we could not read, store or sell it even if we wanted to. What we do collect is ordinary web analytics and advertising data, gathered by Google rather than by us. This page says exactly what that means.
This policy explains what happens to information when you use WordCounter4U. It is written to be read rather than to be defensible, so where a distinction matters it is spelled out instead of being covered by a general phrase.
The text you type is never sent to us
Every tool on this site does its work in JavaScript running on your own device. What you type into the word counter, paste into the editor, or import from a file is held in your browser's memory for as long as the tab is open, and is discarded when you close it.
That covers the parts you might reasonably assume need a server. Word and .docx imports are unzipped and parsed locally. Exports to PDF, DOCX, CSV and the rest are generated in the page. Audio downloads are synthesised by a speech engine that runs in your browser. At no point is your text transmitted, stored, logged or used to train anything.
What is stored on your device
One item, and only if you change the setting: your choice of light or dark theme is kept in your browser's local storage under the name wc4u-theme, so the site does not flash the wrong colours on your next visit. It contains nothing but the word light or dark, it is never sent anywhere, and clearing your browser data removes it.
A session cookie named wc4u_admin exists for administrators signing in to manage the site. It is only ever issued after a successful login and is not set for ordinary visitors.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages people find useful and where the site is failing them. It records things such as the page visited, the approximate region, the referring site, and the type of device and browser. It does not record what you type into the tools, because that information never reaches the page's scripts in a form they transmit.
Two settings are applied on every page. IP anonymisation is switched on, so your address is truncated before it is stored. Google Signals is switched off, which means your activity here is not joined up with a signed-in Google profile for advertising purposes.
Google acts as a processor for this data and it is governed by their own privacy terms. If you would rather not be measured at all, Google publishes a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics across every site that uses it.
Advertising
This site carries advertising from Google AdSense, which is what keeps the tools free and free of sign-up walls. Google and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to select and measure ads, which may include ads based on your previous visits to this or other sites.
You can control how Google personalises advertising to you, including turning personalisation off entirely, through Google's own Ad Settings page. Turning it off does not remove the ads; it changes how they are chosen. Where the law requires consent before advertising and analytics cookies are set, that consent is requested before those scripts load.
| Who | What they receive | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | Page views, approximate region, device and referrer | To see which pages are worth improving |
| Google AdSense | Ad impressions, clicks and advertising identifiers | To fund the site |
| Our web host | Standard server logs, including IP address | To serve pages and investigate abuse |
| Us, directly | Nothing beyond the above | There is no account system to collect anything into |
Server logs
Like every website, the server that delivers these pages keeps ordinary access logs: the address of the request, the page asked for, the time, and the browser's user-agent string. These are used to keep the site running and to investigate abuse, and are not combined with anything else or used to build a profile.
What we do not do
- We do not ask for an email address, and there is no account to create.
- We do not sell, rent or share personal information with anyone for their own marketing.
- We do not read, retain or analyse the text you put through the tools.
- We do not use your text to train machine learning models.
- We do not run tracking pixels for social networks or advertising networks other than the ones named above.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR you have the right to ask what personal data is held about you, to have it corrected or erased, to object to processing, and to complain to your data protection regulator. In the UK that regulator is the Information Commissioner's Office.
In practice we hold almost nothing to give you: there is no account, no stored text and no mailing list. Requests that concern the analytics or advertising data described above are best directed to Google, who hold it, but write to us and we will help where we can.
Children
The tools are suitable for all ages, but the site is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact us and we will remove it.
Links to other sites
Articles on this site link out to sources and further reading. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and this one does not apply once you follow a link.
Changes to this policy
If what we collect changes, this page changes with it, and the date at the foot of the page is updated. Material changes will be described rather than quietly folded in.
Contact
Questions about this policy, or a request concerning your data, can be sent to the address on our contact page. Please put “Privacy” in the subject line so it is routed correctly.
Last updated 2026-08-11