Información jurídica /

Anexo sobre el tratamiento de datos

Última modificación: jueves, 20 de julio de 2023

These Data Processing Addendum and its Annexes ("DPA") reflect the agreement between Ahrefs and Customer (terms as defined below), together referred to as the “Parties”, with respect to the Processing of Customer Personal Data (term as defined below) under the applicable terms and conditions, or other written or electronic agreement referencing this DPA under which Ahrefs Processes Customer Personal Data that is subject to applicable Data Protection Law (the “Agreement”). This DPA will be incorporated into the Agreement in accordance with the terms of the Agreement. This DPA amends the Agreement and is effective upon its incorporation into the Agreement, as specified in the Agreement between Ahrefs and Customer. Upon its incorporation into the Agreement, this DPA will form an integral part of the Agreement without the need for any additional signatures. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Agreement, if there is a conflict between this DPA and the Agreement, this DPA will control.

1. Definitions and interpretations

For the purposes of this DPA, the following terms have the following meanings unless the context otherwise requires. Other capitalized terms not defined herein will have the same meaning as set forth in the Agreement.

  1. “Affiliate” means an entity that owns or controls, is owned or controlled by or is under common ownership or control with the subject entity, where “control” means the power to direct the management or affairs of an entity and “ownership” means the beneficial ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the voting securities or other equivalent voting interests of the subject entity;

  2. “Ahrefs” means Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. that enters into an Agreement with the Customer;

  3. “Controller” means the entity which determines the purposes and means of the Processing of Personal Data;

  4. “Customer” means the entity that enters into the Agreement with Ahrefs for use of or access to the Service;

  5. “Customer Personal Data” means any and all personal data processed (or required to be processed) by Ahrefs on the Customer’s behalf in providing the Service or performing any other obligations under the Agreement;

  6. “Data Protection Law” means all applicable legislation, laws and regulations relating to data protection and data privacy including, without limitation, the European Data Protection Laws and the PDPA;

  7. “Data Subject”, “Process”, “Processed” or “Processing” and its derivative forms shall each have the meaning as set out in the European Data Protection Laws;

  8. “European Data Protection Laws” means the GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 of the United Kingdom ("UK") and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, each may be amended or replaced from time to time;

  9. “EU Standard Contractual Clauses” means the Standard Contractual Clauses approved with Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2021/914 of 4 June 2021 on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

  10. “GDPR” means the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regards to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (“EU GDPR”) and the EU GDPR in such form as incorporated into the laws of the UK (“UK GDPR”), each may be amended or replaced from time to time;

  11. “Member State” means a member state for the time being of the European Union;

  12. “Personal Data” means personal data or personal information (as defined under the applicable Data Protection Law) that is subject to the applicable Data Protection Law;

  13. “PDPA” means the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 that sets out the law on data protection in Singapore, as may be amended from time to time;

  14. “Personal Data Breach" means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, Personal Data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed;

  15. “Processor” means the entity which Processes Personal Data on behalf of the Controller;

  16. “Regulator” means the data protection supervisory authority which has jurisdiction over the Processing of Personal Data;

  17. “Service” means the products and services provided by Ahrefs to the Customer, governed by the terms under the Agreement;

  18. “Standard Contractual Clauses” means collectively the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Agreement as described in Section 7 (c) of this DPA;

  19. “Sub-processor” means any further Processor that is engaged by Ahrefs as a sub-contractor for the performance of all or part of Ahrefs’ Service on behalf of Customer, provided that such Sub-processor has access to Customer Personal Data when carrying out the sub-contracted services.

2. Processing of Customer Personal Data

  1. The Parties acknowledge and agree that with regards to the Processing of Customer Data, Customer is the Controller and Ahrefs is a Processor. Ahrefs will Process Customer Data in accordance with Customer’s instructions as outlined in this section and in Section 4 (Processor’s Obligations).

  2. Ahrefs will Process Customer Personal Data (i) in accordance with the Agreement; (ii) at the Customer’s request when accessing or using the Service; or (iii) to comply with other reasonable instructions of the Controller (e.g. via platform chat, email or service support tickets) that are consistent with the terms of this DPA (individually and collectively, the “Purpose”). The types of Personal Data and categories of Data Subjects Processed under this DPA, the subject-matter, nature, purpose, and duration of the Processing are further specified in Annex I to this DPA.

  3. If Customer’s Affiliates have purchased a subscription to the Service directly with Ahrefs under the Agreement, then this DPA amends the terms of the Agreement with respect to those subscriptions, and each such Affiliate shall be deemed to be the “Controller” for the purposes of this DPA. Customer shall be responsible for coordinating all communications with Ahrefs and Customer’s Affiliates under this DPA and shall be entitled to make and receive any communication in relation to the DPA, on behalf of itself and its Affiliates.

3. Controller's obligations

  1. The Controller shall, in its use of the Service, Process Customer Personal Data in accordance with the requirements of applicable Data Protection Law. Customer’s instructions for the Processing of Customer Personal Data shall comply with the applicable Data Protection Law. Customer shall have sole responsibility for the accuracy, quality, and legality of Customer Personal Data and the means by which Customer obtained the Customer Personal Data.

  2. The Controller warrants that it has all necessary rights to provide the Customer Personal Data to the Processor for the Processing to be performed in relation to the Service. To the extent required by the applicable Data Protection Law, the Controller is responsible for ensuring that all necessary Data Subject consents to this Processing are obtained, and for ensuring that a record of such consents is maintained. Should such a consent be revoked by the Data Subject, Controller is responsible for communicating the fact of such revocation to the Processor, and Processor remains responsible for implementing any Controller instruction with respect to the further Processing of Customer Personal Data that is consistent with the terms of this DPA.

4. Processor’s obligations

  1. To the extent the Processor Processes Customer Personal Data on behalf of the Controller, it shall:

    1. Process the Customer Personal Data only on documented instructions from the Controller in such manner as, and to the extent that, is appropriate for the provision of the Service, including with regard to transfers of Personal Data to third countries, except as required to comply with applicable laws in the EEA, EEA member states, the UK, or Switzerland, to which the Processor is subject. In such a case, the Processor shall, to the extent legally permitted by those laws, inform the Controller of that legal obligation before Processing. The Processor shall immediately inform the Controller if, in its opinion, an instruction infringes the data protection laws of the EEA, EEA member states, the UK, or Switzerland;

    2. ensure that all persons or parties authorized to Process the Customer Personal Data have committed themselves to confidentiality or are under an appropriate statutory obligation of confidentiality;

    3. at all times have in place an appropriate written security policy with respect to the Processing of Customer Personal Data, outlining in any case the measures referenced in Section 5 below.

  2. To the extent Ahrefs’ Processing of Customer Personal Data is subject to the PDPA, Ahrefs shall not

    1. retain, use, or disclose Customer Personal Data other than as provided for in the Agreement, as needed to perform the Service, to build or improve the quality of the Service, to detect security incidents, to protect against fraudulent or illegal activity; or

    2. sell Customer Personal Data.

5. Security

  1. Taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of Processing, as well as the risk of varying likelihood and severity for the rights and freedoms of Data Subjects, without prejudice to any other security standards agreed upon by the Parties, the Controller and Processor shall implement appropriate technical and organizational measures for the protection of the security, confidentiality and integrity of the Customer Personal Data appropriate to the risk. These measures include the measures set forth in Annex II attached hereto.

  2. Controller is obliged to confirm before Processing is carried out that the technical and organizational measures that Ahrefs puts in place, as set out in Annex II attached hereto, are appropriate and sufficient to protect the rights of the Data Subject and acknowledge that Processor provides sufficient guarantees in this respect. The Processor will regularly monitor the measures as implemented in accordance with this Section 5. The Processor may update its security measures from time to time, provided that such updates do not result in a degradation of the overall security of the Service.

  3. The parties will negotiate in good faith the cost, if any, to implement material changes required by specific updated security requirements set forth in the applicable Data Protection Law or by Regulators of competent jurisdictions.

  4. At the Controller's request, subject to the confidentiality obligations set forth in the Agreement, the Processor shall provide to the Controller information regarding the measures taken pursuant to this Section 5 in order to ensure its compliance with its obligations under this DPA. Such information may include overviews of the Processor’s third-party audit reports or third-party certifications (which may be redacted for security purposes). The Controller may contact the Processor to request an on-site audit of the Processor’s procedures relevant to the protection of Customer Personal Data, but only to the extent required under the applicable Data Protection Law. The Controller may conduct such an audit not more than once annually, unless otherwise required by applicable Data Protection Law. The Controller shall reimburse the Processor for any time spent on any such on-site audit at the Processor’s then-current rates, which are available upon request. The Controller shall provide at least fourteen (14) days' prior written notice of its intent to undertake such on-site audit, and the Controller and Processor shall, before the commencement of any such audit, mutually agree upon the scope, timing, duration and the rate of reimbursement of such audit. All reimbursement rates shall be reasonable, taking into account the resources expended by the Processor. The Controller shall promptly notify the Processor of any non-compliance discovered during the course of such audit, and the Processor will use commercially reasonable efforts to address any confirmed non-compliance. The results of any audit performed hereunder shall be deemed Ahrefs’ Confidential Information. If the Standard Contractual Clauses apply to this DPA, then the Controller agrees to exercise its audit rights under the Standard Contractual Clauses as described in this Section 5 (d), and the Controller has the right under the Standard Contractual Clauses to change its instruction and agrees to do so in writing.

  5. To the extent required by applicable Data Protection Laws, Processor shall notify the Controller without undue delay upon becoming aware of any breach of Customer Personal Data.

6. Sub-processors & Sub-processing

  1. The Controller hereby grants the Processor general written authorization to use Sub-processors or the provision of the Processor’s Service under this DPA as set out in Annex I. For the avoidance of doubt, the above authorization constitutes Controller’s prior written consent to the Sub-processing by Processor for purposes of the Standard Contractual Clauses.

  2. The Processor may remove, replace or engage new Sub-processors from time to time. The Processor will provide the Controller with notice by updating the Sub-processor List that is made available here and by providing the Controller with a mechanism to receive notice of such updates of any new Sub-processor at least fifteen (15) days in advance of providing such Sub-processor with access to Customer Personal Data. The Controller will have fourteen (14) days from the date of receipt of the Processor’s notice to approve or reject the new Sub-processor on reasonable grounds. In the event of no response from the Controller, the Sub-processor will be deemed accepted. If the Controller notifies Ahrefs of an objection to the new or replacement Sub-processor, the Parties will discuss the Controller’s concerns in good faith with a view to achieving a commercially reasonable resolution. If no such resolution can be reached, either Party may terminate the Processing of the Customer Personal Data with immediate effect, and without liability to either Party, on written notice to the other Party.

  3. The Processor shall enter into written agreements with its Sub-processors containing data protection obligations that provide at least the same level of protection for Customer Personal Data as under this DPA and shall impose on its Sub-Processors the obligation to implement appropriate technical and organizational measures in such a manner that the Sub-processing will meet the requirements of applicable Data Protection Law. Where a Sub-processor fails to fulfil its obligations, the Processor shall remain fully liable under the applicable Data Protection Law to the Controller for the performance of that Sub-processor’s obligations.

7. International Data Transfers

  1. In connection with the performance of the Agreement, the Parties hereby agree to be bound by the provisions of Module Two (Controller to Processor Module) of the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and all other sections of the EU Standard Contractual Clauses having general application (hereinafter, “C2P SCCs”), which are hereby incorporated into this DPA by reference, in order to implement appropriate safeguards for transfers of Customer Personal Data originating from the EEA and/or Switzerland to Singapore pursuant to European Data Protection Laws. The C2P SCCs shall automatically terminate if the European Data Protection Board or other competent regulators or authorities determine that EU Standard Contractual Clauses are not applicable to the type of transfers of Customer Personal Data hereunder. The Controller shall comply with the exporter’s obligations in the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, and the Processor shall comply with the importer’s obligations in the EU Standard Contractual Clauses in respect of that transferred Customer Personal Data.

    In furtherance of the foregoing, the Parties agree that, for purposes of the C2P SCCs:

    1. each Party will notify the other Party in writing if it requires adding the optional “docking clause” in Clause 7 of the C2P SCCs;

    2. in Clause 9, Option 2 will apply, and the time period for prior notice of sub-Processor changes will be as set forth in Section 6 (Sub-processors and Sub-Processing) of this DPA;

    3. in Clause 11, the optional language will not apply;

    4. in Clause 17 (Option 1), the 2021 Standard Contractual Clauses will be governed by the laws of Singapore;

    5. in Clause 18(b), disputes will be resolved before the courts of Singapore;

    6. Annex I of the C2P SCCs shall be deemed completed with the information set out in Annex I to this DPA;

    7. Annex II of the C2P SCCs shall be deemed completed with the information set out in Annex II to this DPA.

  2. Insofar as the transfer of Customer Personal Data is subject to the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, the following provisions apply: (i) the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) will be the competent supervisory authority under Clause 13 of the C2P SCCs; (ii) the Parties agree to abide by the EU GDPR standard in relation to all Processing of Customer Personal Data that is governed by the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection; (iii) the term ‘Member State’ in the C2P SCCs will not be interpreted in such a way as to exclude Data Subjects in Switzerland from the possibility of suing for their rights in their place of habitual residence (Switzerland) in accordance with Clause 18(c) of the C2P SCCs; and (iv) references to the ‘GDPR’ in the C2P SCCs will be understood as references to the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection insofar as the transfer of Customer Personal Data is subject to the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection.

  3. With respect to transfers of Customer Personal Data originating from the UK and subject to the UK GDPR, the Parties agree to comply with the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (version A1.0) issued by the UK Information Commissioner and laid before Parliament in accordance with Section 119A of the Data Protection Act 2018 on 2 February 2022 (as revised under its provisions) which is incorporated herein by reference. The Parties agree that, for the purposes of the UK IDTA:

    1. in Table 1, the Parties details and key contact information shall be deemed completed with the relevant information set out in Annex I to this DPA;

    2. in Table 2, England and Wales is the governing law of the IDTA and the primary place for legal claims to be made by the Parties; the Exporter is a Controller and the importer is the Exporter’s Processor and or Sub-Processor; the UK GDPR applies to the Importer’s Processing of the Transferred Data; reference to the “Linked Agreement” is to this DPA; the term of the IDTA is the period for which the Linked Agreement is in force; the Parties may end the IDTA (before the end of the Terms or when the Approved IDTA changes) in accordance with the termination provisions under the Agreement and this DPA; the Importer MAY transfer on the Transferred Data to another organization or person (who is a different legal entity) in accordance with Section 16.1 (Transferring on the Transferred Data);the first review date is the effective date of the Linked Agreement and the Parties must review the Security Requirements at least once each year.

    3. in Table 3, the sections on details of Transferred Data shall be deemed completed with the relevant details as set out in Annex I to this DPA and this Transferred Data will update automatically if such details are updated in the Linked Agreement;

    4. in Table 4, the sections on security shall be deemed completed with the security measures as described at Annex II to this DPA and these Security Requirements will update automatically if such security measures are updated in the Linked Agreement; and

    5. Part 4 Mandatory Clauses of the IDTA shall be deemed completed with the following provision “Mandatory Clauses of the Approved IDTA, being the template IDTA A.1.0 issued by the ICO and laid before Parliament in accordance with s119A of the Data Protection Act 2018 on 2 February 2022, as it is revised under Section 5.4 of those Mandatory Clauses.”

  4. To the extent that the EU Standard Contractual Clauses are subsequently modified, replaced, or held in a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, Customer and Ahrefs hereby agree that the applicable updated or new versions will be automatically applied and incorporated to this DPA, as of the date of applicability.

  5. The Parties further agree that, to the extent Customer exercises a termination right under the C2P SCCs, insofar as it concerns the Processing of Personal Data under the C2P SCCs, Ahrefs shall have the right to terminate the Agreement without penalty.

8. Returning or destruction of Personal Data

  1. Upon termination of this DPA, upon the Controller’s written request, or upon fulfillment of the Purpose whereby no further Processing is required, the Processor shall, at the request of the Controller, either delete, destroy, or return all Customer Personal Data to the Controller and destroy or return any existing copies, except where otherwise required by applicable Data Protection Laws. The return of data may incur additional charges. The Processor agrees to preserve the confidentiality of any retained Customer Personal Data and will only Process such Customer Personal Data after the date of termination in order to comply with those laws to which it is subject and to fulfill its obligations under this DPA.

9. Assistance to Controller

  1. The Processor shall, to the extent legally permissible, promptly notify the Controller of any requests from a Data Subject to exercise the following rights of the Data Subject under applicable Data Protection Law: access, rectification, restriction of Processing, erasure (the “right to be forgotten”), data portability, objection to the Processing, or to not be subject to automated individual decision making (each a “Data Subject Request”). Taking into the account the nature of the Processing, the Processor shall assist the Controller by appropriate technical and organizational measures, insofar as this is possible, for the fulfilment of the Controller’s obligation to respond to the Data Subject Request under applicable Data Protection Law. In addition, to the extent the Controller, in its use of the Service, does not have the ability to address a Data Subject Request, the Processor shall, upon the Controller’s request, use commercially reasonable efforts to assist the Controller in responding to such Data Subject Request, to the extent the Processor is legally permitted to do so and the response to such Data Subject Request is required under applicable Data Protection Law.

  2. Upon the Controller’s request, taking into account the nature of the Processing and the information available to the Processor, the Processor shall provide the Controller with reasonable cooperation and assistance to help the Controller fulfill its obligations (if applicable) under the applicable Data Protection Law to (i) carry out a data protection impact assessment related to the Controller’s use of the Service, to the extent the Controller does not otherwise have access to the relevant information, and (ii) engage in prior consultations with Regulators as required under Article 36 of the GDPR or equivalent provision of the applicable Data Protection Law.

10. Information obligations and incident management

  1. When the Processor becomes aware of a Personal Data Breach, it shall notify the Controller at their registered address about the Personal Data Breach without undue delay, shall provide commercially reasonable cooperation to the Controller, and shall take commercially reasonable steps to remediate the Personal Data Breach, if applicable, to the extent that remediation is within the Processor’s control. At the Customer’s request and subject to the Customer paying all of Processor’s fees at prevailing rates, and all expenses, Processor will promptly provide the Customer with all reasonable assistance necessary to enable the Customer to notify relevant Personal Data Breaches to the Regulators and/or affected Data Subjects, if Customer is required to do so under applicable Data Protection Law. Customer is solely responsible for complying with Personal Data Breach notification requirements applicable to Customer and fulfilling any third-party notification obligations related to any Personal Data Breach. The obligations of this Section 10(a) do not apply to Personal Data Breaches that are caused by the Controller, Users, and/or any products and services other than the Processor’s.

11. Miscellaneous

  1. The liability of each Party and its respective Affiliates’, taken together in the aggregate, arising out of or relating to this DPA shall be subject to the section(s) of the Agreement governing limitations of liability, and any reference in such section(s) to the liability of a party means the aggregate liability of that party and all of its Affiliates under the Agreement and all DPAs together.

  2. This DPA and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with it or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes and claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws applicable to the Agreement of which this DPA forms a part.

  3. This DPA shall automatically terminate on the expiration or earlier termination of the Agreement.

Annex I

A. List of Parties

1. Data exporter(s):

Name, address, contact person’s name, position and contact details

Identity and contact details of the data exporter are as identified in the Agreement between the Parties. Data exporter (Customer) is the Controller.

Activities relevant to the data transferred under the C2P SCCs:

The receipt of the Service under the Agreement.

Signature and date:

Each of Processor’s and Customer’s entering into this DPA shall be treated as each party’s signature of this Annex I, Section A, of the C2P SCCs.

2. Data importer(s):

Name, address, contact person’s name, position and contact details:

Identity and contact details of the data importer, including any contact person with responsibility for data protection as is identified in the Agreement between the Parties. Data importer (Ahrefs) is the Processor.

Activities relevant to the data transferred under the C2P SCCs

Provision of the Service to Customer under the Agreement.

Signature and date:

Each of Processor’s and Customer’s entering into this DPA shall be treated as each party’s signature of Annex I, Section A, of the C2P SCCs.

B. Description of transfer

Categories of data subjects whose personal data is transferred:

Controller’s employees, consultants, contractors, agents, and/or third parties with whom the Controller conducts business or collects through other means.

Categories of personal data transferred:

The Personal Data that may be Processed under the Agreement, as submitted by Customers to or through the Service, may include, but is not limited to: first and last name, title, position, contact information.

Sensitive data transferred (if applicable) and applied restrictions or safeguards that fully take into consideration the nature of the data and the risks involved, such as for instance strict purpose limitation, access restrictions (including access only for staff having followed specialized training), keeping a record of access to the data, restrictions for onward transfers or additional security measures:

Customers are prohibited from including sensitive data or special categories of data as part of the Customer Personal Data.

The frequency of the transfer (e.g. whether the data is transferred on a one-off or continuous basis):

Continuous, for as long as the Customer uses the Service.

Nature of Processing:

The nature of Processing is the provision of the Service to the Customer that involves the Processing of Customer Personal Data. Customer Personal Data will be subject to those Processing activities which Processor needs to perform in order to provide the Service pursuant to the Agreement.

Purpose(s) of the data transfer and further processing:

Customer Personal Data will be Processed for the Purposes (as defined by Section 2 of this DPA).

The period for which the personal data will be retained, or, if that is not possible, the criteria used to determine that period:

For the duration of the Agreement.

For transfers to (sub-) processors, also specify subject matter, nature and duration of the processing:

As described in Section 6 of this DPA.

C. Competent supervisory authority

Identify the competent supervisory authority/ies in accordance with Clause 13 of the C2P SCCs:

The competent supervisory authority communicated by Customer to Processor.

Annex II

Technical and organizational security measures

Ahrefs may update or modify these security measures from time to time provided that such updates and modifications do not result in the degradation of the overall security of the Service.

Measures of pseudonymization and encryption of personal data

Personal data is stored in AWS RDS. RDS implements encryption of data both at rest and in transit. Development, staging, and production databases and processing applications are kept separate. You may refer to AWS RDS measures.

Measures for ensuring ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of processing systems and services

RDS is configured with multi-zone replication setup to ensure availability in case of catastrophic failure in one geographic region. Additionally, there is continuous backup of all the RDS databases by the means of AWS tooling, adding another cold replica of all the data.

Measures for ensuring the ability to restore the availability and access to personal data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident

Same as above.

Processes for regularly testing, assessing, and evaluating the effectiveness of technical and organizational measures in order to ensure the security of the processing

Security of data processing is achieved by:

  • assignment of the small permanent dedicated and experienced team to the corresponding code subsystem, responsible for all the implementation, code quality and technical choices

  • code review of all code contributions to the corresponding subsystem

  • using best in class implementation language eliminating whole classes of runtime bugs and ensuring strongest possible guarantees and code contracts during compilation

  • management overseeing the new patterns of customer personal data process being implemented

  • management overseeing that only necessary data are stored

  • the number of sub-processors is kept to a minimum

Measures for user identification and authorization

Personal data is stored in AWS RDS. RDS implements encryption of data both at rest and in transit. Development, staging, and production databases and processing applications are kept separate. You may refer to [haveibeenpwned.com] database, entropy tests, etc.). Support for Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) is a Service feature that is coming soon. Additionally, Enterprise Plan users may opt in for the Single Sign On (SSO) authentication with Ahrefs performing the duty of a SAML Service Provider (implementing the recommended SAML security practices including, but not limited to response signing, request signature checking, etc.).

User authorization is performed by the in-house implementation centered around the business logic according to the user membership in the corresponding workspace and the respective role assigned within the workspace by the workspace administrator.

Measures for the protection of data during transmission

Customer’s access to Ahrefs’ Service is only possible over a secure connection, protected by industry-standard TLS protocol implementing commonly accepted best security practices and utilizing strong cipher-suites and disabling legacy weak protocols. Ahrefs website is additionally protected by Cloudflare, which is re-encrypting all traffic reaching Ahrefs website.You may refer to Cloudflare policies here.

Transmission of data between the storage database and the processing servers happens over the isolated network separate from the internet.

Measures for the protection of data during storage

You may refer to AWS RDS measures.

Measures for ensuring physical security of locations at which personal data are processed

Personal data processing is happening on EC2 instances in AWS data centers. Physical security is provided by AWS. Refer to AWS policies.

Additional measures are taken to hide the actual physical and logical location of servers storing customer personal data by means of layers of proxies between the data storage and the outside world.

Measures for ensuring events logging

All Ahrefs servers are configured with continuous logging to remote locations of important system logs and additional events collection as deemed necessary by Security and Devops teams. Customer Personal Data is never collected by these means.

Additionally, event logging is enabled with sub-processors e.g. CloudFlare, AWS, Mailchimp, SendGrid.

Measures for ensuring system configuration, including default configuration

Ahrefs is using industry-standard Configuration Management System to ensure desired system configuration during initial setup and continuous configuration updates during normal operations.

Measures for internal IT and IT security governance and management

In general, Ahrefs is using the principles of defense in depth and minimum access in its day-to-day operations. In particular, this includes the following security practices:

  • central management of all secrets used by employees to access third-party services

  • central and automated management of secrets deployed on the servers for use by Ahrefs tools and infrastructure

  • physical and logical separation of production and testing environments

  • remote collection of access logs for all the servers with the ability to audit on demand

  • remote collection of logs for internal data and API access

  • access separation for internal API on by-need basis with a default deny policy - continuous integration and deployment, with automated testing for Ahrefs code and infrastructure

  • continuous integration and deployment, with automated testing for Ahrefs code and infrastructure

  • infrastructure as code by GitOps approach

  • continuous monitoring of all production systems and alerting on deviations

  • 24/7 oncall DevOps presence

  • main implementation language for Ahrefs backend, frontend and parts of infrastructure is OCaml, which eliminates whole classes of runtime bugs and enforces compile-time checked code invariants giving a high degree of confidence in the resulting code behaviour

  • Quality Assurance (QA) process in place before production releases

Measures for certification/assurance of processes and products

Ahrefs systems were not subjected to certification so far, though there is a motion to get SOC2 certification in the near future.

Measures for ensuring data minimization

Ahrefs only stores the absolute minimum of Customer Personal Data to ensure the ability to provide and charge for the Service rendered, as well as legal and regulatory compliance purposes.

Measures for ensuring data quality

Ahrefs is checking the quality of passwords to ensure they were not leaked in public and are of acceptable quality. While we don’t check the accuracy of Customer Personal Data provided by our users, our payment processor does payment information quality check to avoid fraudulent transactions

Measures for ensuring limited data retention

All operational logs for the server instances dealing with Customer Personal Data are limited to one (1) month. Additionally, Customer Personal Data of users leaving the Service is retained for a maximum of 370 days. Historical payment information is minimal and stored as much as needed to support Ahrefs’ legal and regulatory obligations.

Measures for ensuring accountability

We keep logs of every account access and action made by our Customer Success and Support team. Separately, our Enterprise customers have access to audit logs of actions taken by users on their Enterprise accounts.

Ahrefs’ management and Data Protection Officer (DPO) performs regular internal checks.

Measures for allowing data portability and ensuring erasure

Customer Personal Data is retrievable with standard SQL tooling and can be extracted upon Controller’s request. You may refer to AWS RDS guarantees about erasure.

A. Data Center

Ahrefs stores all production data in physically secure data centers.

Infrastructure systems have been designed to eliminate single points of failure and minimize the impact of anticipated environmental risks. Dual circuits, switches, networks or other necessary devices help provide this redundancy. The Service is designed to allow Ahrefs to perform certain types of preventative and corrective maintenance without interruption. All environmental equipment and facilities have documented preventative maintenance procedures that detail the process for and frequency of performance in accordance with the manufacturer’s or internal specifications. Preventative and corrective maintenance of the data center equipment is scheduled through a standard change process according to documented procedures.

The data center electrical power systems are designed to be redundant and maintainable without impact to continuous operations, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week. In most cases, a primary as well as an alternate power source, each with equal capacity, is provided for critical infrastructure components in the data center. Backup power is provided by various mechanisms such as uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) batteries, which supply consistently reliable power protection during utility brownouts, blackouts, over voltage, under voltage, and out-of-tolerance frequency conditions. If utility power is interrupted, backup power is designed to provide transitory power to the data center, at full capacity, for up to 10 minutes until the diesel generator systems take over. The diesel generators are capable of automatically starting up within seconds to provide enough emergency electrical power to run the data center at full capacity typically for a period of days.

When production data is copied electronically by Ahrefs outside the data center, appropriate physical security is maintained, and the data is always encrypted.

B. Access Control

Preventing Unauthorized Service Access:

Ahrefs hosts parts of its Service with outsourced cloud infrastructure providers.

Additionally, Ahrefs maintains contractual relationships with vendors in order to provide the Service in accordance with DPA. Ahrefs relies on contractual agreements, privacy policies, and vendor compliance procedures in order to protect data processed or stored by these vendors.

Ahrefs implemented a uniform password policy for its Service and correspondent tools and features. All passwords must fulfil defined minimum requirements and are stored in encrypted form. Users who interact with the Service via the user interface must authenticate before accessing non-public user data. User data is stored in multi-tenant storage systems accessible to users via only application user interfaces and application programming interfaces. Users are not allowed direct access to the underlying application infrastructure. The authorization model in each of the tools and features of the Service is designed to ensure that only the appropriately assigned individuals can access relevant features, views, and customization options. Authorization to data sets is performed through validating the user’s permissions.

Public Services APIs may be accessed using an API key.

Preventing Unauthorized Services Use. Ahrefs utilizes the following access controls and detection capabilities for the internal networks that support its Service:

Network access control mechanisms are designed to prevent network traffic using unauthorized protocols from reaching the Service infrastructure. The technical measures implemented differ between infrastructure providers and include Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) implementations, security group assignment, and traditional firewall rules.

Ahrefs implemented a Web Application Firewall (WAF) solution to protect internet-accessible applications. The WAF is designed to identify and prevent attacks against publicly available network services.

Security reviews of the parts of code stored in Ahrefs source code repositories are performed, checking for coding best practices and identifiable software flaws.

Ahrefs conducts penetration tests annually. The intent of the penetration tests is to identify and resolve foreseeable attack vectors and potential abuse scenarios.

A bug bounty program invites and incentivizes independent security researchers to ethically discover and disclose security flaws. Ahrefs implemented a bug bounty program in an effort to widen the available opportunities to engage with the security community and improve the Service defenses against sophisticated attacks.

Authorization Requirements. A subset of Ahrefs personnel have access to user data via controlled interfaces on a purely need-to basis. The intent of providing access to a subset of employees is to provide effective customer support, to troubleshoot potential problems, to detect and respond to security incidents and implement data security. Ahrefs personnel are required to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the Ahrefs guidelines regarding confidentiality, business ethics, appropriate usage, and professional standards. All access is logged for audit purpose.

C. Transmission Control

Ahrefs makes HTTPS encryption (also referred to as SSL or TLS) available on every one of its login interfaces. Ahrefs HTTPS implementation uses industry standard algorithms and certificates.

D. Input Control

Ahrefs designed its infrastructure to log extensive information about the system behavior, traffic received, system authentication, and other application requests partly. Internal systems aggregate log data and alert appropriate employees of malicious, unintended, or anomalous activities. Ahrefs personnel are responsive to known incidents.

Ahrefs maintains a record of known security incidents that includes description, dates and times of relevant activities, and incident disposition. Suspected and confirmed security incidents are investigated by security, operations, or support personnel; and appropriate resolution steps are identified and documented. For any confirmed incidents, Ahrefs will take appropriate steps to minimize User damage or unauthorized disclosure.

If Ahrefs becomes aware of unlawful access to Ahrefs data stored within its Service, Ahrefs will:

  1. notify the affected Users of the incident;

  2. provide a description of the steps Ahrefs is taking to resolve the incident; and

  3. provide status updates to the User contact, as Ahrefs deems necessary.

Notification(s) of incidents, if any, will be delivered to one or more of the User’s contacts in a form Ahrefs selects, which may include via notice or email.

E. Availability Control

The infrastructure providers use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure a minimum of 99.8% uptime. The providers maintain a minimum of N+1 redundancy to power, network, and HVAC services.

Backup and replication strategies are designed to ensure redundancy and fail-over protections during a significant processing failure. Ahrefs data is backed up to multiple durable data stores and replicated across multiple availability zones. Ahrefs uses commercially reasonable efforts to create frequent, encrypted back-up copies of Protected Data and these are stored in geographically separate locations.

Where feasible, production databases are designed to replicate data between no less than 1 primary and 1 secondary database. All databases are backed up and maintained using at least industry standard methods.

The Service is designed to ensure redundancy and seamless failover. The server instances that support the Service are also architected with a goal to prevent single points of failure. This design assists Ahrefs operations in maintaining and updating the Service applications and backend while limiting downtime.

© 2024 Ahrefs Pte. Ltd. (201227417H) 16 Raffles Quay, #33-03 Hong Leong Building, Singapore 048581