Legal
Privacy Policy
How SiteOptimised collects, uses, and protects your information.
Last updated: 1 October 2025 · Effective: 1 October 2025
1. Who we are
SiteOptimised Pty Ltd ("SiteOptimised", "we", "us", "our") operates the SiteOptimised platform at siteoptimised.com. We are an Australian company and this Privacy Policy is governed by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
Our platform audits website visibility across AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews) and traditional SEO, and provides data-driven recommendations to Australian small and medium businesses.
Contact us at any time: [email protected]
2. Information we collect
2.1 Information you give us
- Account registration: name, email address, and password (stored as a hashed value - we never store plain-text passwords).
- Social login: if you register via Google Sign-In, we receive your name and email address from Google. We do not receive your Google password.
- Website information: URLs and website pages you add to our platform for auditing.
- Target keywords and industry: the keywords and industry sector you nominate for your websites.
- Payment information: billing details for paid subscriptions. Payment card data is processed directly by Stripe, Inc. - we store only a Stripe customer ID and subscription reference. We never see or store your full card number.
- Connected third-party accounts: OAuth tokens for services you voluntarily connect (e.g. Google Analytics, Google Ads, Cloudflare). These tokens are stored encrypted and used only to fetch data on your behalf.
- Support communications: emails and messages you send us.
2.2 Information we collect automatically
- Usage data: pages visited, features used, audit runs triggered, timestamps, and session identifiers.
- Log data: IP address, browser type, operating system, referrer URL, and error logs.
- Cookies: session cookies to keep you logged in, and analytics cookies (Google Analytics 4, property G‑7W7VYCX130) to understand aggregate usage patterns. See Section 6 for cookie details.
2.3 Information about your website generated by our platform
When you run an audit, our platform fetches publicly accessible pages of your website and passes the content to third-party AI and SEO APIs (see Section 4) to generate scores and recommendations. This crawled content is stored as part of your audit report and is visible only to you.
3. How we use your information
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Deliver the audit and Growth platform features you request | Performance of contract |
| Process payments and manage your subscription | Performance of contract |
| Send you transactional emails (audit reports, invoices, password resets) | Performance of contract |
| Provide customer support | Legitimate interest |
| Improve and develop the platform (aggregate, anonymised analysis) | Legitimate interest |
| Send product update and promotional emails (you can unsubscribe at any time) | Consent / Legitimate interest |
| Comply with legal obligations (tax records, fraud prevention) | Legal obligation |
| Protect the security and integrity of our platform | Legitimate interest |
We do not use your data for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
4. Third-party services we use
Running an AI visibility audit requires passing your website content and target keywords to third-party APIs. The table below lists the key services we use, what we share, and why.
| Service | Purpose | Data shared |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI / ChatGPT | AI visibility queries and answer-engine analysis | Your website URL, target keywords, crawled page content |
| Perplexity AI | GEO mention tracking across Perplexity search | Your website URL, target keywords |
| Google (PageSpeed, Search) | Core Web Vitals, search presence, AIO signals | Your website URL |
| SerpAPI | Google Search Results retrieval | Your target keywords, website URL |
| Ahrefs / Semrush / DataForSEO | Backlink and keyword data (if you connect these tools) | Your website domain |
| Stripe | Payment processing | Your name, email, billing address |
| Amazon SES (AWS) | Transactional email delivery | Your email address, name, report summary |
| Google Analytics 4 | Aggregate platform usage analytics | Anonymised usage and session data |
| Cloudflare (optional) | Security analytics for your website if you connect your account | Your Cloudflare zone ID and OAuth token (encrypted) |
We do not sell your personal information to any third party, ever.
5. Where your data is stored
Our primary database is hosted in Australia. Some data may be processed by third-party services with infrastructure in the United States (OpenAI, Perplexity, Stripe, AWS SES) or other countries. Where we transfer personal information outside Australia, we take steps to ensure it is protected by contractual safeguards consistent with the APPs.
6. Cookies
| Cookie | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| .AiVisibility.Auth | Essential | Keeps you authenticated across pages |
| _ga, _ga_* | Analytics | Google Analytics 4 - aggregate page-view and session data (production only, not set in development) |
You can disable analytics cookies via your browser settings or by using a browser extension such as the Google Analytics Opt-out Add-on. The platform will continue to function without analytics cookies.
7. Data retention
- Account data: retained for the life of your account, plus 30 days after deletion to allow recovery.
- Audit reports and scores: retained for the duration of your subscription tier's history window (see pricing). On account deletion, all audit data is permanently erased within 30 days.
- Payment records: retained for 7 years as required by Australian tax law.
- Log and error data: retained for 90 days for security and debugging purposes.
- Free audit leads: email addresses collected via the free audit tool are retained for up to 12 months. You may unsubscribe at any time.
8. Your rights
Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), you have the right to:
- Access the personal information we hold about you.
- Correct inaccurate or out-of-date information.
- Delete your account and associated personal data (subject to legal retention obligations).
- Opt out of marketing emails via the unsubscribe link in any email we send.
- Complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au if you believe we have not handled your information appropriately.
To exercise any right, email [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days.
9. Children
SiteOptimised is not directed at children under 15. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 15. If you believe we have inadvertently done so, contact us and we will delete it promptly.
10. Security
We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access. Measures include:
- HTTPS encryption in transit.
- Passwords stored using industry-standard one-way hashing (ASP.NET Core Identity).
- OAuth tokens stored with AES-256 encryption at rest.
- Access controls limiting database access to authenticated application processes.
- Payment card data handled exclusively by Stripe (PCI-DSS Level 1 certified).
No internet transmission is 100% secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at [email protected].
11. Links to other websites
Our platform may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites and encourage you to review their privacy policies independently.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by email or by displaying a prominent notice on the platform. The date at the top of this page shows when this policy was last updated. Continued use of the platform after notification constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
13. Contact
Site Optimised
General: [email protected]
Australia