Privacy Policy

1. Platform Operator & Data Controller Identity

CollectorOps is operated by Stefan Klokgieters, based in The Netherlands, who acts as the Data Controller (GDPR Art. 4(7)) for all personal data processed on this platform. For any data protection inquiries or to exercise statutory data subject rights, you can reach the Controller directly via our public Contact & Privacy Desk.

We adhere strictly to a Privacy-by-Design philosophy. This means your private valuation data, portfolio growth analytics, and personal insurance documentation are intentionally siloed, are not indexable by public search engines, are not sold, are not used for advertising, and are processed only by the trusted service providers required to run the product.

CollectorOps is intended for users who are at least 16 years of age. We do not knowingly collect or process personal data from children under 16.

2. Information We Collect

• Identity & Account Data: When registering via Google Authentication or email, we securely store your email, name, and basic account identifiers.
• Portfolio & Asset Data: We host the data you explicitly input to manage your collection. This includes item metadata, purchase cost basis, condition logs, appraisal documents, and structural notes.
• Image & Documentation Assets: We securely store image assets and receipts you upload as part of your permanent asset record for insurance readiness.
• Usage & Technical Metadata: To ensure platform stability and security, our infrastructure processes connection metadata (such as IP addresses) as required by our cloud infrastructure providers.
• Platform Analytics: To constantly improve the collector experience, we use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) to understand traffic patterns and feature usage in aggregate (anonymized/pseudonymized). IP addresses are anonymized by default.
• Push Notification Tokens: If you explicitly opt-in to receive portfolio alerts, we securely store your device-specific notification token (FCM token) in your profile to strictly deliver requested updates.
• Voluntary Reviews & Testimonials: If you voluntarily submit a collector review or feedback prompt, we collect your star rating, optional feedback text, category tags, anonymized display name (formatted to First Name + Last Initial), generalized item count bracket, and publication consent preference. Public testimonials are anonymized by default and never expose your email, exact item counts, or private portfolio valuations.

3. Data Usage & Lawful Bases for Processing

Under European Data Protection Regulations (GDPR Art. 6) and global privacy standards, we process your personal and portfolio data only under valid legal justifications:

• Contractual Necessity (Art. 6(1)(b)): Processing is required to establish your private portfolio account, render interactive pricing widgets, deliver CSV/PDF exports, and manage your asset inventory.
• Legitimate Interests & Security Safeguards (Art. 6(1)(f)): Processing is strictly necessary to maintain security safeguards, prevent abuse and fraud, enforce rate-limits, and maintain system infrastructure stability.
• Explicit Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): Processing relies on your consent when you explicitly trigger AI scans, opt-in to device push notifications, enable optional analytics tracking, submit voluntary public reviews or testimonials (where consentToPublish is granted), or send voluntary inquiries via our contact desk.

4. Trusted Subprocessors & International Data Transfers

To provide dependable cloud infrastructure, we partner with industry-leading service providers who act as data subprocessors:

• Google Cloud / Firebase: Provides authentication (Firebase Auth), database services (Firestore), serverless hosting (Cloud Run), and object storage (Firebase Storage). Data is encrypted in transit (via standard HTTPS/TLS) and at rest within Google Cloud / Firebase managed infrastructure.
• Google AI (Gemini API): Processes image attribute extraction and valuation normalization via commercial API endpoints where prompts, images, and item records are ephemeral, confidential, and are not retained or used by Google to train foundational AI models.
• Google Analytics 4: Measures aggregated platform performance with IP anonymization enabled by default and Google Signals/cross-device advertising tracking strictly disabled. Analytics cookies are processed solely where lawful consent or privacy-friendly aggregation standards apply.

Where data is processed outside the European Economic Area (EEA), transfers are safeguarded under Google Cloud Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

5. Data Retention, Automated Erasure & Anonymization

We retain your data strictly for as long as needed to deliver your portfolio management service, adhering to GDPR data minimization principles:

• Active Account Data: Portfolio items, valuation logs, image uploads, and account preferences remain stored for as long as your account is active.
• Item Deletion: Removing an item from your collection instantly and permanently deletes its record and associated cloud image assets.
• Automated In-App Account Erasure (Instant & Self-Service): You can permanently delete your account and all associated data at any time directly in your Account Settings. This automated pipeline permanently purges:
  • Your profile record, name, and email identifier in Firestore
  • All portfolio items, condition notes, purchase prices, and valuation histories
  • All uploaded high-resolution photos, receipts, and documents in Cloud Storage
  • All submitted reviews, ratings, and testimonials in Firestore
  • All push notification device tokens (FCM tokens) and user preference logs
  • Your authentication identity record in Firebase Auth
• Statistical Telemetry Anonymization (GDPR Recital 26 & Art. 17(3)(d)): System performance and operational event counts (such as total valuations run or items added) are stripped of all personal identifiers (`userId` and email are permanently erased and replaced with an anonymous system marker). These non-personal statistical aggregates are preserved to maintain historical platform analytics and KPI accuracy without retaining any data that can identify a natural person.
• Assisted Deletion Requests: If you are unable to access your account credentials to perform in-app deletion, you may submit a formal erasure request via our Support Desk or public Contact page.

6. Your Rights Under GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

If you reside in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or jurisdictions with equivalent privacy frameworks, you hold the following statutory rights:

• Right of Access (Article 15): You can request a copy of the personal data and portfolio records we process.
• Right to Rectification (Article 16): You can directly update, edit, and correct any piece of information inside your collector dashboard.
• Right to Erasure / "Right to be Forgotten" (Article 17): You can delete individual items directly or request a complete purge of your account records.
• Right to Withdraw Consent (Article 7(3)): You may withdraw your consent for publicly rendered reviews or optional communications at any time. You can withdraw publishing consent for any submitted review directly from your Account Settings with one click, via the in-app Support Desk, or by deleting your account.
• Right to Restriction & Objection (Articles 18 & 21): You may restrict processing or object to optional analytics tracking at any time via cookie consent settings or your browser controls.
• Right to Data Portability (Article 20): You can instantly export your complete collection records, condition notes, photos metadata, and valuation baselines in standardized, machine-readable JSON or CSV spreadsheet formats anytime directly from Account Settings or Reports.
• Right to Lodge a Complaint (Article 77): You retain the legal right to lodge a formal complaint with your local Data Protection Authority (DPA).

7. Privacy Contact Channels & Inquiry Options

To prevent security risks, identity theft, and spam harvesting, CollectorOps does not publish unauthenticated direct email addresses. Instead, we provide two secure channels for privacy inquiries and data requests:

• Authenticated Users: Log into your CollectorOps account and submit a ticket via the in-app Support portal. Authenticated tickets allow immediate verification of your account identity.
• Visitors & External Subjects: Non-logged-in visitors and non-account holders can submit privacy inquiries or data subject requests via our public Contact & Privacy Desk.

All data subject requests receive formal acknowledgment and are processed within the statutory 30-day timeframe.

8. Technical & Organizational Security Measures (GDPR Art. 32)

To protect collection records, appraisal notes, and personal data against unauthorized access, loss, or alteration, CollectorOps maintains an intentional, defense-in-depth security architecture:

• Data Isolation & Identity Scoping: Access to user portfolios, receipts, and valuation histories is governed by database-level security rules enforcing strict user identity matching. Records are private by default; no user can discover or query another user's collection, and private records are never exposed to search engine crawlers.
• Server-Side Secret Isolation: The public web application contains no administrative database keys or third-party service credentials. All privileged operations and external AI processing are routed through secure, authenticated server-side proxy environments with strict rate limiting.
• Automated Security Regression Testing: Security access rules and data isolation boundaries are validated by automated test suites in our continuous integration pipeline before any code is deployed to production.
• Encryption in Transit and at Rest: All web traffic and API communications are encrypted using modern Transport Layer Security (TLS/HTTPS). All persistent database records and uploaded media are encrypted at rest within enterprise cloud infrastructure.
• Data Durability & User Portability: We maintain cloud-managed storage redundancy and provide full, self-service data portability. Users can export their complete collection records in standardized, machine-readable JSON and CSV formats at any time, ensuring continuity with zero vendor lock-in.
• Incident Response & Notification: We maintain a formalized Data Breach Response Procedure ensuring that any suspected security incident is swiftly contained, assessed, and reported in compliance with statutory GDPR Article 33 and 34 obligations (within 72 hours where required).
• Security Assessment Baseline: Platform security relies on automated continuous integration testing gates, strict least-privilege datastore access rules, and the certified security controls of our underlying cloud infrastructure providers.

9. Third-Party Integrations & Affiliates

CollectorOps presents contextual affiliate links (such as protective accessories) tailored to your asset categories. Clicking these links may place a referral cookie on the affiliate provider's domain. CollectorOps never shares your underlying physical portfolio metadata, valuations, or personal identity with affiliate networks.