Privacy Policy

Last updated: 12 April 2026

Boat Hound respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, and how we handle it. We aim to be straightforward and only collect what we need to provide you with a useful service.

1. Who We Are

Boat Hound is a trading style of Everby Ltd (company number 16950986), registered in England and Wales. Registered office: 20 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU. For the purposes of UK data protection law (UK GDPR), Everby Ltd is the data controller. You can reach us at hello@boathound.com.

2. What We Collect

Account information

When you register we collect your name, email address, and password (stored as a secure hash). If you subscribe to a paid plan, Stripe processes your payment details directly. We store your Stripe customer ID but never see or store your full card number.

Usage data

We record which pages you visit, searches you run, boats you view, and features you use. This helps us improve the service and power features like personalised recommendations and smart alerts.

Saved content

Saved searches, watchlists, notes, negotiation records, and ownership tracker data are stored to provide the service. This data is tied to your account.

Device and technical data

We collect IP address, browser type, device type, and referring URL through standard server logs and analytics. We use this for security, debugging, and understanding how people use the site.

3. How We Use Your Data

  • To provide and maintain the service, including search, alerts, recommendations, and reports.
  • To process payments and manage your subscription.
  • To send transactional emails: account confirmation, password resets, alert notifications, and billing receipts.
  • To send product emails: onboarding sequences, feature announcements, and weekly market reports. You can unsubscribe from non-transactional emails at any time.
  • To improve the platform based on aggregate usage patterns.
  • To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents.

4. Legal Basis for Processing

Under UK GDPR, we process your data on the following bases:

  • Contract: processing necessary to provide the service you signed up for (account management, subscriptions, alerts, reports).
  • Legitimate interest: analytics, service improvement, fraud prevention, and product communications. We balance our interests against your rights and only process data where the impact on you is minimal.
  • Consent: marketing emails beyond core product communications. You can withdraw consent at any time.

5. Cookies

We use essential cookies for authentication and session management. We use analytics cookies to understand site usage. We do not use third-party advertising cookies. You can control cookies through your browser settings, though disabling essential cookies will prevent you from logging in.

6. Third-Party Services

We share data with the following third parties, only as necessary to operate the service:

  • Stripe: payment processing. Stripe acts as an independent data controller for payment data. See Stripe's privacy policy.
  • Postmark: transactional email delivery. Postmark processes email addresses and message content on our behalf.
  • Infrastructure providers: hosting and database services. Data is stored on servers located in the UK and EU.

We do not sell your personal data to anyone. We do not share your data with advertisers.

7. Data Retention

  • Active accounts: we retain your data for as long as your account is active.
  • Closed accounts: we delete personal data within 90 days of account closure, except where we are required by law to retain it (e.g. billing records for tax purposes, which we keep for 7 years).
  • Server logs: retained for up to 90 days.
  • Analytics data: aggregated and anonymised data may be retained indefinitely.

8. Your Rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

  • Access the personal data we hold about you.
  • Rectify inaccurate data.
  • Erase your data (right to be forgotten).
  • Restrict processing in certain circumstances.
  • Object to processing based on legitimate interest.
  • Port your data to another service in a structured, machine-readable format.
  • Withdraw consent at any time where consent is the basis for processing.

To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@boathound.com. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Data Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data, including encrypted connections (TLS), hashed passwords, access controls, and regular security reviews. No system is completely secure, but we take reasonable precautions to protect the data you entrust to us.

10. Children

Boat Hound is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated by email or by a notice on the website. The "last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

12. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, please contact us first at hello@boathound.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.