Privacy Policy — Browse AI Tools

1. Introduction

Welcome to browse-ai.tools ("we," "us," or "our"). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable privacy laws.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and protect your personal information when you use our website and services. Please read this policy carefully to understand our practices regarding your data.

Data Controller

Browse-ai.tools is the data controller responsible for your personal data. For privacy inquiries, data subject requests, or questions about this policy, please contact us:

Email: [email protected]
Contact Form: /contact

2. Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data

Under GDPR, we must have a legal basis for processing your personal data. We process your data based on the following legal grounds:

Consent: When you opt in to marketing communications
Contractual Necessity: To process payments, fulfill tool submissions, and provide services you request
Legitimate Interest: To improve our website, prevent fraud, ensure security, and operate our business (we balance this against your privacy rights)
Legal Obligation: To comply with tax, accounting, and other legal requirements (e.g., retaining payment records)

3. Types of Personal Data We Collect

3.1 Data You Provide Directly

Contact Form Submissions: Name, email address, subject, and message content
Tool Submissions: Tool name, URL, description, company information, contact details, and any metadata you provide
Payment Information: Transaction metadata (amount, date, status) processed through Stripe; we do not store payment card numbers or CVV codes
Advertising Bookings: Tool information, contact email, booking preferences, and payment details
User Accounts (Future): Username, email address, password (hashed), account preferences, and submission history

3.2 Automatically Collected Data

Device Information: Browser type and version, operating system, device type (desktop, mobile, tablet), screen resolution
Usage Data: Pages visited (the page address without search terms or tokens), referral sources and clicks on links that lead to other websites
Network Information: IP address, used to deliver the site and to work out your approximate country. Since 19 October 2026 it is not stored with our analytics events. See also Votes below
Technical Data: Error reports (what went wrong, page address, browser and device type) and page view counts. No analytics identifier is stored on your device
Exit Counts: When you use a tool’s Visit link we add one to a counter for that day, that tool and the place the link was on (list, tool page, featured or sponsored placement), and whether the link is an affiliate link. The counter holds no IP address, user agent, identifier or other data about you. Prefetches and known bots are not counted
Votes: When you upvote a tool or skill, we store a one-way scrambled code (a hash) made from your IP address and the date, not the IP address itself. We use it to enforce the daily limit of three votes per person and to prevent abuse. The code changes every day, so it cannot be used to follow you over time. We do not set a cookie for this.

3.3 Data from Third-Party Services

PostHog Analytics: Page views and clicks on outbound links, with the country worked out from your IP address. No automatic click capture and no session recordings. Since 19 October 2026 the IP address itself is not stored
Vercel Web Analytics: Page view counts, without cookies
Sentry: Technical error reports from your browser (what went wrong, page address, browser and device type). No session recordings
Stripe: Payment transaction data, customer identifiers, billing information
Resend: Email delivery status, bounce rates, open rates (for transactional emails)

4. How We Use Your Personal Data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

Service Delivery: To process tool submissions, manage advertising bookings, respond to contact inquiries, and provide requested services
Payment Processing: To securely process payments through Stripe for tool submissions and advertising services
Communication: To send transactional emails (order confirmations, booking confirmations), respond to inquiries, and provide customer support
Website Improvement: To analyze user behavior, optimize website performance, understand tool popularity, and enhance user experience
Security and Fraud Prevention: To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, security threats, and unauthorized access
Legal Compliance: To comply with legal obligations, including tax, accounting, and data protection requirements
Marketing (with consent): To send marketing communications about new features, tools, or services (only with your explicit consent)

5. Data Security and Protection

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction:

Encryption: All data in transit is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS. Sensitive data at rest is encrypted using industry-standard encryption
Payment Security: We never store payment card numbers or CVV codes. All payment processing is handled by Stripe, which is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant
Access Controls: We limit access to personal data to authorized personnel only, on a need-to-know basis
Data Minimization: We only collect and retain data that is necessary for the stated purposes
Regular Security Reviews: We conduct regular security assessments and updates to protect against vulnerabilities
Incident Response: We have procedures in place to detect, respond to, and report data breaches in accordance with GDPR requirements

6. Data Retention Periods

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy, unless a longer retention period is required by law:

Contact Form Data: Retained for 24 months for customer support purposes, then securely deleted
Email Addresses: Retained while you maintain consent for communications; deleted within 30 days of opt-out
Payment Transaction Data: Retained for 7 years for accounting and tax compliance (legal obligation)
Analytics Data (PostHog): Kept for trend analysis. The oldest events date from June 2025 and there is no automatic deletion date yet; we will state one here when we set it. Events before 19 October 2026 still contain the visitor’s IP address, newer events do not
Votes: The scrambled code stored with a vote is deleted after 7 days. The vote itself keeps counting in the total.
Tool Submission Data: Retained for the duration the tool is listed, plus 12 months after removal
User Account Data (Future): Retained for account lifecycle, plus 90 days after account deletion (for backup/recovery)

When data is no longer needed, we securely delete or anonymize it in accordance with our data retention policy.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable privacy laws, you have the following rights:

Right of Access: You can request a copy of all personal data we hold about you. We will respond within 30 days (extendable to 90 days for complex requests)
Right to Rectification: You can request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data
Right to Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): You can request deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances, subject to legal obligations (e.g., tax records)
Right to Restrict Processing: You can request that we limit how we use your data temporarily (e.g., while investigating a data accuracy dispute)
Right to Data Portability: You can request your data in a structured, machine-readable format and receive it directly or have it transmitted to another controller
Right to Object: You can object to processing based on legitimate interest or for direct marketing purposes
Right to Withdraw Consent: Where processing is consent-based, you can withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of prior processing
Right to Lodge a Complaint: You can submit a complaint to your national data protection authority if you believe we have violated your privacy rights

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected] or use our contact form. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

8. Third-Party Data Processors

We use trusted third-party service providers who act as data processors on our behalf. We have Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) with each processor ensuring they process data only on our instructions and under appropriate confidentiality obligations:

Stripe, Inc. (Payment Processing) - Processes payment transactions. Data location: United States (with Standard Contractual Clauses for EU transfers). Privacy Policy
PostHog, Inc. (Analytics) - Provides website analytics. Data location: EU (GDPR compliant). Privacy Policy
Sentry (Error monitoring) - Receives technical error reports. Privacy Policy
Resend, Inc. (Email Services) - Sends transactional and marketing emails. Data location: United States (with Standard Contractual Clauses). Privacy Policy
Vercel, Inc. (Hosting and Web Analytics) - Hosts our website, processes server logs and counts page views without cookies. Data location: United States and EU. Privacy Policy
Supabase, Inc. (Database) - Stores and processes data in our database. Data location: EU (GDPR compliant). Privacy Policy

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties for marketing purposes.

9. International Data Transfers

Some of our third-party processors are located outside the European Economic Area (EEA). When we transfer your personal data to these processors, we ensure adequate protection through:

Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): EU-approved contractual clauses that ensure your data receives adequate protection
Adequacy Decisions: Where applicable, transfers to countries with EU adequacy decisions
Data Processing Agreements: Contracts that require processors to maintain GDPR-equivalent protections

We rely on these safeguards for such transfers, not on your consent. You can ask us for more information about them through the contact details in this policy.

10. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

This site does not set cookies of its own. For the full list of what is stored on your device and your options, see our Cookie Policy.

Summary:

Analytics: PostHog runs in memory only. Nothing is stored on your device for analytics. We rely on our legitimate interest in measuring how the site is used, and you can object to it by contacting us.
Functional storage: The theme you picked (local storage) and a draft of the submit form (session storage). You asked for these functions, so they need no consent.
Advertising cookies: We do not use them. Links to other websites, including affiliate links, can lead to cookies on those websites. See the Cookie Policy.

A cookie bar was shown for a short time. If you pressed Accept then, the identifier it created is removed from your browser the next time you visit.

11. Marketing Communications

We may send you marketing communications only with your explicit consent. You can opt-in to receive:

Newsletters about new AI tools and features
Updates about our directory and services
Promotional content (with your consent)

Transactional emails (order confirmations, booking confirmations, service updates) do not require consent and are sent as part of our service.

You can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us at [email protected]. We will process your opt-out request within 10 days.

12. Children's Privacy

Our website is not intended for children under 16 years of age (or the age of majority in your jurisdiction). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us immediately. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child without parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information.

13. Sponsored Content and Advertising

Our website features sponsored content and advertising placements. We process data related to advertising requests and bookings (tool name and website, the email address you give, the weeks or month requested, a record of when you accepted the Terms and which version, and payment data once placements are paid) to review requests, fulfill advertising contracts, contact you about them and keep records. Your request is stored until the placement has ended and for as long as the law requires records to be kept; an unapproved request is deleted on request. We do not share your personal data with advertisers beyond what is necessary to display your advertisement. Sponsored content is clearly labeled. We do not use your browsing behavior to target advertisements without your explicit consent.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of material changes by:

Posting the updated policy on this page with a new "Last updated" date
Sending an email notification (for significant changes) if you have provided your email address
Displaying a prominent notice on our website for material changes

Your continued use of our website after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

15. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

Email: [email protected]
Contact Form: /contact

For data subject requests (access, deletion, portability, etc.), please use the contact methods above. We will respond within 30 days (or 90 days for complex requests) as required by GDPR.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. For EU residents, you can find your authority at edpb.europa.eu.