Privacy Policy

In short

• Workbook processing is performed locally on your computer. Excel Link Rescue does not upload your workbook to a server for scanning or repair.
• The application has no analytics, no telemetry, no automatic crash reporting and no update checker.
• Activating a paid licence sends your licence key and some basic device and network information to Lemon Squeezy.
• Purchases go through Lemon Squeezy. Card details never reach us.
• This website runs no analytics, sets no cookies of its own and loads nothing from other companies.

Workbook contents staying on your computer is not the same as the application being entirely offline. Licensing is a network feature, and the sections below say exactly what it involves.

Who is responsible

Excel Link Rescue is operated by Ante Tomić in Split, Croatia. Ante Tomić is the data controller for the processing described in this policy. You can reach us at support@excellinkrescue.com.

Your workbooks

Excel Link Rescue reads the workbook you select, lists the external references it contains and, if you have a licence, writes a repaired copy. All of that happens on your computer.

Your workbook is not sent anywhere. Neither is anything read from it: its contents, its file name, its folder path, its sheet names, its formulas, its cell values, or the names and paths of the files it links to. None of that is included in licensing requests either.

The original file is opened read only and is not modified.

What the application does not collect

This version of Excel Link Rescue contains no analytics, no usage tracking, no telemetry, no automatic crash or error reporting and no update check. It creates no log file, and it has no feature that gathers or uploads diagnostic information.

Until you activate a licence, the application makes no network requests at all. A copy used only for scanning never contacts us or anyone else.

If a future version changes any of this, this policy will be updated before that version ships.

Licence activation

Licensing is handled by Lemon Squeezy. When you activate a licence, when the application periodically confirms that it is still valid, and when you remove it from a computer, the following is sent to Lemon Squeezy over an encrypted connection:

• your licence key
• an activation identifier, so the right activation can be confirmed or released later
• the name of your computer as Windows reports it, sent as the activation's instance_name, so that you can tell your activations apart
• normal network information that any internet request carries, such as your IP address

A computer name is set by you or by whoever set the machine up, and it sometimes contains a person's name. That is why this policy does not claim that no personal information is ever involved.

Nothing about any workbook is sent with a licence request.

Licence information on your computer

After activation, your licence state is stored on your own computer at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Excel Link Rescue\license.dat. It is protected using the Windows Data Protection API for your Windows user account, so it cannot be read by another user or copied to another computer and reused.

That file holds licensing state: the licence key, the instance identifier, the edition, validation timestamps and the relevant Lemon Squeezy product identifiers. It does not contain workbook contents.

Removing the licence from a computer, which you can do inside the application, deletes this file.

Purchases

Excel Link Rescue is the software. Purchases are processed through Lemon Squeezy, which acts as Merchant of Record for the transaction and handles the applicable transaction taxes and VAT.

Checkout happens on Lemon Squeezy's systems. Payment and card details do not pass through the Excel Link Rescue application or this website, and we never see or store those details. What we can see is order and licence information, such as the email address used for the purchase, the licence key and how many activations it has.

Lemon Squeezy's handling of that information is covered by their privacy policy.

This website

As it stands, this site runs no analytics and no tracking of any kind, sets no cookies of its own, stores nothing in your browser, has no contact form, and loads no fonts, scripts or other files from third parties. Nothing you do here is sent anywhere.

Like any website, it is served by hosting and security infrastructure. That layer keeps standard server logs, and it can set strictly necessary cookies of its own, for example to tell automated traffic apart from real visitors or to record that a security check was passed. None of it is analytics or advertising, and none of it is used to profile you.

Support messages

If you email support, we receive your email address, what you wrote and anything you attached, and we use it to answer you.

Excel Link Rescue has no diagnostic report feature and writes no log file, so there is no such file for you to send. Please do not send confidential workbooks or workbook contents unless we have specifically asked for them for troubleshooting, and you are satisfied the contents can be shared.

Why we process this, and on what basis

Where the GDPR applies, each thing we do with personal information has a purpose and a legal basis under Article 6.

• Activating, checking and removing a licence. To deliver the licence you bought and to apply the limit of two computers, which is a term of that licence. Basis: performance of a contract, Article 6(1)(b).
• Keeping one licence key from being used on unlimited computers. Basis: legitimate interests, Article 6(1)(f). The interest is protecting a paid product from misuse, and it is pursued only through the activation count, nothing further.
• Answering support messages. Basis: performance of a contract, Article 6(1)(b), where the message concerns a licence you bought, and legitimate interests, Article 6(1)(f), otherwise, the interest being answering questions about our own software.
• Keeping the website available and secure. Basis: legitimate interests, Article 6(1)(f), pursued through standard server logs and security checks at the hosting layer.

Providing a licence key and the activation details is not a legal requirement. It is necessary in a practical sense: a licence cannot be activated without them, so repair stays locked. Scanning and previewing still work, and require nothing from you.

We do not rely on consent for any of this, so there is no consent to withdraw. There is no marketing, no profiling, and no automated decision-making.

Who else receives it

Two companies are involved, and their roles are not the same.

Lemon Squeezy appears twice over. It provides the licensing service we use to activate, check and remove licences, which it does on our instructions. Separately, it is the Merchant of Record for purchases, which means it sells to you in its own right and decides for itself how it handles checkout and customer data. That second part is governed by its own privacy policy, not by this one.

The hosting and security provider that serves this website processes requests to it, including standard server log information.

Lemon Squeezy states in its privacy policy that the information it collects is stored or processed in the United States, or wherever it and its partners maintain facilities, and that transfers out of the EEA rely on standard data protection clauses approved by the European Commission or another accepted mechanism. Activating a licence therefore involves a transfer outside the EEA, under safeguards that Lemon Squeezy determines and publishes.

How long information is kept

The licence file on your computer stays until you remove the licence or delete it. That one is entirely under your control.

Order and licence records live inside Lemon Squeezy. We do not set how long they keep them; their privacy policy is the accurate source.

Support correspondence is kept for as long as is reasonably needed to deal with your request.

Your rights

Write to support@excellinkrescue.com and we will deal with it. Where the GDPR applies you can ask for access to the personal information held about you, ask to have it corrected or erased, ask us to restrict how it is used, ask for a copy in a portable form, and object to the processing we base on legitimate interests.

Most of it sits with Lemon Squeezy rather than with us. We will pass a request on, and you can also approach them directly through their privacy policy.

If you think your information has been handled improperly, you can complain to a supervisory authority, normally the one where you live or work. The authority for Croatia, where we are, is the Agencija za zaštitu osobnih podataka (AZOP), at azop.hr.

Security

Workbook contents are not exposed to the network, because they are never sent anywhere. Licence requests use encrypted connections, and the stored licence file is encrypted to your Windows user account. Scanning is static analysis of the file: the application does not execute macros, DDE, OLE, Power Query, external connections or formulas from a workbook it reads.

No system is perfectly secure and we will not pretend otherwise.

Children

Excel Link Rescue is a tool for working with spreadsheets, is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If the application or the website starts doing something this policy does not describe, the policy is updated before that change ships.

This policy was published on September 19, 2026.

Contact

Questions about this policy go to support@excellinkrescue.com.