Privacy Policy
Last updated: 13 October 2026
RefTrail lets you lock photos of things you sell, so a buyer can check that the photos are real, when they were taken and who is selling. This page says what we store about you, who can see it, and how to get it deleted. For anything about your data, email hello@reftrail.app.
What we store
| Your account | Email address, username, and your password as a one-way hash (we cannot read your password). |
|---|---|
| Profile details you add | Phone number, address, city, postal code and country, if you fill them in. They raise your RefTrail level. They are not shown publicly; see below for when they are shared with someone you trade with. |
| Payment details you add | Where a buyer can pay you: PayPal, bank transfer details, Venmo, Zelle or another way, if you fill them in. |
| Accounts you link by typing a handle | Your Instagram, PayPal, eBay and Discord usernames, if you add them. |
| eBay, if you link it | Your eBay user ID and username, and the feedback your eBay account has received: positive, neutral or negative, the comment, whether it came from a buyer or a seller, the item title and the date. Not who left it. We keep a token from eBay, encrypted, to fetch your feedback again once a day, and nothing about your orders, money or address. |
| Facebook, if you sign in with it | Your Facebook user ID for our app, your name, your profile picture address, how many friends you have (a number only, never the list of who they are), and the address of your Facebook profile. We do not store your Facebook password or access token, we cannot post anything, and we read nothing else from your Facebook account. |
| Photos you lock | The photo with its QR code and level badge, a small thumbnail, an unmarked original kept for audits (only you can retrieve it), the time it was locked, and the item name if you give one. |
| Refs | Refs you write and receive: stars, comment, tags, a price range for the trade, and the item it was about. |
| How your links are used | How many times one of your item links was opened. We do not record who opened it. |
| Children | RefTrail is for people aged 13 and over. If we learn that someone under 13 has made an account, we delete it and its data. Parents or guardians can ask us to at hello@reftrail.app. |
| Visits to reftrail.app | Which page you open, the site that sent you there, whether you use a phone or a computer, and whether you play the intro video or use the sign-up form. No cookies, and your IP address is never stored: a visit is counted with a code that changes every day and can't be traced back to you. Kept for 90 days, then only as daily totals. |
| The beta waitlist | If you sign up for the beta on reftrail.app: your email address, whether you use iPhone or Android, and, if you pick or type one, what you trade. We use it only to invite you to the beta and to tell you when RefTrail launches, and delete it when you ask. |
| Technical logs | Our servers keep request logs for troubleshooting and security. These can include IP addresses. |
The app uses the camera only when you take a photo to lock. It does not read your contacts or your location.
What other people can see
- Anyone with one of your item links, without the app: the locked photos of that item (the ones you post in your listing, with their ID plate), that it is locked on RefTrail and when, its ID, and the name and price you gave it, if any. Nothing about you: your username, level and refs are only shown in the app.
- Signed-in RefTrail users who open your item: the locked photos of that item and when they were locked, your username, your level, your ref average and count, how many photos you have locked, disputes about your trades that are under review or were upheld, and the month you joined.
- If you signed in with Facebook, those users also see: that you are Facebook verified, your Facebook name, your number of friends, and a link that opens your Facebook profile. That is the purpose of linking it: showing buyers there is a real person behind the listing. Unlink Facebook and this disappears at once.
- If you linked eBay, signed-in users also see: your eBay username, your eBay feedback score and positive share, and the feedback you received on eBay, marked as eBay's.
- Your public profile page (the link and QR on your profile): username, level, refs, and the account handles you chose to link.
- People you trade with: the refs you write about them. When you agree a trade in the chat, your buyer gets your payment details for the method you agreed, and, when it ships, your seller gets your name, shipping address and phone number. You can also share them yourself in a chat.
Your email address is never shown to other users. Your phone number, address and payment details are only ever sent to someone you trade with, as described above, never shown on public pages.
Why we use it
- To run your account and show your locked photos to the buyers you send them to (needed to provide the service you signed up for).
- To work out your RefTrail level from your profile details, linked accounts and confirmed refs.
- Facebook details are used only when you choose to sign in with Facebook, and only for the verification shown above. You can withdraw that at any time by unlinking.
- To keep the service secure and find faults (our legitimate interest).
We do not sell your data, we do not show ads, and we do not use your data to build advertising profiles.
Who else handles it
- Amazon Web Services hosts our servers and database, in the EU (Stockholm, Sweden).
- Meta (Facebook), only if you choose to sign in with Facebook. Their own privacy policy covers what happens on their side.
- eBay, only if you choose to link your eBay account. Their own privacy policy covers what happens on their side.
How long we keep it
As long as your account exists. When you unlink Facebook, Discord, PayPal or eBay, everything we received from it is deleted from your account immediately. The same happens when you delete your eBay account on eBay.
One Facebook, Discord, PayPal or eBay account can only ever be used with one RefTrail account, so the same person can't use it to vouch for several accounts. To check this we keep a scrambled code (a keyed hash) of each linked account's ID, also after you unlink it. The ID itself can't be read back from the code.
When you ask us to delete your account, we delete your data within 30 days, except where the law requires us to keep something. Two things stay for 12 months after the deletion, then they are deleted too: the scrambled codes of the accounts you linked, so they can't be used with a new RefTrail account during that time, and a scrambled code of your email address with the number of upheld disputes and low refs against the account, so deleting an account and signing up again can't wipe them. Neither holds your email address, name or any account ID.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of your data, have it corrected, have it deleted, or object to how it is used. To do any of these, email hello@reftrail.app. If you are in the EU you can also complain to your data protection authority; in Denmark that is Datatilsynet (datatilsynet.dk).
Deleting your data
Step-by-step instructions are on the data deletion page.
Changes
When this policy changes, the new version is published at this address with a new date at the top.