Your privacy

What we collect

If you just search

You can search BidDog without an account. We record the text of each search and how many results it returned, so we can improve search. We do not store your IP address with your searches. We also count, per lot and per auction house, how many times a lot page was viewed, how many times someone clicked through to the auctioneer, and how often a house's lots showed up in results. These are daily totals, not a record of who looked at what.

If you create an account

• Your email address, which is how you sign in and how we send alerts. There is no password.
• Your saved searches and alert settings, such as how often you want alerts and whether they are on, plus a record of which lots we already sent you so alerts do not repeat.
• Sign-in records: when you joined, when you last signed in, and your active sessions. We store each session with the browser name your browser reports (its user agent).
• Your searches, linked to your account while you are signed in.

If you contact us or fill out a form

We keep what you send: for example your name, email, and message on the contact form, or the house name, email, website, links, and reason on a removal request. Auction houses that apply to list or claim a page also give us their business details.

If you buy a plan

Payments are handled by Stripe. Stripe collects your card or bank details; BidDog never sees or stores your full card number. We receive and keep a Stripe customer ID, your plan, its status, and its renewal date.

Email records

For each email we send, we log who it went to, what kind of email it was, the subject, and whether it was sent. When you email one of our addresses, we pass the message on to our team inbox and log only which of our addresses received it, the subject, and whether it was passed on. Neither log keeps a copy of the message body.

Cookies

BidDog sets one cookie: a session cookie named bd_session, only when you sign in. It keeps you signed in for up to 30 days or until you sign out. It is strictly necessary for your account to work.

We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking, or third-party analytics scripts. Cloudflare, which hosts BidDog, may set a short-lived security cookie to protect the site from abuse.

How we use it

• To run search and show you matching lots.
• To send the sign-in links, alerts, receipts, and account notices you ask for or need.
• To provide paid plans and handle billing.
• To answer your messages and act on your requests.
• To keep BidDog secure and stop spam and abuse.
• To show auction houses totals for their own lots, such as views and click-throughs. These are counts only. Auction houses never see your name or email.
• To meet our legal obligations.

Who we share it with

We never sell your personal information, and we never share it for targeted advertising. We share it only as follows:

• Cloudflare hosts BidDog. Our database, email delivery, and the AI that helps read your search all run on Cloudflare's network.
• Stripe processes payments for paid plans.
• OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service may receive a place name from a search (like "near Knoxville") so we can find it on a map. We send only the place name, from our servers, never who you are.
• When the law requires it, or when we need to protect the rights, property, or safety of our users, the public, or BidDog.
• If BidDog is sold or merged, your information may move to the new owner, who must keep honoring this policy.

What your browser loads from others

BidDog pages load fonts from Google Fonts, so your browser connects to Google's servers, which can see your IP address. Lot thumbnails may load straight from the auctioneer's or platform's own servers. When you click through to bid, you leave BidDog, and that site's own privacy policy applies.

How long we keep it

We keep your account information for as long as your account is open. Sessions expire after 30 days, and sign-in links expire after 15 minutes and work only once. Search and email logs are kept for running and securing BidDog, and we delete them or strip anything personal from them when we no longer need them. The IP addresses we use to block spam live in short counters that expire on their own, generally within a day.

Your choices

• Alerts: change how often they come or turn them off in your alert settings, or use the unsubscribe link in any alert.
• Access, correction, or deletion: email hello@biddog.co from the address on your account and ask for a copy of your information, a correction, or deletion of your account. We will confirm the request comes from you, then do it.
• Browser signals: we do not sell or share personal information for advertising, so everyone already gets what a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal asks for.

Depending on where you live, you may have more rights under local law. We honor these requests for everyone, wherever you live.

Security

BidDog runs only over HTTPS. Sign-in links are single use and short lived, sessions are checked on our servers, and card details stay with Stripe. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will tell you if a breach affects you, as the law requires.

Children

BidDog is not meant for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you think a child has given us information, email hello@biddog.co and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the effective date at the top. For important changes, we will email account holders or post a notice on the site before the changes take effect.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hello@biddog.co or use our contact form.