Privacy notice

Version 1.0, 24 October 2026. This notice applies to searchsure.co.uk, our client portal and our services.

1. Who we are

1.1 SearchSureSEO (also called SearchSure) is a trading name of CME Group Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17536235, registered office 11a Mead Way, Fareham, England, PO16 7LA. In this notice, "we", "us" and "our" means CME Group Ltd, trading as SearchSureSEO.

1.1A CME Group Ltd also trades as SearchriseSEO, which has its own website (searchriseseo.co.uk) and its own privacy notice. SearchSureSEO has its own website, client portal and database. We keep SearchSureSEO client data in the SearchSureSEO database and do not use it to market SearchriseSEO services.

1.2 We are the controller of the personal data described in this notice. Where we handle personal data on behalf of our clients to deliver their services (for example, data in their Google Search Console or Analytics accounts), we act as their processor under Schedule 1 of our terms and conditions, and the client is responsible for telling the people concerned.

1.3 We are registering with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator. We will add our registration number here once the ICO issues it.

1.4 If you have any questions about this notice or your data, email us at hello@searchsure.co.uk.

1.5 We sell our services to businesses only. This notice still applies to the people we deal with at those businesses, such as owners, staff and contacts.

2. What we collect and where it comes from

2.1 Free website review. When you use the free review form on our website, we collect the website address (URL) you enter, your name, email address and phone number, and whether you have ticked the box to hear from us about our services. We save the review result and set up a free portal account for you, so you can see the result. We email you a link to set your password the first time you sign in. We only contact you about anything else if you ticked that box or ask us to.

2.2 Bot checks. Our forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to check that a real person is using them. Turnstile looks at technical information about your browser and device, such as your IP address, to do this.

2.3 Sign-up and account details. When you sign up, we collect your name, your business name, your email address and the services you order. Payments are handled by Stripe. We do not see or store your full card number.

2.4 Acceptance record. When you sign up, we record the date, time, IP address and browser used, and the version of the terms and the order you accepted.

2.5 Portal messages. We keep the messages you send and receive in your dashboard.

2.6 Content, approvals and change requests. We keep the drafts we prepare for you, the versions you approve or reject, any changes you ask for, and a record of who approved or rejected each item, when, and which version.

2.7 Business objectives. We keep the objectives and other information you give us about your business, so we can plan and report on your services.

2.8 Google data. If you give us read-only access to your Google Search Console and Google Analytics, we can see your website's search and visitor data. This is mostly about your website as a whole, but it can include some information about visitors to your website. Read-only means we cannot change your settings or anything on your website, and you can remove our access in Google at any time.

2.9 Hosting analytics. If we host your website, we receive traffic and performance data about it from Cloudflare, our hosting provider.

2.10 Sign-in. You sign in to the portal with your email address, a password and a code from an authenticator app (two-step sign-in). If you lose your device, you can use one of the one-time backup codes we give you when you set up two-step sign-in. We store your password only in a scrambled form (a salted hash), so we cannot see it. If you forget it, we email you a one-time link to set a new one. We record when you sign in. To protect accounts from password guessing, we count failed sign-in attempts against a scrambled (hashed) version of your IP address, not the address itself, and we may block further attempts for a while.

2.11 Service emails. We keep a record of the service emails we send you, such as order confirmations, approval requests and unread message reminders.

2.12 We do not ask for special category data (such as health information). Please do not send it to us through the portal.

2.13 Website visit statistics. Our website uses Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views and see how quickly our pages load. It records the page you visit, the page that sent you there, your browser and device type, and your country, which is worked out from your IP address. It does not use cookies or store anything on your device, Cloudflare does not keep your IP address, and it does not try to recognise you or follow you across other websites.

2.14 Access to your website. To publish content and make the changes you approve, we need access to your website. We ask you to give it in the safest way your website offers, usually by inviting us as a user, or by creating an app password or access token that only covers what we need and that you can cancel at any time. We record your website address, what it is built with, who hosts it, how you have given us access, your publishing preferences (such as your blog page, author name and default category) and the results of our connection checks. If you give us an app password or access token, we store it encrypted (see 8.1) and only ever show you its last 4 characters, so you can recognise it.

2.15 Access to your other accounts. For services such as social media, Google Ads, Meta ads, Google Business Profile and email marketing, you invite us to your own accounts as a partner, manager or user. We record which accounts each service needs, whether you have sent the invite, whether our access is working, and a short reference you give us, such as your Google Ads customer ID or the name of your email platform. We do not ask for your passwords for these accounts.

2.16 Recommended changes. When we recommend a change to your website, such as a new page title or a fixed link, we record the change, the page, the text before and after, the reason for it, your decision and any note you add, and each step after that (scheduled, made live, checked or reversed). This record can only be added to. It cannot be edited, you can see it in your dashboard, and it is deleted only as set out in 7.1.

2.17 Access history. We keep a short history of changes to your access settings, such as when access was saved, tested, removed or updated, and whether this was done by you, by our team or automatically. This history never contains a password, token or username.

3. Why we use your data and our lawful basis

3.1 To provide the services you have ordered (setting up your account, taking payment, preparing and publishing content, reporting, hosting and support). Our lawful basis is that this is necessary for our contract with your business. Where the contract is with your business rather than with you personally, our lawful basis for using your details as its contact is our legitimate interests in running that contract.

3.1A To use the access you give us to deliver your services. We use your website and account access only to carry out the services you have ordered and the changes you have approved, and to check that our access still works. Our lawful basis is that this is necessary for our contract with your business. Where the contract is with your business rather than with you personally, our lawful basis for using your details as its contact is our legitimate interests in running that contract. We keep the record of recommended changes and your decisions on the same basis as other approvals (see 3.2), and the access history to keep your accounts secure (see 3.4).

3.2 To keep a record of your acceptance and approvals, so that we can show what was agreed and what was approved. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interests in being able to prove our agreement and protect our legal position.

3.3 To run the free website review, show you the result in your free portal account and follow up on your request. Our lawful basis is our legitimate interests in answering your request, or taking steps at your request before a contract. If you tick the box to hear from us, we rely on your consent to send you marketing, and you can withdraw it at any time.

3.4 To keep our website and forms secure, stop abuse and understand how our website is used (including Turnstile bot checks, sign-in records and website visit statistics). Our lawful basis is our legitimate interests in keeping our services secure and our website working well.

3.5 To keep accounting and tax records. Our lawful basis is legal obligation.

3.6 Service emails. We send emails that are needed to run your services, such as order confirmations, approval requests and reminders that you have unread messages. These are not marketing, so they do not need marketing consent, and we keep marketing content out of them.

3.7 Marketing. We only send marketing emails if you have opted in, or, where the law allows, if you are an existing client and we are telling you about similar services of ours (the "soft opt-in"). Every marketing email includes a simple way to unsubscribe, and you can also ask us to stop at any time by emailing hello@searchsure.co.uk.

3.8 Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered your interests and rights and believe they are not overridden. You can ask us for more information about this.

4. How we use AI

4.1 We use artificial intelligence tools to help with research, analysis and first drafts of content. We check all content and recommendations before we send them to you, using our own review process, and nothing is published without your approval.

4.2 We use AI providers only through their business services, under terms that stop them using your data to train their models. They act as our processors under data processing agreements that include UK transfer safeguards. They may keep data for up to 30 days to monitor for abuse, unless zero retention applies.

4.3 We do not use AI to make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects.

4A. Google Search Console and Google Analytics data

If you are a client, you can connect your Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4 accounts to your SearchSureSEO dashboard, either by signing in with Google or by adding our reporting account as a user.

What we access. Read-only access only. From Search Console: the list of websites you manage and their search performance (clicks, impressions, click-through rate, average position, search terms and pages). From Google Analytics: the list of GA4 properties you can see and their reports (visitors, sessions, traffic sources, landing pages and conversions). We cannot change your settings, your website or your Google accounts, and we do not access any other Google data such as your email, files or contacts.

Why we use it. Only to show your search and visitor data in your dashboard and reports, and to plan, carry out and measure the SEO work you have asked us to do. We do not use it for anything else.

Who sees it. You, and the members of our team who work on your account, because reviewing this data is part of the service you have asked us for. We will not look at it for any other reason, except where needed for security or to comply with the law.

How we store it. We read your figures from Google each time you open a report. We do not save them; we only hold them briefly, for up to 10 minutes after you open a report. The only thing we store is the access key Google gives us, which is kept in Cloudflare's data centres in the EU, encrypted in transit and at rest. Our service runs on Cloudflare's global network, so the data may pass through other countries while we show it to you (see section 6). Access keys are encrypted with a key that only our application can use.

AI tools. We may use AI tools to help analyse your Google data and draft recommendations for you. The AI providers we may use for this (xAI, which provides Grok, and Anthropic, which provides Claude) process it only to give us that output, under terms that do not allow them to train their models on it. They may keep it for up to 30 days to monitor for abuse, unless zero retention applies. We never use Google data to develop, improve or train any AI or machine learning model, ours or anyone else's.

Sharing. We do not sell Google data, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone except the service providers listed in this notice who help us run the service, and only to provide the service to you. We will also disclose it if the law requires us to.

Google's Limited Use requirements. SearchSureSEO'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.

Removing access and deleting data. You can disconnect Google at any time from the Settings page in your dashboard, or remove SearchSureSEO at myaccount.google.com/connections (or remove our reporting account as a user in Search Console and Google Analytics). When you disconnect, we revoke our access and delete the access key straight away. If your account closes, we delete it within 30 days of closure. Figures that already appear in reports we have sent you stay in those reports. You can also ask us to delete it sooner by emailing hello@searchsure.co.uk.

4B. Access to your website and accounts

How you give us access. We ask you to invite us as a user on your own accounts, using our team address hello@searchsure.co.uk, or to create an app password or access token that only covers what we need. Please do not share your own password for any account. Step by step guides are in Site access in your dashboard.

What we store. For your website: the details in 2.14, and any app password or access token you give us. For your other accounts: the status and reference in 2.15. We never store passwords for accounts where you have invited us as a user.

How we protect it. App passwords and access tokens are encrypted with a key that only our application can use, and that key is separate from the one that protects your Google access key. Each one is tied to your account, so it cannot be read as anyone else's. We never show them in full, put them in emails or write them in our logs. We only decrypt them inside our application at the moment we need them, to publish approved work or check our connection.

Who sees it. When you sign in to your dashboard, you can see your access status, the last 4 characters of any app password or token, the record of recommended changes and the access history. Members of our team who work on your account can see your access status, whether a password or token is stored (but not the password or token itself), the record of recommended changes and the access history in our admin area. Our automated tools can see your access status only, never your app passwords or tokens.

Using the access. We only use your access to deliver the services you have ordered. We only make changes to your website that you have approved one by one in your dashboard.

Removing access. You can remove our access at any time. In Site access, choose Remove access: we delete the app password or token we hold straight away. Please also remove our user, app password or token on your own website or account, because only you can do that on your side. For your other accounts, remove us as a partner, manager or user in that account's settings and let us know.

5. Who we share your data with

5.1 We use the following service providers to run our business. They may only use your data to provide their service to us.

5.2 We may also share data with our professional advisers (such as our accountant or solicitor), with the police, courts or regulators where the law requires it, or with a buyer if our business is sold. We do not sell your personal data.

6. International transfers

6.1 Our service runs on Cloudflare's global network, so your data may pass through data centres outside the UK. Our database is stored in the EU.

6.2 Some of our providers, such as Google, Stripe and our AI providers, may handle data in the United States or other countries outside the UK.

6.3 Where data goes outside the UK, we make sure it is protected, for example by relying on UK adequacy regulations, or on the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses. You can ask us for more details.

7. How long we keep your data

7.1 We keep your data only for as long as we need it:

• Messages you send or receive in your dashboard are kept while your account is open and deleted 12 months after your account closes.
• Business objectives you give us are deleted 12 months after your account closes.
• Drafts and article versions you reject are deleted 12 months after your account closes.
• Two-step sign-in records (set-up, resets and how we checked it was you) are deleted 12 months after your account closes.
• Articles you approve, and the approval records (who approved or rejected each item, when, and which version) are kept for 6 years after our agreement ends and then deleted automatically.
• Acceptance and signed order records (date, time, IP address, browser, terms version and order) are kept for 6 years after our agreement ends and then deleted automatically. We use them to prove the agreement between us.
• Billing records are kept for 6 years after the end of the financial year in which our agreement ends.
• Free website review requests and results, and the free portal account set up for them, are kept for 12 months and then deleted, unless you become a client. If you ticked the box to hear from us, we keep your name, email address and phone number on our marketing list until you unsubscribe or ask us to stop, and then keep only what we need to make sure we do not contact you again.
• Your account details (name, business name, email address and phone number) are kept while your account is open and deleted 12 months after it closes, except where they also appear in the acceptance and billing records described here.
• Enquiries you send us are deleted 12 months after our last contact about them.
• Hosting traffic and performance figures are kept for 90 days on a rolling basis, and all of them are deleted 12 months after your account closes.
• Password set-up and reset links and sessions are deleted when they expire.
• Failed sign-in records are deleted within 24 hours of the last failed attempt, or sooner when you sign in successfully or reset your password.
• Website visit statistics (see 2.13) are held by Cloudflare. Cloudflare keeps the detailed records for 7 days and then keeps only summary statistics, which we can see for the previous six months.
• Google Search Console and Google Analytics data is not saved; we read it from Google each time you open a report and hold it for up to 10 minutes after you open a report. The access key Google gives us is deleted straight away when you disconnect Google, or within 30 days after your account closes. Figures already in reports we have sent you stay in those reports.
• Website and account access details. An app password or access token is deleted straight away when you remove access in Site access or choose an option that does not need one, and otherwise within 30 days after the last service that needs it ends or your account closes, whichever is sooner. The rest of your access details (your website details, access settings, access status for each account and the access history) are kept while your account is open and deleted 12 months after it closes.
• Recommended changes and your decisions on them (see 2.16) are kept for 6 years after our agreement ends and then deleted automatically, like other approval records.

7.2 When you close your account, we will also give you a copy of your content and reports in a standard format within 30 days, as set out in our terms.

8. How we keep your data secure

8.1 We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including:

• encryption of data in transit;
• two-step sign-in for the portal;
• encryption of any app passwords and access tokens you give us, with only the last 4 characters ever shown;
• access controls, so that only people who need your data to provide the services can see it;
• a log of key actions, including who approved or rejected each item and when.

8.2 Approvals can only be given by a signed-in user of your portal account.

8.3 Please do not send passwords by email. Where possible, invite us as a user on your own accounts instead (see 4B). If a guide asks for an app password or access token, enter it in Site access in your dashboard.

9. Your rights

9.1 You have the right to:

• ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you (access);
• ask us to correct data that is wrong or incomplete (rectification);
• ask us to delete your data (erasure);
• ask us to limit how we use your data (restriction);
• object to how we use your data where we rely on legitimate interests, and object at any time to marketing;
• ask us to send your data to you or another organisation in a reusable format (portability).

9.2 Some of these rights only apply in certain situations. For example, we may need to keep acceptance and approval records to prove our agreement, even if you ask us to delete them. If we cannot do what you ask, we will explain why.

9.3 To use any of these rights, email hello@searchsure.co.uk. Because CME Group Ltd is the controller for both SearchSureSEO and SearchriseSEO, a request to either brand covers personal data we hold about you under both names, unless you tell us otherwise. We will normally reply within one month and there is usually no charge.

9.4 If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

10. Cookies

10.1 We only use cookies that are essential for our website and portal to work, such as keeping you signed in, and the cookies Cloudflare Turnstile needs to check that you are a real person. Essential cookies do not need your consent.

10.2 We do not use advertising, tracking or analytics cookies. Our website visit statistics (see 2.13) do not use cookies. If we add analytics cookies in future, we will ask for your consent first and update this notice.

11. Changes to this notice

11.1 We may update this notice from time to time. We will post the new version on this page with its date, and if the changes are significant we will tell our clients by email.

12. Contact

12.1 CME Group Ltd, trading as SearchSureSEO

Registered office: 11a Mead Way, Fareham, England, PO16 7LA

Email: hello@searchsure.co.uk

Website: searchsure.co.uk

Version: 1.0, 24 October 2026