Privacy policy

Estate Sale Zone helps you find estate, garage, yard and moving sales in San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles. You can browse every sale without an account. This page explains what we collect when you use the site, why, and who else sees it.

What we collect

If you just browse: we don't ask who you are. Like any website, our servers receive your IP address, browser details and the pages you request, and our hosting provider keeps these in short-lived logs for running and securing the site.

If you use your location: your browser asks your permission first. Your position is rounded to about 100 metres and used to show nearby sales. We don't store it, unless you save a search, in which case we keep the search's centre point. Searching by ZIP code works the same way.

If you create an account: your name, email address and a password (stored only as a secure hash, never readable by us). If you sign in with Google, Google tells us your name, email address and profile picture; we never see your Google password. We also keep the sales you save, the searches you save, your wishlist, your settings (text size, your usual filters, and whether you want reminder emails), and your sign-in sessions.

If you post a sale: the details you enter, including the address, dates, description and photos, and your phone number if you add one. All of these are shown publicly on your listing, because that's how shoppers find and contact your sale.

If you report a listing: the reason and any note you add.

If you check a photo (“What is it worth?”): the photo is sent to our image-recognition provider to answer and isn't kept. We record that a check happened, for the daily limit: against your account, or for guests against a scrambled form of your IP address that can't be turned back into it.

If you join the newsletter: your email address.

If you upgrade to Paid: Stripe takes your payment. Your card details go to Stripe, not to us; we keep your Stripe customer number, your plan's status and when it renews or ends.

How we use it

• To run the site: show sales near you, keep you signed in, and keep your saved sales and searches.
• To bill you for the Paid plan, if you choose it.
• To email you when new sales match a saved search or your wishlist, remind you the day before a sale you saved, and send password reset emails you ask for.
• To send the newsletter, if you signed up for it.
• To keep listings accurate and the site safe, for example by checking reports and stopping abuse.
• To understand, in aggregate, which pages are used, so we can improve them.

We don't sell your personal information, and we don't share it for advertising. There are no ads on Estate Sale Zone.

Services that handle data for us

• Railway hosts the site, its database and uploaded photos.
• Resend delivers our emails (saved-search alerts, wishlist matches, saved-sale reminders and password resets), so it receives your email address and the email's contents.
• MailerLite keeps the newsletter list and sends the newsletter. It only receives the addresses of people who sign up.
• Fathom Analytics counts page views. It uses no cookies and doesn't identify or follow individual visitors.
• Anthropic (Claude) looks at photos you check with “What is it worth?”, to identify the item.
• Stripe processes payments for the Paid plan, so it receives your name, email address and payment details when you upgrade.
• Google handles “Continue with Google” sign-in, if you choose it.
• OpenStreetMap serves the map images, so your browser contacts its servers when you view a map. We also use OpenStreetMap's Nominatim and the US Census Bureau's geocoder to find sales' addresses on the map; we send them sale addresses, not anything about you.

Each of these services handles data under its own privacy policy.

Cookies and browser storage

We use one kind of cookie: the one that keeps you signed in. We have no advertising or tracking cookies, so there's no cookie banner. Your browser also remembers your text size choice for the visit; if you're signed in, it's kept on your account too.

Sales listed from other websites

Most sales on Estate Sale Zone come from estate sale companies' websites and public garage sale listings, credited and linked to their source. Those listings can include the sale's address and the seller's or company's contact details as the original page showed them. If you'd like a listing about you or your property taken down, email hello@estatesalezone.com with a link to it. Companies can also opt out of being listed.

Your choices

• Browse without an account, and without sharing your location.
• Pause or remove saved searches on your saved searches page, or use the “stop emails” link in any alert.
• Turn saved-sale reminders off on your saved sales page, or with the link in any reminder.
• Unsubscribe from the newsletter with the link in any newsletter.
• Ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, or to delete your account and everything tied to it, by emailing hello@estatesalezone.com from the address on your account.

If you live in California, you have these rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act, and we won't treat you differently for using them.

How long we keep it

Account data, saved sales and saved searches stay until you delete them or your account. Posted sales stay on the site after they end, marked as over. Server logs are kept only briefly. If you delete your account, we delete its data within 30 days, except where we must keep something to meet a legal obligation.

Security

Connections to the site are encrypted, passwords are stored only as secure hashes, and access to our systems is limited. No service is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and will tell you if a breach affects it.

Children

Estate Sale Zone isn't meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their information. If you think a child has given us information, email hello@estatesalezone.com and we'll delete it.

Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we'll also tell account holders by email before it takes effect.

Contact

Questions or requests: hello@estatesalezone.com.