Privacy Policy

Barter Queen is a local barter platform where members swap, share and pass on items without money changing hands. In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean the operator of Barter Queen, who is the controller of your personal information.

• Operator legal name: [To be confirmed: legal name of the company or person running Barter Queen]
• Company registration number: [To be confirmed: if a registered company]
• Registered or contact address: [To be confirmed: address]
• Privacy contact email: [To be confirmed: email address]
• ICO registration number: [To be confirmed: Information Commissioner's Office registration]

Until these details are confirmed, you can contact us about privacy using the in-app Contact us form.

When you sign up:

• Full name — kept on your account record. Private.
• Username — your public name on Barter Queen.
• Date of birth — to check you are 18 or over. Private.
• Address — kept on your account record. Private.
• Postcode — to work out distances to nearby barters. Private and never shown.
• Second postcode (optional) — a second area to browse from. Private.
• Email address — to verify your account, sign you in and reset your password. Private.
• Password — stored in scrambled (hashed) form; we cannot read it.

When you use Barter Queen:

• Profile bio and profile photo (both optional).
• Barters you post — title, description, category, barter type and photos.
• Private chats with other members about a barter.
• Comments you post on barters.
• Saved searches and barters you watch.
• Blocks you make and reports you send.
• Contact us messages you send to our team.

We use this information to run your account, show you local barters, let members talk to each other, keep the platform safe, investigate reports, enforce our Terms and meet legal obligations.

Barter Queen is for signed-in members only. Other members can see:

• your username, profile photo and bio;
• your barters, including photos and descriptions;
• how far away a barter is, in approximate miles — never your address or postcode;
• comments you post on barters.

Other members cannot see your full name, email, date of birth, address, postcodes, password, saved searches, watched barters, reports or Contact us messages. Private chats can be read only by the two members in that chat, and by our staff when needed to investigate a report or keep people safe.

Phone photos often contain hidden details, such as the GPS location where the photo was taken and the camera model. Before any barter photo or profile photo is uploaded, the app removes this hidden information on your device and saves a clean copy. Barter photos are also resized to a maximum of 2048 pixels on the longest side.

This applies to photos uploaded from 27/10/26. Photos uploaded before that date may still contain hidden details; you can remove them by deleting and re-adding the photo or deleting the barter.

Photos are stored privately. They are shown to signed-in members using links that expire after a short time.

• Lovable Cloud — hosts the website, our database, sign-in and photo storage. Your account information, barters, chats and photos are stored here. Server location: [To be confirmed: country or region where the data is stored, and the data processing agreement in place].
• postcodes.io — a public postcode lookup service. We send only a postcode (no name or account details) to turn it into map coordinates so we can work out distances.
• Text fonts — the fonts used on the site are served from our own website, so your device's internet (IP) address is not sent to Google when you open the site.
• Email — account emails (verification, password reset and similar) are sent from notify.barterqueen.co.uk.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use advertising, analytics or tracking services, and we do not use your data for AI.

You must verify your email address before you can use your account. Passwords are stored in hashed form, and repeated failed sign-in attempts are limited. Access to data is controlled by database security rules so members can only reach what they are allowed to see. Staff access is limited to people we have given a staff role.

Notifications about chats, messages, comments, saved-search matches and renewal reminders appear inside the app. We do not send marketing emails.

No system is completely secure, but we work to protect your information and will act on any security problem we find.

We use only storage that is needed for the site to work. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

• Sign-in storage on your device keeps you logged in.
• A small note in your browser's session storage remembers that you are using the app so the menu is shown on information pages.
• If you choose a profile photo while signing up, it is held in that browser until you first log in, then uploaded and removed. If you do not log in within 14 days, it is discarded.

You can delete your account at any time from the Me page using "Delete my account". You must enter your current password and confirm. If anything goes wrong, nothing is deleted and you are told.

We delete straight away:

• your login, profile details, and profile photo;
• all barter photos you uploaded;
• barters that had no chats;
• your comments, saved searches, watched barters, notifications, blocks and Contact us messages.

We keep, and why:

• Private chats, and barters that had chats or a completed swap — kept so the other member still has a record of what was agreed. Your name is replaced with "Former member", and the barter is taken down with its photos and description removed.
• Reports made by or about you — kept for 12 months so staff can deal with safety concerns, then deleted automatically.
• If your account was banned, your email address — kept for 2 years to stop banned members re-joining, then deleted automatically.

These kept safety records can be seen only by staff.

We keep your account information while your account is open. Barters stay live for 30 days unless you renew them. Other information is kept until you delete it or delete your account, apart from the safety records described above.

Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018) you have the right to:

• ask for a copy of your personal information;
• correct information that is wrong (most details can be changed on the Me page);
• have your information deleted (you can do this yourself from the Me page);
• ask us to limit or stop using your information in some cases;
• ask for your information in a portable format;
• complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

To use any of these rights, contact us using the Contact us form. We may need to check it's you before we act.

We may update this policy as Barter Queen changes. When we do, we will change the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.