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Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 11/05/2026

Welcome to SMARTSEO. smartseo.dev and the SMARTSEO app are operated by SMART SEO LLC, a Texas limited liability company (“SMARTSEO”, “we”, “us” or “our”). Your privacy is important to us. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you interact with our website.

1. Information We Collect

We collect limited personal information through the following methods:

a. Forms

When you submit a form on our site (such as a contact or inquiry form), we may collect:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Your message or any information you choose to share

b. Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity

This website and the SMARTSEO web app load Google Tag Manager, which runs the two tools below only if you allow them (see Privacy choices). Until you choose, neither runs.

  • Analytics: Google Analytics 4. It counts visits and which pages people use: an approximate location derived from your IP address (Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses), device type and browser, pages visited and time spent, and how you arrived at our site. In the app it also records which screens you use and actions such as adding a site or starting a scan, with an internal account number, never your name, your email address, your sites’ addresses, your keywords or your competitors. When you allow Analytics, our servers also send Google Analytics a few events of their own (such as a finished scan, a trial or a payment), linked to the same anonymous browser ID and never to your name or email address. We keep Google Analytics data for 14 months.
  • Session replay: Microsoft Clarity. It records clicks, taps and scrolling so we can find and fix confusing pages. Text from your sites and your account (such as your sites’ addresses, keywords, competitors and email address) is masked in the replays. Microsoft’s use of it is covered by the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

This data helps us understand and improve the website and the app. We do not use either for advertising.

c. The SMARTSEO mobile apps

The iPhone and Android apps will use Google Analytics for Firebase (which screens people use) and Microsoft Clarity (session replay, with the same masking), only if you allow them in the app. The apps ask on their own, separately from your choice on this website, and you can change it in the app under Profile › Privacy choices.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information collected to:

  • Respond to your inquiries or messages submitted through our forms
  • Analyze website usage to improve performance and usability
  • Maintain and enhance the security and functionality of our website

We do not sell or share your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

3. Cookies

  • Essential cookies keep you signed in to the app and keep it secure. They are always on.
  • Your privacy choice is kept in one cookie, ss_consent, shared by smartseo.dev and the SMARTSEO web app, so one choice covers both on the same browser. It holds only what you chose and when, nothing about you, and lasts six months; after that we ask again.
  • Google Analytics cookies are set only if you allow Analytics, and Microsoft Clarity’s only if you allow Session replay.
  • We do not use advertising cookies.

Privacy choices

The first time you visit this website or the app, we ask: Accept all, Reject all, or Choose to allow Analytics and Session replay separately. You can change your choice at any time: Privacy choices in this website’s footer, or in the app, Privacy choices in the account menu or on your Profile. Turning one off applies straight away to what we measure from then on; session replay stops from the next page you open.

You may also block cookies in your browser settings. However, doing so may affect how the website functions.

Learn more about how Google uses your data here:
https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites

4. Data Security

We implement reasonable security measures to protect your data. However, please note that no internet transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute data protection.

5. Your Rights

You have the right to:

  • Request access to any personal data we may have collected about you
  • Request correction or deletion of your data
  • Withdraw consent (if applicable)

To exercise any of these rights, please email us at info@smartseo.dev.

6. Changes to This Policy

SMARTSEO may update this Privacy Policy periodically. We encourage you to review this page regularly for any changes. The effective date at the top will always reflect the most recent update.

7. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact us at:

SMART SEO LLC (SMARTSEO)
Email: info@smartseo.dev
Website: https://smartseo.dev/

8. The SMARTSEO app

This section covers the SMARTSEO app, on the web and in the SMARTSEO mobile apps. The sections above cover this website.

a. What the app collects

  • Your account: your name, your email address and a password (stored only as a one-way hash), and when you accepted our terms. We send you a link to verify your email address before you can sign in.
  • Signing in with Google: we receive your name, your email address and your Google account ID, which is how we recognise you the next time. Signing in with Google never gives SMARTSEO access to your Search Console or Analytics: that is a separate connection you choose to make (below). If you already have a SMARTSEO account on a Gmail or Google Workspace address, signing in with that same Google account connects it to your existing account, and we email that address to tell you. You can disconnect Google sign-in from your profile once your account has a password.
  • Signing in with Apple: we receive your Apple user ID, which is how we recognise you the next time, and the email address Apple gives us: your own, or, if you choose Hide My Email, a private relay address at privaterelay.appleid.com that Apple forwards to your real inbox (our emails to you go through Apple’s relay, and Apple never tells us your real address). Apple gives us your name only the first time you sign in with Apple, and only if you share it; we keep it on your account. We also keep, encrypted, a token Apple gives us so that we can end SMARTSEO’s access to your Apple ID when you disconnect Apple sign-in or delete your account. If you already have a SMARTSEO account on an iCloud address (icloud.com, me.com or mac.com) that Apple confirms is yours, signing in with that Apple ID connects it to your existing account, and we email that address to tell you. Any other address, Hide My Email addresses included, never connects an account by the address alone: if you sign in with Apple on another address that already has an account, we ask you to sign in once with your password or Google, in the same browser or app within 15 minutes, and only then connect Apple, and only to the account you signed in to. You can also connect Apple on your profile at any time. You can disconnect Apple sign-in from your profile once your account has a password, and you can also stop using Sign in with Apple for SMARTSEO yourself in your Apple ID’s settings.
  • Your projects: the websites you add, the keywords you track, the competitors you name, the questions you ask about AI assistants, your answers about your business (such as its category and location), and your settings.
  • Your business’s location: the address you type, or the place you pick from the suggestions under the address box. Picking a suggestion only fills the box: what we keep is the address as you save it. For a place you pick and then save, we also keep its Google place ID and its point on the map; we refresh that point within 30 days or delete it, and we never update your address from Google. Your business’s name and location are used to check where it appears in Google Maps.
  • What we read from public websites: our crawler, SmartSEOBot, reads the public pages of the websites you add and of the competitors you name. When our crawler can’t read a page, we may ask a crawling service (DataForSEO) to read the same public pages, under the same robots.txt rules. See SmartSEOBot.
  • Data from accounts you connect: described in the next part.
  • Technical data: sign-in records and error reports, used to keep the app secure and working.

b. Google user data

If you choose to connect Google Search Console or Google Analytics, you sign in with Google and grant SMARTSEO read-only access:

  • Search Console (webmasters.readonly): the list of your Search Console properties and their search performance (the searches people used, clicks, impressions, average position and the pages they landed on).
  • Google Analytics (analytics.readonly): the list of your Analytics properties and their reports (visitors, traffic sources, landing pages, events and, where you record them, sales).
  • Your Google account’s email address (openid, email), so we can show which account is connected.

We use this data only to show you your own reports inside SMARTSEO and the figures built from them (such as your SMARTSEO Score). The search terms from your Search Console report are sent to our keyword data provider, DataForSEO, only to look up how many people search for them, so we can show you that figure beside your own. We never sell Google user data, never use it for advertising, never send your Search Console or Analytics reports to an AI model, and never use them to train one. People at SMARTSEO do not read it, except with your permission, to investigate a problem you report, for security, or where the law requires it.

SMARTSEO’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

c. Bing user data

If you connect Bing Webmaster Tools, you grant SMARTSEO read-only access (webmaster.read) to the sites in your Bing account and their search reports. We use it only to show you those reports in SMARTSEO, never add it to Google’s figures, and never sell it.

d. How we keep it

The access tokens for Google and Bing are encrypted when stored. Your data is stored with our hosting provider in the United States and is sent over encrypted connections.

e. Disconnecting and deleting

  • Disconnect Google or Bing at any time from the app’s Integrations page. Disconnecting deletes the access tokens we hold, so nothing more is read, and deletes everything we stored from that account for the project: Search Console’s searches and page figures, the Analytics reports, or Bing’s search reports, and the search-volume figures we looked up only because Search Console reported those searches. Scores already calculated stay in the project’s history. (Deleting your account removes everything.) For Google, we also ask Google to revoke SMARTSEO’s access unless another of your SMARTSEO connections still uses the same Google sign-in. You can also remove SMARTSEO’s access yourself at any time in your Google Account’s security settings or in Bing Webmaster Tools under Settings → API Access.
  • Delete your account from inside the app (on your profile). This ends every session, disconnects Google and Bing as above, asks Apple to revoke SMARTSEO’s access if you signed in with Apple, cancels any web subscription straight away and deletes you as a customer at Stripe, and permanently deletes your account, your projects and everything stored for them. We keep only usage records needed for our accounts, with your name and email removed, and a one-way code made from your email address that tells us its free trial was used, so a new account with the same address doesn’t get a second one; the code can’t be turned back into the address. Stripe keeps the invoices and payment records the law requires it to keep.
  • Or email info@smartseo.dev to ask for any of this.

f. Companies that help us run the app

  • Hosting: Render (the app’s servers and database) and Vercel (this website and the web app).
  • Keyword, ranking, Google Maps and AI-answer data: DataForSEO, which receives the keywords, domains and questions it needs to answer, and your business’s name and location for the Google Maps checks. When our crawler can’t read a site, DataForSEO also receives that site’s address and our robots.txt rules, and reads the same public pages for us.
  • AI: Anthropic, which receives text from your site’s public pages, the keywords found on them and your site’s scores, to classify your site and suggest improvements. It never receives your Google or Bing data.
  • Address suggestions: Google Maps Platform (Places), which receives what you type in the business address box (from the third character) and, where we know it, your site’s country, and returns matching places. It does not receive your name or email address. Google’s use of it is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.
  • Page speed: Google PageSpeed Insights, which receives your homepage address.
  • Signing in: Google and Apple, when you choose to sign in with them. They confirm who you are and send us what is listed under “What the app collects”; Apple also forwards our emails to a Hide My Email address.
  • Email: we will use Postmark to send our account emails (verification, password reset and notifications) once it is set up.
  • Payments on the web: Stripe processes them. When you upgrade or start a trial, Stripe receives your email address and, if you add one, your card and billing address; Stripe holds your card details and we never receive your full card number. We keep only what we need to know your plan: Stripe’s reference numbers for you and your subscription, the plan, how often it renews, its status and when the period ends. Stripe’s use of your details is covered by the Stripe Privacy Policy.
  • Payments in the apps: when you can subscribe in the iPhone or Android app, Apple or Google will bill you and handle your card details, and we will receive only what we need to know your plan.
  • Error reports: once we switch error reporting on, Sentry will receive technical details when something breaks.
  • Measurement, only if you allow it: Google (Google Analytics, through Google Tag Manager) and Microsoft (Clarity), as described in section 1.