Privacy Policy

This explains what information Merqet collects, why, and what we do (and don't do) with it.

What we collect

• Account info: your name, email address, campus (optional), and profile picture (optional)
• Content you create: listings, photos, offers, chat messages, voice notes, and reviews
• Usage data: basic, non-identifying analytics about how the site is used (via Vercel Analytics), and IP addresses for the purpose of rate-limiting abuse (e.g. preventing spam signups)

We don't collect payment information — Merqet never processes payments, so we never see your card, bank, or payment app details.

How we use it

We use your information to run the marketplace: showing your listings to other users, delivering messages and offers, sending you email notifications (like a new offer or a verification code), calculating your seller rating, and preventing spam and abuse.

What we don't do

We don't sell your data. We don't share it with advertisers. We don't use it for anything beyond operating Merqet.

Who else sees it

We use a small number of service providers to run Merqet, and your data passes through them as part of that:

• Vercel — hosting, and the database that stores your account and listing data
• Resend — sends emails on our behalf (verification codes, notifications)
• Vercel Blob — stores uploaded photos and voice notes
• Vercel Analytics — aggregated, non-identifying usage analytics

Other users can see your name, campus, profile picture, listings, and reviews you've received — that's the nature of a public marketplace. Your email address is never shown to other users.

Cookies

We use a single, secure, httpOnly session cookie to keep you logged in. It doesn't track you across other websites, and we don't use advertising or third-party tracking cookies.

Security

Passwords are hashed (never stored in plain text), all traffic is encrypted over HTTPS, and verification and password-reset codes are hashed and expire after 10 minutes.

Your data, your choices

You can update your name, campus, and profile picture any time from your Profile page. You can permanently delete your account and data any time from the "Delete account" section at the bottom of that page — or contact us if you'd rather we do it for you.

Children's privacy

Merqet isn't intended for children, and we don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 13.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes, we'll update the date at the top of this page.

Questions?

Reach out via the Contact Us page.