# Security & Trust

Your data security is fundamental to ChatSEO. This page provides a clear overview of how we protect your data and the measures we have in place.

## At a Glance

| Area | Our Practice |
| --- | --- |
| Hosting | Hetzner, Germany (EU) |
| Data encryption | TLS 1.3 in transit, encrypted at rest |
| GSC data storage | **Never stored** - real-time API access only |
| AI training on your data | **Never** - real-time inference only |
| Cookie consent | Strict opt-in, granular categories |
| Sub-processors | [Fully documented](/sub-processors) |
| DPA available | [Yes, GDPR Article 28 compliant](/dpa) |
| Data deletion | Within 30 days of request |
| GDPR compliance | Structured and documented |

## Data Hosting & Infrastructure

- All primary infrastructure hosted on **Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany (EU)**
- Firecrawl (web scraping) self-hosted on EU infrastructure (Hetzner)
- Data encrypted at rest and in transit (TLS 1.3)
- Regular security assessments and vulnerability testing
- Role-based access controls with per-user authentication

## Google Search Console: Zero-Storage Architecture

We designed ChatSEO with a **zero-storage** approach to your GSC data:

1. **Read-only access**: We request only the `webmasters.readonly` OAuth scope - we cannot modify your Search Console data
2. **Real-time only**: GSC data is fetched from Google's API, displayed to you, and immediately discarded
3. **No database storage**: Our database schema contains no tables or columns for GSC metrics (queries, impressions, clicks, rankings)
4. **No caching**: GSC data is not cached in Redis or any other data store
5. **You control access**: Revoke permissions anytime from your Google security settings

**What we DO store:** OAuth credentials (access token, refresh token) needed to authenticate API requests on your behalf. These are deleted when you disconnect your integration.

## AI Usage: No Training, Ever

- **Anthropic Claude** (Sonnet 4, Haiku): Used for real-time SEO analysis and conversation
- **Voyage AI**: Used for vector embeddings in the cross-conversation memory system
- Under Anthropic's commercial API terms, data sent via their API is **not used for model training**
- We do **not** fine-tune, train, or improve any AI model using your data
- AI processing is ephemeral: your data is processed and the result returned, with no retention by the AI provider

## Cookie Consent & Tracking

We implement strict GDPR-compliant cookie consent:

- **Necessary only by default**: Only Sentry (error monitoring) and Crisp (support chat) load without consent
- **Strict opt-in**: Analytics (Mixpanel, Customer.io) and marketing (Tolt, Meta Pixel) require explicit consent
- **Granular control**: Choose consent category by category
- **Revocable anytime**: Click the cookie icon or use the footer link to change your preferences
- **Equal visual weight**: Accept and reject buttons are presented with the same visual prominence

## Compliance Documents

| Document | Description |
| --- | --- |
| [Privacy Policy](/privacy) | Full privacy policy (GDPR compliant) |
| [Data Processing Agreement](/dpa) | DPA for enterprise customers (GDPR Article 28) |
| [Sub-processors](/sub-processors) | Complete list of all sub-processors with data transfer mechanisms |
| [Terms of Service](/terms) | Service terms |
| [Terms of Sale](/cgv) | Commercial terms (B2B and B2C) |
| [Legal Notice](/legal-notice) | Company information, cookies, and intellectual property |

## Enterprise Needs

If you have specific security or compliance requirements, we are happy to discuss:

- Custom DPA provisions
- Security questionnaires
- Specific sub-processor concerns
- Data residency requirements

Contact us: [**contact@chatseo.app**](mailto:contact@chatseo.app)