Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

Depending on how you use Gavelum, we may collect account and contact information; identity and verification status; seller, buyer, artist, custodian, business, estate, or authority information; artwork descriptions, images, provenance and condition evidence; bids, watchlists and auction activity; orders, ownership and custody records; shipping and release information; support and dispute communications; tax and payment metadata; and security, device, log, session, and network information.

Sensitive payment-card and taxpayer identifiers should be collected or retained by approved providers such as Stripe where the product is designed to avoid unnecessary duplication in Gavelum systems.

2. How we use information

• Provide accounts, listings, auctions, bids, purchases, sales, payments, ownership records, custody, release, support, and transaction administration.
• Verify identity, authority, artwork evidence, payments, tax status, sanctions status, fraud signals, security, and marketplace eligibility.
• Maintain audit, ownership, custody, payment, tax, dispute, recovery, and legal records.
• Prevent abuse, investigate incidents, enforce agreements, and protect users, Gavelum, providers, and the marketplace.
• Improve functionality, reliability, usability, and marketplace operations using information reasonably necessary for those purposes.
• Comply with legal, tax, accounting, regulatory, court, law-enforcement, provider, and recordkeeping obligations.

3. How we disclose information

We may disclose information to counterparties when necessary to complete a marketplace transaction; to payment, identity, hosting, infrastructure, communications, shipping, inspection, custody, security, tax, professional, and other service providers; and to authorities, courts, advisers, insurers, recovery parties, or others where reasonably necessary for legal compliance, fraud prevention, security, dispute resolution, ownership or custody recovery, or protection of rights.

Public listing pages may display artwork information, seller or artist-facing profile information chosen or approved for public display, auction status, and market-history information. We do not intend to publish private addresses, taxpayer identifiers, payment credentials, or nonpublic identity evidence merely because a user participates in a transaction.

4. Sale, sharing, and advertising

Gavelum does not currently operate an advertising-data marketplace and does not currently use personal information for third-party behavioral advertising. If that changes, this Policy and any legally required choice mechanisms will be updated before the changed practice is relied upon.

5. Cookies and similar technology

Gavelum uses essential session and security technology needed for authentication, request integrity, and site operation. Public pages also load third-party software resources from content-delivery providers, which may receive ordinary technical request information such as IP address, browser information, and request time. See the Cookie and Technology Notice for the current implementation.

6. Retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described above and to satisfy transaction, ownership, custody, tax, accounting, audit, security, dispute, litigation-hold, unclaimed-property, recovery, provider, and legal obligations. Active ownership or custody records, outstanding payment obligations, disputes, tax periods, and legal holds may require retention after an account is closed.

7. Security

Gavelum uses administrative, technical, and operational controls designed to protect information, including access controls, authentication, audit records, monitoring, backups, and security-sensitive transaction checks. No system can guarantee absolute security, and this Policy does not make such a guarantee.

8. Your choices and rights

You may update certain account information through the service and may contact Gavelum to request access, correction, deletion, portability, limitation, objection, appeal, or other privacy rights that apply under governing law. Gavelum may need to verify your identity and may retain information that lawfully cannot be deleted because it remains necessary for ownership, custody, tax, security, fraud, contract, dispute, audit, or legal obligations.

9. U.S. processing and international users

Gavelum is being operated as a U.S.-based marketplace. If you access the service from another country, information may be processed in the United States and by providers in other locations. Transaction availability outside the United States is separately controlled and may not be enabled merely because the public website can be viewed internationally.

10. Children

Gavelum transactional accounts are not directed to children. Users must be at least 18 to create a transactional account or enter marketplace transactions.

11. Changes and contact

Material privacy changes will be posted under a new version or effective date and additional notice will be provided when legally required. Privacy requests and questions may be sent to info@gavelum.com.