Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal information machinefinder.co.uk (“MachineFinder”) collects, why, and how long it is kept.

Information collected

Sellers: name, email address, phone number, whether you sell privately or as a trade seller, your business name if given, and the machine’s postcode. Only the area (for example the district and county) is shown on the listing. Your email address is not shown publicly. Your phone number is shown only if you tick the Call or WhatsApp button on your listing, and then to anyone who has signed in to MachineFinder. Anyone can create an account with an email address, so tick these only if you are happy for any signed-in visitor to see your number. If you reply to a buyer’s enquiry, the buyer sees your email address.
Accounts: if you create an account, your email address, the details you save (name, phone number, seller type, business name), the machines you watch, and any drafts and templates you save. You can ask for your account to be deleted at any time.
Buyers who send an enquiry: name, email address, phone number if given, and the message. These are passed to the seller, who sees your email address and replies to you directly.
Reports: the reason given and any details you add.
Your postcode for distances: if you enter your postcode to see how far machines are, it is stored in a cookie on your device for 90 days. It is not stored on our server.

Why it is used

To publish and manage listings, to pass enquiries between buyers and sellers, to send the emails the service needs (confirmation, sign-in links, approval, monthly “still for sale?” emails, and price-drop or sold emails for machines you watch), and to prevent spam and misuse. The lawful basis is the performance of the service you asked for and our legitimate interest in keeping the site safe.

Who it is shared with

The seller of a machine receives the details you put in an enquiry.
Emails are sent through Brevo, an email delivery service.
Postcodes are looked up through postcodes.io to find the area and map position.
The site is hosted in a data centre operated by our hosting provider.

Personal information is not sold or used for third-party advertising.

How long it is kept

Listings that are never completed are deleted after 7 days, and rejected listings after 30 days. Sold listings stay online as pages marked Sold, without the seller’s contact details. You can delete your listing at any time from your private manage link.

Cookies

The site uses a cookie to remember your postcode for distances, if you choose to enter one, and a sign-in cookie that keeps you signed in to your account on your own device. No other cookies are set apart from those WordPress needs for administrators. No advertising or tracking cookies are used.