Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Crawl Nine provides website design and development, web performance, SEO, AEO, GEO, AI visibility and paid AI advertising services.

For data protection purposes, the controller of your personal information is:

Crawlnine. Crawl Nine is a trading name of Crawlnine.

Email: hello@crawlnine.com

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and share personal information when you visit our website, use our free tools, contact us, book a call, become a client or otherwise deal with Crawl Nine.

2. Information we collect

When you contact us through the website, email or another communication channel, we may collect your name, email address, business name, website address, the service you are interested in and whatever information you include in your message.

If you book a meeting, we may receive booking information such as your name, email address, appointment time and any information you provide when making the booking.

When you use a free website check or similar Crawl Nine tool, we may process the website address submitted, technical results generated by the check and normal server/security information associated with the request.

When you visit the website, our hosting and security systems may process technical information such as your IP address, browser type, device information, requested pages, dates and times, diagnostic information and security logs.

If you become a client, we may also process business contact information, contracts, proposals, invoices, payment records, project communications, website content, technical information and access information reasonably required to deliver the agreed services.

We ask you not to send passwords, payment-card details, special-category personal data or other sensitive information unless we have specifically asked for it and there is a legitimate need.

3. How we use personal information

We use personal information to respond to enquiries, arrange calls, prepare proposals, enter into and perform contracts, deliver our services, operate our website and tools, maintain security, prevent abuse, administer client relationships, issue invoices, maintain business records and comply with legal obligations.

We may also use information to improve our website, services and internal processes where doing so is compatible with the reason the information was originally collected.

We do not sell personal information.

4. Our lawful bases

Depending on the circumstances, we process personal information because:

• It is necessary to take steps before entering into a contract or to perform a contract. This includes responding to a genuine service enquiry, preparing a proposal and delivering agreed work.
• It is in our legitimate interests. This includes operating and securing our website, responding to business enquiries, preventing abuse, managing client relationships and improving our services, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• We have a legal obligation. This includes maintaining financial, tax and other records we are required to keep.
• You have given consent. Where consent is legally required, such as for certain marketing communications or non-essential tracking technologies, you may withdraw it at any time.

5. Free website checks

Our free website tools may test publicly available technical properties of a website submitted by a visitor.

Submitting a website does not guarantee any search ranking, AI recommendation, crawler access, advertising eligibility or commercial result.

When a website is checked with the AI visibility grader, its web address is also sent to two public data services so the result can include their answers: Wikidata, to see whether it lists the website as an organisation’s official website, and Google’s Chrome UX Report, for how fast the site has been for real visitors on phones. Only the web address is sent, and neither service is contacted when the website’s robots.txt asks our checker, CrawlNineBot, to stay out. Each service handles what it receives under its own privacy terms.

We may retain limited technical information from checks where reasonably necessary to provide the tool, investigate faults, maintain security and understand how the service is being used.

A website address may itself contain or lead to personal information. Please only submit a website that you are entitled to ask us to assess.

6. Contact forms and communications

If you send us a message through the form on our contact page, we receive your name, your email address, your website if you give one, your message and the service you choose. The email we receive also records the time you sent it and the page you sent it from.

Your message is sent as one email to our inbox, hello@crawlnine.com, and nowhere else. Our website does not keep a copy, it is not saved in a database, and there is no tracking or analytics on the form. We use it only to read your enquiry and reply to you by email.

We also send one automatic email to the address you give, confirming that your message arrived and linking to our booking page. It does not repeat anything you wrote. If you did not send the message, you can ignore it: nothing else is sent.

To stop the form being misused, your IP address is used to limit how many messages can be sent in a minute. It is used only for that count, which lasts about a minute, and is not stored with your message.

The services involved are:

• Cloudflare, which runs this website. It receives the form when you press send and passes your message to Google Workspace.
• Google Workspace, which provides our email. It sends your message to our inbox and the confirmation to you, keeps both in our email account, and is where we reply from.
• Calendly, if you book a call. It collects the details you enter when you book.
• Zoom, where the call takes place.

If an enquiry does not become a client relationship, we currently intend to retain ordinary enquiry correspondence for up to 24 months after the last meaningful contact, unless there is a reason to keep it for longer or delete it sooner.

If an enquiry becomes a client relationship, relevant correspondence may become part of our client and contractual records.

7. Client and financial records

We retain contractual, invoicing, accounting and other records for as long as reasonably necessary to operate the relationship and meet our legal, tax, accounting and dispute-resolution obligations.

Where UK company accounting rules apply, relevant accounting records may need to be retained for six years or longer in certain circumstances (GOV.UK).

Operational project files that are no longer required will be deleted, returned or anonymised in accordance with our internal retention practices and any agreement with the client.

Access credentials should only be retained while they are reasonably required to perform the agreed work.

8. Service providers

We use third parties to help operate Crawl Nine.

Depending on how you interact with us, these may include website hosting and security providers such as Cloudflare, email providers, scheduling providers such as Calendly, analytics providers where enabled, accounting or payment providers, public data services used by the free website checks (Wikidata and Google’s Chrome UX Report, which receive the web address being checked), and professional advisers.

These providers may process information on our behalf or, in some cases, as independent controllers under their own privacy terms.

We only provide information that is reasonably necessary for the relevant service.

9. International transfers

Some technology providers we use may process information outside the United Kingdom.

Where UK data protection rules on restricted international transfers apply, we use or rely on an appropriate lawful transfer mechanism, such as UK adequacy regulations, approved contractual safeguards or another legally permitted mechanism.

UK data protection law, as explained in the ICO’s current guidance, requires organisations to consider the protection that applies when personal information is made accessible outside the UK (ICO).

You may contact us at hello@crawlnine.com if you would like more information about safeguards relevant to your personal information.

10. Cookies and similar technologies

We may use technologies that are strictly necessary for the website to function, remain secure or provide a service requested by the visitor.

If we use non-essential analytics, advertising or similar tracking technologies that require consent, we will provide appropriate information and request consent before using them where required by law.

At the time of writing, this website’s own code sets no cookies and runs no analytics, advertising or other tracking technologies. If that changes, this section will say so before it does.

11. Marketing

We may send communications about an existing enquiry or client relationship where this is necessary to provide the requested service.

We will only send direct marketing where permitted by applicable law.

Where you have the right to opt out, you can do so at any time by using an unsubscribe option where provided or by emailing hello@crawlnine.com.

12. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information from unauthorised access, misuse, loss or disclosure.

No website, email system or internet transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

If we become aware of a personal-data breach, we will assess and handle it in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

13. Your rights

Depending on the law that applies and the circumstances of our processing, you may have rights to request access to your personal information, correct inaccurate information, request deletion, restrict processing, object to processing, receive certain information in a portable format, and withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

UK data-protection rights vary depending on the lawful basis being used, so not every right applies in every situation (ICO).

To exercise a right, email hello@crawlnine.com.

We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

14. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we use your personal information, please contact us first at hello@crawlnine.com.

You also have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if UK data-protection law applies.

15. People outside the United Kingdom

Crawl Nine serves businesses internationally.

Where privacy or data-protection laws outside the UK apply to a particular relationship, additional rights or requirements may apply.

Nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to remove rights that cannot lawfully be excluded under applicable legislation.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, technology, suppliers or legal obligations change.

The latest version will always be published on this page with its revision date.

For questions about this policy, contact: hello@crawlnine.com