What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. They let a site remember information about your visit, like your preferences or, in the case of analytics cookies, how you interact with the pages. DecodeEncode.com uses cookies (and similar technologies like local storage) to keep our tools working smoothly, understand how the site is used, and support the ads that keep it free.
Cookie categories we use
When you first visit, our cookie banner lets you accept all cookies, reject everything non-essential, or customize your choice by category. These are the categories:
- Necessary — required for the site and its tools to function, including remembering your cookie choice itself. These cannot be disabled.
- Analytics — Google Analytics, used to understand which tools are popular and how the site is navigated, so we can improve it.
- Marketing — Google AdSense, used to serve and measure the ads that fund free access to our tools.
- Preferences — remembers small settings, such as options you last used on a tool page, so you don't have to re-enter them.
Cookies used on this site
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics | Distinguishes unique users and tracks session usage to help us understand tool usage. | Up to 2 years |
| _gid | Google Analytics | Distinguishes users for a 24-hour analytics window. | 24 hours |
| __gads, __gpi, IDE, test_cookie | Google AdSense | Used to serve and measure relevant advertising on the site. | Up to 2 years |
| cookie-consent | DecodeEncode.com | Remembers your cookie category choices so we don’t ask again. | 1 year |
Managing your preferences
You can change your cookie choices at any time by clicking the cookie icon in the bottom-left corner of any page, which reopens the cookie preferences panel. Rejecting non-essential cookies will stop analytics and advertising cookies from being set on future visits; previously set cookies from those categories will expire naturally or can be cleared from your browser settings.
You can also control cookies directly through your browser settings, including blocking or deleting them. Note that blocking necessary cookies may affect how parts of the site work.
Contact us
If you have questions about this Cookie Policy or how we handle your data, please reach out via our Contact page.