How HainanExpat handles your personal information.
HainanExpat (hainanexpat.com) is an information and listings service for international residents of Hainan. The operator of the site decides why and how your personal information is processed. You can reach us through the contact page of this site; ask there for anything in this policy, including a privacy request. You can also write to admin@hainanexpat.com.
Account: your email address and, if you choose, a display name. We use it to sign you in and to send messages you ask for. Legal basis: the service you request.
Enquiries and requests: the name, contact details and message you send through a form, a message thread, a service request, a job application or a résumé. We use it to pass your request to the person or team that can answer it. Legal basis: your request and your consent.
Listings you publish: the text, prices and photos you submit. They become public once approved.
Payments: handled by our payment provider. We receive the order, the amount and the payment status. We do not see or store your full card number.
Technical data: IP address, browser type and pages visited, used to keep the site secure and limit abuse. Analytics are only used after you accept them in the cookie notice.
We do not ask for passport numbers, identity card numbers, or scans of identity documents, and the site refuses text that looks like one. When a guide says a document is required, bring the original in person to the office concerned. Do not upload it here.
We do not collect sensitive personal information such as health, religion, biometric or financial account data.
Our servers are outside mainland China (database and file storage in the European Union, hosting in the United States and Europe). Using the site therefore means your information is transferred abroad. Before you send us personal information we ask for your separate consent to this transfer.
Recipients and purposes: Supabase (database and sign-in), Vercel (hosting and file storage), Upstash (rate limiting), Resend (email delivery), PostHog EU (analytics, only with consent), Stripe (card payments), and AMap (maps). Each receives only the data it needs for its purpose and handles it under its own security commitments.
You can withdraw your consent at any time from your account. Withdrawing it means we can no longer provide the service, so your account will be closed.
Other users see only what you publish. Messages are visible to the people in the conversation and to our moderators if a message is reported. Contact details written into a message are blocked until both sides agree to share them.
Job applications and enquiries about listings published by HainanExpat itself are read by our team, who may forward them to the employer or owner. We never sell personal information.
Account data is kept while your account is open. Enquiries, messages and support requests are anonymised 24 months after they close or go quiet. Email delivery records are removed after 90 days. Security logs are kept for a short period and do not contain message text or contact details. Records we must keep by law, such as payments, are kept for the period the law requires.
You may ask to access, copy, correct or delete your personal information, to receive it in a portable format, to withdraw a consent, and to ask us to explain how it is processed. Send the request from your account or through the contact page. We answer within 30 days. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the data protection authority where you live.
The site is not meant for children under 14. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
We use cookies that are needed to sign you in and keep the site secure. Analytics cookies are off until you accept them, and you can change your choice at any time.
Version 1.0, 13 October 2026. When we make an important change we will say so on this page and ask for your consent again where the law requires it.