Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Founder.best (https://www.founder.best) is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our platform and use our services.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide

• Account information: name, email address, username, and profile picture when you create an account
• Product listings: product name, description, logo, website URL, and category
• Founder stories: blog posts and articles you write on the platform
• Advertising content: ad titles, descriptions, images, and destination URLs for sponsored spots
• Payment information: billing details processed through our payment partner Dodo Payments (we do not store your full payment card details)
• Communications: messages you send to us via email or contact forms
• Connected services: if you choose to connect Google Search Console, Google Analytics, or TrustMRR to your founder dashboard, we receive the data described in Sections 5 and 6

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

• Usage data: pages viewed, features used, upvotes, and interactions with the platform
• Device information: browser type, operating system, device type, and screen resolution
• Log data: IP address, access times, referring URLs, and request data
• Cookies: session cookies for authentication and dashboard preferences

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve the platform
• Process transactions and manage subscriptions
• Display your product listings and founder stories to other users
• Show you private performance data for your own products in your founder dashboard
• Show relevant sponsored content and advertising
• Send service-related notifications (account updates, subscription changes)
• Detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and manipulation (e.g., fake upvotes)
• Analyze usage patterns to improve user experience
• Respond to your inquiries and provide customer support
• Comply with legal obligations

4. Sharing of Information

We may share your information with:

• Dodo Payments: our payment processing partner, to facilitate purchases and subscriptions. Dodo Payments processes payments in accordance with their own privacy policy.
• Supabase: our infrastructure provider for authentication, database, and file storage services.
• Vercel: our hosting provider, which runs the application servers that process your requests.
• Google and TrustMRR: only when you connect them, to request the data you asked us to display (see Sections 5 and 6).
• Public profile information: your username, profile picture, product listings, stories, and upvote activity are publicly visible on the platform.
• Legal requirements: we may disclose information if required by law, court order, or governmental authority.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not share your email address or private account details with other users or advertisers.

5. Google User Data (Search Console & Analytics)

Founders can optionally connect a Google account to see Google Search Console and Google Analytics data for their own products inside the private Founder.best dashboard. This section explains exactly what we access and how we handle it.

5.1 What we access

When you click “Connect Google”, we ask for the following permissions:

• Basic account information (openid, email): your Google account email address, so you can see which account is connected.
• Search Console, read-only (webmasters.readonly): the list of Search Console properties you can access, and for the property you choose, search performance data such as clicks, impressions, click-through rate, average position, top queries, and top pages.
• Google Analytics, read-only (analytics.readonly): the list of Google Analytics 4 properties you can access, and for the property you choose, traffic data such as active users, sessions, page views, engagement rate, top pages, and traffic channels.

Access is read-only. We never create, change, or delete anything in your Search Console or Google Analytics accounts.

5.2 How we use it

• We use Google user data only to show you charts and reports for your own products in your dashboard.
• Your Google data is visible only to you while signed in. It is never shown on public pages.
• We do not sell Google user data, and we do not use it for advertising, retargeting, or interest-based ads.
• We do not use Google user data to develop, improve, or train generalized AI or machine learning models.
• Our staff do not read your Google user data, except with your explicit permission (for example, when you ask for support), when necessary for security purposes or to comply with the law, or when the data is aggregated and anonymized for internal operations.

5.3 Storage and security

• Google access and refresh tokens are encrypted with AES-256-GCM before being stored, and are readable only by our servers.
• We store which Search Console and Analytics property you selected for each product.
• Report data is fetched from Google when you view your dashboard and cached for up to 15 minutes to keep the dashboard fast. We do not keep a permanent copy of your Search Console or Analytics reports.

5.4 Sharing

We do not transfer Google user data to anyone, except to our infrastructure providers (Supabase and Vercel) as needed to run this feature for you, to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger or acquisition with your prior notice.

5.5 Disconnecting and deletion

You can disconnect Google at any time from Dashboard → Integrations. Disconnecting revokes our access with Google and deletes your stored tokens immediately. You can also remove access from your Google Account permissions page. Deleting your Founder.best account deletes all Google-related data we hold.

5.6 Limited Use

Founder.best's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

6. TrustMRR Revenue Data

If you connect a TrustMRR profile to a product, we read your verified revenue metrics from TrustMRR (such as MRR, revenue in the last 30 days, total revenue, customers, and active subscriptions). We never receive your payment provider keys. You choose whether these numbers are private, shown as a revenue band, or shown exactly on your public product page. You can disconnect TrustMRR at any time, which deletes the stored metrics.

7. Cookies & Local Storage

We use the following types of cookies and browser storage:

• Authentication cookies: to keep you signed in across sessions (managed by Supabase Auth)
• Preference cookies: to remember which product you last opened in your dashboard
• Security cookies: a short-lived cookie that protects the Google connection flow against forgery
• Analytics cookies: to understand how the platform is used (anonymized)

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling cookies may affect platform functionality, particularly authentication.

8. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your information, including encrypted data transmission (TLS/SSL), secure authentication via Supabase Auth, encryption of third-party access tokens, and access controls on our database. However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

9. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide services. If you delete your account, we will remove your personal information within 30 days, except where we are required by law to retain certain data. Google tokens are deleted immediately when you disconnect Google or delete your account. Anonymized and aggregated data may be retained indefinitely.

10. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information
• Delete your account and associated personal data
• Export your data in a portable format
• Object to or restrict certain processing of your data
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@founder.best. We will respond within 30 days.

11. Third-Party Links

The platform may contain links to third-party websites, including products listed by founders and sponsored content. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these external sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites you visit.

12. Children's Privacy

Founder.best is not directed at individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that we have collected data from a child under 18, we will take steps to delete such information promptly.

13. International Data Transfers

Your information may be stored and processed in any country where our service providers maintain facilities. By using the platform, you consent to the transfer of your information to countries outside your country of residence, which may have different data protection rules.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify users of material changes by posting the updated policy on the platform with a new effective date. Your continued use of the platform after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

15. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

• Email: privacy@founder.best
• Website: https://www.founder.best