Astory Media Web design, Local SEO, digital marketing and AI automation

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 4 August 2026

This policy covers Astory Media ("we", "us", "our") and all of the services we provide, including web design and development, local SEO services and audits, digital marketing, and AI automations development, as well as the software tools we build, including our Chrome extensions. It explains what personal data we collect, how we use it, and the choices you have.

Details specific to each of our Chrome extensions are covered in the "Google Extensions" section at the bottom of this policy, in addition to everything below.

Who we are

Astory Media is a web design, local SEO and digital marketing agency. This policy applies to our website, our client services, and the software tools and Chrome extensions we build. You can reach us at hello@astorymedia.ie.

Data we collect

Contact and enquiry data	When you get in touch through our website's contact or enquiry form, we collect your name, email address, phone number, and the content of your message, so we can respond to you.
Website analytics and advertising data	When you visit our website, we use Google Analytics and advertising pixels such as Meta (Facebook) Pixel to understand how our site is used and to measure the performance of our marketing campaigns. These tools may collect your IP address, device and browser information, pages visited, and the site that referred you, using cookies and similar technologies. See "Cookies and tracking" below.
Client and project data	When you engage us for web design and development, local SEO services and audits, digital marketing, or AI automations development, we may collect additional information needed to deliver that service, such as business details, website or analytics account access, and content or materials you provide us. This is used only to deliver the agreed service.

How we use your data

To respond to enquiries and provide quotes.
To deliver and manage the services you have engaged us for.
To understand how our website is used and to improve it.
To measure and improve the performance of our marketing and advertising.
To meet our legal, tax, and accounting obligations.

Cookies and tracking

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

Analytics cookies	Google Analytics helps us understand how visitors use our website, such as which pages are viewed and how visitors arrived at the site.
Advertising cookies	Tools such as Meta (Facebook) Pixel help us measure and improve the performance of our advertising, and may be used to show relevant ads to people who have visited our website.

You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings at any time. Our Chrome extensions do not use these or any other cookies or tracking tools; see the "Google Extensions" section below for details specific to each extension.

How we share data

We do not sell your personal data.
We share data with service providers who help us run our business, such as Google (Analytics and advertising), Meta (advertising), and our website hosting and email providers. These providers process data under their own privacy terms.
We may disclose data where required to do so by law.

Data retention

Enquiry data is kept for as long as needed to respond to you and for a reasonable period afterward, or as required by law.
Client and project data is kept for the duration of our engagement and for as long as required by our contractual, accounting, and legal obligations.
Analytics and advertising data is retained according to the default retention settings of the tools we use, unless configured otherwise.

Your rights

As we are based in Ireland, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to how we handle your data. You have the right to access, correct, or erase your personal data, to restrict or object to certain processing, and to request your data in a portable format. You can also lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission at www.dataprotection.ie. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@astorymedia.ie.

Children's privacy

Our services are intended for businesses and professionals. They are not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the "Last updated" date at the top of this page will be revised. Continued use of our website, services, or software after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about this privacy policy can be sent to hello@astorymedia.ie.

Google Extensions

Everything above applies to our extensions as well. This section adds the details specific to each one, including exactly what data it accesses, why, and what it never does.

GBP Audit by Astory Media

GBP Audit by Astory Media is a Chrome extension that analyses a Google Business Profile the user is actively viewing on Google Search or Google Maps, and produces a Local SEO audit.

What the extension accesses

The extension only reads data when you click its icon, and only from the page you are currently viewing. It does not run in the background and does not monitor your browsing.

Data	The business profile content visible on the current Google Search or Google Maps page: business name, category, phone number, website, address, hours, rating, review count, description, products, services, questions and answers, photos and video counts, posts, attributes, and social links.
When	Only at the moment you click the extension icon. Nothing is read automatically or in the background.
Where it goes	Nowhere off your device. The data is processed in memory in the extension's popup to calculate audit scores and recommendations, then optionally saved to your browser's local storage (see below).

Optional Deep Website Check

If a website is linked on the business profile, you can choose to run an optional "Deep Website Check" to verify technical SEO signals such as meta tags, HTTPS, and schema markup. This feature:

Only runs if you click the "Run Check" button yourself. It never runs automatically.
Asks Chrome for permission to read that one website only, through a native browser permission prompt.
Fetches the website's homepage HTML and parses it locally in your browser to check for meta tags, HTTPS, structured data, and similar technical details.
Never sends the fetched content anywhere. It is used only to calculate a score inside your browser.

Local storage

The extension saves two things to your browser's local storage (chrome.storage.local), which stays on your device and is never transmitted anywhere:

Your light or dark theme preference.
Your most recent audit result, so it can be redisplayed when you reopen the popup and used to generate the PDF report.

This data can be removed at any time by clearing the extension's storage in Chrome, or by uninstalling the extension.

What this extension does not do

It does not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, cookies, or any other tracking or advertising tool, even though our website does. The extension is a separate, self-contained tool.
It does not collect your name, email address, or any other personal information about you as a user.
It does not track your browsing history or the pages you visit.
It does not log clicks, mouse movement, scrolling, or keystrokes.
It does not use your location or IP address.
It does not access health, financial, payment, or authentication information.
It does not sell, rent, or transfer any data to third parties.
It does not use any remote or dynamically loaded code. Everything the extension runs ships inside the extension package.

Permissions explained

activeTab	Lets the extension read the currently active tab only when you click the icon, so it can extract the business profile data needed for the audit.
scripting	Lets the extension inject a small read-only script into the active tab to parse the business profile data already visible on the page. It never modifies the page.
storage	Lets the extension save your theme preference and last audit result locally on your device, as described above.
Host permissions (google.com, google.com/maps)	Required so the extension can read Google Business Profile data on Google Search and Google Maps, its core function.
Optional host permission (all sites)	Only requested, one site at a time, if you choose to run the optional Deep Website Check on a specific business website. Never granted automatically.

Additional Chrome extensions released by Astory Media in the future will each get their own entry in this section.