Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

AdNeutral ("we", "us", "our") operates the website at adneutral.com and the AdNeutral browser extension available on the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons marketplace.

For the purposes of data protection law, AdNeutral is the data controller for personal data collected through our website. The extension does not transmit personal data to our servers - it operates entirely within your browser.

If you have questions about this policy or how we handle your data, contact us at privacy@adneutral.com.

2. What Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide to Us

• Email address - if you subscribe to our newsletter or create an account for a paid plan. We do not require an account to use the Free extension.
• Payment information - if you upgrade to Pro or Team. Payments are processed by PayPal. We never see or store your full payment details - only a subscription reference ID.
• Support messages - if you email us at hello@adneutral.com, we retain your email address and the content of your message to respond to you.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically (Website Only)

When you visit adneutral.com, our web server logs may temporarily record:

• Your IP address (anonymised after 24 hours in server logs)
• Browser type and version
• Operating system
• Referring URL (the page you came from)
• Pages visited on our site and timestamps

This data is used solely for security purposes (detecting abuse, rate limiting) and basic server diagnostics. It is not used for advertising or sold to third parties.

2.3 Analytics Data (Consent Required)

With your explicit consent, we use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to understand how visitors use our website. This includes:

• Pages viewed and time spent on each page
• Traffic sources (how you found us)
• Browser, device type, and screen resolution
• General geographic region (country/city level - not precise location)
• Events: scroll depth, link clicks, form engagement, button clicks

If you decline analytics in our cookie consent banner, GA4 is not loaded and none of the above is collected. Your preference is saved in your browser's localStorage and respected on every subsequent visit.

2.4 Information We Never Collect

• Precise GPS location
• Browsing history on other websites
• Contents of your clipboard
• What you type into AI platforms (the extension never reads message content)
• Passwords or sensitive form data
• Facial recognition or biometric data

3. How We Use Your Information

Data	Purpose
Email address (newsletter)	Send update emails about new extension versions, new platform coverage, and blog articles. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in each email.
Email + payment token (Pro/Team)	Manage your subscription, send receipts, process renewals, and provide account support.
Server access logs	Detect and block abusive traffic, diagnose server errors, and calculate rate limits.
GA4 analytics (consent only)	Understand which content is helpful, improve site navigation, and measure marketing effectiveness.
Support email content	Respond to your question or bug report, improve the product based on common issues.

We do not use your data for automated profiling or to make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Union or United Kingdom, we process your personal data under the following legal bases:

• Consent - for analytics cookies and newsletter emails. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Contract performance - for processing your email and payment to manage a Pro or Team subscription.
• Legitimate interests - for server security logs and fraud prevention, where our interest in protecting the service outweighs any minimal privacy impact.
• Legal obligation - where we are required by law to retain certain records.

5. Cookies and Tracking

5.1 Strictly Necessary (No Consent Required)

Name	Purpose	Duration
an_consent	Stores your cookie consent preference (accepted/declined). Set in localStorage, not a cookie.	Persistent (until cleared)
PHPSESSID	PHP session identifier - only set for logged-in admin users. Not set for regular visitors.	Session (closes with browser)

5.2 Analytics Cookies (Consent Required)

Name	Provider	Purpose	Duration
_ga	Google Analytics 4	Distinguishes unique users	2 years
_ga_XXXXXXXX	Google Analytics 4	Maintains session state	2 years

These cookies are only set after you click "Accept Analytics" in our cookie consent banner. If you click "Decline", these cookies are never set. Google Consent Mode v2 is implemented, meaning ad personalisation signals are always denied regardless of your analytics choice.

5.3 Managing Your Cookies

You can withdraw consent and delete analytics cookies at any time by:

• Clicking the "Cookie Preferences" link in the footer to re-open the consent banner
• Clearing cookies for adneutral.com in your browser settings
• Using your browser's private/incognito mode, where no persistent cookies are stored

6. Third-Party Services

We use a small number of third-party services to operate the website. Each has its own privacy policy.

Service	Purpose	Data Shared	Privacy Policy
Google Analytics 4	Website analytics	Anonymised usage data (consent only)	policies.google.com/privacy
Google Fonts	Typography (Bricolage Grotesque, Inter, JetBrains Mono)	Your IP when the page loads (to serve font files)	policies.google.com/privacy
PayPal	Payment processing for Pro and Team plans	Payment details directly to PayPal - we receive only a subscription ID	paypal.com/privacy
Google AdSense	Display advertising on blog articles	Anonymised browsing context for ad serving; no personal data from us	policies.google.com/privacy
Cloudflare	CDN, DDoS protection, DNS	IP addresses and request metadata pass through Cloudflare's network	cloudflare.com/privacypolicy

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with any third party for their marketing purposes.

7. The AdNeutral Browser Extension

The AdNeutral browser extension is designed with privacy as a core technical requirement, not an afterthought.

What the extension does NOT do

• Does not read your messages. The extension identifies and hides ad elements using CSS selectors and DOM observation. It does not read, store, or transmit the content of what you type or receive on AI platforms.
• Does not track which sites you visit. The extension only activates on the specific AI platform domains listed in its manifest (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, etc.). It has no access to other websites.
• Does not send your browsing history to our servers. No data about your usage of any website - including AI platforms - is transmitted to AdNeutral's servers.
• Does not require an account. The Free tier works fully offline. Filter rule updates are downloaded as static text files - no account or identifier required.

What the extension does do

• Periodically checks adneutral.com/api/rules.php for updated ad-blocking filter rules. This request includes your browser's standard User-Agent string and your IP address (standard for any HTTP request). No other data is sent.
• Stores your custom rules and preferences in your browser's local chrome.storage.sync or browser.storage.sync, which may sync between your own devices via your browser account (Google/Firefox account). This data never passes through AdNeutral servers.
• Stores anonymised usage counts (number of ads blocked) in your browser's local storage. This data stays on your device and is never transmitted.

Extension Permissions

The extension requests the following browser permissions and for these specific reasons:

• activeTab - required to observe and modify the DOM on AI platform pages to hide ad elements
• storage - to save your custom rules and preferences locally in your browser
• Host permissions for specific domains - the extension only has access to the AI platform domains explicitly listed, not all websites

8. Data Retention

Data Type	Retention Period	Reason
Newsletter email addresses	Until you unsubscribe + 30 days	To process unsubscribe requests
Pro/Team account email	Duration of subscription + 7 years	Financial record-keeping legal requirement
Payment records	7 years from transaction date	Tax and legal compliance
Support email correspondence	3 years from last contact	To reference prior support history if you contact us again
Server access logs	30 days (rolling)	Security and abuse detection
Login attempt records	7 days (admin panel only)	Brute-force protection
GA4 analytics data	14 months (Google's default)	Seasonal trend analysis; configured per Google's retention settings

9. Your Rights

Depending on where you are located, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Rights Under GDPR (EU/EEA/UK residents)

• Right of access - request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification - request correction of inaccurate data
• Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten") - request deletion of your data, subject to legal retention requirements
• Right to restriction - request we limit how we use your data while a dispute is resolved
• Right to data portability - receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Right to object - object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Right to withdraw consent - withdraw analytics consent at any time via the cookie banner

Rights Under CCPA (California residents)

• Right to know - what personal information we collect and why
• Right to delete - request deletion of your personal information
• Right to opt-out of sale - we do not sell personal information; this right is automatically satisfied
• Right to non-discrimination - exercising your rights will not result in different pricing or service quality

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@adneutral.com with subject "Data Rights Request". We will respond within 30 days. We may need to verify your identity before processing the request.

10. International Data Transfers

AdNeutral is operated from servers located within the European Union / United States (depending on your chosen hosting configuration). When you visit our website, your data may pass through Cloudflare's global network, which has servers in many countries.

For EU/EEA residents: Where data is transferred outside the EEA, we ensure adequate protection through:

• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) with processors such as Google and PayPal
• Adequacy decisions where applicable

Google Analytics 4 offers IP anonymisation by default. We have configured GA4 to anonymise IP addresses before any data is stored in Google's infrastructure.

11. Children's Privacy

AdNeutral is not directed at children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the EU under GDPR). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under these ages. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us at privacy@adneutral.com and we will delete it promptly.

12. Data Security

We implement technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk of processing, including:

• Encryption in transit - all connections to adneutral.com use HTTPS with TLS 1.2 or higher
• Password hashing - admin passwords are hashed using bcrypt with a work factor of 12; plaintext passwords are never stored
• Database security - database credentials are stored outside the web root, connections use PDO prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
• Access control - the admin panel is IP-restricted, rate-limited, and protected with multi-factor authentication layers
• Security headers - we serve Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, and other security headers on every response
• Minimal data collection - we do not collect data we do not need, reducing the impact of any potential breach

Despite these measures, no internet transmission is 100% secure. If you discover a security vulnerability, please disclose it responsibly to security@adneutral.com rather than publicly.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our practices, new services, or legal requirements. When we make material changes, we will:

• Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page
• Post a notice on our homepage for at least 30 days
• Email newsletter subscribers if the changes materially affect how we process their data

Continued use of adneutral.com after the effective date constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy. For significant changes, we will seek fresh consent where legally required.

14. Contact Us

For any privacy-related questions, data rights requests, or concerns, reach us at:

If you are located in the EU and believe we have not adequately addressed your concern, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority (e.g., the ICO in the UK, CNIL in France, or the DPC in Ireland).