Privacy notice

Who we are

CircuitScope is run by Circuit Scope, which is the "controller" of your personal data. You can contact us about anything in this notice, or to use any of your rights, by email at donotreply@circuitscope.co.uk.

What we collect

• Your account: username, display name, email address and password (stored only as a secure one-way hash). If you turn on two-step sign-in, an encrypted authenticator key and backup codes.
• Your profile (optional): anything you choose to add — picture, banner, bio, location, specialisation, website and social links.
• What you post: boards, components, guides, error codes, suggestions, forum threads and replies, reactions, votes, photos, and messages you send to other members.
• Donor parts & trades: items you list, the town/country you choose to show, requests, messages and trade feedback.
• Scans: photos you take with the board scanner, so we can recognise the board and improve recognition.
• Feedback and contact messages: what you write and any contact details you give.
• Security records: sign-ins, failed sign-ins, password and 2FA changes, with the date, time and IP address, to protect accounts and stop abuse.
• Alerts: your alert choices and, if you allow phone/browser alerts, the push address your browser gives us and the device type.

We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, and we don't sell or rent your data to anyone.

Why we use it, and our legal basis

• To run your account and the site — showing what you post, sending messages and alerts you asked for, account emails such as verification and password resets. Basis: contract (providing the service you signed up for).
• To keep the site and accounts secure — security records, rate limits, spotting abuse, moderation and handling reports. Basis: legitimate interests (keeping members and the site safe).
• To improve the site — e.g. using scans to recognise boards better, and reading feedback. Basis: legitimate interests.
• News and update emails — only if you've said yes. You can stop them at any time from Alerts or the link in every email. Basis: consent.
• When the law requires it — for example responding to a lawful request from the authorities. Basis: legal obligation.

Who we share it with

Only with companies that help us run the site (our "processors"), under contracts that require them to protect it and use it only on our instructions:

• Web hosting — our hosting provider stores the site and database in the UK.
• Email delivery — our email provider sends account emails and alerts.
• AI features — when you use an AI feature (for example asking a question or an AI insight on a scan), the text or image involved is sent to the AI provider we use (such as Anthropic or OpenAI) to produce the answer. Your name and email are not sent.
• Phone/browser alerts — if you turn them on, alerts go through your browser maker's push service (Google, Apple, Mozilla or Microsoft). The content is encrypted so they can't read it.
• GIFs — if you search for a GIF in chat, your search words are sent to the GIF provider.

Fonts, icons and page code are all served from our own server, so just visiting a page doesn't send your details to anyone else. Links to supplier sites (e.g. to buy a part) only share anything when you click them, and those sites have their own privacy policies.

International transfers

Some of the providers above may process data outside the UK and EEA (for example in the USA). When they do, we rely on UK adequacy regulations (including the UK–US data bridge), the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, so your data keeps the same level of protection.

How long we keep it

• Your account and profile: until you delete your account.
• IP addresses in security records: removed after 90 days. The records themselves are deleted after 730 days.
• Server error logs: deleted after 14 days.
• Contact-form messages: deleted after 365 days.
• Read notifications: deleted after 180 days. Unused phone/browser alert registrations after 365 days.
• Backups: a small number of recent backups are kept for disaster recovery and are overwritten as new ones are made.

When you delete your account, your personal details are erased. Things you contributed to the shared knowledge base (boards, components, guides) and public forum posts stay, but are shown as from "Deleted member" — you can choose to have your forum posts' text removed too.

Your rights

Under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of your data (access and portability) — you can download it yourself from Security & 2FA → Your data;
• correct it (rectification) — most of it you can edit in your account and profile;
• delete it (erasure) — you can delete your account from Security & 2FA → Your data;
• restrict or object to how we use it, and withdraw consent at any time (e.g. turn off news emails).

Contact us by email at donotreply@circuitscope.co.uk for anything else. We'll reply within one month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or to the data protection authority in the EU country where you live.

Children

You must be at least 13 to create an account.

How we protect it

Everything is sent over HTTPS. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, sign-in secrets are encrypted, two-step sign-in is available to everyone (and required for staff), and staff can only see what their role needs. Photos sent in private messages can only be opened by the people in that conversation, and location details are removed from photos you upload.

Cookies

We only use cookies that are needed for the site to work. See our cookies page for the full list.

Changes to this notice

If we change how we use your data we'll update this page, and tell members about significant changes by email or a notice on the site.