Privacy Policy

We don't require an account. Visiting the site sets an anonymous cookie so we can show live visitor counts and enforce basic anti-spam limits. If you list a product or place a bid, we additionally collect the name and email you type in — nothing more than that, and we never see or store your card details (Stripe handles payment directly).

The moment you load any page, we set an httpOnly cookie containing a randomly generated ID (no personal data in the cookie itself). It has two jobs: showing how many people are currently on the site, and giving your browser a "wallet" for mock or real bids and a basic per-session rate limit. It is set for every visitor, not only people who end up bidding or listing something.

The important consequence: if you only browse, that ID is linked to nothing but the pages you viewed and when. But if you later list a product or place a bid under that same browser session, the name and email you provide at that point become linked, retroactively, to that same anonymous ID — and therefore to your prior browsing activity in this session. We are telling you this plainly because it is a real link, not a hypothetical one.

We keep this data indefinitely, tied only to the anonymous ID — we do not build a separate profile keyed on your name or email beyond what you can already see publicly (a bid or listing shows the name you typed, on the site, to other visitors — that's not a separate collection, it's the leaderboard itself). Clearing your cookies or switching browsers/devices breaks the link on your end; we cannot reunite a new session with an old one for you.

• An anonymous session ID (cookie), set for every visitor.
• Which page you're on, refreshed periodically while a tab is open — used only to compute "online now" counts, not stored as a detailed browsing history beyond your current page.
• Name and email you provide when listing a product or placing a bid.
• A theme preference (light/dark) and, if you've bid before, your name/email for autofill — both stored only in your browser's local storage, never sent to us as a separate collection event.
• Payment information is collected and processed entirely by Stripe. We receive confirmation that a payment succeeded or was canceled, and the amount — never your card number.

We use a small number of service providers to run the site:

• Stripe — processes payments. See Stripe's privacy policy.
• Supabase — hosts our database.
• Railway — hosts the application itself.

We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with anyone else for advertising purposes.

Block or clear cookies at any time through your browser — the site still works for browsing and listing/bidding, you'll just start a fresh anonymous session. To ask about, correct, or request deletion of information tied to a specific listing or bid you made, contact us with enough detail (e.g. the listing name and the email you used) for us to find it.

We may update this policy as the Service changes. Continuing to use the Service after an update means you accept the revised policy.

Privacy questions: support@theperch.store