Rank Lantern privacy policy

Who handles your information

Rank Lantern is provided by Nishanth Kesavan, trading as Bareslate Studio.

Business address: 3 Floor, Aryan Fountain Square, Sarjapura-Attibele Road, Attibele, Bengaluru, KARNATAKA 562107, India.

Email [email protected] with privacy questions or account-data deletion requests. This policy applies to the Windows app and the online services used to operate your Rank Lantern account.

Files on your PC

Reports, ranking history, local drafts and original photos stay on your PC. Local settings and scan data are also saved there. The default data folder is %LOCALAPPDATA%\RankLantern\Data.

Reports and ranking history do not automatically sync between computers. Signing in on another PC does not transfer them. You can use Create backup and Restore to move local work manually to the same account.

Backup ZIP files are not encrypted and exclude login and browser credentials. Keep them private. Restoring a backup does not restore sign-in credentials, Google authorization or subscription access.

Information stored for your account

Our online service stores your account email and Google identity, app installation identifiers, device labels, sign-in records, business connections, access records and usage counters. These support sign-in, your connected business, account access, usage allowances and protection against repeated or unauthorized actions. Trial eligibility and any trial request or start records are also associated with your account and selected business.

Google authorization tokens are encrypted in our online service. The app uses this service for connected Google operations rather than receiving reusable Google authorization credentials. These credentials are not included in the Windows installer or local report backups. Cloudflare Workers and D1 provide processing and storage for our online service.

Your Rank Lantern sign-in account can differ from the Google account you connect to manage your business. Signing out removes the saved app session from Windows Credential Manager on that PC; it does not delete your cloud account.

Google permissions and the information we access

Google sign-in requests basic identity permissions, including your email and profile, to verify who is signing in. Rank Lantern stores your verified email and Google account identifier for your app account. Signing in does not by itself connect your Google Business Profile.

Connecting a business account is a separate authorization. Rank Lantern requests Google Business Profile management access so you can list businesses you manage, select a business, read supported profile details and reviews, and manage supported posts, photos and review replies. The permission requested is https://www.googleapis.com/auth/business.manage.

Connected content can include business names, addresses and identifiers; review text, ratings, reviewer display names and timestamps; existing replies; and post or photo content and status. Rank Lantern uses this information for the profile tools you use, to show results and publication status, and for AI reply drafting only with the applicable consent.

You must be authorized to manage the business you connect. Confirm the account and permissions shown by Google before granting access. Rank Lantern does not request access to your personal Gmail messages or your own Google Drive files for these features.

Google content and temporary caches

Use sync actions to refresh Google profile details, reviews, posts and photos. Opening a saved view does not continuously fetch Google. Publishing sends the content or changes you confirm to Google, where they may become public on the business profile.

Temporary Google content caches expire after 24 hours. Expiry makes them unavailable for normal cached reads; maintenance removes expired content, but outages or backlogs can delay removal. Expiry is not a guarantee that every copy is deleted at that exact moment. These caches are separate from your local ranking reports.

Short-lived publication receipts and diagnostic records help identify the outcome of a submission and avoid publishing it twice. Access and usage records are separate from these temporary content caches and do not all expire after 24 hours.

Disconnect Google or remove permissions

Use “Disconnect Google” in the app to remove our saved authorization tokens and cached Google content and stop new connected work until you reconnect. Your Rank Lantern account, business association and local history remain. Short-lived operation identifiers may remain to prevent an uncertain submission from being sent twice.

You can also remove Rank Lantern’s Google permissions through your Google Account settings. Disconnecting in our app removes our saved connection; it does not revoke the permission at Google. These are separate actions.

Disconnecting Google is not a subscription cancellation or an account-data deletion request. It does not remove content Google has already accepted or automatically cancel posts already scheduled with Google. Temporary hosted photo copies follow the publishing and cleanup rules below.

Temporary photo sharing for publishing

When you select a local JPG or PNG for Google submission, the original stays on your PC. A temporary copy passes through our online service to a Bareslate Studio-owned Google Drive folder. You do not need to connect your own Drive.

The individual temporary image is publicly downloadable so Google can fetch it. The folder itself is not public. Only submit images you have permission to publish and are comfortable making publicly accessible.

For immediate publishing, the source copy is kept for a 48-hour processing window. For scheduled posts, sharing starts when you submit the schedule and continues until 48 hours after the scheduled publishing time. Scheduling further ahead or rescheduling later extends that period.

Cancelled or definitely failed schedules can release their source copies for cleanup. Service outages may delay deletion. Schedule drafts and related status information are stored in our online service; photo copies are held temporarily in Drive. This is not a cloud photo library or backup service.

Groq reply drafts require your consent

With your consent, Rank Lantern sends the full review text, its rating, the business name and relevant reply context to Groq to generate a reply draft. A first-name greeting, when available, is included under the consent described in the app. The full reviewer display name is not sent as a separate greeting field; review text itself can contain personal information.

As confirmed on 10 October 2026, Groq’s Inference APIs Zero Data Retention setting was enabled for the organization used by Rank Lantern. Under this setting, Groq does not keep the review text you send or the draft it generates for system reliability and abuse monitoring. Groq still collects usage metadata. This setting applies to its inference service, which generates the draft; it is not a promise that every service retains no data.

You can write replies manually without using AI. Review and edit each draft before publishing. Rank Lantern does not automatically publish AI replies or silently switch providers when drafting fails.

Where information is sent

Cloudflare hosts our online service and processes account and connected-service records. Google processes sign-in and Business Profile operations, receives the content you submit, and hosts temporary photo copies in our Studio-owned Drive storage. Google and Cloudflare may also process technical request information needed to deliver and secure their services.

When you consent to AI drafting, Groq receives the review information described above to generate your draft. You can write replies manually instead.

If account service notifications are enabled, they use your verified app sign-in email and Resend for delivery, with [email protected] as the contact address. Email notifications are separate from the review-request tools that prepare links and materials for you to share.

Live paid checkout is closed. The separate Razorpay test billing preview processes test payment and subscription references and verification records. It does not grant real paid access. Rank Lantern does not store full card details. Future live-payment processing will be reflected in this policy when it becomes available.

How long we keep information

Google content caches expire after 24 hours. Maintenance removes expired cached content, although outages or backlogs may delay removal. This cache expiry does not apply to all account records or your local reports.

Temporary photo copies used for immediate publishing are kept for a 48-hour processing window. For scheduled posts, copies remain available from submission until 48 hours after the scheduled publishing time. Later rescheduling extends that period, and service outages may delay cleanup.

Signing out or uninstalling does not delete your cloud account. You can request account-data deletion by emailing [email protected]. We verify account ownership before acting. Some account, security, usage, trial-eligibility and billing records currently have no automatic age-based deletion. Recovery copies and provider-held records may remain separately from the active service.

Your local reports, drafts, original photos and backups remain under your control. Deleting your cloud account does not erase files on your PCs or content already accepted by Google.

Request account-data deletion

Email [email protected] from your account email to request account-data deletion. We verify account ownership before acting. Do not send your password, sign-in links or Google authorization tokens.

We explain what can be removed and any records that need to be retained. Automatic self-service account deletion is not available. Email requests are separate from removing permissions in your Google Account.

Deleting cloud account data does not remove reports, original photos, local files or backup ZIPs from your PCs. You must remove those separately if you want to delete them. Removal by Google or another provider is separate from removing information held by Rank Lantern.

Before requesting deletion, export any reports you want to keep and review future scheduled posts with Google, especially those using temporarily hosted photos. Removing a hosted source photo can affect a future scheduled post. Normal uninstall retains local data. Account-data deletion, subscription cancellation and removing Google permissions are separate actions.

Website visits and support email

Bareslate Studio’s marketing pages use Google Analytics 4 for website usage measurement. This privacy page does not load our Google Analytics tag. Cloudflare provides website hosting and may process technical request information for delivery, security and performance measurement. Email sent to [email protected] may be forwarded through Cloudflare Email Routing.

If you contact support, we receive the information you include in your message and attachments. Share only what is needed to explain the issue. Avoid sending passwords, API keys, full card details or unrelated personal information.

Changes and privacy questions

We will update this page when the information we handle or the way we use it changes. The dates at the top show when this policy took effect and when it was last updated. New Google data access or a materially different use will be explained before you are asked to authorize it.

Contact [email protected] with questions about Google permissions, data handling or a deletion request.