What we collect, and what we do with it.

Plain English. Only what our software does today.

Two different kinds of information.

About the business you check

All of it is public. We read the Google listing, open the website pages the way a customer would, run searches for the area, and measure page speed. We do the same for up to two competitors. We do not log in anywhere, and the only thing we click is a cookie banner that would otherwise cover the page.

About you

Running a check needs a short form: your name, your email, your business and your website. It makes you a free Root HQ account with no password. Here is what we hold.

Your Root HQ login: To start a check you fill in a short form: your name, your email address, your business name and your website (or that you have none). That makes you a free Root HQ account with no password: we email you a sign-in link to come back to your report, and sign-in is handled by our sign-in provider, Supabase. The account is linked to the business you checked, and we use the email to send your audit and the link back. If you haven't booked a call or bought anything, we send one follow-up email about a day later, with a link to stop emails. If your email already had an account, nothing is added to it: you see your own report, and the link goes to that inbox.
A random visitor id, and the Root pages you open: A cookie named root_fv holds a random id for 180 days. With it we log which of our own pages you open (pricing, your report, sign-up and Root HQ): the page address and the business or report it belongs to. Never your name, email, phone or IP address.
Your email address, your phone number, or both: Only if you type them into a form on a report or on the contact page. One of the two is enough; we do not need both.
The message you write on the contact page: Stored as you typed it, with your name and business if you gave them, so we can read it and reply.
Where the visit came from: If you arrive from a link carrying campaign tags, they are saved with the scan so we know which link worked.
Your name, if you give one: We keep it with your email or phone so we know who to ask for when we get back to you.
A hash of your IP address: Saved with the scan you start and with the form you send. We store the hash, not the address. It is there to limit how many scans and how many form sends one connection can make.
Your browser's user agent: The line your browser sends with every request, naming itself and your operating system. Saved with the scan and the form for the same reason.

Why we ask for a way to reach you.

One reason. So we can send you your report and get in touch about fixing what it found. A person at our end reads it and follows up.

We do not sell your name, email address or phone number. We do not pass them to anyone outside the list further down this page, and the companies on that list only get them to do the job named beside them.

Ads, and turning them off.

The Meta pixel on rootdigital.co lets that company show our ads to people who visited this site, and count which ads led to a visit or a sign-up. They get your browser's cookie and the pages you visit here, never your name, email or phone number. Some state privacy laws, including California's, count that as “sharing” personal information for advertising. You can opt out below for this browser. A browser that sends a Global Privacy Control signal is opted out without asking. Opting out turns off Google Analytics on this browser too.

How long we keep it.

Screenshots and page captures: Deleted 24 hours after the scan started. They power the live scan and its replay; the report keeps its findings.
The individual check results: Deleted 180 days after the scan started.
The IP hash and user agent saved with a scan: Cleared at the same 180 days.
The IP hash and user agent saved when you leave your details: Kept with the contact details themselves. Nothing clears these on a schedule.
Our cached copy of the Google listing: Cleared 30 days after it was last refreshed.
The counters behind our rate limits: Deleted after they expire. The longest one lasts a day.
Our own record of what each scan cost us: Deleted after 720 days.
The page log behind the visitor id: Deleted after 180 days. The record that a checkout was started or paid for is kept with the account, with no visitor id on it.
Your Root HQ account: Kept while you have it. Ask us and we close it and delete your login.
Logins you shared with us, and the Google and other accounts you connected: Deleted 30 days after your plan ends, and the connection cancelled at the service where it offers a way.
The scan record and the report text: Kept. We have not set an end date for these.
Your contact details: Kept. Nothing deletes them on a schedule, so they stay until you ask us to remove them.

Who else sees it.

These are the companies our software sends something to. Supabase, Resend, Stripe and Cal.com are the only ones that ever receive your own contact details. The rest are given the business and its public website.

Supabase: Our database, file storage and sign-in. Everything described on this page is stored there, and your Root HQ password is held by its sign-in service.
Stripe: Takes payment when you buy a plan or a product. Your name, email, card and billing address go to Stripe, not to us; we keep your plan, its status, the email you paid with and Stripe's customer number.
Cal.com: Books your setup call inside Root HQ. Your name, your email and the setup steps you want to do together are filled in there for you, with an id for your Root HQ, and the time you pick is sent back to us.
Google: Places for the business listing, PageSpeed Insights and the Chrome User Experience Report for speed. The suggestion list in our search box runs inside your browser, so Google sees that request as you type.
Cloudflare: The check that separates a person from a bot runs in your browser before a scan starts, so Cloudflare sees your IP address and your browser.
DataForSEO: Runs the search result lookups, the listing's review data and the keyword volumes.
Anthropic: Claude models answer the report's fix assistant: if you ask it a question, whatever you type there is sent too.
Ollama: Hosts the open models we run. One reads the captured pages and makes the judgment calls in the scan, and drafts review replies on a client site's tools page. One reviews the scan's findings before the report is written.
Browserbase: Hosts the browser that opens the website pages, when a scan runs there instead of on our own machine.
Yelp: Asked whether the business has a listing, so we can compare its name, address and phone with Google's.
Resend: Sends any email we send you, and tells us when you ask for the plan or write to us.
Google Analytics: Counts visits to rootdigital.co and the steps people take on it (a scan started, a report opened, a checkout started or finished) through a cookie in your browser. It is never sent your name, email or phone number.
Meta: The Meta pixel on rootdigital.co tells Facebook and Instagram which of our ads led to a visit, a form sent or a checkout, and lets us show our ads to people who visited. It is never sent your name, email or phone number. Our server also tells Meta about the same form, and about a call booked or a plan bought after it, with the same browser cookie, so Meta can count them when the pixel was blocked. That is never sent your name, email or phone number either, and nothing is sent if you chose "Do not sell or share" or your browser sends Global Privacy Control.

Your report opens inside your Root HQ account.

A report link opens the report only for the signed-in Root HQ account linked to that business, for the browser that just ran the check (it holds a signed cookie for two days), and for Root staff. Anyone else who opens the link is asked to sign in or fill in the form first. We do not publish or list report links anywhere.

The scan page is different: while a check runs, and when it is replayed, it shows each check's result as it lands to anyone who has that scan's link.

Checks are shared per business: if someone else runs a check on the same business while yours is running, or within a day of it finishing, they are shown the same report at the same link, inside their own account. When the Google listing has no website and a website was typed in, the check is shared only while it runs, and only with someone who typed the same website. The report is about the business and its public website, not about you; your contact details are never on it.

If you're a Root client.

To do the work, we hold what you give us in Root HQ: your answers to the setup questions, the files and photos you upload, and the access you give us to your website, listings and accounts.

Root drafts some of your posts, pages, emails and review replies with an AI model, run by Ollama. To write them it is sent your business details and setup answers (such as your services, towns, recent jobs and the questions customers ask), the searches from Root's check of your listing, and, for a reply, the review being answered. A person at Root reads every draft before anything goes out.

Where a platform has no way to add Root as a user, you can give us a login instead. The password is encrypted (AES-256) before it is stored, is never shown back to you, and only Root staff can open it; each time they do is recorded. You can delete it in Root HQ, under Settings, at any time, including after your plan ends.

If your plan ends, the logins you shared and the tools you connected stay listed in Root HQ Settings so you can remove them yourself. 30 days after it ends, unless you come back, we delete any login still on file and disconnect those tools (Google included). Your account and history stay.

If you give us your customers' details (an email list for campaigns, or a customer to ask for a review), we use them only to do that work for you. Unsubscribes are honored on every campaign and review-request email. Nothing deletes these on a schedule; they stay until you delete them or ask us to.

Asking us to delete your details.

Email hello@rootdigital.co and ask. We will delete the email address and phone number we hold for you, and the copy of them in our contact records.

Deleting your details does not delete the report. The report is about a business and its public website, not about you.