Privacy policy
Privacy policy for mybuildingcalculators.com: what the site collects, what it does not, and why
Effective 17 September 2026. This policy is written in plain language so it can be read in a few minutes. It covers the contact form, blog comments, the cookies and server records every website keeps, Google Analytics, and the advertising served by Google. It applies to every page and calculator on the site.
What this privacy policy covers
The short version: this site collects almost nothing. There are no accounts and no newsletter. The only personal information that reaches the site is what you type into the contact form or post as a blog comment, plus the ordinary server records and cache cookies that any website on shared hosting keeps. Google Analytics counts visits and Google AdSense serves the advertisements; both set cookies, and the two sections below explain exactly what each one collects and how to opt out.
The site is built and operated by Syed Zulqarnain as an individual, not a company. Read this policy together with the terms of use and the disclaimer, which cover how the calculators may be used and what their results are not.
Calculator inputs stay in your browser
Every calculator on this site runs as JavaScript inside the page you are viewing. The species, grade, size, spacing, span, load, area or quantity you enter is processed on your own device and is never sent to the server, saved to a database or attached to any record. Pressing Calculate or Print starts nothing on the server, and closing the tab discards the inputs.
The same is true of the span-table lookups: the IRC and DCA 6 tables are loaded with the page and read locally, so the site has no way to know which spans, sizes or results you looked at. There is no log of calculator use and no tool that could be used to build one. The methodology page explains how the tables are read; this page only needs to say that the reading happens on your side of the connection.
What the contact form collects and where it goes
The contact form asks for a name and an email address so a reply can reach you. The remaining fields are optional and exist for calculator reports: the calculator you used, the inputs you entered, the table and page you checked, and a message. Whatever you type is sent as an email to the site operator the moment you press Send.
Submissions are not stored in the website's database. The form plugin, Contact Form 7, is configured to deliver by email only, so the message exists in the operator's mailbox and nowhere on the site. It is used only to answer your message and, if you reported an error, to re-check the calculator against its source table. It is not used for marketing, not added to any list and not shared with anyone. Once a question is answered the email is deleted, unless it documents a reported table error that may need to be revisited when a calculator or code edition is updated, in which case it is kept for that purpose alone.
What blog comments store
Comments are open on blog posts. When you leave one, WordPress stores the name, email address and optional website you enter, the text of the comment, your IP address and your browser identification string. The IP and browser string are kept alongside the comment to help detect spam, which is how WordPress works by default; no separate spam-checking service is installed. Your name and comment are public once approved; your email address and IP address are not shown to visitors.
If you tick "Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment", WordPress sets three small cookies on your device for one year so the fields are pre-filled next time. Leave the box unticked and no comment cookie is set. To show a profile picture beside your comment, a hashed version of your email address is sent to the Gravatar service run by Automattic; the Automattic privacy policy describes what that service does with it. You can ask for any comment of yours to be edited or removed through the contact form.
Cookies and server logs on this site
The table lists every cookie and record the site sets or keeps today. The site itself sets no tracking cookie; the only measurement and advertising cookies come from Google Analytics and Google AdSense, which are described in the next two sections, and no tag manager, heat-map or session-recording script runs on any page.
| Cookie or record | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cache cookies | LiteSpeed Cache plugin | Tell the cache which version of a page to serve; carry no identity and no tracking | Session, or short-lived |
| comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_author_url | WordPress | Pre-fill the comment form; set only if you tick the "save my name" box | 1 year |
| Login and session cookies | WordPress | Keep the site administrator signed in; never set for visitors | Session to 14 days |
| _ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics | Random visitor ID for counting visits and page views; no name or email | Up to 2 years |
| Server access log | Hostinger (the web host) | Records IP address, requested URL, time and browser string for security and troubleshooting | Set by the host's standard retention |
Fonts are served from this site's own server, so a page load makes no request to Google Fonts or any other third-party font service. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings without losing any calculator; only the comment pre-fill would stop working.
Google Analytics and what it measures
The site uses Google Analytics 4 to count visits and to see which calculators and posts are used, so that the tools people actually need get maintained first. It is the only measurement script on the site.
Google Analytics sets cookies (named _ga and _ga_ followed by an identifier) that give your browser a random ID so repeat visits can be counted; they hold no name or email. It records the pages you view, the site or search you arrived from, the time spent, your device and browser type, and an approximate location derived from your IP address, which Google Analytics 4 truncates and does not store. It cannot see calculator inputs, form entries or comment text. The data is processed by Google under its description of how it uses information from partner sites; you can stop the measurement entirely with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on or by blocking cookies in your browser, and the calculators keep working either way.
Google AdSense and third-party advertising cookies
This site displays advertisements served by Google AdSense. The ads pay for the hosting and the time spent verifying tables, and they are the only reason a third-party advertising cookie appears on the site.
Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads. Google's use of the DoubleClick advertising cookie lets it and its partners serve ads based on your visits to this site and to other sites on the internet. Google's description of how it uses information from sites that use its services explains what is collected and why. You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings. Other third-party vendors and ad networks may also serve ads on the site; you can opt out of some of their cookies at aboutads.info. Advertising cookies are set by those vendors, not by this site, and this site cannot read them or control what they contain.
What the site does not do with your data
To keep the list above honest, here is what the site does not do.
- No user accounts, sign-ups, logins or newsletters exist for visitors.
- No heat-map, session-recording or keystroke-tracking script runs; Google Analytics reports page views and traffic sources, not what you type.
- No personal data is sold, rented, traded or shared with anyone, in any form.
- No embedded videos, maps, social-media widgets or other third-party media load with a page.
- No data is knowingly collected from children. The site is written for adults planning residential construction work and is not directed at anyone under 13; if a child's details were sent through the form or a comment, they will be deleted on request.
Your choices and how to request your data
Wherever you live, you can ask what information the site holds about you, ask for it to be corrected, or ask for it to be deleted. In practice that means a contact-form email or a blog comment, since nothing else is kept. Send the request through the contact form using the same email address you used before, so the record can be found. There is no fee and no form to fill; a reply comes from the site operator.
Changes to this privacy policy
This policy is updated whenever a plugin, the web host, an analytics service or an advertising service changes what the site collects. The effective date at the top of the page identifies the current version, and any change that affects what is collected or how it is used is noted here so a returning reader can see what moved. Questions about the policy go through the contact form.