Privacy Policy

TL;DR

This policy explains which personal data Hands on GEO processes for website visits, the GEO check, website analytics, security and contact. It also explains why, who receives data, how long it is kept and how to submit a privacy request.

Last updated: 24 August 2026

Scope and purpose

This privacy policy applies to visitors of handsongeo.com, users of the free GEO check, and people who contact Hands on GEO through the website or by email.

Hands on GEO does not sell personal data and does not use website data for profiling, personalised advertising or automated decisions about people.

Who is responsible

Hands on GEO is the trade name under which Hans Schepers works as an independent professional. For the processing described in this policy, Hands on GEO is the controller.

Personal data we process

Visiting the website

The web server processes technical information such as IP address, time, requested page, browser and technical error or security information. This is necessary to keep the site available and secure.

Legal basis: legitimate interest in a secure, stable and functioning website (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Retention: no more than seven days at the hosting provider.

Language and cookie preferences

The website uses cookies to record your language and cookie preferences. Details are in our cookie policy. The language and CookieYes cookies are retained for no more than one year; the WP Consent API preference cookies for 30 days.

Website analytics

If you consent to analytics cookies, we use Google Analytics 4 to measure how the website is used: which pages are visited, how visitors find the site and which type of device they use. Google receives your IP address when the connection is made, uses it for coarse location data and discards it before it is logged in Analytics. We use aggregated results for reporting and not to identify you personally.

Legal basis: consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw your consent at any time via the cookie icon in the bottom-left corner. This applies to future processing and does not change what has already been measured.

Retention: event data for 2 months and user data for 14 months. The user-data period resets with new activity. This setting does not apply to standard aggregated reports. The Analytics cookies are retained for no more than 2 years.

Google may process data outside the European Economic Area. The European Commission’s standard contractual clauses are used for those transfers.

The free GEO check

When you enter a URL and start the free GEO check, Hands on GEO processes the following:

  1. Your browser sends the URL to our server. The server checks the llms.txt file on that domain. The domain and a maximum 280-character fragment are kept in a temporary cache for up to one hour.
  2. To prevent abuse, a hashed representation of the IP address and a counter are retained for up to 24 hours. The IP address itself is not stored in readable form; a hash is not fully anonymous.
  3. The normalised URL, the page path where the check started and the time are stored in WordPress. This overview contains up to 500 recent submissions; the oldest entry is displaced when the limit is exceeded. There is currently no additional time limit.
  4. The browser also sends the URL directly to Google PageSpeed Insights and Google Knowledge Graph Search. Google receives the IP address technically required for the connection.

Enter only a business website URL. A URL can itself be personal data, for example when it contains a person’s name. We do not link the submitted URL to your name or email address and do not use it to contact you.

Legal bases: performance of the check you requested (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR) and legitimate interest in security, abuse prevention, efficient operation and a limited usage overview (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Contact through the website or by email

The contact form does not send your name, email address or message to WordPress. It opens your own email application. We receive the information only when you send that message yourself.

We use it to handle your question, request or quotation. Do not provide special or other sensitive personal data unless it is necessary.

Retention: no more than twelve months after the matter is closed, unless the correspondence becomes part of customer, contract, dispute or financial records. Data forming part of the tax records is kept for seven years.

Who receives data

We share personal data only when needed for the purposes described, to comply with a legal obligation or to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.

  • STRATO GmbH (Germany): hosting, database, server logs, and the receipt and storage of business email. STRATO is part of the IONOS group; the servers are located in Germany.
  • Google Workspace: older business correspondence that remains in the Workspace mailbox while that account exists. Google Workspace data processing terms apply.
  • SiteLock LLC (United States): security scanning within the active STRATO hosting service.
  • Google Ireland Limited: website analytics through Google Analytics, only after you have given consent.
  • Google PageSpeed Insights and Knowledge Graph Search: receive the URL and technically transmitted IP address for a check you start.

Google and SiteLock may process data outside the European Economic Area using applicable transfer safeguards.

Cookies, security and changes

We use necessary and functional cookies. Google Analytics cookies are only placed after you give consent. We do not use advertising, tracking or personalised-content cookies. The current list is in the cookie policy.

To prevent misuse, we log failed sign-in attempts to the administration area, including IP address and time. Legal basis: legitimate interest in security (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). Retention: until the log is manually cleared.

The website uses HTTPS; access to WordPress and email is restricted and software is maintained. We update this policy before starting a materially new processing activity.

Your GDPR rights

Where the GDPR allows, you may request access, correction, erasure, restriction, data portability or object to processing based on legitimate interest.

Send a request to hans@handsongeo.com. We normally respond within one month. You may also complain to the Dutch Data Protection Authority.