Privacy Policy

Introduction

247bidders.com is owned and operated by 2738785 Ontario Ltd., operating as Bidau House ("247Bidders", "we", or "us"). "You" means whoever is using the site — browsing as a guest or signed in to an account — and anyone who drops goods off at our warehouse for us to sell.

This policy describes what information we collect from you, or that you give us, when you use the site, and what we do with it: how we use it, keep it, protect it, and who we disclose it to. Please read it. If you don't agree with it, don't use the site.

We may change this policy from time to time. If we do, we'll email registered users and update the date at the top of this page. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept the updated policy.

What we collect

• Account details: your name, email address, and a hashed password (we can't see the password itself).
• Billing address and phone number: asked for at sign-up and printed on your invoices. We use your phone number only to reach you about an invoice or pickup.
• That you confirmed your age: the date you ticked the box at sign-up saying you meet the minimum age and accept the terms. We record that you confirmed it, and when — we don't ask for your date of birth and don't want it.
• Your email preference: whether you ticked the optional box at sign-up asking for promotional emails, and when. We keep that date as the record of your consent.
• Auction activity: your bids (including your private maximum bid), listings, invoices, ratings, and reports.
• Referrals: if you sign up through someone's referral link, we record which account referred you and when, so both of you can get the reward described in the Terms of Use. The referrer can see how many people they referred, not who.
• Technical basics: standard server logs (IP address, time, page) used for security and debugging.

We don't collect payment card details. Payment happens in person at pickup by Interac e-Transfer, cash or credit card; a card is read by our payment terminal, and its details go to the card processor, not to us. We don't run third-party advertising or tracking scripts.

If you drop off goods for us to sell

When you bring items to our warehouse to be auctioned, our staff record:

• Your name and phone number, and the Seller ID we give you (like "JD042").
• Your items: photos of each item, a short note, which drop-off it came in with, and when.

We use this to match each item to you, to find you again on your next drop-off, to contact you about your items, and to settle up with you once they sell. Photos of the goods may appear in the public auction listing; your name and phone number never do.

Only our staff and administrators can see your name and phone number. The labels stuck on your items show your Seller ID, not your name or number. We keep these records while we have your goods and afterwards as business and tax records, the same as invoices. The rights below apply to you too: ask us what we hold, or to correct it.

How we use it

• Running the auctions: bids, invoices, pickup coordination.
• Transactional email: verification links, password resets, outbid notices, and win/invoice notices. These aren't marketing — you get them because they're part of using the site.
• Promotional email — upcoming auctions, featured items and offers — only if you opted in when you signed up. Every one has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing stops them without affecting the transactional emails above.
• Keeping the site safe: rate limiting, fraud and abuse review.

We don't sell or rent your personal information. Ever.

Children under 13

This site isn't for children. If you're under 13, don't sign up and don't send us any personal information. We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13 — the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires that, and we apply it wherever you are.

Accounts are adults-only in any case — you have to be 18 or older, and at least the age of majority where you live, to register, bid, or sell (see the Terms of Use). The rule above is a separate, lower floor: it's about a child's personal information reaching us at all, account or no account.

If we learn we've collected information from a child under 13 without a parent's consent, we delete it promptly. If you think a child may have given us information, email us at info@247bidders.com.

Who can see what

• Other users see your bids under a masked Bid ID like "WA****45" — two letters from your name and two digits, with the rest hidden. Your full name, your email address, and the amount of a hidden bid are never shown to anyone.
• Your Bid ID belongs to your account, not to one auction, so it stays the same everywhere you bid. That's deliberate — it lets regular bidders tell each other apart across auctions — but it does mean other bidders can see that the same person is bidding in more than one auction.
• Our staff at the pickup counter see the winning buyer's name and bidder number, to check photo ID before handing an item over. Sellers, including people who dropped goods off with us, never see who bought their items.
• If you arrange shipping for an item, we give the carrier your name, delivery address and phone number so it can be delivered.
• Service providers that process data for us: our email delivery provider (currently Resend) receives your email address to send the emails above; our hosting and database provider (Railway) stores the data; our file storage provider (Cloudflare R2) holds item photos and database backups; and, when we draft a listing description, item photos are sent to Google's Gemini AI service. Data may be processed outside Canada by these providers.

How long we keep it

Account and transaction records are kept while your account is active, and invoices are retained afterwards as business/tax records. If you ask us to delete your account, we remove or anonymize personal details that we aren't legally required to keep.

Your rights

Under PIPEDA you can ask us what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or withdraw consent (which may mean closing your account). Email us and we'll respond within 10 business days. If you're not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Security

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt, reset and verification links are single-use and expire, connections are encrypted in transit, and the database is backed up nightly. No system is perfect — if we learn of a breach that creates a real risk of significant harm, we'll notify affected users and the Privacy Commissioner as PIPEDA requires.

Contact

Privacy questions or requests: info@247bidders.com. We'll respond within 10 business days.