Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 10, 2026

Verified Crew Technologies LLC ("Verified Crew", "we", "our", or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy and the privacy of your personal credentials, identity documents, and professional records. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our platform.

Information We Collect

We collect information that you provide directly to us, including:

• Account information (name, email, phone number, role, employer)
• Identity documents submitted for verification (wallet, photo ID)
• Biometric information captured during identity verification (for example a selfie or video used for liveness and face matching against your photo ID, and derived signals such as match scores and a mathematical representation of the verification selfie used for fraud prevention and duplicate-identity detection)
• Maritime credentials and certificates (CoC, STCW, ENG1, endorsements)
• Sea time records and voyage history
• Background check consent and results (depending on the checks ordered, these may include criminal record, civil litigation, bankruptcy, credit, directorship, education, and adverse media findings)
• Payment and billing information when you purchase paid services (processed by our payment provider; we do not store full payment card numbers)
• Communications with our support team
• Medical fitness certificates

We also automatically collect certain information when you use our platform:

• Device and browser information
• IP address and location data
• Usage patterns and feature interactions
• Error logs and performance data

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide, maintain, and improve our platform
• Verify your identity through our verification partners
• Process credential verification requests
• Process payments for paid services
• Detect and prevent fraud, including document tampering and duplicate identities
• Send you technical notices, expiry reminders, and support messages
• Send you marketing communications where you have opted in or where otherwise permitted by law (you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in the message or your account settings; opting out of marketing does not affect service messages)
• Respond to your comments and questions
• Develop new features and services
• Train and improve our AI capabilities (using anonymized, aggregated data only, and excluding any data sourced from LinkedIn or other third-party APIs whose terms prohibit such use)

Text Messaging (SMS)

If you provide your mobile phone number, we use it to send service messages by SMS, such as two-factor authentication and account verification codes and, where you have separately opted in, other account notifications. Your consent to receive these messages is collected at the point where you provide your phone number.

We do not share, sell, rent, or otherwise provide your mobile phone number, SMS opt-in status, or messaging consent information to any third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging originator opt-in data and consent are not shared with any third parties. The only exception is our SMS delivery provider, which processes your number solely as our service provider to deliver the messages you request.

• Message frequency varies based on your account activity (for example, one message per sign-in or verification request)
• Message and data rates may apply
• Opt out at any time by replying STOP to any message; reply HELP for help, or contact us at hello@verifiedcrew.com
• Opting out of SMS may mean you need to use an alternative method (such as email) for sign-in and account verification

Credential Data

Your credential data receives special handling:

• You control sharing. Credentials are only shared when you explicitly grant access through a sharing link or QR code.
• Access is revocable. You can revoke any sharing link at any time.
• Verification is separate from storage. Third-party verifiers see only the verification result (pass/fail), not the underlying documents, unless you choose to share them.
• Expiry data is yours. We use certificate expiry dates to send you reminders, but we never share this information with employers without your consent.

Vessel Movement Data (AIS)

When you add a voyage with a vessel identifier (an MMSI number) and enable AIS verification for that voyage, we collect the vessel's publicly broadcast position history for the period of your engagement and link it to your sea time record. This is how we corroborate your claimed sea days against the vessel's actual movements.

• It is opt-in, per voyage. We only track a vessel for your voyage when you enable AIS verification for that voyage. You can turn it off at any time, which stops future collection for that voyage.
• What we collect: the vessel's broadcast AIS positions (location, speed, heading, timestamps), port calls, and derived activity such as days underway or in port. This data describes the vessel's movements. Because it is linked to your voyage dates, it also evidences where you were during your engagement.
• Where it comes from: public AIS broadcast data obtained from third-party aggregation services (currently AIS Friends, AISHub, and ShipFinder). These services receive only the vessel's identifier from us, never your personal details. They are sources we obtain data from, not processors of your personal data.
• What it is used for: verifying sea service. Your testimonials state how many of your claimed sea days are corroborated by vessel movement data, and crew edits can never increase the corroborated figure.
• Retention and deletion: once a voyage is approved, the detailed position history is reduced to an hourly summary and a tamper-evident proof of the evidence is sealed. Deleting your account removes your voyages, their tracking data, testimonials, and evidence records from our systems. A sealed technical archive of vessel movement fixes, which does not directly identify you, may be retained for evidence-integrity purposes, and copies of signed testimonials you have already shared with employers or maritime authorities remain with those recipients.

Third-Party Service Providers

We use the following third-party services to operate the platform and process verifications:

• Veriff (EU) for identity verification, including document checks, liveness detection, and face matching. Veriff processes your identity documents and verification selfie under their own privacy policy. We receive the verification result, confidence scores, and related verification signals.
• Persona (USA) for identity verification, on the same basis as Veriff.
• Certn (Canada/USA) for background checks. Background checks are initiated only with your explicit consent. Results are stored securely and shared only as you direct.
• Checkr (USA) for background checks in supported jurisdictions, on the same basis as Certn.
• Polar for payment processing and billing. Your payment card details are collected and processed by the payment provider, not stored by us.
• Twilio for delivering the SMS messages we send you (such as verification codes) and, via Twilio SendGrid, the emails we send you (sign-in links, notifications, and, where you have opted in, marketing). Twilio processes your phone number and email address solely to deliver these messages; see "Text Messaging (SMS)" above for our no-sharing commitment.
• Amazon Web Services for cloud hosting and encrypted document storage.
• OpenAI for AI-assisted document intake (for example extracting fields from an uploaded certificate). Documents are processed via API under terms that prohibit their use to train the provider's models.
• Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity for consent-based website usage analytics on our marketing site, as described in our Cookie Policy.

These providers act as data processors or service providers under our instruction and are bound by data processing agreements. We share with each provider only the data needed for its role.

LinkedIn Data

When we use LinkedIn-sourced information about you (for example, to verify professional history or maritime industry context), we apply strict, additional limits beyond our standard data practices:

• Retention caps. LinkedIn profile data is retained for no more than 24 hours from collection. LinkedIn social-activity data (posts, comments, likes, shares) is retained for no more than 48 hours from collection. After these windows, the data is permanently deleted from our systems.
• No AI training. LinkedIn-sourced data is never used to train, fine-tune, or evaluate any AI model.
• Limited purposes. We do not use LinkedIn data for recruiting, candidate sourcing, CRM enrichment, audience building, or sales prospecting.
• No combining. LinkedIn data is never combined, joined, or correlated with any other dataset we hold (including credential records, employment history, or platform analytics).
• No export. LinkedIn data is never exported, transferred to third parties, or made available outside the original processing context.

International Data Transfers

We are based in the United States and process data there. Where we transfer personal data from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses with our processors, and we apply the protections described in this policy regardless of where the data is processed.

Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data:

• End-to-end encryption for data in transit and at rest (AES-256)
• Role-based access controls
• Regular security audits and penetration testing
• SOC 2 Type II compliance (in progress)
• Data centers in secure, certified facilities
• Two-factor authentication available for all accounts

Data Ownership

Your data belongs to you. We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data or credentials with third parties for their marketing purposes. You retain full ownership of all certificates, sea time records, and documentation you upload to the platform. You can export your complete data at any time.

GDPR Compliance

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you have certain rights under the GDPR:

• Right to access your personal data
• Right to rectification of inaccurate data
• Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten")
• Right to data portability
• Right to object to processing
• Right to restrict processing
• Right to withdraw consent

To exercise these rights, please contact us at privacy@verifiedcrew.com.

US State Privacy Rights

If you are a resident of California or another US state with a comprehensive privacy law, you have rights over your personal information, including the right to know what we collect, the right to access and receive a copy of it, the right to correct it, the right to delete it, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights.

The categories of personal information we collect are described in "Information We Collect" above and include identifiers, professional information, biometric information, commercial information, internet activity, general location (IP address), and sensitive personal information such as identity documents and background check results. We collect them for the purposes described in "How We Use Your Information".

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We use sensitive personal information only to provide the services you request, to verify identity and credentials, and to prevent fraud.

To exercise these rights, contact us at privacy@verifiedcrew.com. You may use an authorized agent where permitted by law; we will verify the request before acting on it.

Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. You may request deletion of your data at any time, subject to legal retention requirements. When you delete your account:

• Personal profile data is deleted within 30 days
• Credential files are permanently removed from our storage
• Verification records are anonymized for audit compliance
• Background check results are deleted from our systems (Certn retains records per their own policy)

Cookies

We use essential cookies to enable platform functionality. With your permission, our marketing site also uses Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity analytics cookies to understand how visitors use the site. See our Cookie Policy for the specific cookies we set, what each one does, and how to manage or block them.

Children's Privacy

Our Service is intended for maritime professionals and does not address anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under 18.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date.

Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

privacy@verifiedcrew.com

Verified Crew Technologies LLC 1621 Central Ave, Cheyenne, WY 82001, United States