Privacy Policy
Updated 2026-10-17. This policy describes SocketFinderUSA.com and is available in 45 languages. Google message delivery depends on the operator publishing the corresponding messages. Advertising remains disabled in the owner-confirmed verification configuration; current account-side delivery has not been independently verified.
Who operates this site
SocketFinderUSA is an individual-operated sole proprietorship located in Texas, United States. “SocketFinderUSA,” “we” and “our” refer to the operator of socketfinderusa.com. For support or a privacy request, email support@socketfinderusa.com.
What the site does
SocketFinderUSA provides fastener reference charts, identification tools and shop calculators. Most calculations run on your device. Sending feedback and using paid PDF checkout or fulfillment, when available, involves our server and service providers. Avoid putting confidential or sensitive information into feedback or a Shop Sheet.
Services in use and services planned
The site integrates Google Analytics 4, browser storage, feedback services, hosting, Stripe payments and PDF fulfillment. Checkout availability is shown on the relevant product or Builder page. Google advertising is planned under the last owner-confirmed account baseline; current account-side activation has not been independently verified. An AdSense verification meta tag does not itself display ads.
Google Analytics uses cookies and identifiers to measure site use. Your optional choice is remembered for 180 days; advertising stays off. Cookie-based Analytics starts only after explicit permission. Unknown location never grants permission. Privacy choices lets you refuse or withdraw. Google refusals, US opt-outs and Global Privacy Control stop measurement.
Limited cookieless Analytics is prepared only for requests identified as United States requests by the hosting platform, after Google reports that the European Analytics consent purpose does not apply and its US opt-out evaluation is complete without an opt-out. Analytics storage remains denied, advertising features remain disabled, and Google may receive cookieless measurement requests. These requests are not anonymous merely because they lack Analytics cookies. Global Privacy Control, an unresolved privacy dialog, unavailable regional data or a US choice change blocks this fallback; after a US choice change, a fresh page load is required before it can be reconsidered. Outside the United States, measurement remains blocked without explicit Analytics permission. Excluded pages without the Google message loader also remain blocked when consent cannot be obtained. This approach does not establish a legal basis for every jurisdiction.
Information handled
| Information | Use |
|---|---|
| Analytics | Page views, tool interactions, browser/device information, approximate location and online identifiers may be processed by Google to understand use and improve the site. Google Analytics can use cookies such as _ga and related identifiers. Google may process IP addresses to provide its services; that does not mean we store a visitor's raw IP address in an analytics report. |
| Saved shop data | Shop Bench favorites, recent results, projects, saved Shop Sheets and migration backups are held in your browser's localStorage. These are not uploaded merely because you save them locally. If you submit a sheet for PDF checkout, a copy of the submitted sheet is sent to the server. |
| Preferences | We store your selected language. Browser language preferences can select an initial localized page. Feedback usage counters and nudge dismissal timestamps control when feedback prompts appear. |
| Feedback | Your message, reaction, optional rating/country/discovery source, page/tool context, language and device category may be stored in our database to correct data and improve tools. Security checks derive a hash from the request IP address and keep it in Worker memory to limit excessive feedback requests. The rate calculation uses a 60-second window; that is not a guaranteed deletion time for the in-memory hash. The application does not write this hash or the raw request IP to its feedback database. |
| Payments and PDFs | When checkout is available, submitted sheet content, transaction identifiers, amount/currency, status and fulfillment details are stored for payment verification and PDF access. A purchase access token is held in sessionStorage; the server stores a hash. Payment details entered in Stripe's hosted checkout are processed by Stripe. The site's inspected checkout flow does not collect raw payment-card fields. |
| For PDF purchases, we store payment references, amount/currency, status and fulfillment details. Custom orders also store the submitted sheet. Custom Shop Sheet tokens use sessionStorage; TorqueBase uses secure download cookies and private links. The server stores token hashes. Stripe processes card details in hosted checkout; we do not collect raw card fields. | Hosting and security providers process requests and technical information to deliver and protect the site. Owner administration uses authenticated access; public tool use does not require a site account. |
Browser storage and cookies
LocalStorage persists across visits until removed; sessionStorage normally lasts for the browser-tab session. Saved shop data and purchase authorization serve application functions independently of Analytics or advertising permission. Changing tracking permission does not delete your saved projects or Shop Sheets. Clearing site storage can remove them and may remove purchase access or preferences; export anything you want to keep first.
Analytics, Google consent services and Stripe may use their own cookies or storage under their policies. Browser cookie controls can affect those services. The prepared Google loader may make requests and use consent-related storage even while ad serving is disabled. Actual Google cookies and network behavior must be verified when the service is enabled; we do not promise that loading the script makes no requests or introduces no storage.
TorqueBase purchases and download emails
For TorqueBase PDF purchases, we use the email entered in Stripe Checkout to send your secure download link and help you recover access later. We store the purchase email, order reference, protected access-token hashes and email delivery outcomes. Resend sends these transactional messages on our behalf. Emails contain private links, not PDF attachments.
Necessary download cookies keep access tied to your purchase. Private download links expire after 48 hours; eligible purchases can be recovered through an email sent to the purchase address. Link expiration does not delete the purchase. Purchase and delivery records remain until owner-reviewed deletion under the order retention practices below; Resend may retain its own delivery records.
Providers and disclosure
Providers include Google for Analytics and planned consent/advertising, Stripe for payments, and the site's hosting/database platform through ChatGPT Sites and Cloudflare. Data may be processed on infrastructure outside your country. Service providers control their own processing and may retain records separately from our application. Provider-specific transfer arrangements and retention settings have not all been verified; we do not promise a particular legal transfer mechanism or immediate deletion from provider backups.
- Google Privacy Policy
- How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services
- Stripe Privacy Policy
- Cloudflare Privacy Policy
Planned Google advertising
If advertising is enabled later, Google and selected advertising partners may place or read cookies, use web beacons and process IP addresses or other identifiers for ad delivery, fraud prevention, measurement and, where permitted, personalization. Relevant third-party partners and their purposes will be disclosed in the consent service. Advertising is disabled during verification; Auto ads and Auto optimize are off and no manual ad units exist, according to the owner-confirmed account baseline. Account-side delivery and any later advertising activation require separate verification. Icelandic, payment, download and administrative workflows are excluded by the readiness policy. Here, “Icelandic” means URLs beginning /is/: a language-prefix rule, not a restriction based on residence.
Privacy choices
The site's Analytics choices work even when Google's consent service is unavailable. Google's published European and US privacy messages remain in use where applicable. Advertising permission is separate and stays denied.
Analytics is off until the applicable privacy requirements are met.
You can control browser storage, change site language and manage saved items in My Shop Bench. Google offers additional choices through My Ad Center. These Google account settings do not replace the site's consent choices.
How long information is kept
The table describes existing server and provider retention. This advertising-readiness release does not deploy the separate retention system, migrate the database or enable cleanup. There is no general automated retention job. Owner-approved retention targets remain a future policy subject to separate migration, validation and activation. Time limits on duplicate submissions, prompts or downloads are functional limits, not promises that underlying information is erased.
| Category | Current retention behavior |
|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 | Google stores analytics information. The owner has verified this GA4 property's settings: event data retention is 2 months, user data retention is 14 months, and reset on new user activity is enabled. New activity can extend the user-data retention period; this is not a fixed deletion deadline measured from your first visit. Google's retention setting governs certain user/event data and does not set the lifetime of all standard aggregated reports or browser cookies. These property settings do not determine retention for information Google processes independently under its own policies. |
| Feedback and reactions | Submissions, reactions, timestamps, context and administrative notes are stored in our hosted database. There is no automatic age-based purge in current production. The future owner-approved policy targets ordinary feedback older than 12 calendar months and associated reactions, with protection for documented investigations and legal holds; it is not activated by this release. Individual feedback messages can be deleted by the operator; that action does not automatically delete separately stored reactions, downloaded CSV exports or provider backups. Deletion from the active database does not erase independently held exports or provider backups; those require separate handling. |
| Orders and submitted Shop Sheets | Order status, payment identifiers, submitted sheet snapshots, access-token hashes, download history and processed Stripe event identifiers remain in the hosted database without an automated age-based deletion schedule. This includes unsuccessful or abandoned checkout records created after sheet validation. The normal download window is 48 hours from processing the verified successful-payment event; expiry denies download access but does not delete the order or sheet. PDFs are generated from the stored sheet for delivery, rather than saved in an application file bucket. Downloaded PDFs and browser-local copies remain under your control. Owner-approved future targets are removal of fulfilled sheet content after 30 days, verified abandoned checkout deletion after 30 days, and seven-year retention of essential transaction information and minimal payment-processing receipts, with extended retention for unresolved matters and legal holds. These targets are not active in this release. Financial and webhook-receipt deletion requires separate legal/accounting and replay-safety review. They are operator targets, not universal statutory deletion deadlines. Webhook-processing records contain Stripe event identifiers, event types and processing timestamps for duplicate prevention; they are distinct from purchase entitlements and customer sales receipts. TorqueBase chart PDFs are prebuilt files, unlike custom Shop Sheet PDFs generated from the stored sheet. |
| Stripe records | Stripe separately retains payment and associated customer information under its own privacy practices, including obligations relating to financial records, disputes and fraud prevention. We have not verified a fixed account-specific deletion period. A deletion in our database would not by itself delete Stripe records. |
| Shop Bench and Builder | Favorites, projects, saved sheets, templates and a migration backup remain in localStorage without a time-based expiry. Recent results are limited to the latest 20 entries. Removing a saved item may leave an older copy in the migration backup; clearing all site storage removes that local backup too. Browser settings may clear or preserve data differently. |
| Preferences and access tokens | Language and feedback-prompt values in localStorage have no automatic deletion timer. The feedback dismissal controls a 30-day pause in prompting, not 30-day deletion. Purchase tokens use sessionStorage and normally remain for the tab session, subject to browser session restoration; the server denies expired download access independently. Here, sessionStorage refers to Custom Shop Sheet access. TorqueBase also uses secure download cookies and expiring private links. |
| Hosting, logs and backups | Technical requests and application errors may be retained by the hosting platform. The application logs transaction/event identifiers and error details and has no separate log-deletion job. The actual provider log and backup retention periods have not been verified. Removing an active database record may not immediately remove provider recovery copies. |
| Support and privacy email | Messages you send to support@socketfinderusa.com may contain your email address, request details and related correspondence and are retained in the support mailbox. No fixed mailbox-retention or automatic deletion setting has been verified. |
Privacy requests
Email support@socketfinderusa.com with the subject “Privacy request.” Tell us what you are requesting and provide only the information needed to locate the relevant record, such as an approximate submission date/page or a purchase reference. Do not send full card details, passwords, purchase access tokens or sensitive identity documents. We may ask for proportionate information to verify the request and protect another person's data.
Depending on the law that applies, you may have rights to access, correct or delete personal information, restrict or object to processing, obtain a copy, withdraw consent, opt out of qualifying advertising uses, or challenge a request decision. You can use the same contact to ask us to reconsider a decision. Where applicable, you may also complain to your local data-protection authority. We will assess the request under applicable law; this page does not promise that every right applies in every location or that every record can be deleted immediately. Records needed for payment disputes or other applicable obligations and information held independently by providers may require separate handling. Browser-local saved data can be managed on your device; it is not remotely deleted when you email us.
Children and sensitive information
These are general shop reference tools. The site has no age-verification system. Do not submit children's personal information, payment-card details or sensitive personal information in feedback or sheet notes. We make no unverified claim that children's use is prevented.
Updates
The policy date will be updated when its practices change. New advertising or materially different data use requires updated disclosures and applicable choices. Unverified provider settings and applicable legal disclosures must be reviewed against the final configuration before publication. Contact us if you have questions about these disclosures.