Privacy Policy
1. Scope of This Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to all websites, web applications, and services operated by ByEmpire ("we", "us", or "our"), including but not limited to byempire.org and our products such as DevHelper and PollsHub.
By accessing or using any of our services, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this policy. If you do not agree, please discontinue use of our services.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information You Provide Voluntarily
- Contact enquiries: When you email us at enquire@byempire.org, we receive your email address and any information you include in your message.
- Account registration (optional): For products that offer optional sign-up (e.g., DevHelper history feature), we collect your full name, email address, and password (stored as a bcrypt hash). Phone number is optional.
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
- Log data: Our servers may record your IP address, browser type, pages visited, time of visit, and referring URL for security and diagnostic purposes.
- Usage data: Anonymous, aggregated data about how tools are used (e.g., which tool is launched) may be collected to improve our services. No personally identifiable tool input is sent to our servers for guest users.
- Cookies & local storage: See Section 4 for details.
2.3 Information We Do Not Collect
For guest (unauthenticated) users, tool input and output data (e.g., JSON you format, regex patterns you test, JWTs you decode) are processed entirely in your browser and are never transmitted to our servers.
3. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect to:
- Provide, maintain, and improve our services and products.
- Respond to enquiries and support requests.
- Save tool execution history for authenticated users (3-day rolling retention).
- Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, or security incidents.
- Comply with applicable legal obligations.
- Analyse aggregate usage patterns to guide product development.
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties.
5. Third-Party Services
Our services may integrate with or link to third-party services, including:
- Google Fonts — Used to load typography. Google may log your IP when fonts are fetched. (Google Privacy Policy)
- Google AdSense — Used to display contextual advertisements. See Section 6.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites or services that you access through links on our site.
6. Advertising (Google AdSense)
We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on our websites. Google uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our site or other websites on the internet.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visits to our site and other sites on the Internet.
- You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
- You may also opt out via the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.
For more information on how Google uses data collected via its advertising products, please see Google's "How Google uses data when you use our partners' sites or apps" page.
7. Data Retention
- Tool history (authenticated users): Automatically deleted after 3 days via a scheduled cleanup job. Users may delete individual or all entries at any time.
- Account data: Retained for as long as your account is active. You may request deletion at any time by emailing enquire@byempire.org.
- Email correspondence: Retained as long as necessary to resolve the enquiry, then deleted.
- Server logs: Retained for up to 30 days for security purposes, then purged.
8. Your Rights
Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Erasure: Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
- Restriction: Request that we limit how we process your data.
- Portability: Receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Objection: Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Withdraw consent: Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at enquire@byempire.org. We will respond within 30 days.
9. Security
We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These include:
- HTTPS encryption for all data in transit.
- Bcrypt hashing for all stored passwords.
- Stateless JWT authentication with short-lived access tokens (15 minutes).
- Server-side SSRF prevention for API proxy requests.
No method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we continually work to improve our defences.
10. Children's Privacy
Our services are not directed to children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the EU/UK under GDPR). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a child, please contact us at enquire@byempire.org and we will promptly delete it.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or applicable law. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of our services after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.
12. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please reach out to us: