Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

• Account data — your email, an optional name, and a securely hashed password. If you upgrade without first creating an account, we create one from the email you give our payment provider and email you a link to set a password.
• Subscription & payment data — your plan, status and renewal date, and a payment-processor customer/subscription ID. We never see or store your card number — all card data is handled by Stripe.
• API usage — if you use our developer API, we store a hashed API key, request counts and your credit balance.
• Email preferences — your transactional-email and newsletter choices, and (if you subscribe to the newsletter) your email and confirmation status.
• Watchlists & tool inputs — HTS codes, countries or terms you choose to watch for alerts, and a dated log of restricted-party screening searches you run while signed in.
• Usage & device data — standard server logs (IP address, approximate country, browser/user-agent, pages and timestamps) and analytics events. Our CDN (Cloudflare) processes requests and provides your IP and country to our origin.

2. How we use it

To operate your account and plan, run the tools and API, send the emails described below, provide alerts and watchlists you set up, prevent abuse and fraud, meet legal obligations, and measure and improve the service (including advertising performance).

3. Cookies & analytics

We use essential cookies for sign-in sessions and an access cookie that unlocks your paid plan. We also use Google Analytics and the Google Ads tag to understand usage and measure which marketing brings visitors who sign up or subscribe. You can block non-essential cookies in your browser; essential cookies are required to sign in.

4. Email & the newsletter

Transactional emails (sign-up confirmations, password/receipt links, duty-change and AD/CVD alerts you opted into, subscription notices) are sent to operate your account. The tariff-update newsletter is double opt-in — you confirm by clicking a link, and every issue has a one-click unsubscribe. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time without affecting account emails.

5. Who we share it with

We share data only with the service providers that run ShipSeeker, under their own terms:

• Stripe — payment processing and subscription billing.
• Postmark — transactional and newsletter email delivery.
• Cloudflare — content delivery, caching and security.
• Google — Analytics and Ads conversion measurement (aggregate/pseudonymous).

We do not sell your personal data, and we don't share it for others' advertising beyond the measurement above. We may disclose data if required by law.

6. Data retention

We keep account and subscription data while your account exists and as needed for legal and accounting purposes. Server and email-send logs are kept for a limited period for security and troubleshooting, then pruned. You can ask us to delete your account at any time (see your rights below).

7. Your rights & choices

You can update email preferences or unsubscribe from the newsletter anytime, cancel your subscription from your account, and request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data by emailing hi@shipseeker.xyz. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA; we honor valid requests.

8. Security

Passwords and API keys are stored only as salted hashes, traffic is served over HTTPS, payment data stays with Stripe, and access to systems is restricted. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your data.

9. Trade data sources

Trade, tariff and vessel figures are derived from public sources — the U.S. Census Bureau, UN Comtrade, the USITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule, the Federal Register, the Consolidated Screening List and public AIS broadcasts. These are reference data, not your personal data.

10. Changes & contact

We may update this policy as the service evolves; the "last updated" date above reflects the latest version. Questions or requests? Contact us or email hi@shipseeker.xyz.