ThriftUp — Privacy Policy

Last updated: 4 November 2026

ThriftUp is a second-hand fashion app with two parts. The first is a feed of second-hand clothing from other marketplaces: it learns what you like from the items you save, and lets you search by text or by photo. The second is a campus marketplace, where students sell their own clothes to each other, pay in the app and meet in person to hand the item over. This page explains what data each part involves.

You can browse without an account. The app then knows your device only. You need an account, made with Sign in with Apple, only to make an offer, buy, sell, send messages or use your Wardrobe. When you sign in, you agree to our Terms and to this policy.

Who is responsible for your data

The data controller is Urban Cretnik, KVK number 42197967, Dordtselaan 100C, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

For any privacy question or request: info@thrift-up.com.

What ThriftUp collects

When you use the app, with or without an account

Data	Why
A device identifier — a random value the app generates on first launch. It is not your Apple ID, your phone number, or an advertising identifier. The same value is used by our analytics tool (see below). If you sign in, it is linked to your account.	To recognise your device on return so your saved items and learned preferences persist.
Your onboarding answers — your sizes, whether you chose menswear or womenswear, which style photos you liked or disliked, and the style profile worked out from them.	To show only things that fit you, and a feed that reflects your taste from the first session.
What you do in the feed — items you save, items shown to you, how long each item was on screen, how many of its photos you looked at, and taps through to the original listing.	To rank the feed, to avoid repeating items you have already seen, and to improve the recommendation model.
Your chat searches — the text you type, the filters (garment type, colour, size, price) worked out from it, and any standing rules you set, such as "never show me this brand". The text you type is sent to an AI service, Groq, in the United States, to understand what you are looking for. Please don't put personal details in a search.	To answer the search, and to understand which searches the app handles badly.
Photos you use to search — processed in memory on our server to compute a numerical description, then discarded. Search photos are not stored.	To find visually similar or stylistically matching items.
A push notification token — only if you allow notifications when the app asks. Deleting the app, or turning notifications off in iOS Settings, invalidates it.	To tell you about offers, messages, sales and your orders, and when an item you saved is sold. Never used for marketing.
Feedback you send in the app.	To read it and fix what you tell us about.
Technical data — IP address in standard server logs, device model and operating system version, crash reports, and product usage events (screens opened, actions taken).	To operate the service securely, to find crashes and broken flows, and to understand which features are used.

When you sign in with Apple

Data	Why
Your Apple user ID — a code Apple gives us that is unique to ThriftUp. It is not your Apple ID login.	To recognise your account each time you sign in, on any device.
Your email address — if you choose "Hide My Email", this is a private relay address from Apple that forwards to you.	To send you receipts and to contact you about an order, a report or a dispute.
Your first name, if you share it.	So the person you trade with knows who they are talking to.

We never see your Apple password.

When you buy or sell on campus

Data	Why
Your listings — the photos, brand, size, price and description you add, plus the garment type, colour and section we work out from your photos. Listings and their photos are public: anyone using ThriftUp can see them. We remove location data (EXIF and GPS) from photos before storing them.	To show your item to buyers, and in feeds and search results.
Your seller name — the first name you give when you become a seller.	Buyers see it after they have paid, so they know who to meet.
Your handover spot — the exact place you pick on the map to meet buyers, and its name.	Before paying, buyers see only a rough area. The exact spot is shown to the buyer only after they have paid for your item.
Offers and orders — what was offered and when, the price paid, the fee, the order's status (paid, handed over, accepted, refunded), the handover code scan, cancellations, refunds, seller warnings and payouts.	To run the sale, to release the money at the right moment, to refund when the rules say so, and to keep the records tax law requires.
Messages between buyer and seller.	So you can agree a time to meet, and so we can settle a dispute if something goes wrong.
Reports and blocks — what you report (a listing, a message or a person), the reason you give, and who you have blocked.	To act on the report and to keep blocked people away from you.
Wardrobe photos — photos you add to your Wardrobe, and items you bought.	To show you what you own in one place.
How you use the marketplace — which items you open and from where, how long you look at them, offers you start but do not send (including the amount), Buy taps and payment screens you close, and Sell forms you start but do not finish.	To see where buying and selling get stuck and fix it. These records are never shown to other users.

Payments: Stripe

Payments and seller payouts are handled by Stripe. When you pay with iDEAL, Apple Pay or a card, you enter your payment details into Stripe's own payment screen. When you set up payouts as a seller, Stripe's own page asks for your name, date of birth, address, IBAN and, if needed, an identity check.

ThriftUp never sees your card number, bank login or IBAN. We receive only the status of a payment or payout (for example "paid", "refunded", "payouts ready") and the email address that receipts go to. Stripe processes this data as an independent controller, under its own privacy policy: stripe.com/privacy. Stripe is also required by law to keep some of it, for example for anti-money-laundering checks.

Location

Distance to items — if you allow location, your phone works out how far away a campus item is. Your phone's position for this is used on your phone only and is never sent to us.
Anonymous area counts — if you allow location, the app also tells us which roughly 1 km area it was opened in and whether it was morning, afternoon, evening or night — with no account, device or other identifier, so we can count where ThriftUp is used.
A seller's handover spot — the place a seller chooses on the map is stored, as described above. It is a place you pick, not your phone's GPS position.

Without location permission everything still works; items then show a rough distance.

What ThriftUp does not do

ThriftUp does not collect your phone number, contacts or health data. It shows no advertising, does not use advertising identifiers, does not track you across other apps or websites, and does not sell or share your data with advertisers or data brokers.

Items in the feed from other marketplaces open on the original site. If you buy there, that site handles your order and your payment, under its own terms and privacy policy.

Legal basis

Providing the service you asked for (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)) — the device identifier, your account, your saved items, your onboarding answers, your searches, your listings, offers, orders, messages, handover spot and wardrobe, and the push token you opted into. Without these the features cannot work.
Legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c)) — keeping order records for Dutch tax law, and answering lawful requests from authorities.
Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) — security logging, crash reports, product analytics (no advertising identifiers, no cross-app tracking), the anonymous area counts, handling reports and disputes, and keeping ThriftUp safe from fraud and abuse. You can object at any time by emailing info@thrift-up.com, and we will exclude your device from analytics.
Your choice — location, notifications and photo access are only used if you allow them in iOS. You can turn them off in iOS Settings at any time.

Who else processes your data

ThriftUp uses a small number of service providers. Except for Stripe and Apple, which act as independent controllers for their part, they act on our instructions and may not use your data for their own purposes.

Provider	What they receive	Where
Hetzner Online GmbH — servers, database, photo storage	All data described above, except what only Stripe holds	Germany (EU)
Stripe (Stripe Technology Europe Ltd) — payments and seller payouts, as an independent controller	Your payment details, your email for receipts, and for sellers their name, date of birth, address, IBAN and identity check	Ireland (EU), with transfers under Stripe's own safeguards
Apple Inc. — Sign in with Apple, Apple Pay, push delivery, App Store and TestFlight	Your Apple sign-in, Apple Pay payments, install data, and for TestFlight testers your tester email and feedback, under Apple's own privacy policy	United States / global
Groq, Inc. — understands your chat searches	The text of your chat message, with no account or device identifier	United States
PostHog, Inc. — product analytics	Usage events with the device identifier	United States
Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry) — crash reporting	Crash traces, device model, OS version	Germany (EU)
Expo (650 Industries, Inc.) — delivers push notifications	Your push token and the content of notifications sent to you	United States
Modal Labs, Inc. — runs our image model on listing photos	Listing photos, including photos sellers upload, with no account or contact details	United States
Vast.ai — runs our image model on listing photos	Listing photos, including photos sellers upload, with no account or contact details	Machines in the EU

Transfers outside the EU rely on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, or an equivalent safeguard offered by the provider.

Who else can see your data

Everyone using ThriftUp can see your listings and their photos.
The person you trade with sees your first name, your offers and messages to them, and, once a buyer has paid, the seller's exact handover spot.
No one else. We share data with authorities only when the law requires it.

How long it is kept

Server logs (IP addresses) — deleted after 30 days.
Messages — kept while your account exists, and for up to 6 months after an order closes or an account is deleted. A card payment can be disputed for months after a sale, and the conversation is the evidence. Messages tied to an open report or dispute are kept until it is resolved.
Orders and payment records — kept for 7 years, because Dutch tax law requires it.
Listings — kept while they are live. After a sale or withdrawal, a listing is no longer shown to buyers; its photos and details may stay in the model's data so recommendations keep working.
Everything else — kept while ThriftUp operates and you keep using the app, because the recommendation model learns from your history. We review stored data at least yearly and delete or anonymise what the service no longer needs.
On request — sooner, whenever you ask. See below.

Deleting your account and your data

In the app: open the Saved tab, tap the person icon (My account), then Account → Delete account. Deletion happens straight away. You can also email info@thrift-up.com, and we will act within one month.

When you delete your account:

Any order that has not yet reached the handover is called off and the buyer gets a full refund, whether the buyer or the seller deletes. The other person is told.
Your open offers close, and your unsold listings are withdrawn.
Your Apple user ID, email, first name, seller name, handover spot, push token, style profile, onboarding answers and standing rules are erased, and your Sign in with Apple link to ThriftUp is revoked.
Your Wardrobe is removed, and the photos you uploaded to it are deleted from our storage.
The text of your chat searches and of feedback you sent is erased. Messages you exchanged with buyers or sellers stay for up to 6 months, as described above, because they are the record of a sale.
The device identifier is replaced with a value that cannot be traced back to it, and your phone starts over as a new, anonymous user.

If an order has already passed the handover, deletion is refused for now: the order settles within 48 hours, after which you can delete.

Some data survives, and we want to be precise about it:

Order records are kept for 7 years, because Dutch tax law requires it. They no longer carry your name, email or Apple ID.
Messages you sent stay visible to the person you wrote to until they are deleted on the schedule above.
The record that some user saved or viewed certain items is kept, no longer connected to any device or person, and used only to improve recommendations. These records remain grouped together, so while they cannot be linked back to you, they are best described as pseudonymous rather than mathematically anonymous.
Stripe keeps its own records of payments and of a seller's payout account, as the law requires of it. Ask Stripe directly to delete what it holds.

Deleting the app from your phone does not by itself delete your account or data already stored on our servers — Apple does not tell us when an app is removed. Use Delete account first, or email us.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access your data, to correct it, to have it erased, to restrict or object to how it is used, and to receive it in a portable form. Exercise any of these by emailing info@thrift-up.com. We reply within one month.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority — either where you live or where we are based. ThriftUp operates from the Netherlands, where the authority is the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl.

Age

ThriftUp is for people aged 18 and over, the same as in our Terms. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone younger. If you believe someone under 18 has used the app, email us and we will erase the data.

Changes

If this policy changes materially we will update the date at the top and, where the change matters to you, tell you in the app.