Your privacy

What we collect

If you just search

You can search BidDog without an account. We record the text of each search and how many results it returned, so we can improve search. We do not store your IP address with your searches. We also count, per lot and per auction company, how many times a lot page was viewed, how many times someone clicked through to the auctioneer, and how often a company's lots showed up in results. These are daily totals, not a record of who looked at what.

If you create an account

• Your email address, which is how you sign in and how we send alerts. There is no password.
• Your saved searches and alert settings, such as how often you want alerts and whether they are on, plus a record of which lots we already sent you so alerts do not repeat.
• Sign-in records: when you joined, when you last signed in, and your active sessions. We store each session with the browser name your browser reports (its user agent).
• Your searches, linked to your account while you are signed in.

If you post a sale or list items

We keep the listing details you enter (such as the title, items, price, dates or hours, address and map pin, shop or booth details, phone, website, and any video link) and the photos you upload. Our AI, which runs on Cloudflare, looks at each photo you upload to write a short title and caption of what is visible, so buyers can find your listing. We only do this for photos sellers upload to BidDog.

If you bid

We keep your bids (the amount, the time, and a salted hash of your IP address), the name and any phone number you give for pickup, and the record of your agreement to the card terms: which version of the wording, when, and a salted hash of your IP address. Stored card data sits with Stripe. We keep the Stripe IDs, the card's brand and last four digits, and its fingerprint, which we use to stop people bidding on their own items and to enforce bans. We also keep records of what you won, whether it was picked up, and any no-shows, disputes, strikes, or bans.

If you sell at auction and set up payouts

Stripe collects your identity and bank details on its own pages. BidDog never sees your bank details. We keep your Stripe account ID and whether payouts are ready.

If you contact us or fill out a form

We keep what you send: for example your name, email, and message on the contact form, or the company name, email, website, links, and reason on a removal request. Auction companies that apply to list or claim a page also give us their business details.

If you send us a video

We keep your name, email, the video link, any listing link and notes, and your permission to post the video, including which version of the permission text you agreed to and when.

Referrals and credit

Each seller gets a referral code. When someone signs up through a referral link, we record who referred whom, the new seller's email, and when they signed up, listed, and earned credit. To stop self-referrals, we also keep a salted hash of the IP address a referred seller signs up from, and of the address a seller last opened their seller dashboard from: a one-way code made from the address and a secret key, which we cannot turn back into the address. We use it only to check whether both sides of a referral came from the same place. We keep a ledger of the BidDog credit each seller earns and why.

If you pay for a listing

Payments are handled by Stripe. Stripe collects your card or bank details; BidDog never sees or stores your full card number. We receive and keep what you paid for, the amount, when you paid, and Stripe's reference for the payment. If you hold a subscription we also keep a Stripe customer ID, its status, and its renewal date. For sellers we also keep the card fingerprint Stripe gives us: a code that shows whether two payments used the same card without revealing the card number. We use it only to stop referral abuse and to stop a seller bidding on their own auction items.

Email records

For each email we send, we log who it went to, what kind of email it was, the subject, and whether it was sent. When you email one of our addresses, we pass the message on to our team inbox and log only which of our addresses received it, the subject, and whether it was passed on. Neither log keeps a copy of the message body.

Cookies

BidDog sets only its own cookies, and only when they are needed:

• bd_session, only when you sign in. It keeps you signed in for up to 30 days or until you sign out. It is strictly necessary for your account to work.
• bd_loc, only when you set your location with the location button. It remembers the place you chose, so results near you show first, for 30 days.
• bd_ref, only when you arrive through a seller's referral link. It remembers that referral code for 30 days, so the seller who sent you can earn credit if you post a sale. It is signed so it cannot be changed.

Your browser also keeps a few settings on your own device, such as hearts you saved before signing in. They stay on your device unless you sign in, when your saved hearts move to your account.

We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking, or third-party analytics scripts. Cloudflare, which hosts BidDog, may set a short-lived security cookie to protect the site from abuse.

How we use it

• To run search and show you matching lots.
• To send the sign-in links, alerts, receipts, and account notices you ask for or need.
• To provide paid listings and handle billing.
• To answer your messages and act on your requests.
• To keep BidDog secure and stop spam and abuse, including referral abuse.
• To run seller rewards and referrals, and, with your permission, to post sales videos you send us.
• To run bidding on Local Pick Up: showing the current bid, closing auctions, telling the winner and the seller, and handling no-shows.
• To show auction companies totals for their own lots, such as views and click-throughs. These are counts only. Auction companies never see your name or email.
• To meet our legal obligations.

Who we share it with

We never sell your personal information, and we never share it for targeted advertising. We share it only as follows:

• Cloudflare hosts BidDog. Our database, photo storage, email delivery, and the AI that helps read your search and describes seller photos all run on Cloudflare's network.
• Stripe processes payments for paid listings. For bidding, it also stores the card you keep on file, makes any no-show charge, and pays sellers their share. When you replace a card, your pickup name and phone go to Stripe with that request and come back to us when the new card is saved.
• The seller of an item you won gets your pickup name, your email, and your phone if you gave one, so you can arrange pickup. Nobody else who uses BidDog can see who bid or who won.
• OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service may receive a place name from a search (like "near Knoxville") so we can find it on a map. We send only the place name, from our servers, never who you are.
• When the law requires it, or when we need to protect the rights, property, or safety of our users, the public, or BidDog.
• If BidDog is sold or merged, your information may move to the new owner, who must keep honoring this policy.

What your browser loads from others

BidDog pages load fonts from Google Fonts, so your browser connects to Google's servers, which can see your IP address. Lot thumbnails may load straight from the auctioneer's or platform's own servers. When you click through to bid, you leave BidDog, and that site's own privacy policy applies.

How long we keep it

We keep your account information for as long as your account is open. Sessions expire after 30 days, and sign-in links expire after 15 minutes and work only once. Search and email logs are kept for running and securing BidDog, and we delete them or strip anything personal from them when we no longer need them. The IP addresses we use to block spam live in short counters that expire on their own, generally within a day. The salted IP hashes used for referrals stay with the referral records, which we keep while the seller accounts involved are open so credit can be reviewed or reversed.

Bidding records outlive an account. Bids, wins, your agreement to the card terms, no-shows, disputes, strikes, and bans are money records, and we need them to answer disputes and chargebacks, meet tax and legal duties, and keep a banned card from bidding. We keep them, with the salted IP hashes and card fingerprints in them, for at least seven years after the last activity on them. A ban stays until it is lifted, and the record of it stays after that.

Your choices

• Alerts: change how often they come or turn them off in your alert settings, or use the unsubscribe link in any alert.
• Access, correction, or deletion: email hello@biddog.co from the address on your account and ask for a copy of your information, a correction, or deletion of your account. We will confirm the request comes from you, then do it. Bidding records stay after an account is deleted, for the reasons and the time in How long we keep it.
• Browser signals: we do not sell or share personal information for advertising, so everyone already gets what a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal asks for.

Depending on where you live, you may have more rights under local law. We honor these requests for everyone, wherever you live.

Security

BidDog runs only over HTTPS. Sign-in links are single use and short lived, sessions are checked on our servers, and card details stay with Stripe. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will tell you if a breach affects you, as the law requires.

Children

BidDog is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you think a child has given us information, email hello@biddog.co and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the effective date at the top. For important changes, we will email account holders or post a notice on the site before the changes take effect.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hello@biddog.co or use our contact form.