Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

AuctionMapper ("we", "our", or "us") is a search tool for eBay listings. This Privacy Policy explains what we record when you use the site, what is stored in your browser, which other companies are involved, and how the rules differ for visitors in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom and Switzerland. You can use AuctionMapper without an account.

2. What We Record When You Use the Site

Our servers keep records of how the site is used. Outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, a record can include:

• Pages you view: the page address, the page you came from, your screen size and the time.
• Searches: the words you search for, the category, filters and sort order you use, how many results came back, and the page you searched from. If a postal code is used, the record notes only that one was used, not the code itself.
• Listings you click through to eBay: the eBay item number, title, price and category, the search it came from, and the page and button you used.
• For each listing click, we also record a broad traffic-source class and whether the device is a phone, tablet or desktop.
• Search features you use, such as sorting a column, expanding a category or turning a filter on, and when search results are shown to you.
• Details your browser sends with every request: your IP address, your browser's user-agent string, and the approximate location our hosting provider works out from the IP address (country, region, city and approximate coordinates).
• A temporary session ID (cleared when you close the tab) and, on your first page, where you arrived from (the referring site and any campaign tags in the link). These are sent with our own site analytics so we can group one visit's searches and clicks together.
• If you send feedback: your rating and message, the email address if you choose to give one, the page you were on and your search there, technical details about your screen and browser, and your IP address and approximate location (in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, shortened and without a city).

We use these records to run and improve the site, to see which pages and features are useful, to detect bots and abuse, and to match clicks to eBay Partner Network commissions (see section 6). To block abuse we also use your full IP address briefly, for example to limit how often requests can be made; those counters expire on their own within two hours.

3. Visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland

If you visit from a country in the European Economic Area, from the United Kingdom or from Switzerland, or if our hosting provider cannot tell where you are visiting from, the site works differently:

• Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Ahrefs Web Analytics are not loaded.
• Nothing is stored in your browser for analytics, attribution, history or speed: no session ID, no visit ID, no search history, no Recently Viewed list, no saved hunts or watched searches, and no category cache. Only the items listed for every visitor in section 4 are kept. Anything of that kind left from an earlier visit is removed when you load a page.
• Your page views, searches and clicks are still recorded, but without a session ID. The record keeps your country and a shortened IP address (the last part removed), and no region, city or coordinates.
• The search page does not ask a third-party service for your location; it uses only your country.
• Sentry error reports are still sent when something breaks, but Sentry session replay is off.
• No partner referral cookie is set.
• These records are deleted after 14 months (section 9). Your rights, and the legal basis we rely on, are in sections 8 and 10.

4. Cookies and Browser Storage

For every visitor

• am_geo cookie (24 hours): your two-letter country code, as seen by our hosting provider (not set when it cannot tell where you are visiting from). It picks the eBay site to search and decides which rules on this page apply. It contains nothing else.
• Your settings: light or dark theme; the eBay site and country to search (set from your location or from a link you opened, until you choose one yourself); the postal code and search distance used for shipping estimates and distance sorting; and, for the current tab only, whether you closed a banner or the feedback button.
• If you sign in to hunt monitoring, a login cookie that keeps you signed in.

Outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, also

• In this tab's session storage (cleared when you close the tab): the temporary session ID, the first page of your visit and how you arrived, which page or button sent you into a search, your last search, and, if you use the Category Finder, which suggested category you picked and how.
• Your search history and your Recently Viewed listings, kept in your browser so the site can show them back to you.
• A copy of eBay's category list, cached in your browser so the category tree loads faster.
• Hunts you save in the Hunt Builder.
• If you send feedback, a random ID that links your feedback messages together.
• If you arrive through a partner's link, a partner cookie (am_ref, 24 hours) so your eBay clicks are credited to that partner.
• On a first visit, the search page may ask ipapi.co for your approximate location and save your country and postal code in your browser, so eBay's shipping estimates are accurate.
• Cookies and storage set by Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Sentry session replay (see section 5). Ahrefs Web Analytics, which also loads only outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, stores nothing in your browser.

Anonymous visit ID (United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand only)

If you visit from the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, your browser stores one random, anonymous ID. We use it only to count returning visits and to understand how returning visitors use the site's search: their searches, filters and listing clicks. It contains no personal information, and it is never shared or sold. You can remove it at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser. It is not set for visitors anywhere else. Searches you choose to watch with "Watch this search" are also saved in your browser only in these four countries.

5. Third-Party Services

• eBay: listings come from eBay's official API. Our server sends eBay your search and, where needed, your country and postal code, so eBay can return listings and estimate shipping. When you open a listing you leave AuctionMapper for eBay, where eBay's own privacy notice and cookies apply.
• Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity (outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland only): visit statistics, and usage analytics including session recordings. Each sets its own cookies and receives information about your visit under its own privacy terms.
• Ahrefs Web Analytics (outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland only): counts page views. Its script stores nothing in your browser; it sends the page address and the page you came from to Ahrefs. It is not loaded for visitors in the EEA, the UK or Switzerland.
• Sentry: error and performance monitoring for every visitor. Each page load sends Sentry a short health report (whether an error happened, the site version and your browser). When something breaks, and for a share of page loads, technical details (the error or the page's load timings, the page and your browser) are sent as well. None of this is stored in your browser. Outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Sentry session replay keeps a small session record in your browser's session storage on every visit, and uploads a replay of the visit, with all text masked and images blocked, for a small share of visits and when an error happens.
• Vercel: hosts the site. Every request passes through Vercel, which provides the approximate location described in section 2.
• Supabase and Upstash: the database and cache that hold the records described in sections 2 and 6.
• ipapi.co: the location lookup described in section 4 (outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland only).

6. eBay Affiliate Links

AuctionMapper takes part in the eBay Partner Network. Links to eBay listings are affiliate links: if you buy on eBay after clicking one, we may earn a commission, at no cost to you. Each link carries our campaign ID and a tag describing the search it came from: your search words, a search ID, the category, and the page and button you used. The eBay Partner Network reports qualifying sales to us, through its reporting platform Impact.com, with the sale amount, our commission and that tag. We do not store buyers' names or addresses.

7. Removing What Is Stored in Your Browser

You can remove everything AuctionMapper stores in your browser at any time by clearing this site's cookies and site data in your browser settings. The Recently Viewed list also has a Clear all button, and searches can be removed from your search history one at a time. Session storage is cleared when you close the tab.

8. Legal Basis (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

If you visit from the EEA, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, we process the records described in sections 2 and 3 on the basis of our legitimate interests: operating the site and keeping it secure, improving it and understanding which features help visitors, and matching clicks on eBay listings to the affiliate commissions that fund the site. If you send feedback, we process it on the basis of our legitimate interest in hearing about problems and improving the site and, if you give an email address, in order to reply to you.

We do not use consent-based tracking for these visitors: Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Ahrefs Web Analytics are not loaded for them, and nothing non-essential is stored in their browser.

9. How Long We Keep Records

• Visit and feedback records from the EEA, the UK and Switzerland are deleted automatically once they are more than 14 months old.
• Records from other visitors are kept for as long as they are useful for running and improving the site.
• Copies kept in our cache for counters and recent-activity views expire within 30 days or are replaced by newer activity.
• Our service providers (section 5) keep their own logs under their own terms.

10. Your Rights (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

If you are in the EEA, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, you have the right to ask for access to the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, and to object to how it is used; depending on where you live, you may also ask us to restrict how it is used. To exercise any of these rights, email us at the address in section 16.

Apart from an email address you choose to give with feedback, we store no identifier for these visitors, so we cannot look up visit records by name. To find them, we may need details such as the date, the approximate time and the pages of your visit.

In the EEA you can complain to the data-protection authority in your country, and in the United Kingdom to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). In Switzerland you can report concerns to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

11. International Transfers

The service providers listed in section 5 may process data outside your country, including in the United States. Vercel (hosting) and Sentry (error monitoring) state that they take part in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, its UK Extension and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Supabase's data processing terms include the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, and Upstash's data processing terms commit it to use a recognised transfer mechanism. When you leave AuctionMapper for eBay, eBay's own privacy notice describes the safeguards it uses.

12. Administrator SMS Alerts

Our administrators may opt-in to receive SMS alerts about system health. This is covered in our separate SMS Alert Policy. Regular users are never asked for phone numbers.

13. Data Security

• We use HTTPS encryption for all connections.
• We monitor for unusual traffic patterns and block known scraping tools.

14. Children's Privacy

AuctionMapper is not directed at children under 13.

15. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last Updated" date at the top shows when it was last revised.

16. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or the data it describes, please contact us at: