Privacy Policy — MSS Core Scanner

Effective date: October 13, 2026

In brief: MSS Core Scanner is a website and AI-visibility auditing tool developed by Midnight Signal Studio. The scanner analyzes publicly accessible website information supplied for an audit. Google sign-in identifies your account, and our server stores account-linked credit balances, purchase records, and completed reports so they can be recovered after reinstalling the app. Optional AI-assisted reporting may send selected audit information to the AI provider chosen for that report. Request account and data deletion.

1. Who We Are

MSS Core Scanner is operated by Midnight Signal Studio ("MSS", "we", "us", or "our").

2. Information Submitted for a Scan

When a scan is performed, the application may receive information entered by the user for the purpose of conducting the audit. This can include:

Accounts and Google Sign-In

Sign-in is required before scans and purchases. We use Google sign-in through Firebase Authentication. This processes your Google account email address, a unique user identifier, and profile information returned by Google, such as your display name and profile-photo URL when provided. Authentication tokens let our server verify your identity. We do not receive your Google password or access to your Gmail messages or contact list through this sign-in.

Firebase Authentication also processes IP addresses and technical information such as SDK version, device platform, and application identifiers to operate authentication and help prevent abuse. Our hosting services may retain request and diagnostic logs, including IP addresses, request metadata, and errors.

Purchases, Credits, and Subscriptions

Google Play processes purchases, payment details, subscription renewals, cancellations, and refunds. We do not receive your full payment-card number. Our app and server process purchase identifiers and verification tokens, product identifiers, quantities, and subscription status or expiry information to verify purchases and provide the correct access.

We store account-linked credit balances, purchase-fulfillment records, subscription verification information, and scan-usage records in Cloud Firestore. We also send Google Play a pseudonymous account identifier derived from your app user ID to associate purchases with the correct MSS account. These records support restoration, prevent duplicate grants, enforce the one-free-quick-scan allowance, and help prevent unauthorized use.

3. Public Website Information We Analyze

MSS Core Scanner retrieves publicly accessible information from the website being audited. Depending on the website, this may include the main webpage, robots.txt, llms.txt, sitemap information, page titles and descriptions, headings, structured data such as JSON-LD, publicly linked social profiles, publicly displayed telephone-number information, and limited portions of publicly accessible page text.

The scanner also evaluates publicly available crawler directives, including whether specified AI crawler user agents are permitted or restricted by robots.txt.

4. How We Use Information

Information submitted to MSS Core Scanner is used to perform the requested audit and generate the resulting GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) analysis. Account and usage information is also used to authenticate users, verify purchases, maintain balances and subscription access, recover completed reports, enforce usage limits, process support and deletion requests, and protect the service against abuse.

The scanner's core audit can operate using a deterministic, rules-based analysis engine without an external AI service.

5. Optional AI-Assisted Reporting

MSS Core Scanner may provide an optional AI-assisted executive summary. When an AI provider is selected, information derived from the completed audit may be transmitted to the selected AI service to generate the requested explanation.

Depending on the provider selected by the user, supported AI services may include Google Gemini, OpenAI, or Anthropic. The information sent for this purpose is audit-related information such as the audited business or URL, GEO score, findings, recommendations, and the scanner's underlying executive analysis.

The AI-assisted feature is separate from the scanner's core deterministic audit process. If AI-assisted reporting is not selected, the core audit does not require an external AI generation call.

6. Information We Do Not Intentionally Request

MSS Core Scanner does not require users to provide passwords, payment-card numbers, contact lists, photographs, precise device location, or other unrelated personal information in order to perform a website visibility audit.

7. Data Storage and Retention

Firebase Authentication maintains account identity records. Cloud Firestore stores account-linked balances, purchase and subscription records, free-scan usage, scan-operation records, completed reports, rate-limit records, and account-deletion requests. Reports can include the business details and public website information described above. The app also saves scan history and certain application records locally on your device.

Account and report records are retained while the account is maintained to provide recovery and service functionality, unless deleted following a verified request. Operational and security records are retained for service operation, troubleshooting, and abuse prevention. Following account deletion, limited transaction or security records may be retained where needed for fraud prevention, disputes, or legal obligations, and only for as long as those purposes require. Deleting the app does not itself delete server data.

Information transmitted to an optional third-party AI provider may be subject to that provider's own privacy practices, retention policies, and terms. Users should review the applicable provider's privacy documentation when using AI-assisted reporting.

8. Third-Party Services

We use Google Firebase Authentication for account sign-in, Cloud Firestore for server-stored records, Google Cloud hosting for the scanner backend, and Google Play for billing and purchase verification. These services process the information needed to perform those functions. Relevant information is described in Firebase's privacy information and Google's Privacy Policy.

When optional AI functionality is used, MSS Core Scanner may communicate with third-party AI services in order to generate the requested report. These services process information according to their respective terms and privacy policies.

MSS does not control the privacy practices of third-party services and recommends reviewing their current policies before using optional third-party AI functionality.

9. Security

We take reasonable measures appropriate to the application to protect information handled by MSS Core Scanner. App-to-service communications use HTTPS, and access to account data is checked by our server. However, no method of transmitting or storing information over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Account and Data Deletion

You can request deletion from the app using Request account deletion, or without reinstalling the app by emailing signal@midnightsignalstudio.com with the subject MSS Core Scanner account deletion. Identify the Google account email used for MSS. Do not send passwords, payment-card details, or purchase tokens. We verify account ownership before processing requests.

Requests are processed manually; the in-app request records your request and pauses account use rather than instantly erasing records. Deletion covers your Firebase account, server-stored reports, credit balance, and associated account and usage records, subject to the limited retention described above. You can contact the same email address for request status. Scan history stored only on your device can be removed through the app's history controls or by clearing app data; server deletion does not remotely erase device-local copies.

Deleting an MSS account does not cancel a Google Play subscription or automatically refund purchases. Manage or cancel subscriptions through Google Play's Payments and subscriptions settings to stop future renewal. Google may retain its own payment and account records under its applicable policies.

10. Children's Privacy

MSS Core Scanner is a business-oriented technical auditing tool and is not directed toward children. We do not knowingly design the service to collect personal information from children.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when the application's functionality, data practices, or applicable requirements change. The effective date shown at the top of this page will be updated when material changes are made.

12. Contact

Questions, privacy requests, and account-deletion requests may be directed to Midnight Signal Studio at signal@midnightsignalstudio.com.