For everyone
Cookies and tracking
What we store on your device and in the app, what runs only with your consent, and how to change your mind.
1. What this covers
"Cookies" is the usual word, but it is broader than that. This covers cookies on the website, and their equivalents in the app: local storage, device identifiers and software development kits that record how the app is used.
South Africa has no separate cookie law. POPIA still applies to anything that identifies you or your device, and section 45 of ECTA governs unsolicited communications. We take the position that anything not strictly necessary should be your choice, and we ask before we run it.
2. What a cookie actually is
A cookie is a small file a site or an app stores on your device so it can recognise that device next time. It is how you stay signed in between screens, and how the app remembers that you prefer dark mode.
Session items are temporary and disappear when you close the app or the browser. Persistent items stay until they expire or until you clear them. Both kinds are listed below with how long they last.
Most sites sort these into four buckets: strictly necessary, performance, functional and targeting. We use the first three and none of the fourth, which is the part worth reading closely in section 4.
3. What we use, and why
Strictly necessary. Always on.
These make the product work at all. Without them you cannot stay signed in or use the app safely, so there is nothing to consent to.
Session and sign-in
Security and abuse prevention
Your preferences
Only with your consent
Product analytics
Crash and performance reporting
What we do not use
No advertising, no third-party trackers, no cross-site profiling
We do not run advertising cookies. We do not embed advertising network pixels or tags. We do not build audiences from your activity for Facebook, Google or anyone else. We do not track you across other websites or apps, and we do not sell or share what you do here with data brokers or advertisers. If that ever changes, we would ask you first, plainly, and you would be able to say no and carry on using ToolBox.
4. How to choose
In the app: Settings, then Privacy. Turn analytics and crash reporting on or off whenever you like. Turning something off stops it immediately and clears what was collected under it where we can.
On the website: the banner on your first visit, and the Cookie settings link in the footer afterwards.
In your device or browser: you can also block or clear storage from your device settings or your browser. Strictly necessary items cannot be switched off, because the product cannot run without them, but you can always sign out and delete the app.
We ask again if we introduce a new category, or if a year has passed since you last chose.
5. Third parties involved
The tools we use are operated by service providers under contract to us. They process on our instructions, they may not use the information for their own purposes, and they are covered by the sharing and cross-border sections of the Privacy policy. The current list is available on request at privacy@toolbox.africa.
Where ToolBox links out to somebody else's site, that site sets its own cookies under its own policy. We have no control over it and no visibility of it.
6. Changes
We update this page when what we use changes. The date and version are at the top. A new category of non-essential tracking is never switched on for you. We ask first.