Layout Knowledge Base

Privacy policy

How this site handles data, cookies, Google Analytics, and Google advertising.

This privacy policy describes how klayout.com (the Layout Knowledge Base) handles information when you visit the site. Questions: hello@klayout.com.

Last updated: October 19, 2026.

What this site is

klayout.com publishes educational notes about layout (chips, MEMS, masks, and boards). It is not a storefront and does not require an account to read the notes.

Information we receive

Like most websites, the hosting provider may record standard server logs such as IP address, browser type, requested URL, and time of request. Those logs are used for security, debugging, and understanding aggregate traffic. We do not sell personal information.

If you email hello@klayout.com, we receive whatever you put in that message (including your email address) and use it only to reply or to correct content.

Cookies and local storage

The site may use:

  • Essential cookies or local storage for ordinary site behavior (for example, remembering which featured notes you already saw on the front page so the hero can rotate).
  • A consent record in your browser's local storage (key kl_consent) that remembers whether you chose Accept or Reject in the cookie banner, so the banner does not reappear on every page.
  • Analytics cookies from Google Analytics: in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland only after you click Accept; elsewhere by default until you switch them off under Cookie settings (see below).
  • Advertising cookies, when Google AdSense is active on the site and only after you click Accept (see below).

You can clear cookies and site data in your browser settings at any time.

When you first visit, a banner asks whether this site may use Google cookies for analytics and advertising. What happens before you choose depends on your region:

  • In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, analytics and ads are off until you consent. Google's consent signals for analytics storage, ad storage, ad user data, and ad personalization are all set to "denied," and no Google Analytics or advertising cookies are written. If you click Reject, they stay denied.
  • Elsewhere, analytics (Google Analytics 4, without ad signals) runs by default. You can switch it off at any time with Reject in the banner or under Cookie settings. Ad storage, ad user data, and ad personalization stay "denied" until you click Accept.

Your region is determined from Google's estimate of your location, based on your IP address. Your stored choice (Accept or Reject) always takes precedence over these defaults.

You can withdraw or change your choice at any time with the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page. It reopens the banner. Choosing Reject there switches all consent signals, including analytics storage, to "denied" and deletes the Google Analytics cookies (_ga, _ga_*) that this site can reach from the browser. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that happened before you withdrew it.

Google AdSense and advertising cookies

This site is connected to Google AdSense (publisher ID pub-8532307305361053). Display ads may appear on pages once ad units are configured. Until then, Google’s AdSense script may still load so Google can review the site.

Advertising cookies are only used after you click Accept in the cookie banner, in every region; until then the consent signals for ad storage, ad user data, and ad personalization stay "denied." When ads are shown, the following disclosures apply (as required by Google AdSense):

  • Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to your website or other websites.
  • Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to your users based on their visit to your sites and/or other sites on the Internet.
  • Users may opt out of personalized advertising via Google’s Ads Settings page (search for “Google Ads Settings” in your browser). Alternatively, some third-party vendors’ advertising cookies can be controlled via the industry opt-out page at aboutads.info (type that address in your browser; this site does not link out).

Google also publishes a page describing how it uses information from sites or apps that use its services; look for that explanation on Google’s own policies site. This knowledge base does not link off-site.

Google Analytics

This site uses Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google (for visitors in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, by Google Ireland Limited; data may also be processed by Google LLC in the United States).

Purpose. We use it to understand, in aggregate, which notes are read, how visitors find them, and which pages need work. We do not use it to identify individual visitors, and we do not combine it with other data about you.

In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland: only with consent. For visitors in these regions the Google tag loads in Consent Mode with every consent signal set to "denied" by default. Google Analytics cookies are set and full measurement starts only after you click Accept in the cookie banner. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR and Section 25(1) of the German TDDDG). While consent is denied, the tag may send cookieless pings (for example, that a page was viewed) without reading or writing cookies on your device.

Elsewhere: on by default, with opt-out. Outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google Analytics 4 runs by default, without ad signals: analytics storage is "granted" while ad storage, ad user data, and ad personalization stay "denied." You can switch analytics off at any time via Cookie settings at the bottom of every page by choosing Reject; this is stored in your browser and deletes the Google Analytics cookies the site can reach. Your region is determined from Google's estimate of your location.

Cookies set when analytics is on (after you accept, or by default outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland):

  • _ga distinguishes one browser from another. It expires after 2 years.
  • _ga_* (followed by an ID for this site's property) keeps the state of the current visit. It expires after 2 years.

What Google processes. Google receives information such as the pages you view, the referring page, an approximate location derived from your IP address, device and browser type, screen size, and time on page. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses. Google processes this data on our behalf and, for its own purposes, as described in its own privacy policy and data processing terms (search for "Google Privacy Policy" and "How Google uses information from sites that use our services"; this site does not link out). Transfers to the United States rely on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, under which Google LLC is certified, and on Google's standard contractual clauses.

Retention. Event-level data in Google Analytics is kept for at most 14 months and then deleted; aggregated reports may be kept longer.

Withdrawal. Use the Cookie settings link at the bottom of any page and choose Reject. You can also delete the cookies in your browser or block them with your browser's settings or a content blocker.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data, restriction of or objection to processing, and data portability, and you may lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. For analytics data, most of this is handled most effectively by withdrawing consent as described above. Requests: hello@klayout.com.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes

If this policy changes in a material way, the “Last updated” date above will change. Continued use of the site after an update means you have seen the revised policy.

Contact

Privacy questions: hello@klayout.com.