Legal

Last updated: 9 February 2026

1. Introduction

We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information about who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal data. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal data and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

2. Controller

Marcode Ltd ("Marcode", "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy policy) is the data controller and is responsible for certain personal data about you that we collect and use when you use AdShield (the "Extension"), including its ad blocking and optional fraud detection features, or when you browse our website.

3. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this policy or about how we handle your data, please contact our data privacy manager at: [email protected].

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection issues. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

We keep our privacy policy under regular review. It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

4. Third-Party Links

Our website or Extension may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.

5. Personal Data We Collect About You

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).

5.1 Default Extension Operation

By default, the Extension operates entirely locally on your device. Ad blocking functionality does not send any data to our servers. In this mode, we do not collect:

• Your browsing history
• Videos you watch
• Search queries
• Personal information
• Login credentials or form data

5.2 Optional Ad Fraud Reporting Feature

If you choose to enable the ad fraud reporting feature, the Extension will collect and transmit information about advertisements you encounter. This includes:

• Ad content: Title, description, images, and links contained in advertisements
• Advertiser details: Information about who paid for the advertisement
• Context: The page URL or search query where the advertisement appeared

This data is used solely to identify and report fraudulent advertisements to advertising platforms and impersonated brands. We never collect your browsing history, personal information, or any data that could identify you personally through this feature.

5.3 Website Visitors

When you visit our website, we may collect the following data:

• Technical Data: Your computer's Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, the pages you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on each page, device type, operating system, unique device identifiers, device settings, and geo-location data.
• Usage Data: Information about how you use our website.

5.4 Special Categories of Data

We do not collect any "Special Categories" of personal data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health, and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.

We also collect, use and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. However, if we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy policy.

6. How Your Personal Data Is Collected

We collect personal data through the following means:

• Directly from you: When you enable the fraud detection feature in the Extension, or when you interact with our website.
• Automated technologies: As you browse our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns. We collect this data by using cookies and similar technologies.

7. How and Why We Use Your Personal Data

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal data if we have a lawful basis, e.g.:

• For our legitimate interests or those of a third party
• In certain cases where you have given consent
• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your personal data, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests. The table below explains how and why we use your personal data:

We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.

8. Data Storage and Security

8.1 Local Storage: Ad block counts and local settings are stored in your browser's local storage and never leave your device.

8.2 Server Storage: If you enable ad fraud reporting, ad data is transmitted securely using HTTPS and stored in encrypted databases. We implement industry-standard security measures and hold SOC 2 Type II certification for Security, Confidentiality, and Availability.

8.3 You understand and agree that no data transmitted over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and we cannot ensure or warrant the absolute security of any information you transmit while using the Extension.

9. Who We Share Your Personal Data With

We do not collect or sell your personal data. The Extension does not transmit any personal data to our servers or to any third party.

If you enable fraud detection, we may share anonymous ad data (not personal data) with:

• Advertising platforms (such as Google, Meta, and Microsoft) to report fraudulent ads
• Brands whose identity is being impersonated in scam advertisements

We may also be required to disclose anonymous ad data to:

• Law enforcement agencies, courts, tribunals and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
• Our professional advisors (such as lawyers and other advisors), bound by confidentiality obligations
• Other parties that have or may acquire control or ownership of our business in connection with a significant corporate transaction or restructuring, including a merger, acquisition, asset sale, initial public offering or in the event of our insolvency

10. How Long Your Personal Data Will Be Kept

We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you.

Ad data collected through fraud detection is retained for analysis and pattern detection purposes. Upon request, we will delete data associated with your anonymous identifier within 30 days.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.

Please contact us at [email protected] if you want further information about how long we will retain your personal data.

11. Transferring Your Personal Data Out of the UK/EU

We do not transfer your personal data outside of the EU.

12. Cookies

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

13. Your Rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:

• Use the Extension without enabling ad fraud reporting — ad blocking works fully offline with no data collection
• Disable ad fraud reporting at any time in the Extension settings
• Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"), enabling you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it
• Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you, enabling you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data corrected
• Request erasure of your personal data, enabling you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it
• Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground
• Request restriction of processing of your personal data, enabling you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in certain scenarios
• Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format
• Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data (this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent)

If you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact [email protected].

No Fee Usually Required

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we could refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

What We May Need from You

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

Time Limit to Respond

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it could take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

14. Children's Privacy

The Extension is not intended for use by individuals under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by updating the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Extension after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

16. Contact

For privacy-related questions, contact us at: