Privacy Policy

Who we are

BoatID Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17396584. We run BoatID, a free registry for privately owned sea boats. If you have any questions about this policy or your data, email hello@boatidmail.com or use our contact form.

What information we collect

• Account details — your name and email address, given when you register.
• Boat, engine and trailer details — whatever you choose to add: vessel name, HIN, manufacturer, model, dimensions, and the equivalent for any engine or trailer.
• Photos — any you upload of your boat, engine, trailer, or their serial numbers.
• Theft reports — the crime reference number you give us if you report a boat or trailer stolen.
• Messages — your name, email and message if you contact us.

We don't ask for your address, phone number, or any payment details — BoatID is free, so we simply don't need them.

Why we use your information

• To provide your account and registry record
• To check the details you submit during verification
• To handle theft reports and keep boat records accurate
• To reply to messages you send us

We don't use your information for advertising, and we never sell it to anyone.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of trusted service providers to run BoatID:

• Supabase — stores our database, handles sign-in, and stores uploaded photos.
• Resend — sends the emails BoatID needs to send, like sign-in links and replies to your messages.
• Vercel — hosts the website itself.

These providers only process your data on our instructions, to make BoatID work. We don't share your information with anyone else, and we never sell it.

What's public and what isn't

This is central to how BoatID works, so it's worth being clear about. Once a boat, engine or trailer is verified, its record page is public — anyone with the BoatID number or QR code can see its details, whether it's reported stolen, and a photo if you added one.

Your name, email address, and any other personal details are never shown on a public record page. Only the boat, engine and trailer information is public.

Cookies

BoatID uses one type of cookie: a session cookie that keeps you signed in. It's essential to the site working properly. We don't use analytics or marketing cookies, and nothing about your visit is tracked.

How long we keep information

We keep your account and boat records for as long as your account exists, or for as long as needed to keep the registry accurate and useful — for example, an old theft report stays on record even after a boat changes hands, since that history matters to future owners. If you'd like your account or a specific record deleted, contact us and we'll deal with it, subject to any legal reason we might need to keep something.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• see what information we hold about you
• ask us to correct anything that's wrong
• ask us to delete your information
• ask us to restrict or object to certain uses of it
• ask for a copy of your data in a portable format
• complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you think we've got something wrong

To use any of these rights, get in touch.

Our ICO registration

BoatID Ltd's ICO registration reference: registration in progress — this will be added here once complete.

Changes to this policy

If anything changes about how we handle your information, we'll update this page and the date at the top.