Privacy
The short version: sparkytools is free, and it pays its way like most free study tools — through advertising and through anonymous data about which diagrams and drills get used. Your drill answers are marked in your browser and aren't sent anywhere. Below is exactly what is collected, and what you can do about it, in plain terms.
What stays on your device
Kept in your browser's local storage, on your device and readable only by
this site: your drill streak and best streak, and a private tally of which
pages you open so your most-used can show first, and the tools you pin, hide
or put in a list (sparkytools.mytools). Clear your browser data
and they're gone.
What the site records
So we can see which material is worth building more of — and so the site can earn its keep — sparkytools records first-party usage data on its own servers: the pages you view, a coarse random visitor id kept in your browser (so return visits can be counted without knowing who you are), which site referred you, and — if you use the free app — that it was installed, saved for offline use, or opened (at most once a day). This is first-party — it goes to sparkytools' own systems, not a third-party tracker following you around the web. It may be reported in aggregate or shared with partners as trends; it is not a public profile of you.
Reporting an error on a page stores your message, that page and the numbers you had entered — not your name, your email address or your IP address.
Imperial or metric, search, and sending yourself results
On your first visit we ask Cloudflare which country the request came from, only to pick imperial or metric for you. It isn't stored. Change it any time with the Imperial/Metric switch; your choice is kept in your browser. The site search runs entirely in your browser over a list of our own pages — what you type is not sent anywhere.
"Email me" on a tool sends the sheet — what you typed, the results and a link that reopens it — as one email from sparkytools, through our mail provider, to the address you type. We keep that address only if you tick the box to join the list; otherwise it's used for that one email and not stored. The send log keeps which tool, when, and a salted hash of the address (the same hash counts sends toward a limit of five an hour) — not your answers and not the address. If the address is already on file for an account or the list, the send is simply logged against it. Your browser remembers the address after a first send. Copy, Text it, Share and Print never leave your device.
"Email me" on a tool sends the sheet — what you typed, the results and a link that reopens it — as one email from sparkytools, through our mail provider, to the address you type. I use the address for that email and nothing else, and it isn't stored. The send log keeps which tool, when, and a salted hash of the address (the same hash counts sends toward a limit of five an hour) — not your answers and not the address. If the address is already on file for an account, the send is simply logged against it. Your browser remembers the address after a first send. Copy, Text it, Share and Print never leave your device.
If you make an account
An account is optional and never required. If you sign in — with a one-tap email link, no password — we store your email address and your synced data (drill streaks, most-used, pinned tools and lists) so they follow you between your devices. The sign-in link is sent through a transactional email provider on our behalf. Your email is used to sign you in and, if you opt in, for the occasional note when new material goes up. Sign out or ask us to delete the account and it's gone.
If you add a work profile
Signed-in apprentices can optionally leave a short "looking for work" profile — level, location, contact details and a note. If you do, we store it so we can pass suitable apprenticeship or job leads your way or reach out ourselves, and we may share it with employers looking to hire apprentices. Don't add one and none of that applies; ask and we'll delete it.
There is no email list at the moment. The only mail sparkytools sends is mail you asked for, at the moment you ask: a results sheet when you tap Email me, and a sign-in link when you request one. If you joined the list before it closed, your entry is kept only so the one-click unsubscribe in any old email keeps working — write to me and I'll delete it.
Newsletter
Every list box on the site is unticked; ticking it — in the footer, on the newsletter page, on your account, or under a tool's results — is what puts your email on the list. It's stored on our own Cloudflare database with which site you signed up on, the page and form it was on, the date, the exact sentence beside the box, and the random visitor id your browser keeps. It is one list across all three of our sites — this one, bentright.com and fieldcalc.net — so one unsubscribe takes you off all of them. A box ticked on a form is only a request until your inbox answers: I send one confirmation email, and nothing goes to the list until you tap the link in it (opening a sign-in link you asked for with the box ticked, or the switch on your account page, counts the same). Once you've unsubscribed, no form can put you back — only that confirmation or the switch can.
What I send: a short note at most every two weeks, and only when there is something related to the tools you use — the ones you've opened or emailed yourself from, on any of the three sites, or new material in the same sections — from the site you signed up on. If I know nothing about what you use, the only note is what's new on that site. Every one carries a one-click unsubscribe and a mailing address, and none carries open or click tracking. The address is never sold or passed on as a list; a bounce or a complaint reported by the mail provider stops further sends.
Advertising
sparkytools may carry advertising to stay free. Where an ad network is used it can set its own cookies and collect data under its own policy; where ads are sold directly they're a static image and a link with no third-party script. This page will always say which is in use.
Your choices
Clearing your browser's site data removes everything stored on your device, including the visitor id. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter in one click, sign out of an account at any time, and email [email protected] to have your account, work profile or newsletter entry deleted. If you'd rather not be counted at all, a browser in private mode or with tracking protection on will limit what any of this can record.
A heads-up on tools that fit — by email, optional
Leave your email and tick the box for a short heads-up, at most every two weeks, about tools, drills and diagrams that fit what you've been working through — here and on bentright.com and fieldcalc.net. One list across the three, one click to leave, and nothing is sent until you confirm from your inbox.