Privacy Policy

Who we are

Volta Markets Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17276243), registered office 66 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NA. If you have any questions about this notice, email hello@letsvolta.com.

What we collect

• Your account and profile details — your name, email address, display name, profile photo and account status. We also keep sign-in records and a record of the policies you accepted.
• Your phone number, if you give it to us for testing contact or if the payment provider requires it for seller verification.
• Your full postcode, if you share it, so we can match you to a wider local area. We do not show your full postcode publicly.
• Your private payment address and, for seller payouts, date of birth and any required phone number. You save these once in Profile; Volta encrypts them and reuses them for billing and seller verification. They are not shown to other members.
• What you add to Volta — listing photos, product links, titles, descriptions, prices, answers, messages, offers, village posts and reviews.
• How you use Volta — searches, favourites, follows, alerts, villages you join, listings you view and how long parts of the listing flow take.
• Order and payment records — the item, price, payment status, collection confirmations, refunds, disputes and Stripe reference numbers. If you save a card, Volta also keeps its brand, last four digits and expiry so you can recognise and remove it. Volta does not receive or store your full card or bank-account details.
• Waitlist, support and safety information — your contact history, email preferences, consent and unsubscribe records, support requests, reports, feedback, disputes, moderation decisions and audit records.
• Basic technical information — your IP address, browser and device information, request IDs, security events and service logs.

Why we collect it

• To run the beta and let you know what to do and when.
• To see how well the AI listing tool works with real photos and real items — this is the whole point of Phase 1.
• To fix bugs and improve Volta before it opens more widely.

We do not use your information for advertising, and we don't sell it to anyone.

Who we share it with

• Hetzner — hosts Volta on servers in the EU and stores the app's database, uploaded photos and backups securely.
• OpenAI — processes photos and listing details to help create a draft listing and research the item. It also processes limited listing, search and village-post text for Volta's search and alert features.
• Mailchimp — only if you've separately joined the waitlist with your email.
• Postmark — sends sign-in links, waitlist confirmation emails and other service emails.
• Stripe — only if you use supported checkout or set up seller payouts. With your confirmation, we share your saved legal name, private address, date of birth and any required phone number for seller verification. Card and bank numbers and verification-document files go directly from your browser to Stripe, not through Volta’s servers. Volta keeps provider references, masked financial summaries, verification status and consent/security records.
• postcodes.io — checks a UK postcode and returns its wider area.
• Better Stack — receives limited technical and usage information so we can find errors and monitor the app. We do not send it photos, messages or other customer content.
• Google Fonts — supplies the site's fonts and may receive basic technical information such as your IP address.
• Other Volta members — can see profile, listing, review and village information you choose to share. Messages and offers go to the other person in the conversation. Buyers and sellers receive the order and collection details they need, including the collection postcode after an order is placed.

These providers may store data outside the UK. Each has its own safeguards in place for handling personal data internationally — ask us if you'd like more detail on any of them.

How long we keep it

Payout updates keep an encrypted delivery copy while being processed. We erase that copy after success or a definitive failure; an uncertain provider outcome needs reconciliation before it can be discarded. We retain consent and financial audit evidence as required. Other beta data is kept for the duration of the beta, plus a short period afterwards while we review what we learned. If you'd like your data deleted sooner, email hello@letsvolta.com and we'll action it.

Your rights

You can ask to see what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, at any time — just email hello@letsvolta.com. You can also ask us to stop using your data for the beta and we will.

Children

Volta does not knowingly collect information about children. Any 'age range' fields in a listing refer to the item, not to a child.

Keeping your data safe

We take reasonable steps to keep your information secure. Private payment details and pending payout submissions are encrypted. Volta’s dedicated payout screens send bank numbers and document files directly to Stripe and receive only references. Email confirmation protects payout changes and changes to your sign-in email. Do not send identity documents or bank details through messages, support forms or listing uploads.

Changes

This is a working beta notice and may be updated as Phase 1 progresses. We'll let testers know if anything material changes.