Last updated: October 2026
This policy describes what Winking Toad ("we," "our," "the Service") collects when you use winkingtoad.com, why we collect it, and who we share it with. We've written it to describe what the application actually does, not generic boilerplate.
1. What we collect
Account information
- Username, email address, and a hashed password (we never store your password in plain text).
- Account tier and subscription status, and — once billing is enabled — a customer and subscription identifier from our payment processor.
- A usage-credit balance and a log of credit grants/deductions, for paid usage-metered features.
Crawl data
- The URLs, titles, meta tags, headings, structured data, links, images, and other page content of any website you choose to crawl using the Service. This is stored so you can view, export, compare, and schedule crawls of your own sites.
- If you crawl a site you don't own or control, that site's publicly-visible page content is stored the same way. Don't use the Service to crawl sites you're not authorized to crawl.
Winking Toad SEO Fixer (Shopify App Store app)
If you install Winking Toad SEO Fixer from the Shopify App Store, this section describes exactly what that app accesses and stores, separately from the connection-based Shopify integration described in the table below (that one is for winkingtoad.com account holders who manually paste in their own store's credentials; this one is the installable Shopify app itself).
| What's stored | Why |
|---|---|
Your shop's .myshopify.com domain and an Admin API access
token (scopes: read_products, write_products) |
Reading your product catalogue's SEO/alt-text completeness, and writing the specific SEO title, meta description, or image alt-text values you approve |
| A record of each SEO/alt-text change the app makes to your store (old value, new value, timestamp) | Powers the in-app Fix History/Undo feature, so you can revert a change |
| Your Shopify subscription status (active/cancelled/etc.), via Shopify's own Billing API | Determines whether AI drafting and indexing-request features are unlocked for your store |
| A Google OAuth token, only if you separately connect Google in the app | Submitting your product page URLs to Google's Indexing API as a best-effort "please recrawl this page" signal — see the in-app disclosure for why this is never a guarantee of faster indexing |
This app never accesses customer, order, or checkout data — only product content and your own store/subscription/Google-connection metadata listed above. For each AI draft you ask for, our AI provider, OpenAI, receives the product's title, type, tags, options, the names of the collections it is in and the first part of its description; for a collection, its title, description and the titles of some of its products. When drafting image alt text, it also receives the public web address of that product image so the AI can look at the photo. Google Gemini or Anthropic Claude are used only as backups if OpenAI is unavailable, and receive text only, never the image. Nothing else about your store is sent, and we do not keep what is sent.
Per Shopify's mandatory privacy webhooks: a customers/data_request or
customers/redact webhook is acknowledged but has no customer data to act on
(this app never stores any); a shop/redact webhook (sent ~48 hours after
uninstall) erases your stored Admin API access token and Google OAuth token. Fix History
records and subscription status are retained for your own reference unless you request
full deletion via the contact below.
Winking Toad SEO Fixer (WordPress plugin)
If you install the Winking Toad SEO Fixer WordPress plugin, scanning your site, editing values, the fix history and undo all happen inside your own WordPress site and send nothing to us. The plugin contacts winkingtoad.com only for the optional “Draft with AI” button, and only after a site administrator has entered a plugin key and ticked a consent box, at the moment someone clicks that button.
| What's sent for one draft | What we keep |
|---|---|
| The item's title, its type (post, page or product), the name of its first category, a plain-text excerpt of its content (at most 1,200 characters), and, for images without alt text, the image file names and attachment IDs | Nothing. This text is used once to build the request to the AI provider (OpenAI, with Google Gemini or Anthropic only as backups) and is discarded; it is not stored or logged by us. |
Your plugin key (a wtk_ key) |
A one-way hash of the key, linked to your account, so we can charge usage credits. The raw key is never stored. |
| — | A usage-credit ledger entry (amount and time) for each draft, with no content from your site. |
The plugin sends no visitor data, no WordPress user data, no email addresses and no site address. Deleting the plugin removes its settings and history table from your site; you can revoke a key at any time from your account.
Winking Toad SEO Fixer (BigCommerce app)
If you install Winking Toad SEO Fixer from the BigCommerce App Marketplace, this
section describes exactly what that app accesses and stores. It requests one permission,
Products: modify (store_v2_products), and never accesses customer, order,
payment or shipping data.
| What's stored | Why |
|---|---|
| Your store's hash and an API access token for it (stored encrypted) | Reading your product catalogue and writing the SEO title, meta description or image alt-text values you approve |
| The ID and email of each control-panel user who opens the app | BigCommerce requires apps to support multiple users and to delete a user's data when they are removed from the store |
| A record of each change the app makes (product name, old value, new value, time) | Powers Fix History and Undo |
| A count of AI drafts used per month | Enforces the free monthly allowance |
The app uses no cookies: when you open it, BigCommerce sends a signed proof of who you are and the app keeps a short-lived token in the page only. To write a draft, the product's name and the first part of its description text (up to 1,500 characters) are sent to our AI provider (OpenAI, with Google Gemini or Anthropic as backups); nothing else about your store is sent, and we do not keep that text.
When the app is uninstalled, the stored token, users, fix history and usage counts for the store are erased immediately. When a store owner removes a user, that user's record is deleted. Changes already applied to your products stay on your products.
Third-party connections you set up yourself
Some features require you to connect a third-party account. We only use these credentials for the specific action you request, and only against the site/account you provide:
| Feature | What's stored | What it's used for |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Apply Fix | Shop domain, Admin API access token | Reading/updating the product data you approve in the review table |
| WordPress Apply Fix | Site URL, username, Application Password | Reading/updating the post/page data you approve in the review table |
| MCP access | A hashed API key (the raw key is never stored) | Authenticating your own MCP client (e.g. Claude Code, Cursor) to your own crawl data |
| Google Search Console | An OAuth token issued by Google, scoped to read-only Search Console data | Showing your real search impressions/clicks alongside crawl issues on the same URLs |
Usage of AI features
Features like AI Visibility and Prompt Explorer send a question you type (or a generated buyer-style question about a category you specify) to Google's Gemini API to get a real AI-generated answer. We don't send your crawl data, account details, or website content to these APIs unless it's part of the specific text you're asking about.
Automatically collected information
- IP address, for rate-limiting guest (non-account) crawls and basic abuse prevention.
- Standard server logs (timestamps, requested paths, response codes) for operating and debugging the Service.
- A session cookie, required to keep you logged in. We don't use third-party advertising or tracking cookies.
2. Why we collect it
To operate the core features of the Service (crawling, storing and displaying your results, letting you export or schedule crawls), to authenticate you and maintain your account, to process payment once billing is enabled, to prevent abuse of the free tier, and to provide the optional AI-powered and third-party-connected features described above — only when you actively use them.
3. Who we share it with
We don't sell your data. We share it only with:
- OpenAI (and, only as backups if OpenAI is unavailable, Google Gemini and Anthropic) — the product, collection or page text you ask us to draft from and, for Shopify image alt text, the public web address of the product image, per OpenAI's privacy policy and Anthropic's privacy policy.
- Google (Gemini API) — the text of AI Visibility/Prompt Explorer requests you initiate, per Google's privacy policy.
- Google (Search Console API), if you connect it — to read your own Search Console performance data with your explicit OAuth authorization, which you can revoke at any time from your Google Account settings or by disconnecting it in the app.
- Shopify or WordPress, if you connect them — only the specific site you provide credentials for, only for the actions you approve.
- Our payment processor, once billing is enabled, to process subscription payments. We do not store your card details ourselves.
- Law enforcement or legal process, only if legally required.
4. Data retention and deletion
We retain your account and crawl data for as long as your account is active. If you want your account and associated data deleted, contact us using the details below and we'll delete it, other than records we're legally required to retain (e.g. billing records).
5. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data, or to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise any of these, contact us using the details below.
6. Security
Passwords are hashed with bcrypt, never stored in plain text. API keys and access tokens you provide (Shopify, WordPress, MCP) are used only for the connection you set up. We use HTTPS for all traffic to the Service. No online service can guarantee absolute security, but we take reasonable, industry-standard measures to protect your data.
7. Children's privacy
The Service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
8. Changes to this policy
If we make material changes to this policy, we'll update the "Last updated" date above and, where required by law, notify account holders directly.
9. Contact
Questions about this policy, or requests to access, export, or delete your data, can be sent to privacy@winkingtoad.com.
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