Privacy Policy

Last updated: 13 September 2026

Who is responsible for your data

ExamineIP runs examineip.com and tools.examineip.com and is the controller of the personal data described in this policy. For anything related to privacy, including requests to exercise your rights, email contact@examineip.com.

What is collected, and why

When you visit any page

Like every website, the server receives technical information with each request: your IP address, your browser and device type (the user agent), the page you asked for, the page you came from, and the time. This is needed to deliver pages and to protect the site from abuse. The site is hosted by Hostinger International Ltd., whose servers keep standard access logs according to their own retention settings.

Analytics

Two analytics services measure how the site is used.

Umami counts page views, referring sites, browser and device type, and country. It uses no cookies and does not create an identifier for you, so it produces aggregate statistics rather than a profile of any individual visitor.

Google Analytics is added through Google’s Site Kit plugin and works with the cookie banner through Google Consent Mode. In the European Union, the UK and similar regions, it sets no analytics cookies unless you accept them. The Google tag still loads on each page, and until you make a choice it can send limited signals to Google that contain no cookie identifier. If you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics records the pages you view and how you interact with them, your device and browser, and your approximate location, linked to a cookie identifier.

Your cookie choice

The cookie banner stores your decision so it does not ask again on every page. See the cookie list below.

When you use a tool

Some tools run entirely in your browser and send nothing. Others need a server or an outside service to do the job — a browser cannot query a DNS blacklist or scan a port — and those receive your IP address, or the addresses and domain names you type in. The services involved are:

• ip-api.com — IP address location and network lookups, made from this site’s server.
• ipify.org and ipapi.co — fallback address and location lookups, and an IPv6 check, made directly from your browser.
• Google — Google Public DNS for the DNS checker, and a Google STUN server for the WebRTC part of the VPN leak test and the Privacy Exposure Score.
• Cloudflare — encrypted DNS for the DNS checker, and the speed test’s data transfer.
• rdap.org and domain and IP registries — WHOIS lookups.
• Have I Been Pwned — the password breach check, which sends only the first five characters of a hash of your password, never the password itself.
• DNS blacklist operators and the Tor Project’s published exit list — the IP reputation check, made from this site’s server.

None of the tools store what you look up. The port scanner keeps a short-lived, hashed form of your IP address with the times of your recent scans, used only to limit how often it can be run.

When you click an affiliate link

Links to some products go through a redirect on this site before reaching the partner. The link-management plugin records the click — including your IP address, browser, the page you clicked from, and the time — and sets small cookies so the same click is not counted twice. After the redirect, the partner’s website applies its own cookies and privacy policy. More about how these links work is in the affiliate disclosure.

When you email

If you write to contact@examineip.com, your email address and message are received through Hostinger’s email service and used only to reply and deal with your request.

Donations and books

Donations are processed by PayPal, which shares the details it needs to confirm the payment, such as your name, email address and the amount. Books are sold on Amazon; buying one happens entirely on Amazon and is covered by Amazon’s own privacy notice.

Resources your browser loads from other services

A few pages load images or files from outside services, which means those services receive your IP address when the page loads:

• WordPress.org — emoji images, on most pages.
• Gravatar — the author picture on articles.
• Google Fonts and ipapi.co — typefaces and a location lookup used by the homepage.

Cookies

These are the cookies the site sets. Partner websites you reach through a link set their own.

You can change your choice at any time using the cookie banner’s preferences, or remove cookies in your browser settings.

Advertising

The site may show advertising through Google AdSense. If it does, Google and its partners use cookies to show ads based on your previous visits to this site and other sites. In regions covered by the consent banner, personalised ads are only shown if you consent. You can turn off personalised advertising in Google’s Ad Settings, and read how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Legal bases

Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), personal data is processed on these grounds:

• Consent — for Google Analytics cookies and personalised advertising. You can withdraw it at any time through the cookie banner, without affecting anything processed before.
• Legitimate interests — to deliver and secure the site, run the tools you ask to use, prevent abuse, understand which pages are useful through cookieless statistics, measure affiliate link clicks, and reply to your emails.
• Legal obligations — to keep a record of your cookie choice and to keep donation records where tax or accounting rules require it.

Who receives your data

Personal data is shared only with the services named in this policy, to the extent each needs it: hosting and email (Hostinger), analytics (Umami and Google), the lookup services used by the tools, payments (PayPal), and the resource providers listed above. ExamineIP does not sell personal data. Data may also be disclosed if the law requires it.

Transfers outside the European Union

Some of these providers are based outside the EU, including in the United States. Where your data is transferred there, those transfers rely on the provider’s own safeguards, such as the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.

How long data is kept

• Server access logs — according to the hosting provider’s log retention.
• Analytics — Umami keeps aggregate statistics; Google Analytics keeps data for the retention period set in the Google Analytics account.
• Tool lookups — not stored. The port scanner’s hashed rate-limit record is short-lived.
• Emails — as long as needed to deal with your message and any follow-up.
• Donation records — as long as tax and accounting rules require.
• Cookies — as shown in the cookie table.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• ask what personal data is held about you, and get a copy;
• have inaccurate data corrected;
• have your data deleted;
• restrict how your data is used, or object to processing based on legitimate interests;
• receive your data in a portable format, where that applies;
• withdraw consent at any time.

To use any of these rights, email contact@examineip.com. Bear in mind that because the site does not use accounts and does not store tool lookups, there is often no personal data that can be linked back to you.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority. In Romania, that is the National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing (ANSPDCP). If you live elsewhere in the EU, you can contact the authority in your own country.

Children

ExamineIP is not directed at children under 16 and does not knowingly collect their personal data.

Changes to this policy

This policy is updated when the site’s data handling changes — for example when a service is added or removed. The date at the top shows the latest version.

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