Your Data

At our hybrid search engine, your data is treated with respect, care, and transparency. This page is designed to help you understand what personal and technical data may be collected when you interact with our platform, why certain data must be retained under EU law, and how you can exercise your rights to access, control, and protect your information.

1. Why Do We Retain Some Data?

As a service operating under the jurisdiction of the European Union, we are legally obligated to retain certain categories of data for a limited period. These obligations are based on:

  • Regulatory compliance: EU and national laws may require retention for purposes such as fraud prevention, criminal investigations, or public interest.
  • Security: Retaining minimal logs helps us detect abuse, enforce system integrity, and respond to cyber threats.
  • Operational stability: Retention allows us to audit, debug, and maintain the quality of our service.

2. What Types of Data Are Collected?

We do not collect data to personally identify you unless you voluntarily provide it. However, when you use our search engine, some information is automatically logged by our servers or third-party systems:

  • IP address: Necessary for technical delivery of results, location-based optimizations, and detecting abuse (e.g., DDoS attacks).
  • Browser and device information: Includes your user agent string (e.g., browser type, OS), used for interface optimization and compatibility.
  • Referrer URLs: Tells us the origin of your visit (if provided), helpful for traffic source analysis.
  • Date and time of access: Helps in server performance, diagnostics, and troubleshooting.
  • Search queries (anonymized): Used solely to improve relevance and performance of the service; these are never tied to identifiable users.

3. How Long Is Data Retained?

Data is retained for the shortest time necessary to fulfill its lawful purpose. Standard retention periods are:

  • Access logs: Retained for 30 to 180 days for security monitoring and diagnostics.
  • Error logs: Retained for up to 6 months to support service improvement.
  • Search analytics (anonymized): Retained up to 12 months to understand trends and improve user experience.
  • Legal obligations: In rare cases, specific logs may be retained for longer if required by law enforcement or court orders.

After these periods, data is either securely deleted or permanently anonymized.

4. What We Don’t Do

  • We do not sell your data to advertisers or third parties.
  • We do not build user profiles based on your search history.
  • We do not track you across the web via third-party tracking cookies.

5. Understanding the Value of Your Data

Your data is part of your digital identity. Even small pieces like an IP address or browser type can be used to infer habits, preferences, and even location. That’s why protecting even basic metadata is essential. By understanding this, you can:

  • Choose services that respect your rights and privacy.
  • Limit data you share unnecessarily.
  • Use privacy tools like VPNs, encrypted messaging, or private browsers.
  • Demand transparency from every platform you interact with.

6. Your Rights Under GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation grants you full control over your personal data. You have the right to:

  • Access: You may request to view what personal data is held about you.
  • Rectify: If data is inaccurate or outdated, you can request correction.
  • Erase: You can ask us to delete your data under specific conditions.
  • Restrict: You may limit how your data is used.
  • Object: You can refuse certain types of data processing (e.g., marketing).
  • Port: You can request your data in a format that can be transferred elsewhere.

7. Security Measures in Place

To safeguard your data, we apply:

  • Encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS)
  • Access controls and audit logs
  • Automated intrusion detection and firewall protections
  • Limited access to logs based on strict need-to-know principles

8. Transparency and Accountability

We are committed to transparency. If any data incident occurs or our policies change significantly, we will notify users through clear, accessible communication on our website and/or via email when applicable.

9. Contact & Requests

If you would like to exercise your rights, request more details, or ask questions about how we manage data, you can reach us.

10. Final Thoughts

Privacy is not a feature — it's a fundamental right. We encourage you to take the time to understand how your data is used online, and to support services that uphold user sovereignty. Our mission is to offer a search experience that is transparent, privacy-respecting, and legally compliant.

Thank you for taking this educational time for yourself to learn the value of your data.