How to Read Privacy/Policy Pages as a User: A Checklist for Tool Sites

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Always prioritize the actual policy documents.

1) Why policy pages matter

Tool sites may handle user inputs and uploads. Policy pages are the minimum promise explaining what is collected, why, and how it is used.

2) What to check in a Privacy Policy

• Data categories: cookies, logs, inputs, uploads, etc.
• Purpose: feature delivery, security, debugging, ads/analytics
• Third parties: whether ad/analytics providers receive data
• Retention: how long data is kept and how to request deletion

3) What to check in Terms

• Limitations: outages, data loss, and service scope
• Prohibited use: abuse, illegal content, malicious behavior
• IP/rights: ownership of content and outputs

4) Contact must actually work

Even a well-written policy loses trust if users can’t reach support. Contact information should be clear and functional.