Privacy Policy

Last updated 6 November 2026

iptools.net.au is a free collection of network, DNS, email and webmaster tools. There are no accounts, no sign-ups and no newsletters, so most people use this site without telling us anything about themselves. This page explains the exceptions: what the server records on its own, what the tools do with what you type, and what Google does when an ad loads.

1. Who we are

iptools.net.au (referred to as "we", "us" or "the site") is run by the site owner, who can be reached at info@iptools.net.au. That address is the single point of contact for anything on this page, including requests about your personal information.

2. What the server records

Like every web server, ours writes an access log for each request. A typical entry holds the IP address you connected from, the date and time, the page you asked for, the page that referred you, your browser's user-agent string, and the response code. We use those logs to keep the site running, to spot abuse and to work out which tools are worth maintaining. They are not matched against any profile, because there is no profile to match them against.

Two smaller records exist as well:

• Rate-limit counters. Tools that fetch from other servers keep a short counter per address so nobody can turn the site into an open proxy. The file is named with a hash of your IP address, not the address itself, and it is thrown away within minutes.
• Blocked requests. If a request matches our threat list — a known scanner, a blocked network, a probe for a sensitive path — it is refused, and the IP address, user agent and requested path are sent to our own blocklist service at block.jamesfranklin.au so the same source is recognised on our other sites.

3. What the tools do with your input

Many of these tools have to ask another server a question, so what you type goes to that server. This table is the complete list of where it goes.

Passwords and credentials typed into the htpasswd generator or the IMAP sync command builder are used only to build the output on screen. They are not written to a database and not kept after the request.

4. Cookies

The site sets one cookie of its own, and only on one page. Everyone else's cookies come from Google.

• PHPSESSID — set by the YouTube info tool to count how many lookups you have made in the last ten minutes. It expires when you close the browser and carries no personal information.
• Google Analytics — _ga and _ga_<id>, which distinguish one browser from another for statistics. They last up to two years.
• Google AdSense — cookies such as IDE, test_cookie, __gads and __gpi, used to serve and measure ads and to limit how often you see the same one.

You can delete or block all of these in your browser settings, and blocking third-party cookies stops the Google ones from being set at all. The tools keep working either way. More on the advertising cookies is directly below.

5. Advertising

This site is paid for by advertising served through Google AdSense. Google and its partners use cookies to show ads based on your previous visits to this site and to other sites, which is what makes an ad for a VPN appear next to a DNS tool.

Specifically:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, or opt out of a third-party vendor's use of cookies for personalised advertising at aboutads.info. In the EU and UK, Your Online Choices covers the same ground.
• Opting out does not remove ads. It makes them less relevant, and they may still be chosen from the page content rather than your history.

Our authorised sellers are listed in ads.txt, as the industry requires. We do not sell advertising space directly and we do not pass anything you type into a tool to an advertiser.

6. Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 to see which tools are used, roughly where visitors come from, and what to fix. It reports in aggregate: page views, referral sources, device type, country. We do not use it to identify individuals, and the tag on the site is a plain page-view configuration with no advertising or remarketing features switched on. Google offers a browser add-on that opts your browser out of Analytics on every site, and blocking the googletagmanager.com script does the same for this one.

7. Third parties we use

Each of those services has its own privacy policy and its own retention rules. Where they process data outside Australia — Google and BigDataCloud both do — the transfer is covered by their own safeguards, and we do not send them anything beyond what the table in section 3 describes.

8. What we never do

• We do not ask you to create an account, and we have no database of users to lose.
• We do not sell, rent or trade personal information.
• We do not send marketing email, because we never collect an address to send it to.
• We do not try to work out who you are from your IP address, or combine the logs with anything else.

9. How long we keep things

Access logs are rotated and discarded as part of normal server maintenance; we keep them only as long as they are useful for security and capacity. Rate-limit counters last minutes, session cookies last until you close the browser, and the Google cookies expire on the schedules in section 4. Emails you send us are kept so we can answer them, and for as long as we need the record afterwards.

10. Your rights

If you are in Australia, the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles apply. You can ask what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, and ask us to delete it. In practice that will usually be an access log entry, which we may not be able to find without the exact IP address and time.

If you are in the EU, the UK, Switzerland or another country with similar laws, you also have the right to object to processing, to ask for a copy of your data in a portable form, and to withdraw consent where consent is the basis. Our legal basis for the server logs and the blocklist is our legitimate interest in keeping the service available and secure; for the cookies in section 4, the choices Google presents and the controls in your own browser decide what is set.

Email info@iptools.net.au and we will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, Australian residents can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au, and EU or UK residents can complain to their local data protection authority.

11. Children

This site is aimed at people working with networks and websites, and it is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, email us and we will delete it.

12. Changes

If the way the site handles information changes — a new third-party tool, a new ad provider — this page is updated and the date at the top changes. The current version always applies.

13. Contact

Questions, corrections or complaints about privacy go to info@iptools.net.au. For everything else about the site, see Contact and Terms & Conditions.