Privacy policy

Last updated 19 October 2026

Unshelf sells items on eBay and other marketplaces for the people who consign them to us, and sells some items of our own. This page explains what personal information we keep, why, how we protect it and when we delete it. We keep personal information for three reasons only: the law requires it, we need it to run your account and pay you, or we need it to complete and support an order. Questions: [email protected]. Unshelf It is responsible for the information described here. We do not have a business phone yet, so please write or email.

People who consign items with us

Michigan law (MCL 445.401) requires a business that sells other people's goods to keep the consignor's name, address, phone number, driver licence number and the state that issued it, and to give that information to local law enforcement within 24 hours when it asks. To run your account and pay you we also keep:

• your email address and how you want to be paid (an email address for an electronic payout, or a mailing address for checks);
• photos of your driver licence, if you choose to share them that way, and your signature on the agreement;
• a tax identification number, only if one is needed for tax reporting (IRS Form W-9);
• the items you bring us, what they sold for, the selling costs and every payment we make to you.

Michigan law also requires us to show every item we have listed on a free public catalog at unshelf.me/catalog: its make, model, serial number, any other identifying marks and its photos. No consignor details appear there. Consignors must be 18 or older.

People who buy from us

When you buy through eBay, eBay gives us what we need to complete the order: your eBay username, your name, the shipping address and the order details. We use them only to buy the shipping label, pack, ship and support that order, and we never add them to a mailing list. Michigan law requires us to give a buyer's name and address, with a description of the item, to local law enforcement within 24 hours when it asks. If you buy from us another way (for example through Facebook Marketplace), we keep your name and contact details with the record of that sale for the same reasons. When you message us through eBay or email us, we keep the conversation so we can answer you.

Visitors to this website

This site sets no tracking cookies and runs no advertising or analytics scripts. Its fonts are served from this site, not from a third party. Our web host keeps standard server logs (such as IP address and pages requested) for security.

People who ask for early access

If you fill in the early access form, we keep what you typed: your name and email, and anything else you chose to tell us about your business (its name, where you sell, how many items you list, whether you sell for others, the tools you use and your notes). It is sent to our own inbox and kept in a file on our web host that is not reachable from the web. We also keep the time you sent it and your IP address, only to stop spam.

We use it only to contact you about Unshelf. We do not add you to a marketing list, and we do not sell or share it. We delete it when you ask, or 2 years after we last heard from you. To be removed, email [email protected].

How we protect it

• Consignor details are kept in an encrypted database on our own equipment at our office, not in a cloud service. Sensitive fields (name, licence number and photos, address, phone, email, payment details, any tax number and signatures) are each encrypted with AES-256, with the key kept apart from the database and its backups. A short display name (first name and last initial) and the state that issued the licence are kept in plain form so we can find an account.
• On screen, sensitive details are masked. Showing a full value needs a PIN again, and every time one is shown it is written to an audit log.
• Personal details never go into a listing or onto the public catalog. Location data is removed from item photos before they are used.

Item photos and what our tools learn from them

We keep the photos and descriptions of the items we list, including after they sell. For items taken in under consignment agreement v4 or later, and for our own stock, we may use them to train and improve our own tools for identifying, describing, measuring and pricing items. Before we do, we remove anything that identifies a person: no names, consignor codes, contact, licence, payout or tax details, no signatures, and nothing about buyers or eBay messages. Location and other hidden data are stripped from the photos, and the photos used are the same ones we publish with the listing, where any document, mail label or face is already blurred. Every consignor can say no: tick the box when signing, or tell us any time after at the shop, by email or by phone, and change it back the same way; we stop from that date. Items taken in under an earlier agreement are not used for training unless the consignor signs the newer one.

Other sellers who use Unshelf's software on their own computers can choose to send us the same kind of de-identified item data (photos, what the item was, and the listing they wrote) to help the tools improve. It is off unless the seller turns it on, and it never includes their buyers, messages, personal details or data that came from eBay.

Who we share it with

We do not sell or rent personal information. We share it only with:

• law enforcement, as Michigan law requires;
• tax authorities, when the law requires it;
• the payment provider that sends a consignor's payout;
• the service we buy a shipping label from (eBay or Pirate Ship) and the carrier that delivers an order;
• eBay, for orders placed on eBay, as eBay's own terms describe;
• our accountant or attorney, when needed for tax or legal work.

How long we keep it, and deleting it

• Consignment records: at least 2 years after each item is sold or returned, as Michigan law requires. A consignor's licence number and state, phone, email, licence photos and signature are removed no earlier than 2 years after the last item is sold or returned and the account is closed.
• Tax identification numbers and tax records, including the consignor's name, address and payout details on our sale and payment records: at least 4 years after the last payout. The record of sales and payments itself is kept for bookkeeping, without the name, after that.
• eBay buyer details: the buyer's eBay username on our sales record is removed 90 days after the order is complete (delivered, past its return window and paid out by eBay). The order and shipping records we download from eBay are kept as sale and tax records for as long as tax rules require. If you close your eBay account, eBay notifies us and we remove your username, account identifiers and label files from our records, as eBay's API licence requires.
• Copies given to law enforcement: deleted from our systems 90 days after they are sent. The record that a request was made and answered is kept.
• Early access requests: until you ask us to delete them, or 2 years after we last heard from you.

You may ask to see the information we hold about you, to correct it, or to have it deleted where the law does not require us to keep it: email [email protected]. We will answer as soon as we can and tell you if the law requires us to keep something.

Children

Our services are for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If you believe we have, email us and we will delete it.

If something goes wrong

If personal information is ever exposed, we will tell the people affected as Michigan law requires.

Changes

If we change this policy we will update this page and the date at the top.