Privacy, in plain words.

Who we are

hex agency is a small studio in Melbourne, Australia, run by Blake Handson and a business partner. When this page says "we" or "us", it means hex agency.

Questions about privacy go to [email protected]. A person reads every email.

Many small businesses don't have to follow the Australian Privacy Principles. We follow them anyway, and this page is written around them.

What we collect, and why

The free check also counts how many times one IP address runs it (up to five an hour), to stop abuse. That count is held in memory only and is gone when the app restarts.

If you become a client, we'll also hold what we need to do the work and bill you, like business details, logins you share with us and invoices. We'll agree how we handle those when we start.

How the free website check works

• It visits the website you enter the way a visitor would. It loads the home page and up to 30 of its links, takes a phone-sized screenshot of the first screen, runs Google's speed test, and reads the domain's public records, such as its email settings.
• If the site has a contact form with no CAPTCHA, the check sends one test message with the word "hexcheck" in every field, to see whether the form works. Please only check a website you run or have permission to check.
• An AI model (Claude, made by Anthropic) writes the plain-English lines in your report from the page facts and the screenshot. It never receives your name or email. It explains the results; it doesn't decide the score.
• Your report lives at a private link made of 12 random characters. Anyone you share the link with can open it. It never shows your name or email, and search engines are told not to list it.

Stored outside Australia

As the table shows, some of these services store information outside Australia, mainly in France and the United States. We choose services that protect information to a standard similar to the Australian Privacy Principles, and send each one only what its job needs.

Emails from us

When you ask for the free check, we email you the report and may follow up once about it. That's it, unless you ask for more. We don't add you to a newsletter.

Every email we send says who it's from and how to stop. Reply "stop" and we'll stop within five working days.

How long we keep it

• Check results, your name and email: up to 24 months after we last heard from you, then we delete them, unless you've become a client.
• Bookings: as long as they're in Blake's calendar, or until you ask us to delete them.
• Client records: as long as the law requires for tax and business records, usually five years in Australia.

You can ask us to delete your details sooner, any time.

Keeping it safe

• Everything travels over an encrypted connection (HTTPS).
• The database sits on our own server and can't be reached from the internet.
• The admin area needs a password, and API keys are stored sealed, not in plain text.
• Only the two of us have access.

No system is perfect. If a breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we'll tell you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, as the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme requires.

See, fix or delete your details

You can ask to see what we hold about you, fix anything that's wrong, or have it deleted. Email [email protected] from the address you used. It's free, and we'll reply within 30 days.

You don't have to give your real name to talk to us. We just can't email you a report without an email address.

Complaints

Email [email protected] first and we'll reply within 30 days. If you're not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.

Changes to this page

If we change how we handle your information, we'll update this page and the date at the top. This version is from 3 November 2026.