Privacy
Last updated October 25, 2026
What we collect
Everyone: standard server logs (IP address, browser, pages requested), kept briefly for security.
Shoppers with an account: your name, email and password (stored hashed), your alert preferences, saved items, and a record of alerts sent to you. If you allow location access, your position is used on your device to sort by distance and is not stored.
Store staff: your name, email, role and store, and an audit trail of actions taken in the store tools.
Photographs taken by stores are of items, not people. Stores are asked not to capture shoppers or staff.
How we use it
To run the service, send the alerts you asked for, invite store accounts, secure sign-in, and understand what is used.
Advertising and cookies
We use Google AdSense to help fund SpotThrift. Ads are labelled and separate from the items spotted in stores. Google and its advertising partners may collect information such as your IP address, browser, device identifiers, the page you visit and interactions with ads. They may use cookies or similar storage to deliver and measure ads, prevent fraud and, where permitted and you agree, personalise advertising.
Where required, Google’s consent message asks for your choices before advertising cookies or personalisation are used. You can reject optional purposes and change your choices later. US visitors may also have options to opt out of the sale or sharing of data for targeted advertising. Available choices depend on your location.
We do not include your account email, saved items or uploaded scan files in ad requests. An ad request can include the public page’s address and content. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services and Google’s ad personalisation controls.
Cookie lifetimes vary by provider and purpose. Your browser settings can block or remove cookies; removing them may reset your saved privacy choices.
Who else sees it
Thrift wins: if you participate, your chosen public display name, bio, photos of items you spotted, stories, selected stores and comments can be seen by anyone and indexed by search engines. Each post shows its thumbs-up count; your public profile shows your posts and total thumbs-ups received. Your account email and private account name are not shown on your community profile. We store which account gave each thumbs-up to prevent duplicate votes.
Email is delivered through a mail provider; push notifications through your browser’s push service; item identification through an AI vision provider, which receives item photographs only. Each processes data on our instructions.
Your choices
You can edit your public display name and bio, remove your own posts and comments, or undo a thumbs-up. Platform admins can remove community content. Deleting your account also removes your community profile, posts, comments and votes; copies already cached by browsers or search engines may remain until those services refresh.
You can change or turn off alerts at any time, download a copy of your data, or delete your account — all from your account page. Deleting removes your account, preferences, saved items and alert history within 30 days.
Google Maps shop details
Shop pages may request current public business details and reviews from Google Places. We send the shop’s public name, address, location and Google Place ID, not your account details or scanning photos. Photos and reviewer avatars load directly from Google, which can receive your IP address and browser information. Google’s use of this information is described in its Privacy Policy.
SpotThrift retains the Google Place ID and request usage counts. We do not keep a database of Google review text, ratings or photos. Storefront photos uploaded by platform admins are stored by SpotThrift with their provided credit.
Retention
Sold or withdrawn items are removed from the public catalog immediately and their records purged on a schedule each store controls. Failed sign-in attempts are kept for two days. Emails we send are logged for support.
Contact
SpotThrift is operated by Siim Ounap, 303 23rd Ave S, #412, Seattle, WA 98144, United States.
For privacy questions, contact privacy@spotthrift.com.