SEA Manufacturing Network

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-11-01

This page describes how SEA Manufacturing Network ("we", "us") collects and uses personal data. This page is maintained by the operators of the directory; it is not a certification or legal opinion.

1. What we collect

  • Account data: email, name, role (buyer or supplier).
  • Company data (suppliers only): company name, location, capabilities, contact email, certifications, gallery uploads.
  • Usage data: pages viewed, search queries (without identifying the searcher to suppliers), approximate country derived from IP, and basic device metadata.
  • Payment data: handled by Stripe; we store only the subscription status and plan, never card details.

2. How we use it

  • To operate the directory, authenticate you, and protect against abuse.
  • To show suppliers aggregated analytics. Suppliers never see the identity of buyers who viewed them.
  • To send transactional emails (sign-up, password reset, plan changes).
  • To comply with legal obligations.

3. Legal basis (GDPR)

We process personal data on the basis of: (a) performance of the contract with you, (b) our legitimate interest in running and securing the platform, and (c) your consent for non-essential cookies and marketing communications.

4. Cookies

We use a small number of strictly necessary cookies and local storage entries to keep you signed in and remember your cookie preference. Non-essential cookies (analytics, marketing) are off by default and are only set after you accept them in the cookie banner.

5. Data sharing

We share data with the processors required to run the service: our hosting and database provider, Stripe (payments), and email delivery. We never sell personal data.

6. Retention

Account data is kept while your account is active. Search logs and profile view events are kept for up to 24 months for analytics, then deleted or anonymised.

7. Your rights

Under GDPR you can access, correct, export, restrict or delete your personal data, and withdraw consent.

8. Changes

We will post material changes here and, where required, notify you by email.

SEA Manufacturing Network in ChatGPT and other AI assistants

Our AI app lets assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude search our directory. It only returns public business profile information about listed companies: company name, location, capabilities, equipment, certifications and a link to the profile. It returns no personal contact data such as email addresses, phone numbers or names of contact persons.

We only log technical request data (such as IP address) for security and rate limiting, and keep it for a maximum of 30 days.