Privacy Policy

Last updated 31 August 2026. This policy replaces all earlier versions.

1. Who is responsible

Scout Forge operates scoutforge.net and decides how the personal data described here is processed. You can reach us any time at info@scoutforge.net.

2. What we collect, and why

If you browse without an account

We record page views to understand which pages people use. Before anything leaves your browser we strip identifying pieces out of the address, the referrer and any error text — an invitation link like /claim/<code> is recorded as /claim/[redacted], and sign-in callbacks have their query data dropped entirely. We keep a coarse record of the browser and the referring site. Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in knowing whether the site works.

If you create an account

• Your email address, name, username and, if you upload one, a profile picture.
• If you sign in with Google, the profile information Google returns for the account you choose.
• Whether your email is verified, and the tokens that let you verify it or reset your password.

Lawful basis: performing the contract in our terms.

If you list an app

Everything you enter about the app, the media you upload, and the statistics we produce for it — page views, outbound clicks, badge views. The app listing is public by design. The statistics are shown only to you and to us.

If you write or fund a review

• The review text, any screenshots, the rating, and which app and request it belongs to. The review is published.
• If a payment is disputed: the reason, the explanation, any evidence, and the reviewer's response.
• Credit movements — every grant, hold, payment and expiry, as an append-only ledger.
• If you use the writing coach, your draft is sent to a third-party AI provider to be checked against the requirements, and the score it returns is stored as a quality signal. The score is never shown to anyone, including you.

Lawful basis: performing the contract, and our legal obligation to keep an honest record of paid reviews.

If you buy something

Payments are handled by our payment provider (Stripe). We never see or store your card details. We keep the order, the amount, the status and the identifier the provider gives us, because we are required to.

The embeddable badge

The badge you can put on your own site records a view (only once it is genuinely visible on screen) and a click. It sends the app identifier and the address of the page it sits on. It sets no cookies, reads no storage, sends no account token and identifies no visitor — which is why it needs no consent banner and does not show one.

3. Cookies and browser storage

We use very few, and none of them are for advertising.

• token — keeps you signed in. Expires after 7 days.
• user_details — your own account details, so the page can render without asking the server again. Expires after 7 days.
• Theme — whether you chose light or dark.
• Local storage — your recent searches, whether you have seen the welcome screen, and a pending invitation code if you arrived from a claim link. This stays in your browser; we never read it on the server.

Clearing your browser data removes all of it. Signing out removes the first two immediately.

4. Who else sees it

We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for advertising. We use a small number of providers to run the service, and they only process data on our instructions:

• hosting and file storage (Amazon Web Services, Cloudinary);
• payment processing (Stripe);
• sending email (our mail provider);
• sign-in with Google, if you choose it;
• spam protection on sign-up (Google reCAPTCHA);
• an AI provider that generates our editorial reviews and runs the writing coach.

Some of these are outside Türkiye and the EEA. Where that is the case we rely on the transfer safeguards those providers offer, such as standard contractual clauses. We will also disclose data where the law requires it.

5. What is public

Your username, your profile picture, the apps you list and the reviews you write are public. A review stays published after you close your account — for the reason set out in the review policy: removing it would misrepresent the record for the developer who was reviewed. You can ask us to take your name off a review; the review itself stays.

Your email address, your credit balance and your account settings are never public.

6. How long we keep it

• Account data — while your account is open, and a short period afterwards.
• Reviews, disputes and moderation decisions — five years, including reviews we removed. This record is what lets us show that a review was not suppressed.
• Credit ledger — five years. Individual credits themselves expire after 180 days when they were granted rather than bought.
• Analytics — in aggregated form; the sanitized event rows are pruned as they age.
• Payment records — as long as tax and accounting law requires.

7. Your rights

Depending on where you live — under the GDPR in the EU and the UK, and under KVKK in Türkiye — you can ask us to show you what we hold, correct it, delete it, hand it over in a portable form, restrict what we do with it, or object to processing we base on legitimate interest. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Write to info@scoutforge.net from the address on the account and we will answer within 30 days. If you are not satisfied you can complain to your local data protection authority; in Türkiye that is the KVKK Board.

One limit, stated plainly: deleting your account does not delete reviews you published, for the reason in section 5.

8. Security

Traffic is encrypted in transit. Passwords are stored hashed, never in readable form. Access to production data is limited to the people who operate the service. No system is perfect; if a breach ever affects your data we will tell you and the relevant authority as the law requires.

9. Children

Scout Forge is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has created an account, tell us and we will remove it.

10. Changes

When we change this policy we update the date at the top, and if the change is material we say so on the site or by email before it takes effect. Questions: info@scoutforge.net.