Privacy Policy

Who we are

CalcScholar (calcscholar.com) is a product of XOVO Technologies, which operates this website. Questions about privacy go to the address at the end of this page.

The short version

You do not need an account to use CalcScholar, and we do not ask for your name, email address or student details. What you type into a calculator stays in your browser, and PDFs are made on your device. The site keeps a small amount of anonymous data to count “helpful” votes, uses Google Analytics to see which pages are useful, and shows advertising through Google AdSense. The sections below explain each of these.

What stays on your device

To save you re-typing, the calculator and the transcript generator keep a draft of your entries in your browser’s local storage, under the keys calculator-draft-v1 and transcript-draft-v1. This data stays on your device, is never sent to us, and is removed when you clear your browser’s site data or press the reset button in either tool.

If you vote on a calculator, your browser remembers your choice for that page (under keys starting calcscholar:helpful:) so the button stays highlighted, and it keeps one random token (under calcscholar:visitor) that tells the vote counter your votes come from the same browser. The token is generated at random. It is not built from your name, device or network.

Helpful votes: what our server stores

When you press the helpful or not helpful button, your browser sends the calculator’s name, your choice and that random token. Before anything is stored, our server scrambles the token and your network address with a one-way hash. The result is kept in a managed database provided by Upstash, and consists of only two things:

• your vote for that calculator, filed under the hashed token, so that one browser counts once and can take its vote back;
• a hashed form of your network address, kept for 24 hours and then deleted, used only to stop one network from casting large numbers of votes.

Only the number of helpful votes is ever shown on a page. Not-helpful votes are kept privately so we can see which pages need work. A vote is not linked to your name, email address or any account, because none exists, and we do not use the stored values to identify you.

Cookies

CalcScholar sets no first-party cookies of its own. The only cookies that can appear are set by Google: Google Analytics (names beginning _ga) and Google AdSense advertising cookies, described below. For visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, analytics and advertising storage stays switched off until you make a choice in the consent message Google shows you, and you can change that choice at any time from the same message. Elsewhere, you can block or delete these cookies in your browser settings.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand which pages are useful: page views, approximate location at country or city level, device type, and how you arrived. This is aggregated traffic measurement, and it is never combined with anything you type into a calculator, because those values are never sent anywhere. Google keeps analytics data for the period set in our analytics account.

Servers and logs

Our hosting provider, and any content delivery network in front of it, handle your IP address and browser details when they deliver pages and defend the site against abuse, and they keep short-lived technical logs. We use this only to run and secure the site, not to build profiles. To limit abuse, the server also counts requests per address in memory for up to an hour; that count is not written to a database.

Services that load from other companies

Some tools fetch public data from outside services. The currency calculator asks a public exchange-rate service for rates, and the distance calculator loads map tiles from a map provider. Those services see your IP address and the request itself, such as the currency you chose or the map area on screen, but not the other figures you entered. The social links in the footer open the profiles of CalcScholar on those networks, which have their own privacy policies.

Advertising and cookies

This site is funded by display advertising served by Google AdSense. Specifically:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings, or opt out of third-party vendor cookies at aboutads.info/choices.
• Visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland are shown a consent message before personalised advertising or analytics cookies are set, and may decline them. Without consent, only limited, non-personalised advertising is served.
• For visitors in US states with privacy laws, personalised advertising can be restricted through Google’s Restricted Data Processing mode, and you can use the opt-out links above.

Blocking cookies in your browser does not affect any calculator on this site, because they all work without them.

Why we process data

Where the law asks for a legal basis, we rely on your consent for analytics and personalised advertising cookies, which you can withdraw at any time, and on our legitimate interest in running the site securely, preventing abuse and counting helpful votes. We do not sell your data, and we share it only with the providers named on this page, who handle it on our behalf, or when the law requires it. Some of them, including Google and Upstash, may process data in countries other than your own, including the United States, under their own safeguards.

How long data is kept

• On your device: until you clear this site’s data or press reset in a tool.
• A helpful or not helpful vote: until you take it back or we remove vote data.
• The hashed network address used against vote abuse: 24 hours.
• Analytics and advertising data: held by Google under the settings described above.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete or restrict the use of personal data, to object to it, and to withdraw consent. We hold very little that can be tied to you. To remove a vote, press the same button again. To have the vote data filed under your token deleted, email us the value stored under calcscholar:visitor in your browser. For analytics and advertising data, use the Google controls linked above. You may also complain to your local data protection authority.

Children

This site is aimed at university students and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Accuracy of results

Results from this site are for guidance only. The disclaimer explains what the numbers can and cannot be used for, and the editorial policy explains how they are checked. Spotted a problem? Report it.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that matters, the date at the top of this page is updated. Continued use of the site after a change means you accept the revised policy.

Contact

Questions about privacy can go to hello@calcscholar.com or the contact page.