Privacy Policy

Effective September 17, 2026

Vessel Star is committed to handling personal information responsibly and transparently. This Policy explains what we collect, why we use it, when we disclose it, how long we retain it, and the choices available when you use the Service. TecSentra Inc. is responsible for personal information under its control in connection with Vessel Star.

1. Information we collect

Depending on how you use Vessel Star, we may collect account and authentication information; contact information; profile and business details; listing content and media; asking prices and actual sold prices; marketplace activity and inquiries; saved items and searches; listing changes, status, publication and moderation history; location and service-area information you provide; device, browser, log, security, fraud-prevention, cookie, and usage information; payment and subscription records where applicable; consent and communication preferences; and communications with us.

We may receive information from other users, identity or authentication providers, affiliates, dealers, brokers, public or licensed sources, service providers, and partners where permitted by law. We may create inferred, aggregated, statistical, or de-identified information from the data we hold.

2. How we use information

We use information to create and secure accounts; publish and manage listings and profiles; connect marketplace participants; provide search, alerts, saved items, location, media, payment, communication, and customer-support features; review applications and listings; verify information; prevent fraud, spam, abuse, and unauthorized access; enforce our rules; operate, troubleshoot, measure, personalize, and improve the Service; comply with law; and protect users, rights, property, and systems.

We also use listing and market information to develop marketplace statistics, price and valuation insights, fraud controls, research, reports, products, and services. Where information is aggregated or properly de-identified so that it is no longer personal information under applicable law, we may retain, use, disclose, and commercialize it for lawful business purposes.

3. AI and automated processing

If you use an AI-assisted or automated feature, we process the information you submit and relevant listing or account context to provide the requested suggestion or function. We may use service providers to process those requests. Do not provide sensitive, confidential, or unnecessary personal information.

AI features are experimental tools for suggestions. Their output may be wrong or incomplete and must be reviewed by the user. We may use interactions, feedback, and properly de-identified usage information to test, secure, evaluate, and improve these features. We will provide additional notice or obtain consent if we propose a materially different use of personal information.

We may use activity, searches, saved items, general location, and stated preferences to personalize search results, recommendations, alerts, or other content. Where this constitutes profiling or uses technology that identifies, locates, or profiles a person, we will provide the notice and activation or deactivation controls required by applicable law.

Vessel Star does not currently make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about users based exclusively on automated processing of personal information. If we introduce such a process, we will provide the notices, explanations, review opportunities, and correction rights required by applicable law.

4. Public listings and marketplace interactions

Information and media you choose to publish may be visible to the public and may be indexed, cached, copied, or shared by others. Public content may include vessel information, photographs, approximate location, seller type, and the contact or inquiry methods you choose to make available. When you contact another user, we disclose the information needed to deliver and manage that interaction.

We may provide public listing information and media to social-media, advertising, communications, analytics, and distribution platforms to publish, promote, syndicate, and measure a listing or the Service. Promotional material may include listing photographs or videos, vessel details, asking price, seller type, general location, and a link to the listing. We do not include non-public seller contact information unless the seller separately chooses or authorizes that disclosure. These platforms process information under their own terms and privacy practices. Posts, shares, reposts, cached copies, comments, and engagement data controlled by other platforms or users may remain available after a listing is removed, expires, is withdrawn, or is marked sold.

After a vessel is marked sold, we may keep its listing publicly available as a historical sold record for as long as it remains reasonably necessary and relevant for marketplace history, research, valuation, fraud prevention, or related legitimate purposes. We may periodically review, remove, restrict, or anonymize archived listings. We will identify the listing as sold, remove or hide the seller’s personal contact information from the public archived listing, and disable its buyer-to-seller inquiry or contact functionality. Copies previously indexed, cached, copied, or shared by others may remain outside our control.

Business directory profiles are also public listings. Business information designated for publication may be displayed and searchable on Vessel Star and indexed by search engines, including the business name, logo, photographs, description, categories, services, service area, operating hours, business location, public business contact information, website and social links, and published credentials. If you use a personal telephone number, email address, or home address as public business contact information, it may become publicly accessible. Provide only information you are authorized to publish.

We may use and disclose public business-profile information and media to publish, distribute, and promote the profile through Vessel Star’s websites, social-media accounts, email communications, advertising, and third-party distribution platforms. Those platforms receive the information included in the publication and process it under their own terms and privacy practices; others may copy, index, cache, or share it. Copies and promotional material already distributed may remain available outside our control after a profile is changed or removed.

Business administrator or applicant names, email addresses, telephone numbers, information used to verify identity or authority, business-registration identifiers supplied for review, and private application notes are used for application review, administration, communication, verification, security, and related purposes described in this Policy. They are not automatically part of the public profile or promotional material. We publish such information only if it is separately designated as public business information or the relevant disclosure is otherwise authorized or required by law. You may request correction, removal, or withdrawal of consent as described in section 12; applicable retention obligations and limits relating to copies already shared still apply.

5. Broker matching, affiliates, and other third parties

If your private listing remains unsold, Vessel Star may contact you to ask whether you would like an introduction to an approved broker. We do not provide your contact information to a broker for this purpose merely because your listing has been active for a certain period or because we sent you an invitation.

If you actively request or accept an introduction, we may disclose your name, contact information, listing details, and relevant preferences to the selected broker so the broker can contact you about the requested potential sale or brokerage service. We record the request or acceptance, including the wording presented, date, listing, information authorized for sharing, and selected recipient. The broker provides its brokerage services independently and its privacy notice and service terms may apply after the introduction.

You may withdraw a pending matching request before disclosure. Withdrawal after an authorized introduction does not reverse information already disclosed. Participating brokers are required, through contractual or other measures appropriate to the relationship, to use disclosed information only for the requested introduction or service; maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards; restrict unauthorized disclosure; comply with applicable privacy and anti-spam laws; notify Vessel Star of a suspected privacy or security incident affecting referred users; and securely delete or anonymize the information when it is no longer reasonably required, subject to applicable law.

You may ask the broker directly to stop contacting you or notify Vessel Star at contact@vesselstar.com. We will promptly transmit your request to the participating broker and may suspend further matching while it is addressed. We cannot retract information already lawfully disclosed or control communications independently sent by the broker, but we may investigate complaints and enforce our broker-participation requirements. We may request information reasonably necessary to assess compliance, investigate complaints or incidents, require corrective action, and suspend or terminate matching privileges for non-compliance.

We may also disclose information to affiliates for internal administration and to provide, secure, analyze, and improve the Service, subject to this Policy and applicable law. If an affiliate wishes to use personal information for its own unrelated marketing, we will obtain any additional consent required.

6. Service providers and business transfers

We disclose information to service providers that host infrastructure, authenticate users, store or process media, provide communications, payments, maps, geocoding, analytics, security, fraud detection, support, document, or AI services, or otherwise operate the Service. They may process information only for the authorized services and subject to appropriate safeguards.

We may disclose information where required by law, legal process, or a valid government request; to investigate fraud, security incidents, abuse, disputes, or violations; or where reasonably necessary to protect people, property, rights, or service integrity. We may also disclose information in connection with a proposed or completed financing, reorganization, merger, acquisition, or sale, subject to confidentiality and lawful-use requirements.

7. International processing

Vessel Star uses service providers in Canada, the United States, and potentially other jurisdictions. Our primary cloud infrastructure is currently hosted in the United States. Information processed outside your province or Canada may be subject to the laws and lawful-access requirements of that jurisdiction. Before communicating personal information outside Quebec or another jurisdiction where an assessment is required, we assess relevant privacy factors, including the sensitivity and purposes of the information, safeguards, recipients, and applicable legal framework. We remain responsible for personal information under our control and use written agreements and contractual, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the information and service.

8. Cookies and similar technologies

We use cookies, local storage, session storage, pixels, logs, and similar technologies for authentication, security, preferences, saved state, measurement, communications, and core functionality. If we introduce third-party behavioural advertising or non-essential tracking, we will update this Policy and provide any notice or consent controls required by law. Blocking stored data may prevent sign-in or other features from working.

9. Consent and communications

We obtain consent where required and otherwise collect, use, or disclose personal information as permitted by law. A seller’s request for a broker introduction must be separate from acceptance of the Terms and from core marketplace communications. We keep records of material consent choices and matching requests, including the wording presented, date, account or listing, selected recipient, information authorized for sharing, and withdrawal.

Transactional, inquiry, account, moderation, and security messages may be necessary to provide the Service. Commercial electronic messages sent by Vessel Star or participating third parties will identify the sender and include a working unsubscribe method where required. You may withdraw consent subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice; withdrawal may limit optional features.

10. Retention, deletion, and anonymization

We retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including providing the Service, administering consent, resolving disputes, enforcing agreements, preventing repeat abuse, maintaining security and audit records, and meeting legal, tax, accounting, and regulatory obligations. Retention periods vary by record type.

After a listing or account is deleted, we may retain listing history, moderation and security records, transaction outcomes, backups, legal records, and information already shared with another user or authorized third party for applicable purposes and retention periods. Where continued identification is not needed, we may delete direct identifiers, aggregate information, or de-identify it for a continuing lawful purpose.

When the purposes for retaining personal information have ended and no law requires its retention, we will destroy it or anonymize it in accordance with applicable law. Information that has been anonymized in accordance with applicable legal requirements may be retained and used for serious and legitimate purposes, including market research and statistics. We will not attempt to re-identify anonymized information.

A sold listing may remain publicly available while it remains reasonably necessary and relevant as a historical record, but its public seller contact details and listing inquiry functionality will be removed or disabled. We may periodically review, remove, restrict, or anonymize archived listings. This public archival period may differ from the periods for which we retain account, consent, security, transaction, legal, backup, or anonymized records.

Deletion of a listing does not require Vessel Star to erase non-personal vessel facts, derived statistics, lawfully anonymized market information, or copies already included in completed reports or analyses. We will not retain identifiable personal information merely because it may be commercially useful if the stated purpose has ended and no lawful basis supports continued retention.

11. Security and breaches

We use administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information, including access controls, authentication, encrypted network connections, and private media or storage controls where appropriate. No system is completely secure. We maintain processes to assess, document, report, and notify about qualifying privacy breaches as required by law.

12. Access, correction, withdrawal, and complaints

You may update certain information through your account. You may also request access to personal information we hold about you, information about its use or disclosure, correction of inaccurate information, withdrawal of consent, or deletion where applicable. We may verify identity and may retain or withhold information where permitted or required by law. We will explain material refusals and available complaint routes.

You may challenge our compliance by contacting our privacy contact. If we do not resolve the concern, you may contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or the applicable provincial privacy regulator.

13. Children

The Service is not intended for persons under 14. Persons under 14 may not create an account, submit personal information, or publish content through the Service. Users must also have legal capacity and have reached the age of majority where they live to list a vessel, represent a business, contact a seller for a commercial purpose, or enter a transaction. Contact us if you believe a person under 14 has provided personal information improperly.

14. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy as the Service, our practices, or legal obligations change. We will post the revised Policy with a new effective date and provide additional notice or obtain renewed consent where a change is material and required by law.

15. Language and accessibility

This Policy is available in English and French. Privacy requests and complaints may be submitted in either language, and Vessel Star will respond in the language used by the requester where reasonably possible. User-generated listing descriptions and user-to-user messages may remain in the language selected by the user.

16. Privacy contact

Direct privacy questions, access or correction requests, consent withdrawals, deletion requests, and complaints to the Vessel Star privacy contact at contact@vesselstar.com.