Privacy Policy

1.Who we are and what this policy covers

Upgfrog operates https://upfrog.online (the "Site"), a free QR code generator together with written guides about QR codes. This policy explains what information we collect when you use the Site, how we use and share it, and the choices available to you.

By using the Site you accept the practices described here. If you do not accept them, please stop using the Site.

This policy covers this website only. It does not cover any destination you choose to encode into a QR code, or any site you reach by scanning a code made here.

Privacy questions and requests: contact@upfrog.online.

2.The content you put into the generator never reaches us

This is the most important thing in this document, so it comes first rather than being buried in a list.

When you type a website address, a Wi-Fi password, contact details, a calendar event or a payment address into the generator, that text is encoded and drawn into a QR code entirely by code running inside your own browser. It is not transmitted to us, not written to any server, and not stored anywhere.

If you close the tab, it is gone. The same applies to any logo image you add to a code: the file is read locally on your device and embedded into the image your browser produces. We never receive it.

There is one deliberate exception. If you call our HTTP API directly, the content you send is by definition transmitted to our server, because that is what an API request is. We render it, return an image, and do not write the payload to any database. Ordinary web server logs may record request metadata as described below.

3.We cannot track scans of the codes you create

Every code produced here is static, which means the destination is encoded directly into the pattern itself. When somebody scans one, their device goes straight to your content without passing through us at any point.

This is a structural fact rather than a promise we are choosing to keep. There is no redirect for us to count, so scan statistics are not a feature we have withheld — they do not exist. Services that offer scan analytics do so by routing every scan through their own servers first, which is a different product with different privacy consequences for the people scanning.

4.Information we collect

There are three categories, and the first is deliberately small.

a. Information you give us. The Site has no accounts and nothing to log into. We only receive personal information when you choose to send it — by using the contact form or emailing us, in which case we receive your name, your email address and whatever you write in your message. We do not operate a newsletter and do not add correspondents to any mailing list.

b. Information collected automatically. Like any website, our hosting records technical information when a page is requested. This may include your IP address, an approximate location derived from it, your browser type and language, your device and operating system, the page requested, the referring page, and the date and time of the request. This is used to operate and secure the Site, diagnose faults and detect abuse. It is not used to identify you personally and is never combined with anything you type into the generator.

c. Cookies and similar technologies. We and, where enabled, our advertising and analytics partners may use cookies, pixels, local storage and similar technologies to run the Site, remember your preferences, measure traffic and display advertising. Section 6 sets out exactly what is stored and how to control it.

We do not ask for, and do not intentionally collect, government identifiers, financial account numbers, precise geolocation, or any other category of sensitive personal information.

5.How we use information

We use the limited information described above to:

• Operate, maintain and secure the Site and the API.
• Respond to your enquiries, corrections and legal notices.
• Understand which pages are useful so we can improve the guides and the generator.
• Detect, investigate and prevent abuse, fraud and technical faults.
• Display and measure advertising, where advertising is enabled and you have consented to it.
• Comply with our legal obligations.

We do not build profiles of visitors, and we do not use your information to make automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.

6.Cookies and what is stored on your device

Cookies are small text files a website stores on your device. Related technologies — local storage, pixels and web beacons — do comparable jobs, and this policy treats them together.

The generator itself needs no cookies at all, because everything it does happens in your browser. What we store are two preferences, kept in local storage, neither of which is transmitted to us and neither of which can identify you:

Beyond those two, any cookie set on this Site comes from the advertising or analytics services described in the next three sections, and only after you have accepted them.

You can control cookies through your browser settings — every major browser allows you to block or delete cookies, including third-party cookies specifically. Blocking cookies will not affect the generator, which works identically either way.

7.Advertising

Google AdSense is currently active on this site, and loads only after you accept it.

The Site may carry advertising served through Google AdSense in order to cover hosting costs and keep the generator free and unlimited.

Where advertising is active, third-party vendors including Google may use cookies to serve ads based on your previous visits to this and other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on those visits. Vendors and ad networks may set and read cookies in your browser, or use web beacons and your IP address, in connection with serving those ads.

Some advertising may be personalised to your inferred interests; some is non-personalised and selected only from the content of the page or a general location. Where personalised advertising requires consent, it is not served unless you have given it.

Google acts as an independent controller for this processing under its own privacy policy, which you can read at policies.google.com/privacy. How Google uses information from sites that use its services is described at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Your advertising choices:

• Manage or switch off Google ad personalisation at myadcenter.google.com.
• Opt out of personalised advertising from many participating vendors at optout.aboutads.info, or via youradchoices.com.
• In Europe, use youronlinechoices.eu.
• Decline non-essential cookies in our consent prompt, or change your answer later from the Cookie settings link in the footer.

For residents of US states with applicable privacy laws, we enable restricted data processing so that Google limits how it uses personal information for advertising purposes.

Advertising is kept visually separate from our writing, is never placed inside the generator's controls, and advertisers have no involvement in what we publish and no access to anything you type into the generator.

8.Analytics

Google Analytics 4 is currently active on this site, and loads only after you accept it.

We may use Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors find and use the Site, so that we can improve the guides and the tool. It records events such as pages viewed, session length, traffic source, approximate city or region level location, device type and browser.

In Google Analytics 4, IP addresses are not logged or stored by default, and Google processes this information on our behalf as our service provider.

You can read how Google uses this data at policies.google.com/privacy. You can opt out of Google Analytics on every website you visit by installing Google's opt-out browser add-on at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. You can also decline analytics through our consent prompt, in which case the script is never requested at all.

9.Interaction analytics and session replay

Microsoft Clarity is not currently loaded on this site. It is described here because we may enable it, and if we do, nothing will load until you have accepted it.

We may use Microsoft Clarity to see how people interact with the interface — where they click, how far they scroll, where they hesitate — through behavioural metrics, heatmaps and session replay. This is genuinely useful for a tool with as many controls as the generator has, because it shows us where the design confuses people.

Clarity captures interactions such as mouse movement, clicks, scrolling and pages visited, using first- and third-party cookies and similar technologies. It masks input fields automatically and we have not disabled that masking, so it is not intended to and should not capture what you type.

Microsoft processes this information under its own privacy statement, available at microsoft.com/privacy/privacystatement. You can prevent this collection entirely by declining non-essential cookies in our consent prompt.

10.Consent, and how to change your mind

Non-essential services are not loaded until you allow them. If you decline, the relevant scripts are never requested — they are not loaded and then told to behave differently.

We implement Google Consent Mode v2 with all consent signals defaulting to denied before you choose, including ad storage, ad user data, ad personalisation and analytics storage. For visitors in the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area and Switzerland, consent for advertising is gathered through a Google-certified consent management platform where that is required.

You can change your decision at any time using the "Cookie settings" link in the footer of every page. The change takes effect immediately and the page reloads so that any script already loaded is unloaded.

We honour Global Privacy Control signals. Where your browser sends GPC, we treat it as an instruction to opt out of the sharing of your personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising in that browser.

11.How we share information

We do not sell your personal information for money, and we have no interest in doing so.

We share limited information with the service providers that make the Site work, each operating under its own privacy terms: our website host and content delivery network, and — where enabled and consented to — Google for advertising and analytics, and Microsoft for interaction analytics.

Using advertising or analytics cookies may be treated as the 'sharing' of personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising under some United States state privacy laws. The controls in the advertising section above, and the Cookie settings link in the footer, are how you opt out of that.

We may also disclose information where we are legally required to, where it is necessary to investigate abuse of the service, or to protect our rights or the safety of others. If the Site were ever transferred to another operator, information would transfer with it, subject to any notice the law requires.

12.Third-party links

Our guides link to external specifications, standards bodies and documentation for reference. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices, and a link is not an endorsement.

Fonts are served from our own domain rather than a font content delivery network, so loading a page does not announce your visit to a third party.

13.Children's privacy

The Site is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, and the analytics tools described above are likewise not intended for use by minors.

If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, contact us at contact@upfrog.online and we will delete it. If you are under 13, please do not use the Site or send us any personal information.

14.Your rights under UK and EU data protection law

If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, we rely on our legitimate interest in operating and securing the Site for essential processing, and on your consent for anything non-essential such as advertising or analytics. Where you have given consent you may withdraw it at any time, which does not affect processing that already took place.

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Have inaccurate data corrected.
• Have data erased where we have no continuing basis to keep it.
• Restrict or object to processing, including profiling for direct marketing.
• Receive your data in a portable, machine-readable format.
• Complain to your national supervisory authority — in the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner's Office.

Because the generator does not send us the content you encode, we usually hold very little about any individual. Requests can be sent to contact@upfrog.online.

15.Your California privacy rights

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA gives you the right to:

• Know the categories and specific pieces of personal information we collect, where it came from, why we collect it, and who we share it with.
• Delete personal information we collected from you, subject to legal exceptions.
• Correct inaccurate personal information.
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information. We do not sell personal information for money, though our use of advertising and analytics cookies may qualify as sharing for cross-context behavioural advertising.
• Limit the use of sensitive personal information. We do not use or disclose sensitive personal information for any purpose that would trigger this right.
• Not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.

To opt out of sharing for targeted advertising, decline non-essential cookies in our consent prompt or use the advertising opt-outs described above. We honour Global Privacy Control signals as an opt-out request for the browser sending them.

For any other request, email contact@upfrog.online. We may need to verify that a request genuinely comes from you before we act on it, and you may use an authorised agent where the law permits.

16.Your choices wherever you live

Regardless of your location, you can:

• Adjust cookie settings in your browser, including blocking third-party cookies.
• Accept or decline non-essential services in our consent prompt, and change that answer at any time.
• Use the Google and industry advertising opt-outs listed above.
• Install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
• Send a Global Privacy Control signal, which we honour.
• Contact us to ask what information we hold about you.

Declining everything does not degrade the service. Every feature of the generator works identically whether you accept or decline.

17.International transfers

Our hosting provider and any enabled service providers may process information in countries other than your own. Where that happens, the transfer relies on an appropriate safeguard such as standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision.

18.Data security

The Site is served over HTTPS, and we apply reasonable administrative, technical and organisational measures to protect the limited information we hold.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security. The strongest protection here is structural rather than procedural: we do not hold the content you encode in the first place, so there is no store of it to breach.

19.How long we keep information

We keep personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, or as the law requires.

• Server logs are kept for a short operational period and then discarded.
• Correspondence is kept for as long as needed to deal with your enquiry and any follow-up.
• Preferences stored in your browser remain until you clear them or change your choice.
• Advertising and analytics data, where those services are enabled, are retained according to those providers' own configurable retention settings.

20.Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the Site changes or as the law requires. When we make material changes we will post the updated policy on this page and revise the date shown at the top.

Continuing to use the Site after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.

21.Contact us

If you have questions about this policy or our data practices, or you want to exercise any of the rights described above, contact us at contact@upfrog.online.

Upgfrog — https://upfrog.online