Privacy Policy

Account and collection information

A Zulu account stores your email, collector name, password hash, recovery and session records, selected age group (13–17 or 18+), country, state or region, and optional city. Zulu does not request a street address or GPS location. Existing ChatGPT sign-in can provide an account identifier, email, and display name to connect that collector to their workspace.

The Zulu operator can use a separate private account overview to monitor registrations and recorded membership status. It shows collector names, partially masked registered emails, available account-creation dates, and aggregate account counts. This overview is restricted to the configured owner account; it does not display passwords, recovery tokens, payment-card details, or private collection contents.

Zulu stores the collection details you choose to save: cards, printings, conditions, quantities, grading details and certification numbers, purchase dates and costs, manual estimates, favorites, notes, storage labels, wishlist entries, binder arrangements, preferences, and earned plaques. Saved value snapshots and premium tools can also store reports’ underlying records, sales entries, and price-alert settings. These records support your collection across devices, valuation tools, exports, backups, and account preferences.

Trade discovery and in-app messages

Trade discovery, requests, and in-app member messaging are available to registered Zulu accounts aged 13 and over. Every eligible registered Zulu account has a collector profile. Marking a card Available for Trade or sending a request enables trade activity automatically. Accounts that do not meet the eligibility policy cannot enable listings, send requests, or send messages. The configured Zulu owner also has a separate, isolated test workspace with clearly labeled simulated accounts; those test profiles do not appear in member discovery.

The trading system uses your collector name, selected avatar, optional short bio, and saved broad state or region, which appears automatically when you trade. Only cards you mark Available for Trade appear in trade discovery. Listing details include the card, printing, condition, grading description, and quantity. Email, phone numbers, optional city, street addresses, purchase costs, private notes, storage labels, and certification numbers stay private.

Eligible signed-in members can browse collector profiles by name and view saved cards, printings, and quantities in one gallery. The gallery includes every saved card and marks active trade listings. Profile photos are optional and can be replaced or removed.

Trade requests, optional offered cards, accepted one-to-one messages, timestamps, read positions, unread events, blocks, safety reports, and moderation status are saved in Zulu’s database. Conversation APIs check that the signed-in account is a participant. The configured owner can review submitted safety reports and suspend trading access. Messages are not end-to-end encrypted. Zulu rejects common profanity, slurs, threats, and abusive language before saving messages, request notes, or profile bios. Existing inappropriate message text is hidden when displayed. Common phone-number, email-address, street-address, and contact-link patterns are blocked in ordinary chat. These automated filters cannot detect every possible abuse or disclosure.

Turning off a listing removes it from trade discovery and removes the trade badge from that card. Blocking hides the profiles from one another, stops new requests and messages between the accounts, and cancels their active requests. These actions do not erase previous conversations. The current release has no automatic expiry for messages or reports; contact the operator for access or deletion requests. Account removal deletes that account’s authored trading messages and public profile and disables its listings, while cancelled request records and safety reports may remain for the other participant or abuse review. Tutorial completion is stored against your account so onboarding does not repeat across devices.

Trade requests do not transfer card ownership or money, reserve cards, provide escrow, or arrange shipping or meetings. An optional Exchange numbers tool is available inside accepted conversations. Both collectors must acknowledge the warning and submit their own number before either number is revealed. Numbers are not independently verified. Numbers are encrypted in storage, bound to that conversation, and returned only through participant-authorized APIs. Withdrawing your number hides both numbers from further display. Closing a conversation, blocking, account removal, or suspension removes its stored number exchange; this cannot erase a number someone already copied. Chats and trades outside Zulu are the participants’ responsibility: Zulu cannot monitor, moderate, or protect off-platform activity.

Camera and scanner photos

The scanner uses your camera when you open the camera tool and allow browser access, or a photo you select. Camera previews and local capture checks run on your device. When you submit a capture or upload for identification, Zulu sends the prepared image through its server to TCGAPI.dev to identify the card. The request also uses Zulu’s provider credential; it does not include your Zulu email, password, notes, or location fields.

The normal scanner interface resizes and re-encodes images before submission, which removes the original file’s embedded metadata. This does not remove personal information visible in the picture. Photograph the card only; avoid faces, addresses, documents, and other private details.

The identification handler processes the image for that request and does not save the submitted photo to Zulu’s collection database or object storage. Identification results, daily usage counts, and cards you deliberately save are separate records. TCGAPI.dev receives the image and applies its own processing and retention practices. Zulu does not promise that the provider immediately deletes images or never uses them for model improvement.

AI photo grade estimates and AI image observations are unavailable in this release. The Atlas chat service is also unavailable. These disabled features do not send your current scanner photos or chat messages to OpenAI.

Service providers and sharing

Zulu runs on ChatGPT Sites infrastructure using Cloudflare hosting, databases, and object storage. Hosting services process network requests and may handle IP addresses, browser information, request times, and operational logs. Zulu uses account identifiers, timestamps, request counters, and hashed authentication rate-limit identifiers to operate the service and limit abuse.

TCGAPI.dev supplies the active card catalog, scanner identification, and pricing. TCGdex can supply fallback catalog details. Existing accounts with a saved JustTCG connection can also request raw or graded pricing from JustTCG. Catalog and pricing requests contain search text or card, printing, condition, and grading identifiers as needed, along with the relevant provider credential. Card artwork may load from TCGplayer, TCGdex, or T206cards; a direct image request can disclose your network address and browser request information to that image host. If you use an available eBay deal search or open an eBay listing, eBay receives the relevant search or browsing request. Zulu does not send your private account fields, notes, or entire collection as part of those card searches.

Brevo processes password-reset emails, including the recipient email and reset link. The app requests no marketing messages as part of password recovery. If you contact Zulu, your email provider and Zulu’s mailbox provider process that correspondence.

Your workspace requires sign-in. Binder and collection showcase links are optional: when you create one, anyone with that link can see its selected snapshot, including displayed card details and plaques. You can revoke a link in Zulu. Revocation cannot remove copies or downloads someone already made. Exports and backups you download are under your control.

The current app has no advertising SDK, behavioral advertising, or personal-data sale feature. Service providers still process the requests described above. Zulu may retain or disclose records when necessary to respond to a valid legal requirement or investigate abuse.

Payments

Optional Pro subscriptions use hosted Stripe Checkout and Stripe’s billing portal. Stripe collects the payment and billing information you enter there and processes it under its own privacy practices. Zulu’s application does not collect or store your full payment-card number or card security code.

Zulu stores the identifiers and status needed to connect billing to the correct account: Stripe customer, checkout, subscription, invoice or payment references, billing period, verification and event records, and cancellation or entitlement status. It sends Stripe an account-bound billing reference and subscription selections to operate checkout and billing management.

Retention, access, and deletion

Account and saved workspace records remain available while the account is maintained. The current app has no fixed automatic expiry for collection, wishlist, binder, preference, or billing records. Removing an item or binder generally marks it removed so it can remain in stored history or recovery records; it is not a promise of immediate permanent erasure. Revoked share snapshots can also remain stored even though their links stop working.

You can edit supported account details, remove saved items, revoke sharing links, and download a collection export or private workspace backup. Zulu sessions expire after 30 days; password-reset links expire after 30 minutes and are single use. Expiry prevents use of a token and does not itself guarantee immediate removal of every related record.

To request deletion of your Zulu account and associated personal data, email stephenson.71511@gmail.com with the subject “Zulu account and data deletion”, preferably from the account’s email address. Include the account email and what you want deleted; never send your password, recovery code, or payment-card details. You can also use this contact for access, correction, or a question about retained information. Zulu may need to verify account ownership before acting on a request.

Deletion requests require operator handling, with no guaranteed automatic deletion deadline. The private owner dashboard can remove an account after an explicit account-specific confirmation. For an ordinary account it permanently erases the login and stored personal collection data. Where billing, trading, guardian, uploaded trading-photo, shared app-connection records, or an in-progress Atlas request require retention, access is removed and stored data remains for separate handling; the associated email can remain reserved until that handling is complete. Existing sessions and shared binder links are removed, trading is disabled, outstanding trades are cancelled, and guardian links are disconnected. Permanent plaque and reward allocations retain their numbers, and a deletion receipt and AI usage accounting remain to protect security and campaign limits. Providers manage their own records and backups; other people’s downloaded copies cannot be recalled. Ask the operator to confirm what was deleted and explain any remaining records. Removing Zulu access does not itself cancel a Stripe subscription or refund a payment: manage cancellation in the Pro billing portal or include it explicitly in your request.

Children, teens, and families

Zulu’s collecting experience is intended to be family-friendly. Individual accounts in the current release are limited to people aged 13 and over. Registration rejects the “Under 13” selection. Age groups are self-declared; Zulu does not independently verify age or identity.

This release does not provide under-13 accounts or a verified parental-consent process. Parents and guardians can use their own eligible account and should avoid entering a child’s personal information or including children in scanner photos. Registered teen and adult accounts can choose to list individual cards and use member messaging after a trade request is accepted. Phone sharing is optional and requires both collectors to agree; collectors can keep all communication inside Zulu. This release does not provide meetup tools or active guardian supervision for trading.

If you believe a child under 13 has created an account or submitted personal information, contact the privacy address above so the operator can investigate and handle a deletion request. This policy does not claim certification under children’s privacy laws or Google Play’s Families policies.

Security and browser storage

The site uses HTTPS. Zulu stores password hashes rather than plaintext passwords, hashes session and recovery tokens, uses Secure and HttpOnly session cookies, and checks signed-in account ownership for private data and Pro APIs. Authentication has request limits. Saved provider credentials use server-side encryption. These measures reduce risk but cannot guarantee perfect security.

Essential session cookies keep you signed in. The browser can also keep local interface preferences or bookmarks. Clearing browser storage does not delete your server-side account or collection. Keep downloaded backups and shared links private when they contain information you do not want others to see.

Policy updates

Changes to Zulu’s data practices will be reflected on this page with an updated effective date. The contact above is the privacy point of contact for the current Project Zulu service.