Privacy Policy

We collect the following, depending on how you use the Service:

• Account and identity. Your email address (used to sign you in) and an optional display name. You can sign in with a one-time email link or a password. Sign-in is handled by our authentication provider; we never see or store your password ourselves.
• Listing information (sellers). Details you provide about a boat you list, including its name, make, model, year, asking price, description and cruising story, specifications, and location: the port, city, state, country, and the latitude and longitude you set. Most of this is shown publicly on your listing.
• Photos and floorplans. Images you upload for a listing. Before a photo leaves your device, our uploader removes hidden metadata (such as GPS location and camera details) and re-encodes the image, so that metadata is never uploaded or published. We read one thing from it first: the date the photo was taken, which we use to help group your photos by when they were taken.
• Ownership documents. If you provide proof of ownership (for example a USCG documentation, state registration, title, or bill of sale), we store the file, basic details about it (file name, type, and size), and a digital fingerprint of the file that lets us confirm later whether a copy matches what we reviewed. These documents are kept in private storage. They are never shown publicly, they are accessible only to our staff for review through short-lived access links, and the files themselves are deleted on a schedule after review (see How long we keep information). During review, our staff may also record vessel identification numbers that appear on these documents (such as a USCG official number or hull identification number) so we can confirm the vessel's identity later, including after the files are deleted. These numbers are never shown publicly.
• Messages and inquiries. The contents of conversations between buyers and sellers, and the name, email, and message you provide when you contact a seller, including when you do so before creating an account.
• Saved listings. The boats you save to your shortlist, visible only to you.
• Quiz and tool responses. If you use our sizing quiz or similar tools, the answers you give, the email you provide, an optional name, your result, and whether you opted in to follow-up emails.
• Payment records.If you choose to make a payment (for example, an optional contribution after your boat sells), we keep a record of the amount, the date, and the payment processor’s reference codes. Your card details go directly to the payment processor and never touch our servers. See Payments below.
• Technical and usage data. Basic information needed to operate and protect the Service. Your IP address (and, for a few actions, the email you entered) is used to enforce rate limits and prevent abuse. We do not keep either one in those records: the IP address is first shortened to a network portion, and both it and the email are then stored only as a coded value. Those rate-limit records are deleted automatically every day. We also shorten IP addresses before writing them to our server logs, keeping only a network portion rather than your full address.
• Listing views.When you open a listing, we add to that listing’s view count so the seller can see how their boat is performing. This is stored as a coded value that cannot be traced back to you and that changes every day. We also note whether the visit appears to come from a phone or from a larger screen, and nothing more specific, which helps us decide what to build. If you reached the listing through a link a seller shared, we note which kind of share link it was, for example a Facebook group post, so the seller can see how their sharing is working. See Cookies, on-device storage, and measurement below.

We use the information above to:

• Provide the Service: create and display listings, run search, and enable messaging.
• Sign you in and keep your account secure.
• Send you service messages, such as sign-in links, inquiry and message notifications, and important account notices.
• Review listings and ownership documents, and check content for accuracy and policy compliance.
• Help present listings, including using AI tools to polish seller-written text and organize photos (see below).
• Process any optional payment you choose to make.
• Prevent fraud, abuse, and spam, and enforce our Terms.
• Respond to your requests. Today we send only the service emails described above. If we ever send optional emails such as tips or listing roundups, we will send them only where you opted in, and every one will include a way to opt out.

To help sellers present their boats well, we use a third-party AI provider (Anthropic) in three ways. First, to polish seller-written text: a cruising story, photo captions, or listing prose. The relevant listing text and specifications are sent to the provider, which returns suggested wording. Second, to help organize photos: reduced-size copies of the photos you upload for a listing may be sent to the provider so it can suggest which section of your listing each photo belongs in. Third, to compile reference facts about boat models: we send the make and model, and the provider researches that model on the public web.

We never send your ownership documents or the contents of buyer and seller messages to an AI provider. Anything AI-assisted is a suggestion: you can review, edit, or undo it before it becomes part of your listing.

We use a small number of strictly necessary cookies to keep you signed in and to operate the Service securely. These are set by our authentication provider and are not used to track you across other websites. In addition, if you open a conversation from a link in an email we sent you, we set one cookie that unlocks just that conversation in your browser; it is limited to that single conversation and expires on its own. We do not use advertising or third-party analytics cookies, and we do not share your information with advertisers.

Some of our tools (like the quiz and the floorplan tool) save your in-progress work in your browser’s own storage so you can pick up where you left off. That data stays on your device; we cannot see it unless you submit it.

We do count how many people view a listing, so sellers can see how their boat is performing. To avoid counting the same visitor twice in one day without identifying anyone, we combine the network portion of your IP address (never your full address) with your browser type into a coded value, using a secret key. The code cannot be read back to reveal who you are, and it changes every day, so it cannot connect your visits from one day to the next. Alongside the count, we record two facts about the visit: whether it appears to come from a phone or from a larger screen, and, if you arrived through a link a seller shared, which kind of share link it was (for example, a Facebook group post). We keep nothing more specific about your device, and the share-link note is a general category, never a personal identifier. We use them to decide where to focus our design work and to show sellers whether their sharing is working. There is no cookie involved, we do not follow you to other websites, and this information never leaves our systems. Sellers see only totals, never anything about an individual visitor, and your visits to your own listing are not counted.

Listing and using the Service is free today. If you choose to make an optional payment, such as a voluntary contribution after your boat sells, the payment is processed by Stripe. Your card or bank details go directly to Stripe on their payment page; they never pass through or get stored on our servers. What we keep is a record that the payment happened: the amount, the date, and Stripe’s reference codes, retained as part of our financial records.

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only with the service providers that help us run the Service, each of which processes data on our behalf:

• Supabase: our database, authentication, and file storage provider. Account data, listings, messages, quiz responses, and uploaded files are stored here.
• Resend: our email delivery provider. We share the recipient address and message content needed to send sign-in links, inquiry and message notifications, and other service emails.
• Anthropic: the AI provider described above, used to polish listing text, help organize listing photos, and compile boat-model facts.
• Stripe: our payment processor, involved only if you choose to make a payment.
• Vercel: our hosting provider, which operates the website and keeps standard server logs.

We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect the rights, safety, or property of Liveaboard HQ or others, or in connection with a business transfer such as a merger or sale of assets.

The Service is a marketplace, so some information is shared with others by design:

• Listings are public. The boat details, photos, and location you publish can be seen by anyone visiting the Service, and may appear in search engines and social previews.
• Buyers and sellers can see each other’s contact. When you message someone, the name, email, and messages you share become visible to the other participant.
• Sold information. If you mark your boat sold, the listing can continue to appear publicly as sold, including the sold price. You can choose to keep the price private; there is a setting for this when you close out a listing.
• Quiz result links. Your quiz result page is reachable by anyone who has its link, so share it only with people you want to see it. The page shows only the result itself, never your name or email, and we ask search engines not to index it.
• Our staff (admins). Authorized staff can review listings, ownership documents, and, where needed to support or moderate the Service, conversations. Access to these tools is protected by additional authentication.

We keep information for as long as needed to provide the Service and for legitimate business and legal purposes. Some specifics:

• Account data is kept while your account is active and removed (or anonymized) when your account is deleted.
• Messages are kept as an ongoing record of a conversation so both participants retain their history; they are not individually deletable, though conversations can be closed or archived. If you delete your account, your messages may remain visible to the other participant with your account no longer attached.
• Ownership documents are kept only as long as the review needs them. About 30 days after your listing is approved, the uploaded files are permanently deleted, and we keep only a record of the review: the document type, file name, size, digital fingerprint, and the decision. If you start a listing and never finish it, documents on the inactive draft are deleted after about 180 days. Files are also removed if you delete the listing or remove them yourself, and may be preserved longer if needed for a legal matter.
• Quiz and tool responses are kept so your result link keeps working and, if you opted in, so we can follow up. You can ask us to delete yours at any time.
• Rate-limit records are deleted automatically every day.
• Listing view counts are kept as totals. The daily visitor codes they are built from cannot identify you and stop matching anything after the day they were created.
• Payment records are kept as long as we need them for accounting, tax, and legal purposes.

We use reasonable measures to protect your information, including access controls that restrict each user to their own data, private storage for sensitive documents, removal of hidden photo metadata before upload, encrypted sign-in cookies, and stronger authentication for staff. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect your information and to address issues promptly.

You can request access to the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. To make a request, email ryan@liveaboardhq.com; we will verify the request and respond. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there is no advertising opt-out you need to exercise. If we ever send optional emails, each one will include an unsubscribe link. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under your local law, and we will honor the rights that apply to you.

Two limits worth knowing: because messages are a shared record, some information may remain visible to the other participant after account deletion, as described above; and we may need to keep certain records (such as payment records) to meet legal obligations.

The Service is intended for adults and is not directed to children under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.

We and our service providers operate in the United States, and your information is stored and processed there. If you access the Service from outside the United States, you understand that your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those where you live.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the “Last updated” date above and, where appropriate, notify you. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.

For privacy questions or requests, email ryan@liveaboardhq.com, or write to Liveaboard HQ LLC, 411 Walnut Street #18453, Green Cove Springs, FL 32043.