Cookie Policy

1. What Are Cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your actions and preferences (such as login, language, font size, and other display preferences) over a period of time, so you don't have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.

In plain English: cookies are little memory files that help our website run properly and let us know how people are using our tools.

2. How We Use Cookies

PirateShipNames.com uses cookies and similar technologies for three main purposes:

• Functionality: To allow certain features of the site to work (like saving your favorite generated names).
• Analytics: To understand how many people visit the site, which name generators are the most popular, and if there are any broken pages.
• Advertising: To display relevant ads that help keep our tools completely free to use.

3. Advertising Cookies (Google AdSense)

To keep PirateShipNames free for everyone, we use Google AdSense to display ads on our site. Google and its third-party advertising partners use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our website or other websites across the internet.

Specifically, Google uses the DoubleClick cookie. This allows Google and its partners to serve ads that are highly relevant to your interests.

If you are located in a region with strict data privacy laws (like the European Economic Area or UK), Google will serve non-personalized ads by default unless you actively consent to personalized ads. Non-personalized ads still use cookies, but only for frequency capping (so you don't see the same ad too many times), aggregated reporting, and fraud prevention—not to track your personal interests.

4. Analytics Cookies (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to measure traffic. This helps us understand, for example, if more people are using the pirate ship name generator or the D&D character name generator. Google Analytics places a cookie on your device that tracks what pages you visit and how long you stay on them. This data is aggregated and completely anonymous—we cannot see individual IP addresses or identify who you are.

5. Local Storage & Saved Names

In addition to traditional cookies, we use HTML5 Local Storage. When you click the "Save" icon next to a generated name, that name is saved to your browser's local storage.

This means your saved names list lives entirely on your own device. We do not upload, view, or store your saved names on our servers. Because of this, if you clear your browser's cache or cookies, your saved names list will be permanently deleted.

6. Managing and Disabling Cookies

You have full control over your cookie preferences. You can delete all cookies that are already on your device and you can set most modern browsers to prevent them from being placed.

• Browser Settings: You can block or delete cookies through your browser's privacy settings. (Check the "Help" menu of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge to learn how).
• Ad Preferences: You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ad Settings.
• Third-Party Opt-Out: You can opt out of many third-party vendors' uses of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting aboutads.info.

Please note that if you disable cookies completely, some features of our site (like saving your favorite names) will no longer function properly.

7. Updates to This Policy

We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or changes in the law. Any updates will be posted on this page with a new "Last updated" date at the top.

8. Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Cookie Policy, how we handle tracking, or our privacy practices, please reach out via our contact page or email us at pirateshipnames@gmail.com.