Privacy policy
A tool about what websites can see should be straightforward about privacy itself. ReadMyBrowser does not collect personal data of its own. Here is exactly how it works, including how any ads or analytics work.
Last updated: 8 July 2026
The short version
We do not collect, store or sell your personal data ourselves. All browser detection runs on your device. This site may show ads from third-party advertising partners and may use analytics to understand aggregate traffic; the sections below explain exactly how those work and the choices you have, including a consent option for visitors in the EEA and UK.
What runs in your browser
Every value on the dashboard and property pages (your user agent, screen, timezone, WebGL renderer and so on) is read locally using standard web APIs. Those readings are displayed to you and never transmitted to us. When you close the tab, they are gone.
The external lookups, and why
A few features need a network call. We keep them minimal and name them plainly:
- Public IP lookup. To show your IP address, your browser asks our own endpoint to echo back the address the request came from. This is inherent to checking your IP. We do not log or store it.
- IP location estimate. The IP location page uses the approximate, city-level geolocation our hosting platform (Vercel) derives from your IP and attaches to the request. No precise location is involved, and we do not log or store it.
- Reverse geocoding, only with consent. The zip code, postal code and address pages ask your browser for GPS coordinates, and only after you press the button and accept the browser prompt. To turn coordinates into a zip code or address, those coordinates are relayed through our endpoint (which adds the service identification the provider requires and does not log or store anything) to the public OpenStreetMap Nominatim service. If you do not consent, no coordinates are read and no such request is made.
The one third-party service involved (OpenStreetMap Nominatim, for reverse geocoding) has its own privacy practices. We pass along only the coordinates strictly needed for the lookup you triggered, and only after you consent.
Advertising and cookies
At the time of this update, the site does not show ads. This section describes how it will work once ads are turned on, so the policy stays accurate either way.
ReadMyBrowser may show ads served by third-party advertising networks (for example Google AdSense or a similar provider) to help cover hosting costs. Those networks can set cookies or use similar technology on your device to serve ads and measure how they perform. Where ads run, those third parties handle that data under their own privacy policies, not ours.
If you are visiting from the EEA or the UK, you will be shown a consent option before any ads that use cookies or similar technology are allowed to load, and personalized ads will only run if you agree. You can change your choice at any time, and you can also control or clear cookies through your browser's own settings.
Cookies and storage
The only thing we store on your device today is a single preference: whether you chose light or dark mode, kept in your browser's local storage so the site remembers your choice. It is not a tracking identifier and never leaves your device. The cookie test on the cookies page sets and immediately deletes a throwaway cookie purely to check whether cookies work. If advertising or analytics cookies are switched on in the future, they will be covered by the consent option described above for EEA/UK visitors.
The embeddable widget
The widgetfollows the same detection rules: it reads values in the visitor's browser and makes only the first-party IP echo lookup. It sets no cookies and reports nothing back to us or to the site hosting it beyond what the visitor's own browser already reveals. It does not carry ads.
Analytics
We may use privacy-respecting analytics to understand aggregate traffic, such as how many people visit each page. Where an analytics tool uses cookies or a similar identifier, it is covered by the consent option described above for EEA/UK visitors. This policy will be updated if that ever changes in a way that affects what is collected.
Children
The site is a general-audience reference tool and is not directed at children, and it collects no personal data from anyone.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes, the date above will change with it. Questions are welcome via the contact page.