Privacy notice
Set out plainly here is the data that reaches me when you write through this site, what I do with it afterwards, and the rights you hold over it. This is run by one person. No marketing department reads your message, and it is not forwarded around an office.
Who is responsible
This site is the working record of Elias Vale, a consultant in entity hygiene for founder-led firms. The controller of the data described below, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and equivalent laws, is the operator of aisearchesoptimization.org. For any privacy question, or to exercise one of your rights, write to hello@aisearchesoptimization.org.
What I receive
Submitting the form on the enquiry page sends me the following:
- Your name and email address — needed to write back and address you correctly.
- An alternative contact channel, if you supply one (phone, LinkedIn, Signal), for when email is not your preferred route.
- The text you write about the company: the site, the sources that describe it, the category problem, and any examples of machine confusion. Only name and email are mandatory; everything else is optional.
These details serve a single purpose: replying to the enquiry you sent. No list subscribes you, nothing is passed to a third party (the one exception is the payment processor below, and only if a payment actually occurs), and nothing is combined or analyzed beyond our direct exchange. Stored with the message is the time it arrived and a salted SHA-256 hash of your IP address, which is what blocks automated abuse. The raw IP is never stored, and neither are device fingerprints or browser details.
What I do not collect
- No tracking cookies. The analytics here works without cookies and stores no per-visitor identifier.
- No retargeting pixels, no marketing-automation tags, and no advertising trackers are placed on the site.
- No automated profiling, and no automated decisions that produce a legal effect for you.
- No sale or sharing of personal data with commercial partners. That is not how this practice operates.
Why I am allowed to process it
Form messages rest on GDPR art. 6(1)(b), as steps taken at your request ahead of any possible engagement. The IP hash that protects the form from abuse rests on GDPR art. 6(1)(f), the legitimate interest of keeping the form usable. Any payment-outcome data is processed on the contractual basis.
How long I keep it
- Enquiry messages: kept for the duration of the engagement plus 24 months afterward, so the thread stays intact, then erased. Messages that lead to no work are kept for 12 months and then erased.
- Payment records: kept for as long as tax and accounting rules demand (usually 5–6 years), then erased.
- IP hashes: kept for 90 days, sufficient for abuse protection, then erased.
- Email threads: kept while we work together, or for 24 months after our last exchange, whichever is longer.
Your rights
Under GDPR and similar laws you may request access to your data, correct it, erase it, move it elsewhere, restrict its use, or object to its use. To do any of this, write to hello@aisearchesoptimization.org and I will respond within 30 days. If you believe the law has been breached, you can lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority.
Where the data lives
The servers behind this site are located in European Union (Germany). If any additional processors (email provider) operate outside the European Union, those transfers rely on standard contractual clauses and the safeguards each provider publishes.
Changes to this notice
This notice is revised whenever the handling of data changes in a meaningful way. The "Updated" date above marks the current version. When a change is significant, I note it on the home page for 30 days so returning readers are aware of it.