Privacy Policy

BuildTags handles two very different kinds of information:

• Public build data is what you choose to publish on a build page: vehicle details, photos, modifications, performance figures, social links and, if you turn it on, your owner section. Public builds can be seen by anyone and indexed by search engines. Unlisted builds can be seen by anyone who has the link. Private builds are shown only to you (and to the business managing them, if a shop created the build).
• Private account data is everything else: your email address, password, orders, shipping addresses, billing records, private notes, claim credentials and analytics. It is never shown on public pages.

Account

• Email address and password. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and we never see them in plain text.
• Username, display name, and optionally an avatar, bio, location text and website.
• Language and region preferences. At signup we suggest a region from your browser's language setting.

Builds you create

• Vehicle details (year, make, model, nickname, description, location text), performance figures, mileage, build cost (private unless you choose to show it), modifications, part links, affiliate links, social links and BuildTag designs.
• Photos and design assets you upload. Photos are re-encoded on our servers, which removes embedded EXIF data such as GPS coordinates.

People who scan or visit a build

• For each BuildTag scan we record the time, the vehicle, the country reported by our hosting provider's network, a coarse device type (phone, tablet, desktop or other) and the hostname of the referring site. We read the browser's user agent only to filter out bots and work out the device type; we do not store it. We do not store IP addresses in scan records.
• When someone opens a part or social link from a build, we record which link was opened and when, without identifying the visitor.
• Likes and reports use an anonymous key made from a random first-party cookie and a shortened (truncated) network address, combined with a secret key so it cannot be reversed. Reports also store the reason and any description the reporter writes.

Orders and payments

• Shipping name, company, address and phone number, order email, notes, the approved artwork and production files, order status and tracking details. We prefill your next order with the address from your last one.
• Payments are processed by Stripe on its own hosted checkout page. We never receive or store your full card number. We keep references to the Stripe checkout session, payment and subscription so we can match payments to orders and plans. For subscriptions, Stripe may collect your billing address.
• Stripe Tax calculates sales tax from your shipping address (or billing address for a subscription) where we are required to collect it. We keep the tax amount with the order.

Orders without an account

• You can order a BuildTag without creating an account. We then keep the order the same way as any other order (email, shipping details, artwork, payment references), together with a private order link. We store only a one-way hash of that link, and the link itself is in your confirmation email and in a cookie in your browser. If you later sign up with the same confirmed email address, those orders are added to your account. We note the last time the order page was opened.

Businesses and shop-created builds

• Business details a business enters, such as name, type, logo, description, website, email, phone, address and social links, plus team membership and roles.
• When a shop creates a build for a customer, the shop may record the customer's name, email, phone number and private notes, and send a claim invitation to that email. These customer records are visible only to that business's staff and our administrators, and they remain with the business's records after the customer claims the build. The business only sees whether its build was claimed, not the account that claimed it.
• Claim links and codes are stored only as one-way hashes, together with their expiry and the email they were sent to. We keep an audit log of claim events.
• Business inquiry form submissions: name, business name, email, phone, website, business details and message, plus an anonymous network key used to limit spam.

Merch reservations and email updates

• When you reserve a shirt we record the design, size and quantity, the email address you enter and, if you are signed in, your account. A reservation is not an order: we take no payment details and nothing is charged. We also keep an anonymous network key to limit spam.
• If you tick the box or use the sign-up form, we add your email address to our updates list for news and new merch drops. We record whether you are subscribed, when and where you signed up, and when you unsubscribed. Signing up is optional and is never required to reserve.
• Each address on file gets a private link for managing these choices. Anyone who has the link can change them, so treat it like the email it came in.

Consent records

• When you accept these policies, approve custom artwork, confirm business authorization or confirm a vehicle claim, we record what you accepted, the version, the time, the context and your browser's user agent string. We do not store your IP address with these records.
• For orders placed without an account, we record against the order what you approved or agreed to at checkout (for example the artwork approval and the policy versions shown beside it), with the time. We do not store your IP address or browser details for this record.

Messages

• Emails you send us and our replies.

Logs kept by our providers

• Our hosting and database providers process IP addresses and request details in their own security and operational logs, as all web services do. We do not copy IP addresses into our own application tables.

• to run your account, build pages, BuildTags, Crews and Business features;
• to produce, ship and support your orders, and to manage subscriptions and billing;
• to show owners and businesses analytics about their builds;
• to handle claims, transfers and attribution;
• to send transactional emails about your account, orders, claims and security;
• to plan how many shirts to make, and to email you once when a shirt you reserved is ready to order;
• to send news and new-drop emails, only if you signed up for them, and only until you unsubscribe;
• to prevent fraud, spam and abuse, and to keep the service secure;
• to respond to you, and to meet legal, tax and accounting obligations.

• Everything on a public or unlisted build page, including photos and the parts list. Build cost and part prices stay private unless you show them.
• Your username on your builds. Your display name, avatar, bio, location text, website and profile socials only if you turn on the owner section.
• On a Crew page: members' usernames, display names and avatars.
• On a business page: the details the business chose to publish, which can include its email, phone number and city.
• Whether an owner has a Pro plan (a Pro badge), and total scan counts on leaderboards.

Photos, avatars and design assets are stored in file storage that serves images by direct link, so pages load fast. A photo on a private build is not listed or shown anywhere public, but anyone who has its exact file address could open it. Do not upload photos you would not want seen by someone who has the link, such as photos showing a home address or license plate.

We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for targeted advertising. We share it only with:

• Service providers that process it for us: Supabase (database, sign-in and file storage), Vercel (hosting), Stripe (payments, subscriptions and sales tax calculation), Resend (email delivery) and Google (the mailbox where support emails arrive, and website analytics when analytics is switched on, as described under Cookies).
• Production and shipping partners, who receive the artwork and the ship-to name, address and phone number needed to make and deliver your order, and shipping carriers.
• Businesses you deal with through BuildTags, as described above for shop-created builds and business orders.
• Authorities or others when the law requires it, or when needed to protect people, prevent fraud or enforce our Terms.
• A successor if BuildTags is reorganized (for example moved into a new legal entity) or sold, in which case this policy continues to protect your information.

We do not use advertising cookies. We use:

• sign-in session cookies from our authentication provider, needed to keep you signed in;
• an anonymous visitor cookie, set when you scan a BuildTag or like or report a build, used to count scans and likes fairly (one person scanning the same tag over and over counts once) and to prevent abuse;
• a short-lived sign-in helper cookie when you open a private claim or transfer link without being signed in, so you come back to it after signing in. It is removed when the claim is done and expires after two hours;
• a language preference cookie, and for business users a cookie remembering which business is active;
• a shop cart cookie (14 days) that remembers the BuildTag design, size and quantity you picked, a cookie (90 days) that remembers your recent orders placed without an account so the Orders page can show them, and a 15 minute cookie that stops a double click from placing the same order twice;
• browser storage remembering whether you dismissed the "install app" prompt, and an offline cache of static files for the app.

A full list, with how long each one lasts, is in our Cookie Policy.

Google Analytics. When analytics is switched on for the site, we use Google Analytics to understand which pages people visit and where they drop off. It is off by default for cookies: until you choose "OK" on the analytics notice, Google Analytics sets no cookie and receives only cookieless, IP-anonymized page signals. If you choose "OK", it sets first-party analytics cookies. We do not use it for advertising, and it is switched off entirely on private pages such as claim, transfer, order and unsubscribe links. You can change your mind by clearing this site's data in your browser. Google processes this data as described in its own privacy policy.

Affiliate and product links take you to other websites, which may set their own cookies under their own policies. BuildTags does not add tracking parameters or cookies to those links.

We keep account and build information while your account is active. When you delete a vehicle, its photos and records are deleted. If you delete your account, we delete your profile, the builds you created and their photos, saved designs, social links, memberships and consent records, and records tied to your confirmed email address such as an email updates subscription, merch reservations and business inquiries.

Some things stay after an account is deleted. Records of paid orders (name, shipping address, email, items, amounts and payment references) are kept, no longer linked to your account, for the tax and accounting records we need, for up to seven years, and are then anonymised. The print production record and proof image for an order are kept with it. A BuildTag's permanent address and its activation and transfer history stay, so that a printed code is never reused for something else. Our providers also keep their own copies under their own terms, for example Stripe payment records and backups.

We delete some data automatically on a schedule: expired claim and transfer links, the anonymous network keys used to throttle forms, unpaid or cancelled orders placed without an account (after 90 days), and scan attempts that were not counted as scans, such as bots, repeats and unknown codes (after 90 days).

Counted scan and click records are kept to provide ongoing analytics for as long as the build exists. Merch reservations are kept until the shirt has been offered to you, or until you ask us to remove them, whichever comes first. If you unsubscribe from email updates we keep your address marked as unsubscribed, so that we never add it back by mistake. Support emails are kept for as long as we need them to help you and to keep our records. Business customer records stay with the business's records until the business or we delete them.

You can edit or delete your builds, photos and profile at any time from your dashboard, and change a build's visibility. You can delete your account yourself under Profile → Delete account, unless something must be finished first, such as an order in progress, an active Pro subscription, or being the only owner of a business. You can download a copy of your account data from your profile page (Download my data); it is a JSON file with your profile, builds, orders, consent records and related records, and it leaves out other people's data and our internal notes.

You can ask us to access, correct, export or delete your personal information by emailing customersupport@buildtags.app. This is how to do it if you have no account, for example if you ordered as a guest, subscribed to updates or sent a business inquiry. We may need to confirm it is you before acting on a request.

Email updates and reservations. Every news or drop email has a link that unsubscribes you in one step, and you can also unsubscribe at any time on our email updates page. The same link in our emails lets you remove your shirt reservations. We do not sell your email address, and we do not share it with advertisers. Unsubscribing from updates does not stop emails about your account or orders.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local privacy law, such as the right to know what we hold, to object to certain uses, or to appeal a decision about your request. We will honor those rights as the law requires and will not treat you differently for using them.

If a shop recorded your details as its customer, you can also contact that shop directly. We will help route requests about those records. The business is responsible for how it uses its customers' details, as set out in the Shop & Dealer Terms.

We use access controls that limit each account to its own data, keep passwords with our authentication provider, store claim credentials only as hashes, and use encrypted connections. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security. If we learn of a breach that affects you, we will notify you as required by law.

BuildTags is not directed to children. You must be at least 16 to create an account. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

BuildTags is operated from the United States, and our providers process information in the United States. If you use BuildTags from elsewhere, your information will be transferred to and processed in the United States.

We will update this policy when our practices change and show the new effective date above. For material changes we will give notice, for example on the site, by email or when you next sign in, and ask for consent again where the law requires. See also our Terms of Service.