Privacy
What we collect, who sees it, and why. We collect as little as we can and show even less.
What anyone can see
Your public profile shows only:
- your first name and last initial (for example "Maria G.") and your photo, if you add one;
- your general area, as the nearest town ("near Aurora, CO"). Never your ZIP code, address or exact location;
- your bio, the month you joined, your trust badges, your completed trade count and your reviews;
- your active offers and wants.
What the people you trade with see
Once a trade is scheduled (after the meet plan is agreed), the other people in that trade can see the phone number or email you chose to share. By default that's your phone number only. You can change this in your settings. The meet plan's address is visible only to the people in the trade and to your buddy.
What we collect
- Account details: name, email, password (stored scrambled; we can't read it), ZIP code, and optionally a phone number, photo and bio.
- What you do on TradeMe: listings, matches, trades, messages, meet plans, check-ins, reviews, reports and blocks.
- Safety details: buddy names and contact details you give us, safety alerts, and whether an admin has checked your ID (we record that it was checked, not a copy of the ID).
- Basic technical data: sign-in times and a scrambled form of your IP address, to stop abuse.
Why we use it
- To match you with nearby neighbours. We turn your ZIP code into an approximate location (the centre of the ZIP area) to measure distances.
- To run the safety checklist, reminders and alerts, and to tell your buddy where you are when you've asked us to.
- To screen listings and messages for contact details, payment requests and banned services.
- To send you emails and texts about your account and trades. We don't send marketing, and we don't sell or rent your data to anyone.
Your MeCentral vault
TradeMe is built on MeCentral. When a trade is agreed, and again when it's completed, we file a copy of the agreement or receipt into your own MeCentral vault, using your email address. MeCentral emails you so you can claim it. The documents are yours: they stay in your vault even if you leave TradeMe. If you choose "Keep a copy of my trades in my MeCentral vault" in settings, we also keep a short summary of your trades and listings there. It never includes other people's addresses, reports or our staff notes. More about MeCentral.
Writing help
When you use "Describe it in your own words" on the listing form, the text you type is sent to an AI service to draft a listing for you. Only that text is sent: not your name, email or location.
Who else gets data
- Services that help us run TradeMe: hosting, email delivery, text messages, MeCentral (for your vault), and the writing helper. They use the data only to provide their service to us.
- The police or other authorities, if the law requires it or if someone's safety is at serious risk.
How long we keep it
We keep your account while it's open. If you close it, we remove your profile and listings from the site straight away. We keep records of completed trades, reports and safety alerts for a period after that, because they protect other members and may be needed to resolve disputes.
Your choices
- Edit your profile, contact sharing and vault settings at any time in your account.
- Block anyone; they disappear from your matches, browsing and messages.
- Close your account from settings once you have no live trades.
- Ask us for a copy of what we hold about you, or to correct it.