At Seeker, operated by Seeker Technologies Limited, we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring the security of your personal information. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our website and services.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Personal Information

• Name
• Email address
• Phone number and address, if you give them to us
• Proof-of-ownership documents you upload (for example a receipt)
• Payment information. Card payments are handled by Stripe. We do not see or store your full card number.

1.2 Non-Personal Information

• Browser type
• Operating system
• IP address
• Device information
• Website usage data (e.g. pages visited, links clicked)

1.3 Stolen Item Information

• Details of the stolen item: category, brand, model, colour, condition, approximate value, serial number and any distinguishing marks or inscriptions
• Photographs of the item
• Date, time and location of the theft

2. How We Use Your Information

2.1 To Provide and Manage Our Services

• Process your registration and manage your account
• Perform searches for stolen items
• Communicate with you regarding your account and the services you have requested
• Provide customer support and respond to your inquiries

2.2 To Improve Our Services

• Analyse usage patterns to enhance the functionality and user experience of our website and services
• Conduct research and analysis to develop new features and services

2.3 To Process Payments

• Process transactions and send you related information, including purchase confirmations and invoices through Stripe

2.4 To Ensure Security and Compliance

• Monitor for fraud and prevent unauthorised transactions
• Comply with legal obligations and protect our legal rights

2.5 Our Lawful Basis

• Performance of our contract with you: running your search, sending partner store alerts on packages that include them, managing your account and taking payment.
• Legitimate interests: helping recover stolen property, preventing stolen goods being resold, keeping our service secure and preventing fraud. We have balanced these interests against your rights. Alerts contain only item details and a general area, never your contact details.
• Legal obligation: keeping records the law requires, such as payment and tax records.

3. How We Share Your Information

3.1 Partner store alerts. If your package includes partner store alerts (Advanced Patrol and Ultimate Search), we send a stolen-item alert to our retail partner stores. These are second-hand retail businesses, such as bike shops, jewellers, pawnbrokers and electronics resellers, that Seeker has checked and that have agreed to our confidentiality partner terms. Partner stores use alerts only to recognise a stolen item offered to them, and they must not share, repost or publish them. Basic Search does not include store alerts, and we do not share your item with stores on that package.

3.2 What an alert contains. An alert contains only:

• item category, brand, model, colour, condition and approximate value
• serial number
• distinguishing features, which our staff check and edit first to remove any personal details
• photos of the item chosen by our staff
• the date of the theft
• the general area of the theft, shown only as the first part of the postcode (for example “E2”)
• the Seeker case reference

3.3 What we never share with stores. We never give partner stores your name, email address, phone number, home address or full postcode, and we never share your proof-of-ownership documents.

3.4 What we tell you. We tell you how many partner stores were alerted and in which general area. We do not tell you which stores were alerted, because our partner list is confidential.

3.5 Service providers. We use trusted providers to run our service, for example Stripe for payments, and hosting and email providers. They act on our instructions and may only use your information to provide their service to us.

3.6 Legal requirements. We may share information with the police or other authorities where the law requires it, or where it is needed to prevent or detect crime.

3.7 Service providers. We use a small number of providers who process personal information on our instructions only: Amazon Web Services (hosting, file storage and email delivery, London region), Stripe (payments), Vercel (website hosting) and Google Workspace (our support mailbox).

4. Prohibited Items

4.1 Prohibited Items: our service does not support searches for banned items, firearms, or any other prohibited goods. You are solely responsible for ensuring that the items you report comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

5. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organisational GDPR measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Despite these efforts, no security measures are completely secure, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information.

6. Data Retention

6.1 Your account and reports. We keep your account and reports while your account is open, so you can see past searches and start new ones. We do not delete them automatically when a search period ends.

6.2 Deleting your account. You can delete your account at any time. You then have 30 days to restore it. After 30 days we permanently erase your account and reports, except for records we must keep by law. We keep payment and tax records for 6 years from the end of the financial year they relate to, as HMRC requires.

6.3 Partner store alerts.A store alert ends when your item is recovered, when your case closes, when you stop the search, or when you delete your account. When an alert ends, we mark it as withdrawn or recovered and remove the photos, serial number and distinguishing features from the stores' copy. The store keeps only a redacted record showing that an alert was sent and ended. We also email the stores asking them to destroy any printouts. We delete the redacted record from our own systems 6 months after the alert ends.

6.4 Store reports. If a partner store tells us that someone offered them an item matching your report, we keep what the store told us, and any photographs or files they attached, for 12 months. After that we delete both.

6.5 Messages you send us. If you contact us through a form on this website, we keep what you sent for 12 months and then delete it.

7. Your Privacy Rights

7.1 Access and Update: you have the right to access and update your personal information held by us. You can review and update your account information by logging into your account or contacting us directly.

7.2 Data Portability: you have the right to request a copy of your personal information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.

7.3 Right to Erasure: you have the right to request the deletion of your personal information under certain circumstances, such as when it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

7.4 Right to Object and Alert Withdrawal: you have the right to object to processing based on our legitimate interests. You can also ask us at any time to withdraw a partner store alert about your item by emailing support@searchbyseeker.comwith your case reference. We will withdraw the alert and redact the stores' copy as described in section 6.3. Withdrawing the alert does not stop your online marketplace search unless you ask us to stop it.

7.5 Right to Restrict Processing: you have the right to request the restriction of processing of your personal information under certain circumstances.

7.6 Complaints:if you are unhappy with how we handle your information, please contact us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

7A. Information About Partner Store Staff

If you work at a partner store, we keep your store's name, address and the contact details of authorised staff to run the partner platform. We send you emails for your invitation, sign-in codes and stolen-item alerts. We keep these details while your store is a partner. If your store leaves, we delete these details, except the records of alerts sent, which are kept in redacted form.

8. Children's Privacy

Our services are not intended for children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 16, we will delete such information from our records.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. We will notify you of any significant changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on our website and updating the effective date.

10. Contact Us

Seeker Technologies Limited is the data controller for the information described in this policy. Seeker Technologies Limited is registered in England and Wales under company number 17250203, with its registered office at 55 Rectory Grove, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, SS9 2HA. If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at support@searchbyseeker.com.

11. Cookies and Similar Technologies

We only use cookies and browser storage that are strictly necessary for our website to work. We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.

• seeker_beta_access (cookie): remembers that you have entered a valid beta access code. It lasts up to 12 hours.
• Sign-in storage (browser local storage): keeps you signed in to your account until you sign out.
• Report storage (browser local storage, session storage and IndexedDB): saves your report, photos and email while you complete it and pay, so you do not lose your progress. It is cleared once your report is submitted and your account is set up, or when you clear your browser data.

When you pay, you are taken to Stripe's secure checkout page, which sets its own cookies under Stripe's privacy policy.

Because these are strictly necessary, we do not ask for cookie consent. If we add any non-essential cookies in future, we will ask for your consent first.