Privacy policy

This policy explains what personal data Vessel Hunter (“we”) collects, why, and the rights you have over it. It covers visitors and account holders, and also people whose data we hold from other sources, for example vessel owners, managers and business contacts in our maritime database. It applies to our website and the Vessel Hunter platform. We are established in the Netherlands, so the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies; because our systems are hosted in Singapore, Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act 2012 (PDPA) also applies, and we have noted below where it is relevant. We review this policy periodically and will post any material changes here with an updated effective date.

Who we are

Vessel Hunter, Heerle, the Netherlands, is the controller of the personal data described here. You can reach our data protection contact at contact@vesselhunter.io for any question about this policy or to exercise your rights.

What we collect

Account information you provide (name, email, company), product usage data, and the AIS or contact records you query inside the platform.

Data about people we obtain from other sources

Vessel Hunter is a maritime business-intelligence tool. To map who owns, manages and operates the world fleet, we hold records about people in a professional capacity: typically a name, job title or role, the company they work for, business contact details, and links to vessels or ownership. Most of these people are not Vessel Hunter users and did not give us their data directly.

We obtain this data from public and third-party sources, including public ship registries and AIS, company and registry websites, and specialist maritime and contact-data providers (for example MagicPort and Apollo). Our data sources page describes these in more detail. Contact details are stored masked and revealed to an entitled user only on request.

Under the GDPR we rely on our legitimate interest (and that of our users) in providing maritime intelligence for legitimate business purposes as the legal basis for this processing, having weighed it against the rights and reasonable expectations of the people concerned (Art. 6(1)(f) and Art. 14 GDPR). Most of what we hold is business contact information used for business purposes; under the PDPA such information is treated differently from personal data generally, and where another basis is needed we rely on the legitimate-interests exception. If you are in our database you can ask to see, correct, object to, or delete your data at any time. Use Your data rights. If you object, we suppress your details so they are not shown again and are not re-added by later updates.

How we use it

To run the service, send you account-related messages, and improve Vessel Hunter. We do not sell personal data.

Legal basis

Under the GDPR we process personal data to perform our contract with you (providing, securing and billing the service), on the basis of our legitimate interests (improving Vessel Hunter, preventing abuse, and operating the maritime database described above), to meet legal obligations such as accounting, and, for analytics cookies, on the basis of your consent. Where the PDPA applies we rely on your consent or an applicable exception (including the legitimate-interests and business-contact-information provisions).

Automated decisions

Our tools score and qualify companies and contacts to help users prioritise outreach. These are decision-support signals for our users; we do not make decisions about you by solely automated means that produce legal or similarly significant effects on you (Art. 22 GDPR).

Who we share data with

We share personal data only with service providers that help us run Vessel Hunter, under contract and only as far as needed:

• Hetzner: cloud hosting and infrastructure for the platform, in its Singapore data centre.
• Stripe: to process payments and manage subscriptions.
• Resend: to send account and notification emails.
• Google Analytics 4: product and website analytics, only where you have consented (see our cookie policy).
• Anthropic: powers the support assistant inside our product; the messages you send to support are processed to generate replies.

When you query vessel or company records inside the platform, those lookups draw on third-party maritime and contact-data sources described on our data sources page. For personal data you upload as a customer, our data processing agreement sets out how we act as your processor.

International transfers

We are established in the Netherlands, but our application and database are hosted by Hetzner in Singapore, so your personal data is processed outside the EEA. Several providers above are also outside the EEA, for example Stripe, Google and Anthropic in the United States. For transfers out of the EEA we rely on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, together with supplementary measures such as encryption in transit and at rest; for US providers certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework we may also rely on that framework. Where the PDPA applies to a transfer of data out of Singapore, we take steps so the data continues to receive a comparable standard of protection, in line with the PDPA’s transfer-limitation requirement.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you can request a copy of your data and receive it in a portable format, ask us to correct or delete it, ask us to restrict or object to certain processing, and, where we rely on your consent, such as for analytics, withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting processing already carried out. Under the PDPA you have rights of access and correction, and you may withdraw consent. If you have an account, you can export or delete your data yourself under Settings → Data & account. Anyone can use our data request form, or email contact@vesselhunter.io. We respond within 30 days; if we need to verify your identity first, we will tell you what we need.

Data retention

We keep account data for as long as your account is active; when you delete your account we erase your personal data promptly, retaining only what the law requires (for example invoices, kept for the statutory period). Other personal data is purged automatically once it is no longer needed, as a general rule within about 24 months, including support conversations, audit logs and business enquiries, with shorter periods for sign-in sessions and operational logs. When someone objects to being in our maritime database we keep only a minimal, hashed record of the objection so we can keep honouring it.

Security

Personal data is encrypted in transit and at rest, internal access follows the principle of least privilege, and changes to customer-facing data are recorded in an audit log.

Cookies

We use necessary cookies to keep you signed in, and, with your consent, analytics cookies (Google Analytics 4) to understand how visitors use the platform. You can manage your preferences at any time. See our cookie policy for details.

Complaints

If you believe we are processing your personal data unlawfully, you can lodge a complaint with the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch Data Protection Authority) or, in Singapore, with the Personal Data Protection Commission. We’d appreciate the chance to resolve it with you first.

Contact

Vessel Hunter, Heerle, the Netherlands. Questions about this policy: contact@vesselhunter.io.