Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

HeyMariner collects information necessary to provide our maritime intelligence and vessel tracking services. The categories of data we collect include:

• Account information: name, email address, company or vessel affiliation, and password credentials when you register for an account.
• Vessel and fleet data: MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity) numbers, IMO numbers, vessel names, flag states, vessel types, and gross tonnage that you associate with your account or search for on the platform.
• AIS positional data: Automatic Identification System (AIS) data including vessel positions, headings, speeds over ground, courses, navigational status, and port call history that you query or store within the platform.
• Search and usage data: records of vessel searches, route queries, port lookups, weather overlay interactions, and other actions you take within the HeyMariner interface.
• Technical data: IP address, browser type and version, device identifiers, operating system, referring URLs, and session timestamps collected automatically when you access the platform.
• Communications: messages, support requests, or feedback you send to us directly.

We do not collect sensitive personal data such as financial payment card details directly — payment processing is handled by our third-party payment processor. We also do not knowingly collect personal data from individuals under 18 years of age.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Service delivery: to operate and maintain the HeyMariner platform, including serving vessel position data, AIS track histories, port congestion analytics, and weather overlays relevant to the routes or fleets you monitor.
• Account management: to create and administer your account, authenticate your identity, and manage your subscription tier and permissions.
• Personalisation: to remember your saved vessels, preferred map views, alert configurations, and dashboard layouts so your experience is consistent across sessions.
• Platform improvement: to analyse aggregate usage patterns — such as which vessel types are most frequently tracked or which port pairs generate the most route queries — and use these insights to develop new features and improve existing ones.
• Security and fraud prevention: to detect and investigate suspicious activity, unauthorised access attempts, or misuse of the platform, including any attempts to inject false AIS positional reports.
• Communications: to send you service notifications, product updates, and, where you have opted in, marketing emails about new HeyMariner features relevant to maritime operations.
• Legal compliance: to satisfy our obligations under applicable data protection legislation, respond to lawful requests from regulatory or law enforcement authorities, and enforce our Terms of Service.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties, and we do not use your individual vessel tracking queries to build advertising profiles.

Cookies

HeyMariner uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to operate the platform and understand how it is used. Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit our site.

We use essential cookies that are strictly necessary for the platform to function — for example, to maintain your authenticated session so you are not required to log in again on each page, and to store your cookie consent preferences. These cookies cannot be disabled without significantly impairing platform functionality.

We also use analytics cookies (via Google Analytics) to understand aggregate patterns such as which pages are most visited, how long users spend interacting with the vessel tracking map, and from which geographic regions our users access the platform. This data is anonymised and used solely to improve the service.

You can control non-essential cookies through our cookie preference centre or through your browser settings. For full details on the specific cookies we use, their durations, and how to manage them, please see our Cookie Policy.

Third-Party Services

To deliver the HeyMariner platform we rely on a number of trusted third-party service providers. These providers process data on our behalf and are contractually bound to handle it only as instructed and in accordance with applicable data protection law.

• AIS data providers: we licence terrestrial and satellite AIS data feeds from commercial maritime data aggregators. These feeds supply the raw positional data — including MMSI-linked position reports — that powers our vessel tracking features. We do not share your account information with these providers.
• Cloud infrastructure: our platform is hosted on managed cloud infrastructure. Server logs, databases, and file storage may reside in data centres within the United Kingdom and European Economic Area.
• Analytics: Google Analytics processes anonymised usage data to help us understand platform performance. Google's data processing terms and privacy policy apply to this processing.
• Payment processing: subscription payments are handled by a PCI-DSS compliant third-party processor. We do not store full payment card details on our systems.
• Email delivery: transactional and marketing emails are sent via a third-party email service provider.

We do not share your personally identifiable information with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by applicable law.

• Account data: retained for the duration of your account and for up to 24 months following account closure, to allow for reactivation requests and to comply with our legal obligations.
• AIS query history and saved vessel lists: retained while your account is active. Following account closure, this data is deleted within 90 days.
• Server and access logs: retained for up to 12 months for security monitoring and debugging purposes.
• Support correspondence: retained for up to 3 years to maintain a record of communications and to assist with follow-up queries.
• Billing records: retained for 7 years in accordance with statutory accounting requirements.

After the applicable retention period, data is securely deleted or anonymised so that it can no longer be linked to an individual.

Your Rights

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, you have the following rights in relation to your personal data:

• Right of access: you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: you may ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure: you may request that we delete your personal data where there is no longer a lawful basis for us to retain it.
• Right to restriction: you may ask us to restrict the processing of your data in certain circumstances, such as while we investigate a dispute about its accuracy.
• Right to data portability: where processing is based on your consent or a contract, you may request that we provide your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Right to object: you may object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to the use of your data for direct marketing at any time.
• Right to withdraw consent: where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing that took place prior to withdrawal.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below. We will respond within one calendar month. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

Contact Us

HeyMariner acts as the data controller for personal data processed through this platform. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your data protection rights, or have a concern about how your data has been handled, please contact us:

• Email: privacy@heymariner.com
• Post: HeyMariner, Data Protection Team, United Kingdom

We are committed to resolving privacy concerns promptly and transparently. If you are unsatisfied with our response, you retain the right to escalate your complaint to the relevant supervisory authority.