Privacy policy (EU)

This privacy policy was last updated on November 2, 2026 and applies to citizens and lawful permanent residents of the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

In this privacy policy we explain what we do with the data we receive about you through our website searchviu.com. The controller is searchVIU GmbH; the contact details are in section 10. We recommend that you read this policy carefully. When processing data, we comply with the requirements of data protection legislation. Among other things, this means:

  • We state clearly for which purposes we process personal data. We do this with this privacy policy.
  • We aim to limit the collection of personal data to what is necessary for legitimate purposes.
  • We first ask for your explicit consent before we process your personal data in cases that require your consent.
  • We take appropriate security measures to protect your personal data and require the same from parties that process personal data on our behalf.
  • We respect your right to access your personal data or to have it corrected or deleted at your request.

If you have any questions or want to know exactly which data we store about you, just get in touch with us.

1. Purpose, data and retention period

We may collect or receive personal data for various reasons connected with our business operations. These include (click to expand):

1.1 Visiting the website

We use the following data for this:

  • IP address
  • Date and time of access
  • Page accessed and referrer
  • Browser and operating system (user agent)

The legal basis on which we may process this data is:

Our legitimate interest in providing the website securely and reliably (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Retention period

We delete the server logs after 30 days at the latest.

1.2 Requesting a demo

We use the following data for this:

  • Website and business email address
  • Name, company and role
  • The details you give about your needs (topics, number of URLs, Search Console)
  • The page from which you send the request
  • If you then book an appointment: name, email address and the selected time slot in Google's booking calendar

The legal basis on which we may process this data is:

Taking steps prior to entering into a contract at your request (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

Retention period

Your request is stored in our CRM. This is our own software, which we run ourselves on Google Cloud in the EU. If no contract is concluded, we delete your details no later than 24 months after the last contact. If you become a customer, section 1.7 applies.

1.3 Contact form, email and phone

We use the following data for this:

  • Email address
  • Your request and your message
  • The page from which you write to us
  • For phone calls: see section 13

The legal basis on which we may process this data is:

Handling your request and, where applicable, taking steps prior to entering into a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR); otherwise our legitimate interest in answering requests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Retention period

We store your request in our CRM and delete it no later than 24 months after the last contact, unless statutory retention obligations apply.

1.4 Free tools

We use the following data for this:

  • The address or domain checked, the tool and the time (without your IP address)
  • If you request the full report, an export or the result by email: your business email address
  • For GSC Bulk Inspect: the Google sign-in and the data from your Search Console stay in your browser and are not sent to us.

The legal basis on which we may process this data is:

For the check and the report by email: fulfilling your request (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). For analyzing which websites are checked: our legitimate interest in improving our offering and identifying suitable companies (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Retention period

We store the domain, tool and time in our CRM. We delete your email address no later than 24 months after the last contact.

1.5 Newsletter

We use the following data for this:

  • Email address
  • Time of sign-up and confirmation

The legal basis on which we may process this data is:

Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You tick a separate box for this and confirm your address via a link in an email (double opt-in). You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in every issue.

Retention period

Until you unsubscribe. After that, we keep the record of your consent for as long as we legally need it.

1.6 Statistics and visitor identification

We use the following data for this:

  • Google Analytics (statistics category): pages viewed, time on page, source of the visit, device and browser, truncated location data
  • Leadinfo (marketing category, only on selected product pages): IP address to identify the company a visit comes from, and the pages visited

The legal basis on which we may process this data is:

Your consent in the cookie banner (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, § 25(1) TDDDG, the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act). Without consent, we do not load these services. More on this in section 3.

Retention period

Google Analytics: 14 months. Leadinfo: the cookies remain for up to 2 years; Leadinfo stores the data according to its own rules.

1.7 Customer support and billing

We use the following data for this:

  • Name, company and billing address
  • Email address and phone number
  • Contract and invoice data
  • Content of support requests

The legal basis on which we may process this data is:

Performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and legal obligations, for example to retain invoices (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).

Retention period

For the term of the contract. After that, we delete the data unless statutory retention periods apply (for invoicing records usually 8 to 10 years). Section 12 also applies to the use of the searchVIU platform.

2. Disclosure to third parties

Our CRM, which receives demo requests, contact requests and the details from the free tools, is our own software. We run it ourselves; the data does not go to any other provider apart from our hosting with Google. Beyond that, we only pass data to the following processors:

Processors

Name: Google Cloud EMEA Limited
Country: Ireland (EU), with possible data processing in the USA (certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework)
Purpose: Hosting of the website, our CRM and the searchVIU platform (Google Cloud Platform, Firebase Hosting, EU region)
Name: Google Ireland Limited
Country: Ireland (EU), with possible data processing in the USA (certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework)
Purpose: Collaboration, email and appointment booking (Google Workspace, Google Calendar), website statistics (Google Analytics, only with consent)
Name: Twilio Ireland Limited (SendGrid)
Country: Ireland (EU), with possible data processing in the USA (certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework)
Purpose: Sending emails, for example results from the free tools and confirmations
Name: Leadinfo B.V.
Country: Netherlands (EU)
Purpose: Identifying companies by IP address for B2B sales (only with consent)

The website's fonts are stored on our own hosting. No data is transferred to font providers when the page loads.

3. Cookies and consent

Without your consent, we only set one necessary cookie. Statistics and marketing services only load once you agree in the cookie banner. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time via the "Cookie settings" link at the bottom of every page.

  • caelo_consent (necessary, 1 year): stores your choice in the cookie banner.
  • _ga, _ga_<ID> (statistics, Google Analytics, 2 years): distinguish visits and sessions.
  • _li_id, _li_ses (marketing, Leadinfo, up to 2 years or session): recognize returning visits from a company.

Record of your consent. When you make a choice in the cookie banner, we store it as a record: date and time, the categories selected, the version of our consent rules and a random identifier that is also stored in the caelo_consent cookie. This allows later changes to your choice to be matched. The record contains no IP address and no browser data. We store it on our own hosting and delete it automatically after 365 days. The legal basis is our obligation to be able to demonstrate consent (Art. 7(1) and Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).

4. Disclosure of data in special cases

We disclose personal data if we are required to do so by law or by a court order. This also applies to requests from law enforcement authorities, insofar as other legal provisions permit it, and to investigations relating to public safety.

If our website or our company is taken over or sold, or is involved in a merger or acquisition, your data may be disclosed to our advisers and potential buyers and will pass to the new owners.

We have concluded data processing agreements with all processors listed in section 2. Google may not use the data for other Google services.

5. Security

The security of your personal data matters to us. We take appropriate security measures to limit misuse of and unauthorized access to your data. This ensures that only the people who need it have access to your data, that access is protected and that our security measures are reviewed regularly.

6. Third-party websites

This privacy policy does not apply to third-party websites connected through links on our website. We cannot guarantee that these third parties handle your personal data reliably and securely. We recommend that you read the privacy policies of these websites before using them.

7. Changes to this privacy policy

We reserve the right to change this privacy policy. We recommend that you read it regularly so that you are aware of any changes. Where possible, we will also inform you actively.

8. Accessing and changing your data

If you have any questions or would like to know which personal data we hold about you, just get in touch with us. You will find our contact details below. You have the following rights:

  • You have the right to know why your personal data is needed, what happens to it and how long it is stored.
  • Right of access: You have the right to access the personal data about you that is known to us.
  • Right to rectification: You have the right to have your personal data supplemented, corrected, deleted or blocked at any time.
  • If you give us your consent to process your data, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time and to have your personal data deleted.
  • Right to data portability: You have the right to request all your personal data from the controller and to have it transferred in full to another controller.
  • Right to object: You can object to the processing of your data. We will comply unless there are compelling grounds for the processing.

Please always tell us clearly who you are, so that we can be sure we are not changing or deleting the data of the wrong person.

9. Lodging a complaint

If you are not satisfied with how we process your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority.

10. Contact details

searchVIU GmbH
Gebrüder-Wright-Straße 58
53125 Bonn
Germany
Website: searchviu.com
Email: info@searchviu.com
Phone: +49 228 84239100

11. Data requests

For access, rectification or erasure, simply email us at info@searchviu.com or use our contact form.

12. Using the searchVIU platform

In this section we describe how searchVIU GmbH processes personal data when you use the searchVIU platform and our other online services. searchVIU is the controller for this data.

Note on customer data. When you or your organization enter data into the application that is to be processed on your behalf, for example website content that we crawl, connected data sources or content entered into workflows, searchVIU acts as processor and not as controller. This processing is governed by our data processing agreement and not by this privacy policy.

What data we process

When you use the application, we process:

  • Account and registration data: name, email address, organization and login details.
  • Authentication and security data: login credentials, session data and IP address.
  • Usage and activity data: the actions you take in the application, the configuration you set up and technical logs generated during use.
  • Billing data: where applicable, billing details and subscription information.
  • Support and communication data: the content of requests you send us and our correspondence with you.

Purposes and legal bases

  • Providing, operating and securing the application and performing our contract with you. Legal basis: performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
  • Security of the application, prevention of misuse and keeping technical logs. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a secure and reliable service (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
  • Handling invoicing and meeting legal and tax obligations. Legal basis: legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR) and performance of a contract.
  • Handling support requests. Legal basis: performance of a contract and our legitimate interest in supporting users.
  • Product updates, news and guides, if you have signed up for them. Legal basis: consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can withdraw at any time.

Recipients and sub-processors

We host the application on Google Cloud Platform. If we use additional service providers to operate the application, we do so under appropriate data protection agreements. A current list of the sub-processors that process personal data on behalf of our customers is available at platform.searchviu.com/subprocessors. It forms part of our data processing agreement.

Retention period

We store account and usage data for the term of your contract and delete or anonymize it afterwards, subject to statutory retention periods (e.g. tax and commercial law retention obligations for invoicing records). We only keep technical logs for as long as is necessary for security and operational purposes.

Your rights

Your rights as a data subject (access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority) are set out in section 8 and also apply to the processing described here.

13. Phone calls and our AI phone assistant

If you call us and nobody can take your call in person, an AI-powered phone assistant answers the call for us. It tells you so at the start of the call. It records your request, can put you through to the responsible person if you ask or in urgent cases, and forwards your message to us.

Data processed. Your phone number (caller ID), time and duration of the call, the details you give during the call (e.g. name, company, callback number and request), an automatic transcript, a summary and a short report by the assistant, and an internal urgency rating.

No audio recording. Your voice is only processed during the call so that the assistant can understand you and respond. No audio recording is stored.

Purposes and legal bases. Handling your request and preparing or performing a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR); our legitimate interest in being reachable and handling calls even when nobody is available (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). The urgency rating serves only our internal prioritization and has no legal or similarly significant effect on you; it is not an automated decision within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR. Your request is passed on in every case.

Recipients and processors. Telnyx LLC (telephony; the call audio is processed in Frankfurt), Google Cloud (AI speech processing with Gemini and hosting, EU region) and Google Workspace (delivery of the call report to us by email). Data processing agreements are in place with all processors. Where data may be transferred to the USA, this takes place on the basis of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Google may store inputs to the AI model in the EU for up to 90 days solely for abuse detection.

Retention period. We receive the transcript, summary and report by email; they are deleted after 12 months at the latest. Technical logs contain no call content and are deleted after 30 days.

Your rights. Your rights as a data subject are described in section 8 and also apply to this processing. If you do not want to talk to the AI assistant, you can end the call at any time and reach us by email at info@searchviu.com.