EASWP is designed with a privacy-first architecture. The majority of the plugin runs entirely on your server with limited external service integrations that administrators can control. This document explains exactly what data stays local, what communicates with external servers, and how you control each feature.
1. What Runs Locally Only
These features operate entirely within your WordPress installation. No data is sent to any external server:
- Accessibility toolbar: All toolbar rendering, CSS adjustments, and class toggles happen in the visitor’s browser using local JavaScript and CSS. No visitor interaction data is transmitted.
- Disability profiles: Profile preferences are stored in the visitor’s browser (localStorage). No profile selection data reaches your server or ours.
- Toolbar settings: Color, layout, and button configuration are stored in your WordPress database as plugin options.
- WCAG scanning: The scanner runs in your WordPress admin. Page content is analyzed server-side within your WordPress PHP environment. Scan results are stored in your local database.
- Accessibility score and reports: All score calculations and report generation happen locally. PDF/CSV exports are generated on your server.
- Accessibility statement generator: The generated legal document is created and stored within your WordPress content.
- Settings and configuration: All plugin settings are WordPress options stored in your database.
2. What Sends Data to EASWP Servers
These features communicate with easwp.com servers. Each is documented with the specific data transmitted:
- License validation: When you activate a Pro license, your site URL (or a domain hash) and license key are sent to easwp.com to verify the license is valid. This check occurs once at activation and then daily via a background cron job. Response includes license status and expiration date only.
- Trial activation: When starting a free trial, your email address, site URL, and WordPress version are sent to easwp.com to issue a temporary trial license. Trial status is checked daily via the same license validation cron.
- AI-powered fixes (Pro): When you request an AI fix for a specific accessibility issue, the relevant HTML snippet and issue context are sent to easwp.com for processing. The fix suggestion is returned and displayed for your review. Only the specific code block being fixed is transmitted — not your entire page content.
3. What Sends Data to Third-Party Services
These features use third-party services. Each can be disabled independently:
- Translation (toolbar): When a visitor uses the translation feature, the text content visible on the page is sent to a LibreTranslate instance for translation. LibreTranslate is an open-source translation engine. No personally identifiable visitor information is included in translation requests — only the text content and target language.
- Dictionary/word lookup (toolbar): When a visitor looks up a word definition, the selected word is sent to a dictionary API. No visitor identification or page context is included — only the word itself.
4. Data Transmitted Per Feature
5. Feature Disable Controls
Administrators can disable any feature that communicates externally:
- Translation: Disable the translation button in Settings → EASWP → Button Manager. When disabled, no translation requests are made.
- Dictionary: Disable the dictionary button in the Button Manager. When disabled, no dictionary API calls are made.
- AI fixes: Available only to Pro users who actively initiate fix requests. No AI data is transmitted unless you explicitly click “Get Fix” on a specific issue. Downgrading to the free plan disables all AI fix functionality.
- License checks: Deactivating your Pro license stops all license validation communication. The daily cron check is removed on plugin deactivation.
There is no “phone home” behavior in the free version. A site running EASWP Free with translation and dictionary buttons disabled makes zero external network requests.
6. Data Retention Policy
- Scan results: Stored in your local WordPress database indefinitely or until you delete them. EASWP servers never receive scan data.
- License/trial records: easwp.com retains license activation records (domain hash, license key, activation/expiration dates) for the duration of your license plus 12 months after expiration for support and re-activation purposes.
- AI fix requests: The HTML snippets sent for AI processing are retained on easwp.com servers for up to 30 days for quality improvement, then permanently deleted. No visitor data is included in these requests.
- Translation/dictionary: Third-party services have their own retention policies. LibreTranslate (open source) does not retain translation data by default. Check the specific dictionary API’s privacy policy for word lookup retention.
- Visitor toolbar preferences: Stored in the visitor’s browser only. Cleared when they clear browser data. EASWP has no access to this data.
Deletion Requests
To request deletion of any data stored on easwp.com servers (license records, AI fix history), contact admin@merkra.com with your site URL and license key. Deletion is processed within 30 days.
Summary
EASWP is built so the core accessibility features — toolbar, scanning, scoring, and reporting — work entirely on your server. External communication is limited to license management, AI fix processing (Pro only), and optional translation/dictionary features. Every external feature can be individually disabled, giving you full control over your site’s data flow.