Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Merboat (merboat.com) is a comparison site for boat rentals and yacht charters. Boat listings come from rental platforms we work with, currently Click&Boat. We do not rent out boats and do not take payments: you book directly on the platform, and we may earn a commission on that booking.

The site is run by Alexey Narushev, a private individual, 40/7 Moo 3, Maret, Koh Samui, Surat Thani, Thailand, who is responsible for processing your personal data (the data controller). Contact: partners@merboat.com.

2. What we collect

You can use Merboat without an account. Depending on how you use the site, we process:

• Account data (only if you create an account): your email address, your name if you give it, and your password stored only as a one-way hash. If you sign in with Google or Facebook, we receive your name, email address and profile picture from them instead of a password.
• Saved boats and viewing history: the boats you add to favourites and the boats you recently viewed, so you can find them again in your profile.
• Email preferences: whether you agreed to receive emails from us, and when you gave or withdrew that consent.
• Clicks on booking buttons: which boat, which button and page, the site language, device type (mobile or desktop) and where your first visit came from (for example, a search engine). This is not linked to your name, account or IP address.
• Technical logs: our web server keeps standard logs (IP address, browser, requested page, time) for security and troubleshooting.

We do not collect payment details or booking details. Bookings and payments are handled entirely by the rental platform. We do not use advertising cookies; Google Analytics runs only with your consent.

3. Why we use it

• To run your account: sign-in, email confirmation, password reset, favourites and viewing history.
• To send you emails, only if you opted in. Every email can be turned off in your profile.
• To understand which pages and boats are useful, and to keep the site secure and working.

The legal basis is the performance of our service when you use your account, your consent for marketing emails, and our legitimate interest in running and securing the site.

4. Third parties

• Rental platforms (Click&Boat): when you click a booking button, you leave Merboat and their privacy policy applies to everything you do there.
• Impact (impact.com): booking links pass through the Impact affiliate network, which may set its own cookies so that the platform can attribute your booking to Merboat.
• Google Analytics (Google Ireland Limited): only if you accept analytics cookies — usage statistics (pages viewed, source of the visit, device type, approximate location). Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).
• Boat photos are loaded from Click&Boat's image servers (Cloudinary), and maps on boat pages from OpenStreetMap. Like any website, these servers receive your IP address when your browser loads an image or a map.
• Google and Facebook, only if you choose to sign in with them.

We do not sell your personal data and do not share it with anyone else, except where the law requires it.

5. Cookies and browser storage

We use the cookies and browser storage needed for the site to work (a sign-in session, your currency choice and the source of your visit) and, only with your consent, Google Analytics. You can withdraw consent at any time under Cookie settings at the bottom of the page. Details are in our Cookie Policy.

6. How long we keep data

Account data, favourites and history are kept while your account exists and are deleted with it. Confirmation codes and password-reset links expire within hours. Click statistics contain no personal data and are kept to measure how the site performs. Server logs are kept for a limited time.

7. Your rights

You can see and change your account data in your profile and turn off emails there. Under the GDPR you also have the right to get a copy of your data, to correct or delete it, and to object to its use. To delete your account and everything linked to it, write to partners@merboat.com from the address you registered with: we delete it within 30 days and confirm by email. You can also complain to the data protection authority in your country.

8. Changes

We may update this policy. The date at the top of the page shows the latest version.

9. Contact

Questions about privacy: partners@merboat.com.