Buyer and seller addresses are only shared with the courier and the counter-party at the point of dispatch. Your full address, phone, and email stay private during browsing and messaging. We are GDPR compliant and never sell user data.
How Your Data is Protected During a Sale
Buying or selling a bike involves exchanging some information, that is unavoidable. Cyclesite is designed so the minimum necessary is shared, and only at the point it is actually needed.
What Is Shared, and When
Before any contact, only your public profile is visible: display name, profile photo (if you added one), city or region (if you added one), number of completed sales and your average seller rating. No email, no phone number, no address.
When messages start, exchanges happen inside Cyclesite. The other party sees your display name and anything you choose to share in the conversation. They do not see your email address, phone number, or full name.
When a sale is paid, for delivery, your delivery address is shared with our courier partner to complete the shipment. The seller sees the address on the shipping label; the buyer's real name appears as the recipient. For collection, the seller's pickup address is released to the buyer after payment clears, and the buyer sees the seller's first name.
Payout, the seller's bank details are held by Stripe, not by Cyclesite, and are never visible to the buyer. The buyer never sees any of the seller's financial information.
What Is Never Shared With the Other Party
- Email address
- Phone number (calls are routed through a masked number that forwards without revealing the real one)
- Home address outside the shipping or collection flow above
- Full name (except on the shipping label, where it is legally required)
- Payment details (card number, bank account)
- Date of birth, ID photos, or KYC information submitted to Stripe
Stripe and Third Parties
Stripe handles all payment processing. Cyclesite does not see or store card numbers, CVVs or expiry dates, they go directly to Stripe. Sellers completing their first sale set up a Stripe Connect account and upload KYC documents (ID, address proof) directly to Stripe; Cyclesite never sees these.
Paisley Freight sees only the collection and delivery addresses, a contact phone number per address, and the bike dimensions and weight needed to ship safely. Paisley does not see the sale price.
UK stolen-bike databases receive only the frame number of each listing during the automatic stolen-bike check. No personal data is shared.
On-Platform Messaging
All messaging runs through Cyclesite. This matters for two reasons:
- Safety. If the other party later breaks our rules, pressures for off-platform payment, becomes abusive, goes silent on a dispute, we have the full message history and can act on it.
- Evidence. If there is a dispute, the messages sit alongside the order as part of the review. Off-platform chat cannot be used as evidence.
A seller or buyer who pushes for WhatsApp, personal email, or a phone number before the sale is complete is a red flag. Report them, see [How to report a suspicious listing](/help/safety/report-listing).
After the Sale Completes
Your real name, shipping address and the bike details are retained as part of the order record. This is required for:
- HMRC compliance. Transaction records are kept for seven years.
- Disputes and returns. If a fault emerges in the 48-hour inspection window (or under UK consumer law later), we need the record to resolve it.
- Fraud prevention. Patterns across orders help us detect suspicious accounts.
When either party deletes their account, their personal details are anonymised on the order record, the record still exists for HMRC, but no name, address or email is attached. See [How to delete your account](/help/account/delete-account).
Your Rights Under UK GDPR
You can ask us what we hold, correct anything wrong, or delete your account at any time. See [How your data is protected](/help/account/data-privacy) for the self-serve tools and our Data Protection Officer contact.
Frequently asked questions
Does the other party see my home address?
Only once a sale is paid and shipping is booked, and only the address needed to complete that shipment. Browsing the site and exchanging messages does not expose your address. For collection-only sales, the pickup address is released to the buyer after payment clears.
Can the buyer or seller see my email or phone number?
No. All Cyclesite messaging runs through the platform. Your email and phone number are never shared with the other party, if you need to call, we provide a masked number that forwards without revealing your real one.
What does Stripe see?
Stripe processes the payment and sees what it needs to: buyer name, billing address, card details, sale amount. Sellers receiving payouts provide KYC information (ID, bank details) directly to Stripe, Cyclesite never sees bank account numbers or card details.
Is my sale history visible to other buyers?
Your number of completed sales and your seller rating are shown on your public profile. Individual sale details (price, bike sold, buyer name) are not. Buyers can see their own purchase history in their account.
How long is my data kept after a sale completes?
Account data stays until you delete the account. Transaction records are retained for seven years as HMRC requires. Messages are retained while both accounts exist and are anonymised on either side when an account is deleted. See [How your data is protected](/help/account/data-privacy) for the full policy.