Privacy Policy

This policy explains what personal data The Web Cow (“we”, “us”) collects when you use thewebcow.com, why we use it, who we share it with and what rights you have. We are the controller of this data. To ask about your data or use your rights, email hello@thewebcow.com.

What we collect

• Account details: your name, email address, password (stored only as a secure hash), whether you want to buy, sell or both, and your profile photo if you add one.
• Listings: everything you enter about a site you sell, including its address, figures, description and images.
• Messages, offers and reviews you send or receive on The Web Cow.
• Support requests: what you send our support team, including any screenshots. If you use the contact form without logging in, we also keep your name, email address and IP address.
• Security records: the IP address and time of each login attempt, and a log of important actions on your account, such as changes to listings, offers and settings.
• Payment details: when payments are live, they will be handled by Stripe. We will not see or store your full card number.

We count how many times a listing is viewed, but we do not record who viewed it.

Why we use it

• To run the marketplace for you (performing our contract with you): your account, listings, messages, offers, reviews and the emails about them.
• To keep The Web Cow safe (our legitimate interests): limiting login attempts, checking listings, preventing fraud and resolving disputes.
• To meet legal duties, such as keeping records of fees for tax.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use it for advertising.

What other people can see

• Anyone can see your listings, with your first name, profile photo and seller rating. We never show your surname or email address publicly.
• Logged-in members can also see your full profile, including your ratings and the sites you have sold. They may be able to see which sites you have bought.
• Messages and offers are seen only by the buyer and seller in that conversation, and by our admins when needed to keep the site safe.
• Support requests are private between you and our support team. Our support agents can see your name, email address, plan and listings so they can help you.

Who we share it with

We use a small number of service providers, each only for the job described:

• Hosting for our servers and database. We send email from our own mail server.
• ScreenshotOne receives your site’s address when you ask us to take a screenshot of it.
• Anthropic (Claude) receives the public text of your site’s home page when you ask us to draft your listing. We do not send your account details.
• Stripe for payments, and Escrow.com for larger deals, once those features are live.

Some of these providers may process data outside the EEA and UK. Where they do, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses. We may also share data if the law requires it, or to protect our users from fraud.

Cookies

We use only the cookies the site needs to work:

• twc: keeps you logged in and protects forms from misuse. It is set only when you log in or use a form, and lasts up to 30 days.
• theme: remembers whether you chose the dark or light theme, for up to a year.

We do not use advertising or analytics cookies, so we do not ask for cookie consent.

How long we keep it

• Your account data is kept while your account is open.
• Login records are deleted after 90 days.
• Support requests are kept while your account is open. Requests from the contact form are deleted 2 years after they close, and the IP address we store with them is deleted after 30 days.
• When an account is closed, we delete it. If other people rely on its records, such as a completed sale, reviews or messages, we instead remove your name, email address, password and photo and keep those records without them.
• Records of fees and completed sales are kept for as long as tax law requires.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, or to receive it in a portable format. Email hello@thewebcow.com and we will reply within one month. You can also complain to your data protection authority. In Ireland this is the Data Protection Commission.

Children

The Web Cow is for adults. You must be 18 or over to use it.

Changes to this policy

If we make significant changes, we will tell you by email or on the site before they take effect.