1. What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that a website stores on your computer, tablet, or smartphone when you visit. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently and to provide information to the website owner.
Cookies serve many purposes. Some are essential for a website to function correctly — for example, a shopping cart or a multi-step form cannot work without session cookies. Others collect anonymised data about how users navigate a site, which helps website owners improve their service. Some cookies are placed by third-party services embedded in the page, such as advertising networks or video players.
Cookies do not typically contain personally identifiable information on their own. However, when combined with other data, they may be used to identify a user indirectly. This is why we are transparent about every cookie PDF Size Reducer uses.
PDF Size Reducer uses a minimal number of cookies. We do not use cookies for advertising profiling or behavioural tracking. We do not sell cookie data to third parties.
2. How We Use Cookies
PDF Size Reducer uses cookies for three primary purposes:
- Session management: To maintain your state as you move through our multi-step PDF processing workflow (Upload → Organise → Download)
- Analytics: To understand how users interact with PDF Size Reducer in aggregate, so we can improve the Service
- Advertising: To fund the free Service through non-intrusive advertisements served by Google AdSense
We do not use cookies to build individual user profiles, to track you across other websites (except as a result of third-party advertising cookies, described below), or to infer sensitive personal characteristics.
3. Full Cookie Reference List
| Cookie Name | Type | Purpose | Duration | Set By |
|---|---|---|---|---|
PHPSESSID |
Essential | Maintains your upload session across the processing workflow | Session (deleted on browser close) | PDF Size Reducer |
csrf_token |
Essential | Prevents cross-site request forgery attacks on form submissions | Session | PDF Size Reducer |
_ga |
Analytics | Distinguishes unique users in Google Analytics (anonymised) | 2 years | |
_gid |
Analytics | Distinguishes unique users within a 24-hour period | 24 hours | |
_gat |
Analytics | Throttles request rate to Google Analytics servers | 1 minute | |
__gads |
Advertising | Used by Google AdSense to track ad impressions and click events | 13 months | |
IDE |
Advertising | Used by Google DoubleClick to register and report ad interactions | 13 months |
4. Essential Cookies
Essential cookies are strictly necessary for PDF Size Reducer to function. Without them, the multi-step processing workflow cannot operate — your uploaded files would be unrecognisable between the upload step and the download step.
Specifically, our PHP session cookie (PHPSESSID) stores a reference to your current job (a randomised identifier, not personal data) so that when you click "Process" on Step 2, our server knows which files belong to your session. This cookie is automatically deleted when you close your browser.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary, they are set without requiring your consent under ePrivacy regulations. They do not track you across websites or store any personal information.
5. Analytics Cookies
We use Google Analytics to collect anonymised information about how visitors use PDF Size Reducer. This helps us understand which tools are most popular, which pages have high exit rates, and how users navigate through the site — allowing us to make informed improvements.
Critically, we have configured Google Analytics with IP anonymisation enabled. This means your full IP address is never stored by Google. The data we receive is aggregate and statistical in nature — for example, "3,200 unique sessions from the United Kingdom processed PDFs on Tuesday" — not individual user journeys.
We do not use the demographic or interest data features of Google Analytics, nor do we connect Google Analytics data to any personally identifiable information.
6. Advertising Cookies
PDF Size Reducer is a free service sustained by advertising revenue. We display advertisements through Google AdSense. Google may use cookies to serve advertisements that are relevant to your interests based on your browsing history across other websites.
We have no direct access to or control over Google's advertising cookies. Google's use of advertising cookies is governed by its own Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. You can review and adjust your Google ad personalisation settings at adssettings.google.com.
If you prefer not to see personalised advertisements, you can opt out through the Google Ad Settings page or by visiting aboutads.info/choices. Note that opting out of personalised ads does not mean you will stop seeing advertisements — it means the ads may be less relevant to you.
7. Third-Party Cookies
In addition to our own cookies, third-party services embedded in PDF Size Reducer may set their own cookies. We have no control over these cookies once they are placed. The third-party services that may set cookies on PDF Size Reducer are:
- Google Analytics — analytics cookies (
_ga,_gid,_gat) - Google AdSense / DoubleClick — advertising cookies (
__gads,IDE) - Cloudflare — may set a short-lived security cookie (
__cf_bm) for bot protection
For more information about these third-party cookies, please consult the respective privacy policies linked in Section 3 of our Privacy Policy.
8. Managing and Disabling Cookies
You can control and manage cookies in several ways:
Browser Settings
All modern browsers allow you to view, manage, delete, and block cookies through their settings menus. Here are direct links to cookie management instructions for popular browsers:
Please be aware that disabling essential cookies (particularly session cookies) will prevent PDF Size Reducer's processing workflow from functioning correctly. Non-essential cookies (analytics, advertising) can be safely disabled without affecting core functionality.
Google Analytics Opt-Out
You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting data by installing the Google Analytics Opt-Out Browser Add-on. This is available for all major browsers and works across all websites that use Google Analytics.
9. Do Not Track Signals
Some browsers include a "Do Not Track" (DNT) feature that signals your preference for websites not to track your browsing activity. Because there is currently no universally accepted standard for responding to DNT signals, PDF Size Reducer does not currently change its behaviour in response to DNT signals. However, our analytics configuration (IP anonymisation, no cross-site tracking) already reflects the spirit of DNT preferences.
10. Changes to This Cookie Policy
We may update this Cookie Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the cookies we use, changes in our third-party service providers, or changes in applicable regulations. When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this page periodically.
11. Contact Us
If you have questions about our use of cookies, please contact us at privacy@pdfsizereducer.com or via our Contact Form.