Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Retrove ("we", "us") collects and uses your personal information when you use our website or app, buy or sell through us, or post on Retrove. Retrove is operated by Retrove Clothing Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17342272. Retrove Clothing Ltd is the data controller for the information described below. For anything privacy-related, contact us at info@retroveclothing.com.

What we collect

• Account details: your email address and name. Signing in works by one-time links and codes sent to your email, so we never hold a password for you.
• Order and delivery details: your name, delivery address, what you bought, and your order, return and refund history.
• Payment information, handled directly by Stripe, our payment processor. We never see or store your full card details. If you re-sell on Retrove, Stripe also collects identity information from you directly for its own checks before you can be paid; we hold only a reference to your connected account, not your documents.
• Photos you give our AI features: photos of yourself for virtual try-on, and photos of your own clothes for your wardrobe. Wardrobe photos live in private storage that only you (and the systems that power the feature) can access. If you search by photo, the matching fingerprint is computed on your own device and only that fingerprint, not the photo, is sent to us.
• Content you post: reels and captions, plus your follows, blocks and any reports you make or that are made about your content.
• A device identifier (app only): when the app uses a free AI allowance, it sends a device identifier (Apple's identifierForVendor on iOS, the Android ID on Android) so a free allowance cannot be reset by creating fresh accounts on the same phone. It is stored on our servers, used only for this, and never used for advertising or to track you across other apps.
• Messages: anything you send us by email or through the site or app.
• Technical data: basic information your browser or device provides so the service works. We do not use advertising trackers or cross-site tracking, and the site currently runs no analytics scripts at all.

Playing the Runway also creates a record of your entries, coin balance and prizes (including any discount vouchers you win), kept as an append-only ledger so balances always add up. Messaging a shop about an order stores those messages, visible to you, that shop and Retrove. Reporting a reel, a look or an account stores your report so our team can act on it.

How we use it, and our legal basis

• To take payment, fulfil your order, arrange delivery, and handle returns, refunds and disputes (basis: performance of our contract with you).
• To pay shops, and members who re-sell, their share of a sale (basis: performance of our contract, and our legitimate interest in running the marketplace).
• To provide the AI features you choose to use, described below (basis: performance of our contract; for photos of you, we only process what you deliberately upload for that purpose).
• To review reels before they publish, act on reports and blocks, and keep the community safe (basis: our legitimate interest in a safe, honest platform).
• To prevent abuse of free allowances using the device identifier above (basis: our legitimate interest in keeping free features fair).
• To answer your questions and provide customer service (basis: our legitimate interest in running Retrove well).
• To send marketing emails, only if you have opted in (basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time).
• To meet our legal and tax obligations (basis: legal obligation).

AI features, in plain terms

• Virtual try-on: the photo you upload is sent to Google Cloud (Vertex AI) to generate the render, and the render is stored so you can see it again. Try-on renders made from your own photo are shown only to you; they are never published or shown to other members.
• The Runway: competing in a run works differently, and it is 18 or over only. Your full-body photo is checked by Anthropic's Claude (to confirm it is a genuine photo rather than a picture of a screen or of someone else) and sent to Google Cloud (Vertex AI) to create your look. The judge, an AI, sees your look to score it. If you switch on "show my looks in the public reveal" when you enter, your looks are published to everyone watching when each round closes and on the results page; if you switch it off, spectators see only the pieces you styled, never your photo. Winning a piece asks for a delivery address, which we share with the shop that posts it.
• Wardrobe: your wardrobe photos are stored privately, visible only to you. When you add an item, the photo is analysed by Anthropic's Claude to describe it (things like garment type, colour and era) and to confirm it is a photo of a garment; photos that are not clothing are rejected and deleted.
• AI stylist: text descriptions of your wardrobe and our catalogue, never your photos, are sent to Anthropic's Claude to compose outfit suggestions.
• Search by photo: the image fingerprint is computed on your own device; the photo itself is not uploaded for the search.

Google and Anthropic process this data on our instructions to deliver the feature to you. We do not sell your photos or use them for advertising.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your data. We share it only with the partners that make Retrove work:

• The seller of your piece, whether an independent shop or, for pre-loved pieces, the member selling it: they receive what they need to fulfil your order, such as your name and delivery address.
• Stripe, to process payments, subscriptions and payouts, and to run identity checks on members who sell.
• Delivery partners: Royal Mail (through ShipStation) in the UK, and Shippo with its carriers (such as USPS, Canada Post and CouriersPlease) for the US, Canada and Australia. They receive your name, address and contact details to deliver your parcel. International parcels also carry a customs declaration describing the items and their value, which is shared with carriers and customs authorities.
• Google Cloud (Vertex AI), to generate virtual try-on renders.
• Anthropic (Claude), to describe wardrobe items and compose stylist suggestions.
• Supabase, which hosts our database, storage and sign-in, in London (its eu-west-2 region).
• Netlify, which hosts the website.
• Resend, which sends our transactional emails, such as order confirmations from orders@retroveclothing.com.
• HMRC, which receives seller details and sales totals where the law requires it. This applies to sellers only, and the detail is under "Seller tax details and HMRC reporting" below.

Our own small team sees only what it needs to run Retrove, for example the moderation queue for reels and reported content, and order details when helping with support.

International transfers

Some of our providers, including Stripe, Google, Anthropic, Shippo, Netlify and Resend, are based in the United States or process data there. Where data leaves the UK we rely on safeguards recognised by UK data protection law, such as the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the ICO's International Data Transfer Addendum to standard contractual clauses. Delivery details for an international order necessarily travel to carriers and customs authorities in the destination country.

Seller tax details and HMRC reporting

If you sell on Retrove, whether as a shop or as a member re-selling your own pieces, we collect a set of tax details from you: your legal name, your date of birth if you sell as an individual, your company and VAT numbers if you sell as a company, your registered or home address, a tax reference (for UK sole traders, your Unique Taxpayer Reference or National Insurance number), and the bank account your payouts go to. This applies to sellers only, never to buyers.

We collect it because the law says we must. Retrove is a digital platform operator under The Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023, so once a seller passes the reporting threshold (roughly 30 sales, or around £1,700, in a year) we have to report their details and sales totals to HMRC. The lawful basis is legal obligation.

HMRC receives the report. If you are tax-resident outside the UK, HMRC may pass your information to the tax authority in that country under international agreements. Whenever we report about you, you receive a copy of what was sent.

We keep these details while you sell on Retrove and for six years after the reporting year, the record-keeping period for tax. Your bank account details are shown back to you only as the last four digits.

How long we keep it

• Order, payment and payout records: as long as needed to provide the service and meet legal and tax requirements, generally up to six years.
• Wardrobe photos and try-on renders: until you delete them or your account.
• Reels: until you delete them. Reports and moderation decisions are kept for as long as we need them to keep the platform safe.
• Device allowance counters: for as long as needed to enforce free allowances fairly.

We delete or anonymise data we no longer need. Item passports show only anonymised ownership steps ("Owner 1", "Owner 2", with month and year) and never identify you.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to access your data, correct it, ask us to delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, and request a copy in a portable format. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. To exercise any of these, email info@retroveclothing.com.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Cookies

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Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top shows when it last changed.