Skip to content
QRBeam

Cookies and advertising

Cookies we set

None. QRBeamsets no cookies of its own. Two preferences are kept in your browser's local storage, which is not a cookie and is never sent with a request:

  • qrc-theme — whether you chose the light or dark theme.
  • qrc-consent — your answer to the advertising consent banner, so you are not asked on every page.

Cookies Google sets

If you accept advertising cookies, Google AdSense and its partners may set cookies on your device to serve ads, cap how often you see the same one, measure performance and detect invalid traffic. Typical examples include:

  • __gads and __gpi — ad selection, measurement and frequency capping.
  • IDE and test_cookie, set on the doubleclick.net domain — ad delivery and measurement.
  • Anti-fraud cookies used to distinguish genuine impressions from invalid traffic.

Google is an independent data controller for this processing. Its practices are described at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Analytics cookies

If analytics is enabled on this deployment, Google Analytics 4 sets a _ga cookie (and a _ga_<id> variant) to tell repeat visits apart from new ones. They hold a randomly generated number, not a name or an email address, and they are only written after you accept.

What we look at is aggregate: which pages get traffic, which search queries lead here, and roughly where visitors are. We use it to decide which guides to write next. It is not connected to anything you type into the generator, because that never leaves your browser.

Consent Mode

We use Google Consent Mode v2. Before you answer the banner, ad storage, ad user data, ad personalisation and analytics storage are all set to denied, and no advertising cookie is written. If you accept, those signals switch to granted. If you decline, they stay denied — you may still see ads, but they are contextual rather than personalised.

Changing your mind

Clear this site's data in your browser settings. That removes the stored consent value and the banner reappears on your next visit. You can also manage ad personalisation account-wide at adssettings.google.com, or block third-party cookies entirely in your browser. The QR generator works exactly the same either way.

Why there are ads at all

Serving this site costs money, and the alternative business models for a free QR generator are worse for you: charging a subscription, or routing every scan through a redirect so the codes can be monetised later. Ads let the codes stay static, permanent and private. Details of what we do and do not collect are in the privacy policy.