SerpAPI Security and Privacy Controls

Overview

Protect the private key and treat queries, parameters, raw results, archive records, fixtures, and telemetry as potentially sensitive data.

Prerequisites

• Application and data-flow inventory, data classification, threat model, and retention policy
• Account plan and entitlement evidence for any privacy feature
• Owners for secrets, application security, privacy, logging, and incident response

Tool Discipline

Use Read, Glob, and Grep to inspect secret flow, browser bundles, logs, caches, and fixtures, WebFetch to verify current security and retention claims, and Write or Edit for server-side boundaries, redaction, tests, and evidence.

Current Contract

SerpAPI requires a private API key and recommends server-side use for web applications. Standard search data is documented as expiring after 31 days. Enterprise ZeroTrace mode uses zero_trace=true to skip storing search parameters, files, and metadata, which also removes archive-based debugging; eligibility and exact guarantees must be rechecked against the account contract.