Who we are
Rank Forge is operated by IE Nazar Verhun, an individual entrepreneur registered in Georgia. IE Nazar Verhun is the controller of the personal data described in this policy. You can reach us at [email protected].
This policy covers this website and the Rank Forge application.
What we collect on this website
When you send the contact form we store what you type: your name, work email, website address, the platform your site runs on and your message. We also store the page you sent it from, the campaign parameters in the link you arrived with (utm_*) and the referring page, when your browser provides them. To fight spam we keep a one-way hash of your IP address and browser, not the values themselves.
How we use it
We use these details to answer you, to walk you through Rank Forge on your site and to keep spam out. We do not sell your data and do not use it for advertising. The notification of your message is sent to our team from our own mail server.
Cookies and analytics
Necessary cookies keep the site working, for example the cookie that remembers your cookie choice for 365 days. They are always on.
We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages help, and only with your consent. Analytics cookies are set only after you accept them in the cookie banner. We use Google Consent Mode v2: until you accept, all storage is denied, and Google receives only cookieless signals without an analytics cookie. When analytics is switched on, Google's tag is loaded from Google's servers. Nothing on this website is used for advertising. You can change your choice at any time with the cookie settings link at the bottom of every page.
The Rank Forge application
When you use the application we process your account details (name and email, or your Google account when you use Google sign-in), the address and public content of the website you connect, your brand profile, keywords, competitors, the articles we prepare for you and the status of your plan.
Site credentials and Google access
To publish to your site you connect it with credentials, such as an application password or an API key. These credentials and the OAuth tokens of the Google accounts you connect are encrypted at rest. We use them only to do what you asked: publish articles to your site and read its data.
Search Console and GA4 are connected with read-only Google permissions: Rank Forge can read the performance data of your site but cannot change anything in your Google accounts. You can disconnect a site at any time, and Search Console or Google Analytics in Settings → Integrations → Disconnect. How we use the data we receive from Google is explained in the Google user data section below.
Where data is stored
Our servers are hosted by Contabo GmbH in Germany. Data is stored and processed there, except where a provider listed below processes it for us.
Service providers
We use these providers to run Rank Forge. Each of them processes data only to provide its service to us.
- Contabo GmbH (Germany): server hosting.
- Cloudflare: content delivery, DNS and proxy. Traffic to this website passes through Cloudflare.
- Google: Google Analytics 4 on this website, only with your consent; read-only Search Console and GA4 access for the accounts you connect in the application; Google sign-in; Gemini AI models, only if Gemini is selected for generation.
- OpenAI and Anthropic: AI generation of article text and images from the content of your site, your brand profile and your keywords, and, to prepare recommendations, limited Search Console and Analytics data (see Google user data).
- DataForSEO: keyword and search result data. We send keywords and website addresses.
- Creem: payments. Card details are entered with Creem and never reach our servers.
- Our own mail server: transactional email, such as sign-in messages, notifications and our replies.
Some of these providers may process data outside the European Economic Area, for example in the United States. In that case we rely on their data processing terms and the safeguards they offer for international transfers.
Google user data
This section explains how Rank Forge accesses, uses, stores and shares data that we receive from Google when you use Google sign-in or connect Google Search Console or Google Analytics.
What we access
- Google sign-in (scopes openid, email, profile): your name, email address and Google account identifier, used only to create your Rank Forge account and log you in.
- Google Search Console (scope webmasters.readonly, read-only): the list of Search Console properties you have access to, and, for the one property you select, search performance data: search queries, page URLs, clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position by date.
- Google Analytics 4 (scope analytics.readonly, read-only): the list of GA4 properties you have access to, and, for the one property you select, per-page metrics: page path, page views, sessions, bounce rate, average session duration and conversions by date.
Rank Forge never changes anything in your Google accounts, properties or settings.
How we use it
We use this data only to provide the features you see in Rank Forge: to show your site's search and traffic performance on the Performance and Search terms screens, and to recommend and prepare content for your own website, such as which articles to write next and which existing pages to update. We do not use Google user data for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not use it for any purpose unrelated to these features.
AI processing
To prepare recommendations, briefs and article updates for your site, Rank Forge sends limited parts of this data, such as your top search queries, their positions, impressions and clicks, and page-level traffic metrics, to the AI model providers we use to generate content: Anthropic and OpenAI (and Google, if Gemini is selected). They process it only to return the result to us for your account. We do not use Google user data to develop, improve or train generalized or non-personalized AI or machine learning models, and we do not allow our providers to use it for that purpose.
How we store it
OAuth access and refresh tokens are encrypted at rest. Imported Search Console and Analytics data is stored in our database on servers hosted in Germany (Contabo GmbH) and is accessible only to your account. Our staff do not read your Google data, except with your explicit permission (for example, when you ask us for support), for security purposes, or to comply with the law.
Sharing
We do not transfer Google user data to third parties except to the service providers listed above as necessary to provide the features you use, for security purposes, to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger or acquisition with your prior consent. We never transfer or sell it to advertising platforms, data brokers or information resellers.
Revoking access and deleting data
You can disconnect Search Console or Google Analytics at any time in Settings → Integrations → Disconnect; this revokes our access token and deletes the stored tokens. You can also remove Rank Forge's access at https://myaccount.google.com/permissions. Data already imported stays in your account until you delete the site or your account, or ask us to delete it by writing to [email protected]; we then delete it within 30 days.
Limited Use
Rank Forge's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Legal basis
We process data to answer your request and to provide the service you signed up for, for analytics only with your consent, and for security and spam protection because we have a legitimate interest in keeping the service safe.
How long we keep data
Contact form messages are kept as long as we need them to answer you and follow up, and are deleted when you ask. Account data is kept while your account is active. When you close your account we delete your data, except records we must keep by law, such as billing records. Data imported from Search Console and Google Analytics is kept and deleted as described in Google user data.
Your rights
You can ask us to show, correct, delete or export the data we hold about you, to restrict or object to its use, and you can withdraw your consent at any time. Write to [email protected]. You can also complain to your data protection authority.
Changes
We update this policy when our services or providers change. The date of the last update is shown at the top of this page.