Findx Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

We want to be clear about how we handle your privacy, and we will explain what information we may hold about you, why we hold it, and how we may use it.

We are aware of the importance of personal data and we uphold all European data protection provisions.

This privacy policy covers the Findx website, mobile apps and other services such as support and contact.

2. Your rights

The General Data Protection Regulation provides the following rights for you:

  • The right to be informed. We must inform you about what data is collected, why we collect it, how long we store it and who we share it with. You will find that information in this document.
  • The right of access. We must provide you access to the personal information we have stored about you if you request it.
  • The right to rectification. You have the right to request that inaccurate personal data is rectified, or completed if it is incomplete.
  • The right to erasure. Also known as 'the right to be forgotten'. You can request your personal data to be deleted, but in some cases we can refuse to do so.
  • The right to restrict processing. You can request that we restrict usage of your personal data. We are only required to comply in certain circumstances.
  • The right to data portability. You can request data hold about you in order to move or copy it to another service or to yourself.
  • The right to object. You can object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
  • Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling. You have certain rights if a service uses automated decision making or creates a profile of you without human intervention. We don't do this.

3. Data collected - website

We store data about user visits in two ways, each for a different purpose:

  • In a self-hosted analytics tool, where we keep anonymized data for analyzing website usage trends and various statistics. See the Web analytics section below for details.
  • In web server log files, where data is immediately anonymized. This data is used for fraud detection and to detect technical site issues.

While you are using our website, we save cookies on your computer to store your preferences and number of searches performed. See the Cookies section for details.

3.1 General visits

We collect technical information about your activity on Findx when you visit the site. This information is automatically sent to us by your web browser when it requests a page or image from our servers.

The data we collect includes information such as your device type, browser and language, timestamp, and your anonymized IP address. We register what pages you request when visiting Findx and what web address you came from.

The data is stored in logfiles on our servers. It is not used to create a profile of you or your behaviour, and is not linked to a user account. It is used to help us guarantee stability of the site and to prevent abuse of our service.

We anonymize data in the logs immediately and we do not share the logs with anybody.

Embedded content

Pages on this site may include content from other sources (e.g. videos, fonts and images). Embedded content from other websites behaves in exactly the same way as if you visited the other website.

Such a website may collect data about you and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking this interaction if you have an account and are logged into that website.

Findx Search is powered by providers of third-party web search services. To display relevant search results and to prevent fraudulent activities, data is transferred to our search partners who only use it to provide better search results on Findx - read more below. For information on the web search services data collection, which may differ from the data collection practices described in this Privacy Policy, please visit the end user privacy statements of our 3rd party web search services provider Bing (Microsoft). Both privacy statements are updated from time to time at our partners' discretion and at a location of their choice. Microsoft values your privacy and lets you control how your data is used in their Microsoft Privacy Dashboard.

The following data is transferred to our search partners when you submit a search request: IP address, user agent string, search term, country and language settings, filter settings for adult content, active search filter settings (e.g. page number information), an optional Bing ID (read more below) and the ID of the organization that should benefit from your search. Passing on the organization ID enables out search provider to show us earnings per organization in their payment reports.

You can disable personalized search results on the search result page. Result personalization is used to improve the quality of results you see. For example, if you repeatedly searched for locations in London and then search for Pizza, you may see Pizza restaurants in London in the results. This option is sometimes referred to as the "filter bubble". Some see it as a benefit, others try to avoid it - we give you the choice. When enabled, we pass on a unique ID to Bing, which they use to correlate your searches on Findx (and only here). If you turn off the feature, this ID is not passed on to them, and every search you make appears to them as if it was from a new user.

Personalized ads are turned off for our entire account with our search partner. This means you will not see ads on other sites related to searches performed on Findx (also known as re-marketing).

"But you still pass on my IP-address to Bing". Yes, we have to. We protect your privacy to the maximum extent allowed under the agreement we have with them. Other privacy-centric search engines mask part of your IP-address before passing it on to their partners - we are not allowed to do that. It is a matter of trust. You have to trust that the privacy search engines do not pass on your full IP-address to their partners. On Findx, you have to trust that our partners only use it for what thay say they will, which is to provide better results on our site (only) - nothing else. We trust them.

We do not integrate third-party tracking scripts into Findx search pages, which means that search data is only shared with the third-parties mentioned above who are directly involved with providing us search results and ads.

3.3 Newsletter

If you subscribe to our newsletter, we store the information you entered on the signup form, which is usually your email address and name. We also store the time of subscription, your IP address and browser information to be able to track potential email abuse. We track email open rates and link clicks in our emails, and only use this information to improve our newsletters.

We use the third-party email service Mailchimp to deliver our newsletters. Mailchimp is located in the USA, but is certified under the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss/U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. See their certification status here.

We use a double-opt-in process to prevent potential misuse of your email. Your email address is saved for as long as your subscription to the newsletter is in our database. You can request the removal of your email address from the list database at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link that we include in every email sent to you.

When you sign up, you explicitly allow us to send you information and marketing material about Findx services.

Security with "double opt-in"

When you sign up, we will send an email to the email address you provided asking you to confirm that you want to receive the newsletter. If you do not confirm within 24 hours, your information is locked and deleted after one month. The aim of this procedure is to prove you actually meant to sign up and to prevent potential misuse of your personal data.

We do not under any circumstances give or sell your email address to third-parties.

3.4 Web forms for contacting us

If you use a contact form to ask questions or receive support, you give us contact information. We collect the information you provide in the form, technical data about the device you use and your IP address.

We use the third-party support service Zendesk to identify and handle your enquiries once they are received. Zendesk is located in the USA, but is certified under the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss/US Privacy Shield Framework. Read more here.

When you visit the support site to request help, we use cookies to enable this functionality.

All communication via our support channels and the processing of the related data is carried out on the basis of your consent.

3.5 Blog

To inform you about our activities, we use a simple website solution to post articles and content. When you read an article on our blog, we treat it as a visit to any other page on the website.

Embedded content in a single blogpost behaves in exactly the same way as if you visited the external website and follows the privacy policy of the service provider, e.g. content embedded from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Vimeo.

3.6 Web analytics

Website owners need information about visitor behaviour in order to provide a better user experience, e.g. to find out which content appeals to most users, to discover from which pages users leave the site without taking any action etc. We collect this information in order to make Findx even better.

In order to protect your privacy, we operate our own analytics platform at analytics.findx.com instead of using a third-party service.

We store the following information in our analytics platform:

  • Anonymized IP address
  • The web page you visited
  • The web page from which you arrived
  • The page(s) you looked at after the initial web page
  • Access status / HTTP status code
  • The length of time spent on the website
  • The frequency of visits to the website
  • Your browsing behaviour on the website

We do NOT store the following information in our analytics platform:

  • Full IP address
  • Search query terms

The data we collect via web analytics is not transferred to or shared with any third-party.

You can opt out of the analytics tracking by activating the "Do not track" setting in browsers that support it.

3.7 Advertisements

Our income comes from advertisements and content from affiliate partners.

Advertisements and affiliate links may be shown within search results and elsewhere on our website. If you click on these advertisements or purchase something from an affiliate store, we earn commissions, which fund Findx and enable us to donate money to the charity organisations. These advertisements and affiliate links are provided by our search partner Bing, and affiliate networks.

These partners will register your visit if you click one of their links. The links include a unique Findx identifier, which is used to identify that you visited them through our site, in order for them to pay us our commission.

4. Data collected - mobile apps

The Findx mobile apps allow you to use Findx Search on your mobile devices as if you were using the Findx website through a web browser, and the data we collect via the apps are the same.

The processing of your data and the cookies set when using the app is exactly the same and on the same legal basis as accessing the website through your web browser. Essentially, the Findx app is a simple web browser used to access the search feature on our website.

The data is not transferred to any third-party. We will not access other data on your device, such as your calendar, photos, messages or similar.

5. Data collected - browser plugin

The Findx Default Search browser extension changes the default search engine in your web browser to Findx Search, meaning that your future searches are performed through the Findx website.

The browser extension does not save or share any information about your browsing behaviour. All it does is make your web browser submit your search queries to Findx Search, where the Findx website terms apply.

6. Cookies

We use cookies to provide the essential features of the Findx website.

In order to make these features work we place cookies on your computer to help you save your preferences and to make our website better to use. We also use cookies to analyse visitor behaviour and where necessary, perform web analytics.

Cookies are essential to make sure our websites and services function as intended - including the display of your accumulated number of searches. Therefore, we recommend that you don't block or disable cookies from Findx.

By modifying your browser preferences, you can choose to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or you can reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all cookies, you may be unable to access or use some features of Findx.

We delete cookies automatically on the announced expiration date, which may differ from one cookie to another.

List of cookies
NameLifetimeUsage
_csrf-frontend12 monthsSecures our site against Cross-Site Request Forgery attacks.
_language1 monthLanguage selection
personalized_search_enabled10 yearsIndicates whether personalized results are enabled or not. Only set if you change the default.
safe_search10 yearsContains your Safe Search setting. Only set if you change the default.
search_client_id10 yearsOnly stored if 'Personalized results' are enabled on the search result page. Unique client ID passed on to Bing so they can correlate your searches to improve search results. E.g. if you repeatedly searched for London, and then search for Pizza, you may see results for pizza restaurants in London.
search_region10 yearsYour selected search region. Only set if you change the default.
shSessionBrowser height. Temporarily stored in a session cookie so we can adjust page content accordingly.
swSessionBrowser width. Temporarily stored in a session cookie so we can adjust page content accordingly.

7. Data breach procedure

If a data breach that may disclose personal information to parties other than Findx and our service partners is detected, we:

  1. Stop the attack.
  2. Inform you and the rest of our users via a notice on our website and in our support forum.
  3. Inform the respective authorities (Datatilsynet).

8. Contact

Privacore ApS is a registered company in Denmark with VAT ID DK36479604.

Our office is located at:

Privacore ApS
Bakkekammen 44
4300 Holbæk
Denmark

You may also contact us by email at br@findx.com.

9. Complaints

You should contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO) with questions and requests concerning our processing of personal data.

We may ask you for additional information to confirm your identity and for security purposes, before disclosing the PII requested to you. We reserve the right to charge a fee where permitted by law, for instance if your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

Subject to legal and other permissible considerations, we will make every reasonable effort to honor your request promptly or inform you if we require further information in order to fulfil your request.

In the event that your request, for example, would impact the duty of confidentiality we owe to others, or if we are legally entitled to deal with your request in a different way than initially requested, we wil address your request to the maximum extent possible, all in accordance with applicable law.

If you are dissatisfied with our efforts in connection with data protection, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection supervisory authority in your country. The Privacore ApS home country is Denmark and the responsible authority is The Danish Data Protection Agency (Datatilsynet).

11. Children's privacy

We do not knowingly collect information about children under the age of 13 online or offline, nor do we knowingly use or share information about users under 13 years of age with third parties.

We encourage parents and guardians to be familiar with the websites that their children visit.

EU: For safety tips on privacy, visit betterinternetforkids.eu

US: The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") regulates the means by which website operators collect and use personal information from children under 13, pursuant to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (the "Act"). For more information about the Act and children's online privacy in general, visit the FTC's website at www.ftc.gov. For safety tips on privacy, visit OnGuardOnline.gov.

12. Revisions

We regularly review our privacy policy and thus it is subject to change from time to time. The date of the latest revision of the privacy policy can be found at the bottom of this page. Privacy policy amendments will apply as per the revision date. Therefore, we encourage you to periodically review this policy to stay informed about how we protect your information.

Revision 2. June 4, 2022.