VesselFinder Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how VesselFinder Ltd (“VesselFinder”, “we”, “us”) collects, uses, and shares personal data when you use our websites, mobile applications, APIs, and related services (together, the “Services”).

1) Who we are and how to contact us

Controller: VesselFinder Ltd
Address: Business Centre, Hadzhi Dimitar square, 8800 Sliven, Bulgaria
Privacy contact: https://www.vesselfinder.com/contact

2) Personal data we collect

We collect personal data in the following ways:

A. Information you provide

• Account data: name, email address, password (stored in hashed form), account settings.
• Billing data: invoice details, VAT/company fields (if provided), purchase history, payment status.
• Support communications: messages and attachments you send us.

B. Information collected automatically

• Usage and log data: pages/features used, interactions, timestamps, referring URLs, error logs.
• Device and network data: IP address, browser/app version, device identifiers, OS, language, time zone, approximate location derived from IP.
• Cookies / local storage / SDK identifiers: used for essential functionality, analytics, and advertising (see Section 6).

C. Mobile-app specific data

Mobile SDKs may collect identifiers such as the device Advertising ID and related device/app signals for advertising and measurement.

3) How we use personal data

We use personal data to:

• Provide the Services (account access, entitlements, API access, customer support).
• Process purchases and billing administration.
• Operate, maintain, secure, and improve the Services (including troubleshooting, fraud/abuse prevention).
• Measure usage and performance (analytics).
• Show ads on the free plan and measure ad performance.

4) Legal bases

We process personal data under the following legal bases (as applicable):

• Contract: to provide the Services you request and administer purchases.
• Legitimate interests: to secure and improve the Services, prevent abuse, and maintain service integrity.
• Consent: for non-essential cookies/SDKs (e.g., analytics and personalized advertising) where required.
• Legal obligation: for accounting/tax and compliance obligations.

5) Payments

We use Paddle or 2Checkout to process payments and manage billing. They operate as a Merchant of Record in many setups, meaning they may act as the reseller and handle payment processing and related compliance/tax obligations. When you purchase a plan, we and the payment operators may process data such as your email address, invoice details, payment status, transaction identifiers, refunds/chargebacks, and fraud-prevention signals.

6) Ads, cookies, and consent management

A. Your cookie/ads choices

We use a consent banner and Cookie Settings tool that:

• requests consent for non-essential cookies/technologies where required, and
• provides the detailed list of cookies and advertising/analytics partners in use on your device/browser.

For transparency and control, users should rely on Cookie Settings for the current, device-specific cookie/vendor list.

B. Web advertising

On our website we use Publift to help deliver and optimize advertising for our free plan. Publift provides ad-tech tooling to publisher customers (e.g., via tag-based solutions). Depending on your consent choices, advertising partners may use cookies/identifiers to:

• deliver ads,
• measure performance,
• and (if enabled) personalize ads.

C. Mobile advertising

Our mobile apps use Google AdMob. Google distinguishes personalized ads (based on previously collected/historical data used to influence ad selection) from other ad modes, and personalized ads are served only when required conditions are met (including consent/controls where applicable).

D. Analytics (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to understand how users engage with our Services and to improve performance and usability. Google documents region-focused privacy behavior and controls for GA4, including that GA4 does not log/store IP addresses in certain EU-focused processing contexts and provides regional controls for data collection features.

E. How to change your settings

You can manage your choices via:

• Cookie Settings (our consent banner/settings link), and
• browser/device controls (including Android Advertising ID controls, where available).

7) Sharing of personal data

We do not sell personal data.

We may share personal data with:

• Service providers (processors) who support hosting, security, analytics, email delivery, customer support, and payments.
• Payment processing and billing: Paddle or 2Checkout (Section 5).
• Advertising and measurement partners: Publift (web) and Google AdMob (mobile), subject to your consent/settings where required.
• Legal/compliance: where required by law or to protect rights, security, and integrity of the Services.

8) International transfers

Where personal data is transferred outside the EEA/UK, we use appropriate safeguards (e.g., adequacy decisions or Standard Contractual Clauses and related measures), as required by law.

9) Data retention

We retain personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes described:

• Account data: for the life of the account plus a reasonable period for dispute handling and compliance.
• Billing/tax data: as required by applicable law.
• Logs/security records: retained for a limited period appropriate to security and troubleshooting.
• Backups: retained on a rolling basis and overwritten according to our backup lifecycle.

10) Security

We implement technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal data (e.g., access controls, encryption in transit). No system is completely secure.

11) Your rights and Account deletion

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict/objection, data portability, and to withdraw consent (where processing is based on consent). You also may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (EEA/UK users).

To exercise rights, contact us using Section 1.

You can delete your VesselFinder account at any time by using the account deletion function available here: https://www.vesselfinder.com/user-profile#/delete-account.

When you request deletion, we will delete or anonymize your personal data associated with the account, unless we need to retain certain information for legitimate business purposes or legal obligations (for example, accounting/tax records, fraud prevention, security incident investigation, or the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims). Deleted data may persist for a limited period in backups until overwritten according to our backup lifecycle.

If you experience any issues using the deletion function, contact us using Section 1.

12) Children

Our Services are not directed to children under the age required by local law to consent to online services. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

13) Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated version and revise the “Last updated” date.