Privacy Policy

The short version

• There are no RipeLinks accounts. We do not ask for your name, email or payment details.
• The website does not log the domains, URLs or lists you look up.
• The extension keeps all of its data in your browser. Nothing you do in the extension is sent to RipeLinks.
• We do not sell, rent or share personal data, and we do not use it for advertising.

The website

What the tools process

When you use a tool, the domain, URL or list you enter is sent to our server, which runs on Cloudflare Workers. The server uses it to query public sources and returns the result to your browser. To avoid overloading those sources, a result may be kept in Cloudflare's cache for between five minutes and one hour, keyed only by the domain or URL, with no information about who asked. We do not write the queries to a log or a database.

To answer your query, our server contacts third parties on your behalf: the registry RDAP and WHOIS services for the domain's extension, the IANA RDAP directory, Cloudflare's DNS-over-HTTPS resolver, the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, the regional internet registries for IP ownership, and the website you asked about. They see a request from our server, not from you.

One exception: some of these sources limit how often our server may ask them. When that happens, your browser asks that source directly: the registry's public RDAP service for the domain, the Internet Archive's Wayback availability service for its first and latest snapshot, or the regional internet registry for the owner of its IP address. That source then sees your IP address together with the domain or IP address being looked up, as it would if you looked it up yourself. Nothing else is sent.

Technical data

Like every website, our hosting provider Cloudflare processes your IP address to deliver pages and to protect the site. We use your IP address only to rate-limit the tools (for example 30 reports per minute) so that one visitor cannot exhaust registry quotas for everyone. Rate-limit counters expire after a minute.

Analytics

We use two analytics tools to understand which pages and tools are used. Google Analytics 4 sets cookies and collects data such as pages viewed, approximate location and device type; we send it the page address without the query string, so it does not receive the domains or URLs you type into the tools. You can block it with any content blocker or with Google's opt-out add-on. Plausible, which we run on our own server (stats.xicheng.dev), sets no cookies and counts page views, referrers, country and device type without identifying you. It receives the full page address, which on tool pages can include the domain you checked.

Links to registrars

Register buttons take you to the registrar's own website. What happens there is governed by that registrar's privacy policy. Some links may in future carry a referral code so the registrar can credit us; the code identifies RipeLinks, not you.

The Chrome extension

What it stores, and where

The extension stores your data in your browser's local extension storage (IndexedDB and chrome.storage), on your computer only: the details of the sites you promote (address, name, description, the name and email to use in comment forms), the list of backlink sources you import, the comments you record and their recheck results, your settings, and your AI provider's API key. You can export all of it as a backup file and delete it by removing the extension.

When it reads web pages

The extension requests access to all websites because the blogs you work with can be anywhere. It reads a page only when you act in its side panel: when you click “Open and check” or “Check again”, when you fill a form, when you record a result, and when you recheck a link (which opens that page in a background tab). It reads the page's text, forms and links to judge whether you can comment, to draft a comment and to find your link. It does not read, record or transmit the other pages you browse.

What it sends, and to whom

• Your AI provider. When you ask it to write a comment, the extension sends the article's title and an excerpt of its text, your site's name and description, and your instructions to the provider you chose (DeepSeek, Google Gemini, OpenRouter or OpenAI), using your own API key. That provider's privacy policy applies. Nothing is sent if you write comments yourself.
• Domain registries. To estimate the age of a source domain, it queries the IANA RDAP directory and the registry's public RDAP service with that domain name.
• Your own site. “Auto-fill” requests your home page to read its title and description.
• Ahrefs and Semrush, only if you switch it on. When automatic import is enabled, a script on ahrefs.com and semrush.com pages reads the backlink data those pages load for you, and saves it to your local resource list. It is off by default and runs on no other site.
• The website you are commenting on. The comment form is filled in your tab; you submit it yourself, so the site receives what you choose to send.

The extension contains no analytics, no advertising and no tracking code, and sends nothing to RipeLinks. “Copy diagnostics” puts a summary on your clipboard (extension version, page address, what was found on the page) that you can choose to email us; it never includes your API key, email address or comment name.

Chrome Web Store limited use

The use of information received from Chrome APIs adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Data is used only to provide the extension's features, is not transferred to third parties except as described above to provide those features, and is not used for advertising, credit decisions or any purpose unrelated to the extension.

Your choices and rights

Because we hold no account or profile about you, there is usually nothing for us to export or delete. Extension data is under your control in your browser. If you believe we hold personal data about you, for example in an email you sent us, write to hello@ripelinks.com and we will answer within 30 days. Residents of the EU, UK and California have additional rights under the GDPR, UK GDPR and CCPA, and we honour them.

Children

RipeLinks is a tool for website owners and is not directed at children under 16.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update the date at the top. Material changes to what the extension collects will also be described in the extension's release notes before they take effect.

Contact

RipeLinks, hello@ripelinks.com.