Privacy Policy

When you use the services of the auction platform, you entrust us with personal information. Our Privacy Policy aims to help you understand what data we collect, why we collect it, and what we do with that data. This is important, and we hope you will take the time to read it carefully.

Using "cookies": They help the system provide its services. By using the website, you agree to the use of “cookies” by the system. A "cookie" is a small text file sent to the browser of a user/visitor of the website. It helps the site store information about your visit and settings. This could facilitate your next visit and make the website more useful to you. Some “cookies” from third parties are used as part of our services. These “cookies” are managed by the respective sites and are not controlled by us, although some can be disabled using your browser’s settings. For others, it is necessary to visit the respective sites and follow the instructions provided.
Adsense - gathers data in order to display personalized ads. Detailed information at https://business.safety.google/privacy/
Google Analytics - generates statistics about traffic and traffic sources (to disable - https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/181881).
You can choose whether you want to enable “cookies” or not. If you wish to know when your device receives a “cookie”, you can set up your browser to notify you. This gives you the opportunity to enable or disable a particular “cookie”. Your device can be set to disable all “cookies”, but in this case the site will not function properly.

Personal data and storage: According to the General Terms and Conditions for using the system, personal data is collected from users. This is based on registration No. 21044 under the Personal Data Protection Act of the Republic of Bulgaria and the specifics of the activities carried out by users in the system. Every person who wishes to register is considered to agree to provide their personal data as required (name and surname, location/town, mobile phone, email address, and for sellers - additional data according to Directive (EU) 2021/514).
Access to personal data and its storage is a top priority of the system. Every time you use our services, we aim to provide you with access to your personal data together with the opportunity to make changes to your personal information if necessary. We store it carefully and securely for valid business and legal reasons.
If there is a deal between users (a buyer and a seller), the site does not provide personal data. Providing personal/contact information outside our website is at the users' own risk. BalkanAuction accepts no responsibility for loss of privacy if a user shares their contact information outside our website.
BalkanAuction provides its users with an internal private messaging service which facilitates communication between them. Messages sent or received via this service are available in the user's profile (for 60 days), and a copy of each message is sent to the recipient via email. Messages exchanged between users are confidential, and only the sender and recipient are authorized to read their content. By exception, all messages exchanged between users may be read by BalkanAuction to ensure compliance with the current General Terms and Conditions and to eliminate malicious actions toward the system and its users.
Unlike private communication, public communication is available to every visitor of the website and consists of questions and answers in the public section under each auction.
Communication via BalkanAuction's system shall comply with the following rules:
- Not contain insults or slanderous statements that could harm the reputation or privacy of another person;
- Not contain personal and/or confidential information about third parties or active users of the system;
- Not contain advertisements for other commercial websites;
- Not contain messages that violate the system's General Terms and Conditions;
- Not contain solicitations for sale, purchase, or exchange of one or more items, whether listed on BalkanAuction’s system or not, in order to avoid paying fees;
- Not contain rude/obscene language or threats.
We aim to maintain our services in a way that protects data from accidental or malicious destruction or erasure. Because of this, after erasing data from our database, we may not immediately erase copies remaining on active servers or remove data from our archive systems.
We will share personal data with law enforcement agencies, companies, organizations, or external individuals if we have sufficient reason to believe that access to, use, retention of, or disclosure of such data is necessary:
- To comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal procedure, or enforceable governmental request;
- To enforce the relevant General Terms and Conditions, including investigating possible violations;
- To detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, technical issues, or security issues;
- To take measures to protect against violations of the rights, property, or safety of the system, our users, or the public.
In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of company assets, we will continue to guarantee the privacy of personal data and will notify users before their personal data is transferred to another online system or becomes subject to different General Terms and Conditions.
We may publicly share data that does not personally identify you. For example, such data may show general usage trends of our services.
We make great efforts to protect BalkanAuction and its users from unauthorized access, modification, disclosure, or destruction of the information we store. More specifically:
- We encrypt our services using SSL;
- We review our practices for collecting, storing, and processing information, including physical security measures, in order to prevent unauthorized access to the system;
- Access to personal data is restricted to employees, subcontractors, and representatives of BalkanAuction. They are bound by strict contractual confidentiality obligations.
How users can request deletion of their data: If you do not wish all or any of your personal data to continue being processed by BalkanAuction for a specific or any processing purpose, you may withdraw your consent for processing at any time by submitting a request through the contact form on the website.

Our privacy policy does not apply to services offered by other businesses or individuals, including products or sites that may be displayed as ads or in user-generated content such as comments, titles, descriptions, and auction images. The policy does not cover the data practices of other companies and organizations that advertise our services and may use "cookies", pixel tags, and other technologies to display and offer relevant ads.

The General Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy are linked documents; therefore, any change in the Privacy Policy is reflected in the date of the latest revision in the General Terms and Conditions.

Mandatory Information & Rights.