Effective date: August 25, 2026
Seoul Closing Bell (“we”, “this site”, accessible at https://seoulclosingbell.com) respects your privacy. This policy explains what information is collected when you visit, and how it is used.
Information we collect
- Automatically collected data. Like most websites, our server and services log standard technical information: IP address, browser type, pages visited, and referring pages. This is used for security and to understand aggregate readership. It is not used to identify individual readers.
- Comments. If you leave a comment, the name, email, and content you submit are stored.
- We do not require accounts and we do not sell personal information to anyone.
Cookies and advertising
This site uses cookies small files stored by your browser for site functionality and advertising.
We use Google AdSense to display advertising. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies (including the DoubleClick cookie) enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings, or opt out of some third-party vendors’ cookies at www.aboutads.info.
Analytics
We may use analytics services (such as Cloudflare Analytics or Google Analytics) to measure aggregate traffic. These services may set their own cookies. Data is used in aggregate form only.
External links
Our briefings link to external news sources and data providers. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of external sites.
Data retention and your rights
Comment data is retained indefinitely unless you request deletion. To request access to or deletion of any personal data you have submitted, contact us via the Contact page.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the site evolves (for example, when adding new services). Changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date.
Our internal keyword-research tool and the Google Ads API
Separately from this website, we run a small command-line tool on the site operator’s own computer to help us decide which topics to write about and when. That tool connects to the Google Ads API. Because it signs in with Google, we explain here exactly what it does.
Whose data it accesses. Only our own. The tool authenticates as the site operator and reads only the operator’s own Google Ads account. It does not access — and has no technical means of accessing — any other person’s Google account, Google Ads account, email, contacts, files, or profile.
What permission it requests. A single OAuth scope, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/adwords. We use it solely to read aggregate keyword statistics: historical monthly search-volume figures and related keyword suggestions.
What we do with what we receive. The figures we retrieve are aggregate, non-personal search statistics — for example, how many times a keyword was searched in a given month. They are written to JSON files on the operator’s local computer and used internally to rank and schedule editorial topics.
What the tool does not do. It does not create, modify, pause, or delete advertising campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords, budgets, or bids. It does not create or manage Google Ads accounts or user access. It does not touch billing or payment services. It does not publish, sell, rent, share, or transfer Google Ads API data to any third party, and it does not present that data in our articles as advertising metrics.
Who else uses it. Nobody. The tool has no web interface, no server, no database, and no login for other users. It runs on one local machine and is operated by one person.
Credentials and revocation. The OAuth client credentials and refresh token are stored only in a local configuration file on the operator’s computer. They are never transmitted anywhere other than Google’s own authentication endpoints, and they are not shared with any third party. Access can be withdrawn at any time from the Google Account permissions page at myaccount.google.com/permissions, which immediately invalidates the token.
Retention. Retrieved keyword statistics are kept locally only for as long as they are useful for editorial planning, and are deleted when they are no longer needed.
Limited Use. Our use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
This section describes our internal tool only. It does not change how we handle information collected from visitors to this website, which is described above.