Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 17, 2026
1. Information We Collect
Account information: When you sign up, we collect your email address, name (optional), and password (hashed). If you subscribe to a paid plan, payment is processed by Stripe. We do not store credit card numbers.
Usage data: We collect information about how you use the Service, including crawl jobs, keyword searches, pages viewed, and feature usage. This helps us improve the product and enforce subscription limits.
Crawl data: When you crawl a website, we store page metadata (URLs, titles, meta descriptions, status codes, etc.) from the target domain. This data belongs to you and is stored in your workspace.
Free tool limits: Our free tools have a daily limit. To apply it, we count runs in the last 24 hours per browser (using the crawltide_tq cookie), per account when you are signed in, and per network. For free-tool usage limits and abuse-prevention counters, we store a keyed hash of your IP address rather than the raw address. Our infrastructure may separately process IP addresses for security and operational logging, as described in this policy. These counts are used only to apply the limit and protect the Service from abuse; they are never combined with analytics, advertising or the websites you check, and they expire automatically after about 24 hours.
Sign-up email checks: When you create an account, we check that your email domain can receive mail (a public DNS lookup of the domain) and is not a temporary inbox service. We do not contact your mailbox, and the check result is not stored with your account.
Cookies and similar technologies: We use cookies that are needed to run the Service and, depending on where you are and the choices you make, analytics cookies and advertising cookies from Meta. Section 4 lists each one and explains your choices.
Google Search Console data: If you connect Google Search Console to a project, you sign in with Google and grant CrawlTide read-only access (the webmasters.readonly permission). We cannot change anything in your Search Console account. We use that access to read, for the property you choose: search performance data (queries, pages, clicks, impressions, click-through rate, position, country and device), sitemap status, and Google's indexing results for pages on your site (URL Inspection). We store this data and the access keys Google gives us in your workspace. The keys are encrypted. Only members of your workspace can see the data. We do not include it in public share reports, and we do not sell it or use it for advertising.
CrawlTide's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use your information to:
- Provide and maintain the Service
- Authenticate your identity and manage your account
- Process payments via Stripe
- Send transactional emails (password resets, alerts, invitations)
- Enforce subscription limits and feature gating
- Improve the Service based on usage patterns
3. Data Sharing
We do not sell your personal information for money. We share data with these service providers:
- Stripe. For payment processing
- Resend. For transactional email delivery
- DataForSEO. For keyword and backlink data (we send domain names, not personal data)
- OpenAI. For AI-powered features (we send SEO data context, not personal data). When you use an AI feature, such as article drafts, issue fix suggestions or the content optimizer, we may send relevant Search Console data (for example, queries and page metrics) as context for that request. We do not use Google user data, or allow our providers to use it, to train AI models.
- DigitalOcean. Infrastructure hosting (data processing agreement in place)
- PostHog. Product analytics, only when Analytics cookies are on
- Plausible. Cookieless traffic statistics (see section 4)
Meta (advertising). When Marketing cookies are on, the Meta Pixel on our site and our server-side connection to Meta (the Conversions API) send Meta information about your visit, such as the pages you view, the free tools you run, your IP address, browser details and Meta's cookie IDs. Meta uses it to measure our ads and for targeted advertising. When you create an account or run your first crawl, our server may also send Meta a hashed (not readable) copy of your email address to measure sign-ups from our ads, but only if Marketing is allowed for you: Marketing must be on when you sign up (or later, when you save your choices while signed in), your browser must not send a Global Privacy Control signal, and you must not have turned off analytics in your account settings. Rejecting Marketing or a Global Privacy Control signal stops it. Some U.S. state privacy laws, for example in California, Colorado and Connecticut, treat this kind of sharing as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information, or as targeted advertising, even though no money changes hands. You can opt out at any time as described in section 4.
4. Cookies and Your Choices
We group cookies and similar technologies into three categories. Strictly necessary items are always on because the Service does not work without them. Analytics and Marketing are optional.
| Name | Purpose | Category | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| __Host-crawltide_sid | Keeps you signed in to your account. | Strictly necessary | Up to 30 days |
| csrf_token | Protects your account against cross-site request forgery. | Strictly necessary | 7 days |
| ct_consent | Remembers your cookie choices. | Strictly necessary | Up to 400 days, renewed when you visit |
| crawltide_tq | A random ID that counts how many free tool runs this browser has used in the last 24 hours, so we can apply the daily free limit. It is set only when you run a free tool without signing in, and it is not used for analytics or advertising. | Strictly necessary | Up to 400 days |
| ct_region | Remembers which cookie rules apply where you are (for example EU or US). It holds only that region, not your location or IP address. | Strictly necessary | 24 hours |
| crawltide_attribution | Our own record of the campaign tags, referring website and landing page that first brought you to CrawlTide. It is sent only to us, when you sign up. | Analytics | 90 days |
| PostHog (ph_*) | Product analytics: which pages and features are used, so we can improve the Service. | Analytics | Up to 1 year |
| Google Analytics (_ga, _ga_*) | Site usage statistics. Used only if we turn Google Analytics on; it is not in use today. | Analytics | Up to 2 years |
| Meta Pixel (_fbp, _fbc) | Measures whether our ads on Facebook and Instagram lead to visits and sign-ups, and lets Meta use your visit for targeted advertising. | Marketing | Up to 90 days |
Without cookies. We use Plausible for privacy-friendly traffic statistics. It sets no cookies and stores no personal data; it counts visits using a hash of your IP address and browser that changes every day and is not kept. We also count a few anonymous steps on our own server, for example that a free tool was run, with no identifier and no cookie, so the counts cannot be linked to you.
Your choices
In the United States and most other countries, Analytics and Marketing cookies are on by default and you can turn them off at any time. In the EU, EEA, UK and Switzerland, and whenever we cannot tell which country you are in, they stay off unless you choose Accept. We work out your country on our server from your IP address, only to decide which of these rules applies, and we do not store the IP address for this. This product includes GeoLite2 data created by MaxMind, available from https://www.maxmind.com.
Use (also at the bottom of every page and in your account settings) to accept, reject or change each category. If you reject a category, we remember that and do not turn it back on unless you later choose to. Rejecting Analytics also deletes the attribution cookie; attribution already saved with an existing account is kept.
Global Privacy Control. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we treat it as a request to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information: Marketing cookies stay off on every visit and our server does not send your visits or your sign-up to Meta. GPC does not change Analytics; you can turn that off separately.
5. Data Security
We protect your data using: HTTPS/TLS encryption in transit, AES-256 encryption for stored credentials (CMS tokens), hashed passwords (bcrypt), httpOnly session cookies with CSRF protection, and rate limiting on authentication endpoints. Our infrastructure runs on DigitalOcean with managed database encryption at rest.
6. Data Retention
We retain your data for as long as your account is active. Crawl data retention depends on your subscription tier (30 days for Free, up to 365 days for Enterprise). If you delete your account, we remove your personal data within 30 days, except where required by law.
When you disconnect Google Search Console from a project, we delete the stored access keys and the Search Console data for that project. If you switch a project to a different property, we delete Google indexing results for the previous property. Google indexing results we no longer refresh are deleted after 90 days. You can also remove CrawlTide's access at any time from your Google Account settings (myaccount.google.com/permissions).
7. Your Rights
You have the right to: access your data, correct inaccurate data, request deletion of your data, export your data (via CSV export features), withdraw consent for optional processing, and opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information and of targeted advertising (see section 4). To exercise these rights, contact us at the email below. We will not treat you differently for exercising them.
8. Children
The Service is not intended for users under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from children.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of material changes via email or in-app notification. Continued use of the Service after changes constitutes acceptance.
10. Contact
Questions about this Privacy Policy? Contact us at privacy@crawltide.com.