Privacy & Cookie Policy

Last updated: May 2026

This policy sets out how EKM Ltd (“we”, “us”, “our”) collects and uses personal data when you use the EKM SEO service (“Search Engine Buddy”), in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

By using this website you agree to the terms of this policy. Please check back occasionally as we may update it from time to time.

---

1. Who we are

EKM Ltd is the data controller for information collected through this service. If you have any questions about how we handle your data, please contact us at privacy@ekm.com.

EKM Ltd, 3 Foxcroft Drive, Bamber Bridge, Preston, PR5 6FP.

2. What data we collect

When you sign up for EKM SEO we collect:

• Your name, email address, and password (stored as a secure hash — we cannot see your password)
• Your website URL
• Your company name, telephone number, and billing address
• Payment method details — your card is tokenised by our payment provider (ClearAccept) and we store only the resulting token, not your raw card number

3. How we use your data

We use the information we collect to:

• Create and manage your EKM SEO account and subscription
• Provision your SEO organisation through our platform partner, Hike SEO
• Process payments and maintain billing records
• Send transactional emails (e.g. password resets) via Mailgun
• Record your subscription in our internal CRM (Envisage)
• Allow you to sign in to your SEO dashboard via single sign-on

We process your data on the legal basis of contract performance — it is necessary to deliver the service you have signed up for.

4. Third parties we share data with

Third party	Purpose
Hike SEO	SEO platform — your name, email, and website URL are used to create and access your SEO organisation
ClearAccept	Payment processing — card details are tokenised directly on ClearAccept’s servers; we store only the resulting payment token
Mailgun	Transactional email delivery (e.g. password reset emails)
Fetchify	Address lookup — your postcode is passed to Fetchify to suggest your billing address

We do not sell your personal data to any third party.

5. Data retention

We retain your account data for as long as your subscription is active and for a reasonable period afterwards to comply with legal and accounting obligations. You may request deletion of your data by contacting us at privacy@ekm.com.

6. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data
• Erasure — request deletion of your personal data
• Restriction — ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Object — object to processing based on legitimate interests

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@ekm.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

7. Security

Passwords are never stored in plain text. We use PBKDF2 with SHA-256 and 100,000 iterations to hash passwords before storing them. All connections to this site are encrypted via HTTPS.

---

Cookie Policy

Cookies are small text files stored in your browser. This site uses a small number of cookies, described below.

More information about cookies and how to manage them can be found at ico.org.uk. Note that disabling strictly necessary cookies may prevent parts of the site from working correctly.

Strictly necessary

Cookie name	Purpose	Expires
.AspNetCore.Antiforgery.*	Protects all forms on this site from cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks. Set automatically by the web framework.	Session
.AspNetCore.Mvc.CookieTempDataProvider	Passes your account reference between steps of the sign-up flow. Contains no personal data.	Session

Functional

Cookie name	Purpose	Expires
billingPlan	Remembers whether you selected monthly or yearly billing on the pricing section, so your choice is carried through to the sign-up form.	24 hours
cookieBannerDismissed	Records that you have acknowledged the cookie banner so it is not shown again.	1 year

We do not use any advertising, tracking, or analytics cookies on this site.