Privacy Policy

Rankwise is committed to handling personal information responsibly and in compliance with applicable privacy law. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights.

Rankwise is a sole proprietorship registered in British Columbia, Canada, operated by Zack Shefrin. This policy applies to rankwise.ca and Rankwise's related services. It is governed by the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) (federal) and British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).

1. Introduction

We collect only the personal information we need to provide our services and operate our website. We do not sell personal information to third parties. We store information securely and keep it only as long as necessary.

2. What we collect

a) Instant audit widget

When you use the free rank check tool on rankwise.ca, we collect:

• The name or address of the business you search (entered by you).
• If you submit your email address to receive audit results, we collect that email address.
• Publicly available data from the business's Google Business Profile, retrieved via the Google Places API. This includes the business's name, address, phone number, category, rating, review count, and hours — all of which are already public on Google.

We do not collect your email unless you voluntarily provide it. Providing your email is optional.

b) Booking via Cal.com

When you book a discovery call or audit through Cal.com, Cal.com collects your name, email address, company name, and website. This information is used to schedule and conduct the call. Cal.com's own privacy policy applies to data collected through their platform.

c) Analytics — Google Analytics 4

We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to understand how visitors use rankwise.ca. GA4 collects anonymized usage data including pages visited, time on site, referral source, and general geographic region. GA4 uses cookies to identify sessions. It does not collect personally identifiable information unless you submit a form.

d) Outreach

If Rankwise contacts your business directly as a prospective client, we may have collected your business name, phone number, and publicly listed email address from public sources such as Google Business Profile, industry directories, or business registries. This information is used solely for the purpose of reaching out about Rankwise's services.

e) Connected social accounts

If you are a Rankwise client and connect a TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube account in your Rankwise portal, the platform shares with us, with your permission:

• your account's ID, username or display name, and profile picture;
• an access token (and, where the platform issues one, a refresh token) that is used only to publish each video you confirm to that account and to check its processing status. For TikTok posting, we will request two permissions: basic account info, and posting the videos you confirm and checking their processing status. TikTok posting is being built and is not yet available.

For each post, we record the settings you chose (who can view it, whether comments, Duet and Stitch are allowed, content disclosure, AI-generated label, and the time you picked) and when you confirmed it. Nothing is posted until you confirm that post. When TikTok posting launches, your business will control every TikTok post: an authorized user connects the account, reviews the video, chooses the post settings and confirms each post. Rankwise staff accounts have no way to connect your TikTok account or confirm a post; only a user you authorize for your business can, and each post records who confirmed it. We do not read your followers list, and the TikTok posting connection does not retrieve your video library (the separate read-only analytics connection described below reads your public videos' details, only for your reports). We do not access your TikTok messages. We access your Facebook or Instagram messages only if you choose to turn on inbox access by giving Rankwise partner access in Meta's business settings. We use those messages only to draft or send the replies you have asked us to handle, and you can remove that access at any time in Meta's settings. Access tokens are used only for the purposes described in this section. Tokens for read-only analytics connections are stored as files that only Rankwise's operator account can read, on a computer with full-disk encryption; the files are not separately encrypted. Your reports are stored the same way. When TikTok posting launches, its tokens will be kept in an encrypted database vault.

Read-only analytics connections. Separately from posting, a client can connect an Instagram or TikTok account so that Rankwise can prepare performance reports. The platform shares the following with us, with your permission:

Instagram. If you connect your Instagram professional account for reporting, through Instagram's own permission screen, Instagram shares with us your account ID, username and account type; your posts' captions, dates, links and stats (views, reach, likes, comments, saves, shares, follows, profile visits, Reels watch time); account reach, views, profile link taps and follower count; and, when available, audience age, gender, country and city as totals, never individual people.

TikTok. If you connect your TikTok account for reporting, through TikTok's own permission screen, TikTok shares with us your TikTok account's unique ID for Rankwise (open_id), username and display name; your follower, following, like and video counts; and your public videos' titles, descriptions (captions), dates and view, like, comment and share counts.

We use this data only to prepare your reports and give them to you. These connections are read-only: we cannot post, comment or message as you through them. We do not sell this data, use it for advertising, or use it for Rankwise's own marketing. See Section 7 for how long we keep it.

If you connect an Instagram or Facebook account, you can request deletion of the data we hold about it as described on our Data Deletion page.

f) Google and YouTube data

Beyond the rank check tool and analytics described above, Rankwise uses Google's APIs with your permission in two ways:

• YouTube. If you connect a YouTube channel in your Rankwise portal, Google shares with us, with your permission, your channel's ID, title and thumbnail, and an access token that lets Rankwise upload the videos you approve to that channel, set their scheduled publish time and AI-content disclosure, change or cancel a scheduled publish when you ask, and read the status of those videos. We do not read your subscribers, comments, watch history or any video Rankwise did not upload.
• Google Business Profile. If you add Rankwise's Google account as a Manager of your Business Profile, we read your profile's performance data and reviews for your reports and publish the updates you approve. You grant this through Google's standard manager invite; you do not sign in to Rankwise with your Google account for it.

We use this information only to provide these features to you. We do not sell it, use it for advertising, or transfer it to anyone else except as needed to provide the feature you asked for, to comply with law, or to keep the service secure. Rankwise's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Rankwise's YouTube features use YouTube API Services. By connecting a YouTube channel you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service, and Google's use of your information is described in the Google Privacy Policy. You can remove Rankwise's access at any time from your Rankwise portal or from your Google Account's security settings at https://security.google.com/settings/security/permissions. Section 7 explains what we delete, and when, after access is removed.

3. How we use personal information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide and improve the rank check tool and other site features.
• Respond to inquiries and schedule calls.
• Deliver SEO and Google Business Profile services to clients.
• Publish each video you confirm to the social accounts you connect, with the settings you choose.
• Understand site usage and improve rankwise.ca.
• Contact prospective local service business clients in the Lower Mainland about Rankwise's services, subject to CASL consent rules (see Section 6).

We do not use personal information for automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

4. Cookies and analytics

Rankwise uses the following cookies and similar browser storage:

• Google Analytics 4 cookies — used to measure site traffic and usage patterns. These cookies are set by Google and are subject to Google's Privacy Policy.
• internal_traffic — a first-party cookie set manually to distinguish internal Rankwise traffic from public visitors in analytics. This cookie contains no personal information.
• Cloudflare Turnstile — used on the audit widget to distinguish humans from bots. Cloudflare's privacy policy applies.
• Rankwise portal sign-in — when you sign in to the Rankwise client portal, your sign-in session is stored in your browser's local storage to keep you signed in. It is used only for signing in and is removed when you sign out.

To opt out of Google Analytics tracking, you can install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on or adjust your browser's cookie settings.

5. Sharing and third parties

We share personal information only as necessary to operate our services:

• Google — rank check tool queries are sent to the Google Places API. Booking data goes through Google Calendar integration. Analytics data is processed by Google Analytics 4. Google's privacy policy applies.
• Cal.com — booking information is processed by Cal.com. Cal.com's privacy policy applies.
• Supabase — audit submissions and client portal data are stored on Supabase infrastructure (hosted in the United States). Supabase's privacy policy and data processing agreement apply.
• Email — we use standard email to respond to inquiries and communicate with clients.
• TikTok, Meta (Instagram and Facebook) and Google (YouTube) — when you connect an account and approve a post, the video, caption and settings you approved are sent to that platform so it can be published on your account. Each platform's own privacy policy applies to content on its service. We do not share data from rankwise.ca with these platforms for advertising.

We do not sell personal information to any third party.

6. CASL — outreach consent and unsubscribe

Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) governs commercial electronic messages sent to Canadian recipients. When Rankwise contacts a business by email or other electronic means, we rely on implied consent (where the business contact information is publicly listed and the message is relevant to the recipient's business activity) or express consent where required.

Every outreach message from Rankwise includes a clear and easy way to unsubscribe. To stop receiving messages from Rankwise, reply with "unsubscribe" or email zshef@rankwise.ca. We will honour unsubscribe requests promptly and within the timeframe required by CASL.

7. Data retention and security

We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected:

• Rank check tool submissions are retained to allow follow-up and to improve the tool. Email addresses are kept until you request deletion.
• Client engagement records are retained for the duration of the engagement and for a reasonable period afterward for accounting and legal purposes.
• Analytics data is retained subject to Google Analytics 4 retention settings (default: 14 months).
• We keep a connected account's token while the account is connected. When you disconnect it in your Rankwise portal, we revoke our access where the platform allows it and delete the stored token immediately. If you remove Rankwise's access in the platform's own settings instead, the token stops working right away; we delete it from our systems when you disconnect the account in your portal or ask us to (see our Data Deletion page). For YouTube, if you remove Rankwise's access in your Google Account settings, we delete the token and the YouTube data we hold about you within 30 days even if you do not ask, and we complete a YouTube data deletion request within 7 days. After an account is disconnected or its data is deleted, we keep only a record of the posts you approved (their settings and times, and when you confirmed each one) with your client records as proof of your approval. That record does not include your account's platform ID, username, profile picture or post IDs.
• For read-only analytics connections (Instagram and TikTok), we keep the access token while you are connected and delete it when you disconnect or ask us to. Our policy is to delete your reports within 30 days after you disconnect or your engagement with Rankwise ends; for now this is done by hand, not by an automatic purge.

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure; we cannot guarantee absolute security. To report a security issue, email zshef@rankwise.ca with the subject line "Security".

8. Your rights

Under PIPEDA and BC PIPA, you have the right to:

• Access the personal information Rankwise holds about you.
• Correct inaccurate personal information.
• Request deletion of your personal information, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Withdraw consent to the collection or use of your personal information, where consent is the basis for processing.

To exercise any of these rights, email zshef@rankwise.ca. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Children

Rankwise's website and services are directed at local service businesses and their owners. This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. For material changes, we will provide notice by email to active clients.

11. Contact

Questions, access requests, or concerns about this Privacy Policy? Contact us at zshef@rankwise.ca.

Rankwise is operated by Zack Shefrin, British Columbia, Canada.