Privacy notice

Seen From Outside is run from New South Wales, Australia (“we”). This notice explains what we collect, why, where it is kept and for how long. Questions and requests: hello@seenfromoutside.com.

This website

seenfromoutside.com sets no cookies and runs no analytics or tracking scripts. Cloudflare hosts it and handles each request, including your IP address, to deliver the page.

If you email hello@seenfromoutside.com, Cloudflare forwards the message to our inbox without keeping a copy of it, though it logs details such as the sender, the recipient and whether the message was delivered. Our email provider stores the message in our inbox. We keep your email, and the domain you send us, so we can reply and set up your analysis.

A request sent with the form on our home page is an ordinary email to us. It contains the domain, name, business and note you typed, and we keep it like any other email. If what you typed is very long, the form shortens it to fit.

The analysis service

When we set up an account for you on app.seenfromoutside.com, we store:

• your email address and the name you give us;
• the domains you ask us to analyse, and the details of their DNS ownership check;
• your analysis reports: findings about each domain’s public security configuration, with the evidence behind them (such as response headers, certificate details and DNS records);
• notes we add when a finding is marked as accepted;
• a record of each analysis we run for you, and of each alert we send.

To sign you in, we email you a one-time code. We store sign-in codes and session tokens only in a scrambled (hashed) form, never as they are. To protect accounts, we count wrong codes and may lock an account for a while after repeated failures. Limits per IP address are kept only in the server’s memory.

When we change your account, for example add or remove a domain, or disable or close the account, our operators are emailed a record of the change that names your account. Some changes must first be confirmed with a one-time code emailed to the operator making them, and that email names your account too. The record waits on our server until it is sent, and is deleted from it within about a day. If it can’t be sent within a day, we delete the email itself and keep only a short note of it, saying what kind of email it was and which account it was about, for 30 days, so we can follow it up. We keep these emails in our inbox for 12 months, including after an account is closed, and then delete them.

Our server’s logs record the requests made to the service, including each visitor’s IP address and the page requested, and the analyses it runs.

We don’t sell your information, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone except the services listed below.

What we look at on your domain

We analyse a domain only after its owner has shown control of it with a DNS record we provide, or when we are otherwise entitled to check it. The analyser connects only to the domain and its www address, where it makes ordinary web requests. It also reads public DNS records, including the email-protection records the domain points to, and asks the domain’s registry once for its registration details (expiry date, registrar and status). It sees only what anyone can see from outside, and never logs in, tries other ports or guesses passwords. About our checks has the details.

Cookies on the service

The service uses two cookies. __Host-perimeter_signin, set when you ask for a sign-in code, lets only the browser that asked enter that code. It lasts 10 minutes and signing in removes it. __Host-perimeter_session, set when you sign in, keeps you signed in; it lasts at most 90 days, and signing out removes it. Scripts can’t read either, both are sent only over HTTPS, and there are no other cookies and no analytics.

Services that process data for us

• Vultr runs our server, in Sydney, Australia.
• Postmark sends sign-in codes, account emails and alert emails. It keeps the content and details of each email for 45 days, and records of bounces and spam complaints for longer, on servers in the United States.
• Cloudflare runs the DNS for our domains, hosts this website and forwards email sent to hello@seenfromoutside.com.
• Our email provider stores the messages in our inbox.

How long we keep things

• Analysis reports are deleted once they are more than 90 days old, or once a domain has 30 newer ones. Their alert records go with them.
• Notes on accepted findings are kept until the domain is removed from the service, so an accepted finding stays accepted in later analyses.
• Sign-in codes expire after 10 minutes, and their records are deleted within about a day.
• Confirmations of changes to accounts are deleted within about a day.
• If an email about your account can’t be sent within a day, it is deleted, and a short note of what kind of email it was and which account it was about is kept for 30 days.
• Sessions end within 30 days of your last use and after 90 days at most, and their records are then deleted.
• Records of analysis requests are deleted 90 days after they finish, except the latest one for each domain.
• Server logs are deleted after 30 days.
• Account details and domains are kept while your account is open.
• Emails you send us are kept for as long as we need them to deal with your request and to run your account.
• Copies can remain for longer: in our server backups, until they are replaced; in database copies made before software upgrades, until we delete them; and at Postmark for up to 45 days.

Your choices

Email hello@seenfromoutside.com to ask what we hold about you, to correct it, or to close your account. When you close your account, we disable it straight away and, within 30 days, delete your account details and the domains and reports that only your account can see. Some copies can remain for longer, as set out under “How long we keep things”.

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, tell us and we’ll try to put it right.