1. Who we are
InstaSilver (“we”, “us”, “our”) is a silver buying service operated from Sheffield, UK. We are the data controller for personal data collected through instasilver.co.uk.
We take privacy seriously. This policy explains clearly what data we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it, and your rights.
Contact: privacy@instasilver.co.uk
2. Data we collect
We collect the following categories of personal data:
- Identity data: Full name, date of birth, passport or driving licence details (collected via Onfido for identity verification)
- Contact data: Email address, phone number
- Transaction data: Details of silver submitted, weights, purity grades, offers made, offers accepted or declined
- Financial data: Bank account sort code and account number (processed via TrueLayer — we do not store these on our own systems)
- Technical data: IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited (collected via cookies)
- Communications: Email and WhatsApp messages relating to your submission
3. Why we use your data
We process your data on the following legal bases:
- Contract performance: To process your submission, make an offer, and arrange payment
- Fraud prevention: we verify your identity via Onfido and keep records to help prevent the handling of stolen or illicit goods
- Legitimate interests: To communicate with you about your submission, to improve our service, and to detect fraud
- Consent: To send marketing emails (you can withdraw this at any time)
4. Third parties
We share data with the following third parties only where necessary:
- Onfido: Identity verification. Onfido processes your ID document and selfie on our behalf.
- TrueLayer: Open banking payment provider. They facilitate bank transfers but do not store your bank credentials.
- moov / Royal Mail: For generating and tracking shipping labels.
- Supabase: Our database and authentication provider. Hosted in the EU.
- Resend: Email delivery service for transactional emails.
We do not sell your data to third parties or use it for advertising.
5. Data retention
We retain identity and transaction records for 5 years from the date of the transaction to help prevent fraud and resolve any disputes. After this period, records are securely deleted.
Inactive account data (no submissions for 3 years) is deleted unless legal retention obligations apply.
6. Your rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Correct inaccurate data
- Request deletion (subject to legal retention requirements)
- Object to processing based on legitimate interests
- Withdraw consent for marketing
- Data portability
- Lodge a complaint with the ICO (ico.org.uk)
To exercise any right, email privacy@instasilver.co.uk. We respond within 30 days.
7. Cookies
We use essential cookies for site functionality and analytics cookies to understand how the site is used. See our Cookie Policy for full details. You can manage your cookie preferences at any time.
8. Changes to this policy
We will notify registered users by email of any material changes to this policy. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.