Privacy Policy

Mariner Hub BD ("we," "us," "our," or the "Platform") operates marinerhubbd.com and its associated mobile app, connecting Bangladeshi seafarers with manning agencies and shipping companies. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. By creating an account or using Mariner Hub BD, you agree to the practices described here.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Account & Identity Information

• Name, email address, phone number, and login credentials
• For seafarers: date of birth, nationality, religion, marital status, blood group, father's and mother's name, place of birth, identification marks, present and permanent address, and a profile photo you choose to upload
• For agencies and shipping companies: company name, license/registration details, company logo, and business contact information

1.2 Professional & Maritime Records

• Rank, sea service history (vessel names, IMO numbers, vessel types, sign-on and sign-off dates, employers), education and training records, and shore-based work experience
• Identity and certification documents you upload, including CDC number, passport number, National ID number, Seafarer's ID number, STCW/COC certificates, and scanned copies of these documents
• Job applications you submit, and vacancies posted by agencies and companies

1.3 Optional Community Features

• Blood Bank: if you choose to participate, your blood group, last donation date, and donor availability status. This is entirely optional and only visible to other verified users of the Platform.
• Complaint / Assistance Reports: if you submit a workplace complaint or assistance request through the Platform, we collect what you enter — your ship details, current location, a description of the issue, and your contact information. This is a private, internal-facing tool: we keep a record for our own awareness and to support you, but we do not submit these reports to any external organization (such as ITF Seafarers) on your behalf — that step, if you choose to take it, is always initiated by you from your own device.

1.4 Information Processed by AI Tools

When you use CV Auto-Fill to build your profile from an uploaded document, the document's content (text and images) is sent to our AI provider, DeepSeek, solely to extract structured profile information (such as your name, rank, certificates, and sea service history) and pre-fill your profile for your review. We similarly use AI to help prepare draft news articles from trusted maritime publications, reviewed by an administrator before anything is published. We do not use AI to make automated decisions about your employment, applications, or account status.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To create and maintain your account and profile
• To connect seafarers with relevant job opportunities, and agencies/companies with qualified candidates
• To verify identity documents and certificates where our administrators review them
• To operate optional features you choose to use, such as the Blood Bank directory and Complaint reports
• To send you account-related notifications (application updates, verification status, new job matches)
• To maintain the security, integrity, and proper functioning of the Platform
• To respond to support requests and, where legally required, to comply with applicable law

3. Who Sees Your Information

3.1 Other Users of the Platform

To protect your privacy, manning agencies and shipping companies only see your name, CDC number, and voyage history when browsing or searching the seafarer directory. Your full profile — including contact details, documents, and full sea service history — only becomes visible to a specific agency or company once you apply to a vacancy they've posted. Administrators can access full profiles for verification, support, and platform-oversight purposes.

3.2 Blood Bank Directory

If you choose to participate, your blood group and donation availability are visible to other verified seafarers and administrators. Your phone number is only shown to others if you've actively marked yourself as "Available" to donate — it stays hidden otherwise.

3.3 Service Providers

We share limited data with the third-party providers who help us operate the Platform, strictly for that purpose:

• Hosting & email delivery (Hostinger) — to run the Platform and deliver account emails
• AI processing (DeepSeek) — to power CV Auto-Fill and news drafting, as described in Section 1.4

We do not sell your personal information to anyone, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

3.4 Your Own Choices

Some actions you take will share your information outside the Platform by your own direct action — for example, using the pre-filled WhatsApp or email options in the Complaint feature to contact ITF Seafarers' Support yourself, or downloading and sharing your own CV as a PDF or Excel file. These are always things you actively choose to do; we don't do them for you.

4. Data Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encrypted storage for sensitive credentials, hashed passwords, and access controls limiting who can view different categories of data. No system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we work to protect your information appropriately and will notify affected users if we become aware of a breach affecting their data, as required by applicable law.

5. Data Retention

We retain your information for as long as your account is active, or as needed to provide the Platform's services to you. If you close your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal information within a reasonable period, except where we're required to retain it for legal, regulatory, or legitimate business purposes (for example, records needed to resolve a dispute).

6. Your Rights and Choices

• You can review and update most of your profile information at any time from within your account
• You can remove your profile photo, or edit/delete individual documents, sea service records, and other entries you've added
• You can opt in or out of the Blood Bank directory at any time
• You can request deletion of your account by contacting us using the details below

7. Children's Privacy

Mariner Hub BD is intended for maritime professionals and is not directed at children. It is not intended for use by anyone under 18 years of age, consistent with the minimum age requirements of maritime employment. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

8. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers may process data outside Bangladesh. Where this happens, we take reasonable steps to ensure your information continues to receive an appropriate level of protection consistent with this policy.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as the Platform evolves. We'll update the "last updated" date at the top of this page when we do, and we encourage you to review it periodically.

10. Contact Us