Privacy Policy

Rankbench (“Rankbench”, “we”, “us”) provides SEO auditing, content planning and editorial collaboration tools at rankbench.io. Rankbench is a product of CodeDesign Inc., which is the data controller for the personal data described here. This policy covers the Rankbench website and the signed-in product.

What we collect

We collect three kinds of information.

• What you give us. Your name, email address and password when you create an account; your workspace and website details; anything you write in articles, comments, support requests or messages to our assistant; and billing details you enter with our payment provider.
• What you connect. Data from services you choose to link, such as Google Search Console or a content management system. Nothing is connected unless you connect it, and you can disconnect it at any time.
• What happens automatically. Standard technical information such as your IP address, browser and device type, and records of which pages and features you used. We use this to keep the service working and to understand which parts of it people find useful.

We also read publicly available information about websites — pages, links and search visibility — including your own site and the sites you ask us about. That is the core of what the product does.

Google user data

If you connect Google Search Console, Rankbench asks Google for one permission only: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/webmasters.readonly. It is read-only. We cannot change anything in your Search Console account, and we never ask for access to Gmail, Drive, Contacts or your Google account’s wider data.

We use that access for exactly one thing:

• Reading the search performance of the properties you select — queries, pages, clicks, impressions and average position — so Rankbench can show you how your site is doing and plan content around it.

The access and refresh tokens Google issues are encrypted before they are stored, and are used only to make those read requests on your behalf. Disconnecting Search Console in your website settings deletes the stored credentials immediately. You can also revoke Rankbench’s access at any time from your Google Account permissions page.

Rankbench’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.

We do not use Google user data to train generalised artificial intelligence or machine learning models, we do not sell it, and we do not transfer it to anyone except as described under “Who we share it with” below.

Why we use it

• To provide the service and the features you ask for.
• To sign you in, keep your account secure and prevent abuse.
• To send you notices about your account, your work and your billing.
• To answer your questions when you contact us.
• To understand which parts of the product are used, so we can improve them.
• To meet our legal and tax obligations.

Where the law requires a legal basis, ours is the performance of our contract with you, our legitimate interest in running and improving the service, your consent where you have given it, and compliance with legal obligations.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for advertising. We do use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf, under contract and only on our instructions:

• Cloud hosting and database providers, who store the service’s data.
• Stripe, which handles payments. Card numbers go to Stripe and are never stored by us.
• An email delivery provider, which sends the notices you receive.
• PostHog, our product analytics provider, which records how the product is used, including session recordings. See analytics and session recording below.
• AI model providers, which generate drafts and answers from the material you give them.
• SEO and search-data providers, which supply public information about websites and search results.

We may also disclose information where the law requires it, to protect our rights or someone’s safety, or to a buyer if Rankbench is ever sold or merged — in which case this policy continues to apply to the data transferred.

Some of the people you work with inside Rankbench will see what you do there. Workspace members see the workspace’s content, and a collaboration you agree to — a guest post, a backlink exchange — shows the other side what that collaboration needs.

How long we keep it

We keep your account data for as long as your account exists, and for a reasonable period afterwards where we need it to settle billing, resolve a dispute, or meet a legal obligation. Connected-service credentials are deleted as soon as you disconnect that service. Site previews for people who never signed up expire on their own.

How we protect it

Data is encrypted in transit. Credentials for services you connect are encrypted at rest. Access to production systems is limited to the people who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we do not claim otherwise — but if a breach affects your data and the law requires us to tell you, we will.

Your choices

• See and correct. Most of your data is visible and editable in the product. Write to us for anything that is not.
• Delete. Ask us to delete your account and we will, subject to anything we are legally required to keep.
• Export. Ask and we will give you a copy of your data in a portable format.
• Disconnect. Any connected service can be disconnected from its settings page, which removes our access.
• Email. You can turn off categories of notification email in your notification preferences. Notices about your account, your billing and your access are sent regardless, because they are about things you need to know.

Depending on where you live you may have further rights — to object to processing, to restrict it, or to complain to a data protection authority. Write to us and we will help.

Children

Rankbench is a business tool and is not intended for anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

International transfers

Rankbench is operated from, and its data is processed in, facilities that may be outside your country. Where we transfer personal data across borders we rely on appropriate safeguards, including the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses where they apply.

Analytics and session recording

To find what is broken or confusing, we measure how Rankbench is used in two ways.

• Our own measurement. We record which pages you open and the main steps you take, such as adding or verifying a website, on our own servers. It tells us where people get stuck.
• PostHog. With your permission where the law requires it, PostHog records page views, clicks, technical errors and a replay of how the screen changed as you used the product. Everything you type into a field is hidden in the replay, and the data the product loads in the background, such as your search figures, is not recorded. PostHog is based in the United States, and keeps replays for 30 days.

In the European Union, the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, PostHog does not run until you say yes. Elsewhere it runs until you say no. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control, we treat that as a no everywhere, and we also stop our own measurement for you when you say no. You can change your mind here at any time:

Checking this browser’s setting…

Cookies

We use cookies and similar storage to keep you signed in, to remember your preferences, and to measure how the product is used:

• Sign-in cookies, without which the product cannot work.
• rb_consent, which remembers your answer about analytics, and rb_consent_region, which tells the page whether it needs to ask.
• rb_pending_site, which keeps the website address you type on our homepage for up to seven days so setup can start from it. It is removed once you add a site.
• Our own measurement cookies, which tell one visit from the next.
• PostHog’s cookies and storage, only while analytics is on for you.

Blocking the ones that keep you signed in will stop the product working.

Changes

We will update this page when the product changes, and update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle your data, we will tell you before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions, requests, or anything about this policy — including a request to see, correct, export or delete your data — reach us at support@rankbench.io or by post:

Our terms of service govern your use of the product.