Privacy Policy

Introduction

Further Forward Innovation Ltd, trading as ClickGuardian ("we", "us", "our"), operates the clickguardian.ai website and the ClickGuardian click fraud protection platform. This privacy policy applies to all visitors of our website and all customers who use our services.

We are committed to protecting your personal data. We process data lawfully, fairly, and transparently. We collect only what we need, keep it only as long as necessary, and never sell it to anyone.

If you have questions about this policy, you can reach us at support@clickguardian.ai or by post at Office One, 1 Coldbath Square, London, EC1R 5HL, United Kingdom.

Information We Collect

The data we collect depends on whether you are a website visitor or a ClickGuardian customer. Here is a breakdown of each.

Website Visitors

When you visit clickguardian.ai, we collect limited data to understand how people find and use our website. This includes:

• Pages visited, time on page, and referral source
• Browser type, operating system, and device type
• Anonymised IP address (last octet removed)
• Information you voluntarily provide via contact forms (name, email, company)

ClickGuardian Customers

When you sign up for ClickGuardian, we collect additional data required to provide our fraud detection service. This includes:

• Account details: name, email, company name, billing address
• Google Ads and/or Microsoft Ads account connection details (via OAuth)
• Click data from your ad campaigns: IP addresses, device fingerprints, timestamps, user agents, referrer URLs, ad click identifiers (such as Google's gclid), campaign and keyword details, and click behaviour patterns
• Payment information (processed securely by Stripe — we never store full card numbers)

Click data is collected from visitors to your website after they click on your ads. This data is used exclusively to identify and block fraudulent clicks.

How We Use Your Data

Website Visitors

• To understand how visitors use our website and improve our content
• To respond to enquiries submitted through contact forms
• To send marketing communications (only with your explicit consent, and you can unsubscribe at any time)

Customers

• To detect, analyse, and block fraudulent clicks on your ad campaigns
• To generate fraud reports and dashboard analytics
• To process your payments and manage your subscription
• To improve our fraud detection algorithms using anonymised and aggregated click patterns
• To provide customer support and communicate important service updates

Data Retention

We keep data only for as long as we need it. Here are the specific retention periods for each data type:

When a retention period expires, data is permanently deleted or fully anonymised so it can no longer be linked to any individual. You can request early deletion at any time (see Your Privacy Rights).

Third-Party Data Sharing

We share your data only with trusted third-party services that are essential to running our business. We never sell data, and every third party we work with is bound by data processing agreements.

We may also disclose data if required by law, court order, or to protect the rights and safety of ClickGuardian, our customers, or the public.

Cookies & Tracking

We use cookies and similar technologies on our website for essential functionality, analytics, and marketing. You can control which cookies you accept through our cookie consent banner.

On customer websites, our fraud detection script uses first-party cookies and local storage to fingerprint devices and track click behaviour. These cookies are essential to providing the fraud detection service and cannot be disabled while using ClickGuardian.

For a full breakdown of every cookie we use, how long each lasts, and how to manage your preferences, see our Cookie Policy.

Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you have specific rights over your personal data. We honour all of these regardless of your location.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at support@clickguardian.ai. We will respond within 30 days. There is no fee for making a request.

IP Reputation Checker

We run a free IP reputation checker at clickguardian.ai/resources/ip-checker. When you look up an IP address, we process that address to return geolocation, network details, VPN, proxy and Tor classification, and a reputation score.

We also show whether an address appears in ClickGuardian's own fraud signals. These signals are aggregated from click activity across the campaigns we protect. We do not publish raw click records. We do not store the IP addresses you look up beyond short-lived, hashed caching used to rate-limit the tool and manage costs, and reputation figures are shown as banded ranges rather than exact counts.

Our lawful basis for this processing is legitimate interest, specifically the prevention of advertising fraud, which is a recognised legitimate interest under UK GDPR and EU GDPR.

If an IP address is associated with you and you believe a listing is inaccurate, or you want it reviewed or removed, email support@clickguardian.ai with the address and we will look into it. You can also object to this processing under your right to object, set out in the Your Privacy Rights section above.

Free Google Ads Audit

We offer a free Google Ads audit at clickguardian.ai/free-google-ads-audit. When you request one, we collect what you enter on the form: your email address, your website, a monthly spend range and, if you give them, your Google Ads customer ID and whether the account belongs to a client. We also record how you reached our site (campaign tags such as utm_source, and Google or Microsoft click identifiers) and the first page you visited. We don't record your IP address with the request.

We use these details to run your audit and send your report. We only send you marketing emails if you tick the optional box on the form, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

To run the audit, you add audit@clickguardian.ai to your Google Ads account as a user with Read only access, Google's own access level. A Read only user can view campaigns, settings and reports, and can't edit campaigns, change billing details or change anyone's access level. Google also shows Read only users billing information and lets them invite email-only users. We don't use either. We read your account's reports and settings, such as conversion actions, search terms, budgets, bidding, Quality Score, ad strength, location and network settings, placements and invalid click counts, and nothing in your account changes.

We delete the account data we pulled for the audit once your report is sent, and keep the report for 60 days. To end our access, go to Admin, then Access and security in Google Ads, and remove audit@clickguardian.ai. We remind you to do this when we send the report.

If you request an audit on someone else's account, such as a client's, you are responsible for making sure the account owner is happy for you to share it with us.

Ad Click Tracking

Customers can add our click tracker, t.clickguardian.ai, to their Google Ads or Microsoft Ads account as a tracking template. When someone clicks one of their ads, the ad platform contacts t.clickguardian.ai, either in the background while the browser opens the advertiser's page, or as a brief redirect on the way to it.

For each ad click we record:

• The IP address and user agent of the browser that clicked, and the page the click came from
• The ad platform's click identifier, such as Google's gclid or Microsoft's msclkid
• The campaign, ad group, keyword, match type, network, device type and ad identifiers the ad platform passes with the click
• The advertiser's landing page address and the time of the click

The tracker sends a visitor only to the address in the tracking link's lpurl parameter: the landing page set in the advertiser's ad, or a placeholder from the ad platform. It checks that the address belongs to the advertiser's website, or to the ad platform, before redirecting. It adds one parameter of its own, _vdnclk, a random reference that lets our tracking code on the advertiser's site match the visit to the click. It does not change the rest of the address, and it does not set cookies.

We use this data only to detect and block invalid and fraudulent clicks for the advertiser, and to report on their ad campaigns. We process it on the advertiser's behalf as a data processor (see GDPR Compliance), keep it for the same periods as other click fraud detection data (see Data Retention), and never sell it or use it for advertising.

GDPR Compliance

ClickGuardian complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Here is how we meet our obligations:

CCPA Compliance

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) grant you additional rights.

To make a CCPA request, email support@clickguardian.ai with the subject line "CCPA Request". We will verify your identity and respond within 45 days.

Security & Data Protection

Protecting your data is core to what we do. We implement industry-standard and beyond-standard security measures to safeguard your information.

Contact & Requests

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, want to exercise your rights, or need to report a data concern, here is how to reach us:

You can also visit our Contact page for general enquiries, or review our Terms of Service for additional details about our service agreement.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

For material changes that significantly affect how we handle your data, we will notify customers by email at least 30 days before the changes take effect. If you continue to use our services after the updated policy becomes effective, you are agreeing to the revised terms.

We recommend reviewing this page periodically. You can always find the latest version at clickguardian.ai/legal/privacy.