Privacy Policy

2.1 Account Information

When you create an account, we collect:

• Name (first and last name)
• Email address
• Profile photograph
• Account role (captain, crew, or both)

2.2 Profile Information

Depending on your role, you may provide:

• Date of birth
• Gender
• Occupation status and job title
• Biography
• Languages spoken
• Additional profile photos
• Other information that you choose to provide

2.3 Boat Information

If you are a captain, you may provide:

• Marina address and location coordinates
• Boat description and amenities
• Boat information (name, type, specifications, photos)
• Passage requirements and responsibilities
• Photos of your boat

2.4 Communication Data

We store messages exchanged between members through our Platform: application messages, conversation threads and direct messages. A message you send stays in the recipient's inbox after you delete your account, shown as written by a "Former Member".

2.5 Usage Information

• Saved searches and filter preferences
• Favourited boats (the captain of a boat can see which members saved it)
• Feature requests and votes
• Reviews and ratings

2.6 Payments

The Platform does not take payments and we do not hold any card or bank details. If that ever changes we will update this policy and name the payment provider before we start.

2.7 Technical Data

We collect basic analytics data through Vercel Analytics, which is privacy-focused and does not use cookies for tracking. It is loaded only after you accept cookies. This may include page views and general usage patterns.

2.8 Private Crew Details (optional)

Crew can add an emergency contact, health answers (allergies, medication and medical conditions), smoking, diet, seasickness and swimming, nationality and visas, and travel insurance. All of it is optional.

• Only the captain of a passage you are confirmed on can see these details. They see them from the moment they accept you until the passage ends.
• They never appear on your public profile or in search. Other captains, applicants and other crew cannot see them, and neither can captains who have only seen your application.
• Health information is shown only if you tick the separate box beside it. It is never copied into an email, a push message, a chat alert or an assistant's answer, and you can remove it at any time.
• Your first name and emergency contact also go in the captain's float plan. If the captain sends it to their shore contact, or the boat is overdue, that person sees them so they can reach your family. Nothing else from these details goes in it.
• You can change or remove any of it at any time. Deleting your account deletes it.

Health answers are special category data. We store them only if you tick a separate, unticked box beside them, which reads: “Health information is sensitive. I agree that GlobalCrewFinder stores what I enter here and shows it only to the captain of a passage I am confirmed on, from the moment they accept me until the passage ends, so they can look after me at sea. It is never sent by email, push message or chat alert, and I can remove it at any time.” We record when you ticked it and which wording you agreed to. Removing your health answers deletes them and that record.

2.9 Identity Verification (optional)

If you choose to verify your identity, our verification partner Didit checks a government-issued ID and a short selfie video on its own systems. We do not receive the document, the selfie or any biometric data. We store:

• Your verification status and when it was completed
• An opaque session reference from Didit
• While a session is in progress, the link to it and when it started
• The first and last name read from your ID

Other members see only an ID verified badge. Read how identity verification works.

2.10 Reports, Blocks and Private Feedback

• Reports: when you report a member, boat or passage, we store the reasons you ticked, the text you wrote and who filed it. Only our team can read reports. The member you report is not told who reported them. We email you a short confirmation that names only the category of your report. We keep a report while we look into it and delete it 24 months after it was closed (see section 7.2).
• Blocks: the list of members you have blocked, with an optional note you can add. Blocking is silent: the other member is not told.
• Private feedback: when you review a member, you can add private reasons and a note that only our team can read.

2.11 Safety at Sea: Float Plans, Shore Contacts and Emergency Contacts

A captain can save a float plan for a passage: the expected arrival, notes, and a shore contact (a name, a phone number and an email address). A crew member can add an emergency contact to their private details. These people are third parties who have not given us their details themselves, so:

• We email a shore contact only after they confirm through a link in a first message. Every email to them says why they received it, who holds their details and how to ask us to delete them, and has a link that says "I do not know this person, stop". A contact who presses it is never emailed by any captain again: we keep a one-way hash of that address, not the address itself, for this purpose.
• The float plan goes to the shore contact only when the captain sends it, or, if the boat is overdue, after the captain has been asked first. It holds the boat, the route, the ETA, the captain's notes, and the first name and emergency contact of the confirmed crew. It holds no health information.
• We only use their details to show them to a captain you are confirmed with and, in a float plan the captain sends or an overdue alert, to the captain's shore contact. They can ask us to delete them at admin@globalcrewfinder.com.
• Crew tick a box to say they have told their emergency contact, and we record the date.

2.12 References

Members can write a short reference about another member, or ask one for a reference. We keep the text, how the two know each other (for example "crewed on their boat"), who wrote it and about whom, and when. A reference someone writes without being asked is shown only after the member it is about has approved it, and they can hide it again at any time. Published references are shown to signed-in members on the profile of the member they are about, with the writer's name and photo. They are not shown to visitors who are not signed in. Our team sees that a reference was written, by whom and about whom, never its text, in our alerts.

4.1 Contract Performance

Processing necessary to provide our services to you, including account creation, matching captains with crew, and facilitating communications.

4.2 Legitimate Interests

Processing for our legitimate business interests, such as improving our Platform, ensuring security, and preventing fraud, where these interests are not overridden by your rights.

4.3 Consent

Where required, we will obtain your explicit consent before processing your data, such as for marketing communications. You may withdraw consent at any time.

4.4 Legal Obligation

Processing necessary to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

5.1 Other Members

Your profile information, boats, and reviews are visible to other members to facilitate the passage matching process. Location is shared in layers:

• Crew are shown by city and country. We never ask for a street address.
• Other members see a boat's position only roughly, to about one kilometre, and its home town.
• The exact position, the home port as the captain typed it, the boat's MMSI and EPIRB hex ID and the boat guide are shown only to the captain, to our team, and to crew confirmed on a passage of that boat. Crew keep that access while the passage is open or confirmed and for 7 days after it ends, then it stops.

5.2 Service Providers

We work with third-party service providers who handle data for us. This is the complete list, and what each one receives:

• Clerk: Sign-in and account management, including bot protection at sign-up (through Cloudflare). What it receives: Your email address, name and sign-in details. Clerk also sets the cookies that keep you signed in.
• Convex: Our database, file storage and the servers that run our code. What it receives: Everything in this policy: your profile, boats, passages, messages, files and settings.
• Vercel: Hosting of the website, and privacy-focused page-view statistics. What it receives: Your IP address and the pages you open, as any web host sees them. Statistics run only after you accept cookies, in every country.
• Resend: Sends our emails: notifications, reminders, float plans and safety messages. What it receives: The recipient's address and first name and the text of the email, which can include the first lines of a message, boat names, routes and dates. Health answers are never put in an email.
• Telegram: A private chat our team reads for alerts: new reports, cancellations, overdue passages and similar. What it receives: Names, boat titles, routes and dates, the category of a report, and for a cancellation the reason category that was picked, never the words that were written.
• ntfy: Push notifications to your phone or browser. What it receives: The notification title and text, which can include a preview of a message, sent to a private topic only you know. Only if you turn push notifications on in Settings.
• LocationIQ: Place and address search, and turning an address into a map position. What it receives: The place text you type into a port or location box, and the address of a boat or profile when it is saved. Visitors who are not signed in are known to us only by a random id.
• OpenAI: The support assistant, reading review screenshots you choose to import, and short highlights of the reviews written about a member. What it receives: Your questions to the assistant, your first name and role and a few counts about your account, the screenshots you upload for import, and the text of reviews. Health answers, emergency contacts and ID details are never sent.
• PostHog: Product analytics and error reports, to see what is broken and what is used. What it receives: Pages visited, features used and failed actions, tied to your account when you are signed in. Error reports carry no message text or personal details. Only after you accept cookies, in every country.
• Meta: The Meta (Facebook) pixel, to measure our own advertising. What it receives: Pages visited and your browser details, as the pixel collects them. Switched off at the moment. If it is switched on, it runs only after you accept cookies, in every country.
• Didit: Identity verification. What it receives: Your ID document and a short selfie video, which you give to Didit directly. Didit acts as a separate data controller for them. We receive the outcome and the name on your ID. Only if you choose to verify. Learn more
• OpenFreeMap and CARTO: The map tiles behind our maps. What it receives: Your IP address and the area of the map you look at, because your browser fetches the tiles.

5.3 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your data if required by law, court order, or governmental authority, or to protect our rights or the safety of our users.

8.1 Right of Access

You have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. "Download My Data" in Settings gives you one at any time: your profile and private details, boats and passages, applications, messages you sent and received, blocks and reports you made, references you wrote and received, cancellations, notifications and your verification record. Reports other members filed about you are not included, because they contain other people's accounts and are kept for the safety of the community.

8.2 Right to Rectification

You have the right to request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.

8.3 Right to Erasure

You have the right to request deletion of your personal data in certain circumstances.

8.4 Right to Restriction

You have the right to request restriction of processing of your personal data.

8.5 Right to Data Portability

You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used format.

8.6 Right to Object

You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes.

8.7 Right to Withdraw Consent

Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time.