Privacy Policy
- We collect what you put on your profile, what you post and send, and basic technical data needed to run the site.
- Your name, rank or company and your posts are public. Your email and phone are private: only your connections, employers you allow to unlock them, and our admin can see them.
- We don't sell your data and we don't show third-party ads.
- You can download your data or delete your account at any time from your profile page.
- Questions or complaints:
1. Who we are
SailorSphere is operated by , ("SailorSphere", "we", "us"). We decide why and how your personal data is processed, which makes us the data fiduciary under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) and the controller under the EU and UK GDPR where those apply.
SailorSphere is a professional network and job platform for onboard, offshore and shore-based maritime professionals ("Professionals") and the ship owners, ship managers, offshore operators and manning agencies that hire them ("Employers").
2. Data we collect
Information you give us
- Account: name, email address, password (stored only as a secure one-way hash by our login provider; we never see it), account type, and the date you accepted these terms.
- Professional profile: rank or role, sector, nationality, job status and availability date, vessel and rig types, summary, career journey (vessels, companies, ranks and dates), certificate names and expiry dates, skills, and phone number if you add it.
- Employer profile: company name, recruiter name, country, company description and phone number if you add it.
- Activity: posts, comments, likes, endorsements, connection requests, messages, job posts, job applications and their stages, shortlists and contact unlocks.
- Billing: plan upgrade requests, payment orders and records of payments received (plan, amount, currency, date, and Razorpay's payment reference). Card, UPI and bank details are entered on Razorpay's secure checkout and go directly to Razorpay. We never see or store them.
Please don't upload passport numbers, CDC/seaman's book numbers, medical details or other sensitive identity documents to your profile or messages. SailorSphere doesn't need them.
Information collected automatically
- Technical data our hosting, database and email providers record to run and protect the service, such as IP address, browser type, pages requested and timestamps.
- Delivery data for the emails we send you, such as whether an email was delivered or bounced. We don't track email opens or link clicks.
3. How we use your data
| Purpose | Data used | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Create and secure your account, sign you in, reset your password | Account data, technical data | Your consent at sign-up; performing our contract with you |
| Show your profile and posts to the community, and help Employers find Professionals | Profile and activity data | Consent; contract |
| Deliver messages, connection requests, applications and alerts | Activity data | Contract |
| Manage subscriptions, record payments, keep tax records | Billing data | Contract; legal obligation |
| Prevent fraud, fake profiles and abuse; moderate content; enforce our Terms | All of the above as needed | Legitimate uses permitted by law; legal obligation |
| Send service emails (confirmation, password reset, important changes) | Email address | Contract |
We don't sell personal data, we don't share it with advertisers, and we don't use it for automated decisions that have legal effects on you.
4. Who can see what
- Anyone, including visitors who aren't signed in: your name, rank or company, posts and their like and comment counts, and open job posts.
- Signed-in members: your full profile, including career journey, certificates (names and expiry dates), skills and endorsements, availability and connections count.
- Your email and phone: only you, your accepted connections, Employers who use a paid "unlock" on your profile, and the SailorSphere admin.
- Messages: only the sender and recipient. Our admin tools don't display message content.
- Job applications: you and the Employer who posted the job.
- Talent search: Professionals on the paid Navigator plan are listed in Employers' talent search. Professionals on the free plan are not listed there, though their profile can still be viewed by members.
When you share information with another member (for example in a message or application), that member may keep and use it outside SailorSphere. Their use is their responsibility.
5. Service providers we use
We use trusted providers to run SailorSphere. They process data only on our instructions and under contracts that protect it.
| Provider | What they do | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase Inc. | Database, file storage and secure login | Data stored in Tokyo, Japan (AWS ap-northeast-1) |
| Vercel Inc. | Website hosting and delivery | Global network; company in the USA |
| Resend (Plus Five Five, Inc.) | Sending service emails | Sent from Tokyo, Japan; company in the USA |
| Google LLC (Google Fonts) | Delivering the website's fonts, which shares your IP address with Google | Global; company in the USA |
| Razorpay Software Pvt. Ltd. | Processing card, UPI, net banking and wallet payments. Your card or bank details go directly to Razorpay; we never see or store them. | India |
We may also disclose data where required by law, a court order or a lawful request from authorities, or to protect the rights and safety of our users and the public.
6. Where your data is stored
Your SailorSphere data is stored in Tokyo, Japan, and some of our providers are based in the USA. This means your data is transferred outside your country, including outside India. Indian law permits this transfer except to countries the Government of India restricts; none of the countries we use is restricted. For users in the EU or UK, transfers rely on the providers' Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent safeguards.
7. How long we keep your data
- Active accounts: for as long as your account is open.
- Deleted accounts: when you delete your account, your profile, posts, comments, connections, messages, applications and job posts are removed from our live database straight away. Copies may remain in encrypted backups for up to 30 days before being overwritten.
- Inactive accounts: if you don't sign in for 3 years, we may delete your account. We'll email you at least 48 hours beforehand so you can keep it.
- Payment records: kept without your name for as long as Indian tax and accounting law requires (generally up to 8 years).
- Security logs: kept for at least one year, as Indian law requires.
8. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you have some or all of these rights:
- Access: use Download my data on your profile page to get a copy of your data.
- Correction: edit your profile at any time, or ask us to correct anything you can't edit.
- Erasure: use Delete account on your profile page, or email us.
- Withdraw consent: you can withdraw consent at any time by deleting your account. This doesn't affect processing that already happened.
- Nominate someone: under the DPDP Act you may nominate a person to exercise your rights if you die or become unable to. Email us with their details.
- Complain: contact our Grievance Officer (section 13). If you're not satisfied, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India. Users in the EU or UK can complain to their local data protection authority, and users in Japan to the Personal Information Protection Commission.
- EU/UK users also have the rights to restrict or object to processing and to data portability.
To protect you, we may ask you to confirm your identity, usually by writing from the email address on your account. We'll respond within 30 days, and in any case within the time limits the law sets.
9. Security
We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), hashed passwords, and database-level access rules so each person can only see what they're allowed to see. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your personal data, we'll tell you without undue delay with what happened, the likely impact and what we're doing about it, and we'll notify the Data Protection Board of India and other authorities as the law requires.
10. Browser storage and cookies
We don't use advertising or analytics cookies. Your browser stores a login token so you stay signed in. It's essential to the service and is removed when you sign out. Our hosting provider may set strictly necessary technical cookies for security.
11. Age limit
SailorSphere is for adults working in or hiring for the maritime industry. You must be at least 18 years old to use it. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If we learn we have, we'll delete it.
12. Changes to this policy
We'll post any changes here and update the effective date. If a change is significant, we'll tell you by email or in the portal before it takes effect.
13. Contact and Grievance Officer
For privacy questions, requests or complaints, contact our Grievance Officer as required under India's Information Technology Rules, 2021 and the DPDP Act:
We acknowledge complaints within 24 hours and aim to resolve them within 15 days.