Privacy Policy

1. Overview

PC Parts Lens ("we", "us", or "our") tracks historical prices for computer components and lets you watch parts for price drops and restocks. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why, who we share it with, and the choices you have.

You can browse price history, charts, and part pages without an account. Creating an account, setting up alerts, and subscribing to our paid plan each involve additional information, described below.

2. Information We Collect

Account information. When you register, we collect your email address and a password. Authentication is handled by Amazon Cognito; your password is stored and verified by Cognito and is never visible to us. We also store the account identifier Cognito issues, which is what links your alerts and subscription to you.

Alerts and notification history. When you create a price-drop or back-in-stock alert, we store the part you are watching, your target price, the email address to notify, and whether the alert is still active. When an alert fires we keep a record of it — the part, the triggering price, the marketplace, and the time — so you can see your alert history in the app.

Billing information. If you subscribe to Pro, payments are processed by Stripe. Your card number never reaches our servers. We store the Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, your plan and billing interval, your subscription status and renewal date, and the brand and last four digits of your card so we can show you which card is on file.

Usage and device information. Our servers log requests, including IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URL, and the pages you visit. If you consent to analytics (see section 4), Google Analytics collects similar information via cookies.

Error reports. When something breaks, we send diagnostic information — the error, the page it happened on, and browser details — to Sentry so we can fix it. We do not record your screen or your session, and we have disabled Sentry's automatic collection of personally identifying request data.

Local storage. Your signed-in state and your analytics choice are stored in your browser's local storage, not sent to us as cookies. See section 4.

3. How We Use Your Information

• Provide the Service: render price history, run your alerts, and deliver the notifications you asked for.
• Authenticate you and keep your account secure.
• Process subscription payments, renewals, and cancellations, and grant or revoke Pro features accordingly.
• Diagnose errors, monitor reliability, and prevent abuse.
• With your consent, understand which parts and pages people use so we know what to build next.
• Respond to support and privacy requests.

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

4. Cookies, Local Storage, and Your Choices

We do not set any advertising or tracking cookies of our own. What the site stores in your browser falls into two categories:

• Strictly necessary. When you sign in, Amazon Cognito stores session tokens in your browser's local storage so you stay signed in. We also store a small cached copy of your signed-in state so pages render without a flash of logged-out content, and your analytics choice so we do not ask again on every visit. These are required for the site to work and are not used for tracking.
• Analytics, only with your consent. Google Analytics is not loaded, and sets no cookies, unless you accept the banner shown on your first visit. Declining is a complete opt-out — nothing analytics-related is loaded — and the site behaves identically either way. To change your mind, clear your site data in your browser settings and the banner will ask again.

5. Service Providers and Third Parties

We share information with the following providers only as needed to run the Service. Each processes it under its own privacy policy.

• Amazon Web Services — hosting, databases, and Amazon Cognito for account sign-up and authentication.
• Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) — delivery of alert emails to the address you provided.
• Stripe — payment processing and card storage for Pro subscriptions.
• Google Analytics — usage analytics, loaded only if you consent.
• Sentry — error and performance monitoring. Sentry receives no session recordings from us.

We may also disclose information where required by law, or to protect our rights, safety, or the integrity of the Service.

Affiliate links. Some links to marketplaces are affiliate links. Following one tells that marketplace we referred you, so it can attribute a purchase to us. We do not receive your order details or any personal information back from those marketplaces — only aggregate commission reporting. See our affiliate disclosure for how this does and does not affect what we show you.

6. Alert Emails and Unsubscribing

We only email you about alerts you created, plus transactional messages about your account or subscription. We do not send marketing email.

Every alert email carries a one-click unsubscribe link. Using it adds your address to a suppression list, which stops all alert email to that address regardless of which alert fires or which account it belongs to. In-app notifications continue unless you also pause or delete the alerts themselves.

7. Data Retention

• Account data — kept while your account is active, and for up to 12 months after deletion.
• Alerts and notification history — kept alongside your account, on the same schedule.
• Billing records — kept for 7 years, as tax and accounting rules require. Card details themselves are held by Stripe, not by us.
• Suppressed email addresses — kept indefinitely. This is the record that stops us emailing an address that asked us not to, so deleting it would undo the unsubscribe.
• Usage and analytics data — kept for up to 24 months.
• Locally stored preferences — kept in your browser until you clear them.

8. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Request correction or deletion of your personal information.
• Object to or restrict certain processing of your data.
• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, such as analytics.
• Receive a copy of your data in a portable format.

If you are a California resident, the CCPA gives you these rights along with the right not to be discriminated against for exercising them. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA.

To exercise any of these rights — including deleting your account and the data attached to it — email us at privacy@pcpartslens.com. We will verify your request against the email address on your account and respond within 30 days. Deleting your account removes your alerts and notification history; billing records are retained for the period described in section 7.

9. Children's Privacy

The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information: traffic is encrypted in transit, passwords are handled by Amazon Cognito rather than stored by us, and card details are held by Stripe. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated revision date. Continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

12. Contact

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@pcpartslens.com.