Data Deletion Request

Last updated: July 25, 2026

Your Right to Data Deletion

Under various privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA, and others), you have the right to request deletion of your personal information. This page explains how to submit a data deletion request and what to expect.

What Data Can Be Deleted

When you request data deletion, we will remove:

• Account Information: Name, email address, password, profile details
• User Content: Inventory data, photos, descriptions, notes
• Usage Data: Activity logs, preferences, settings
• Payment Information: Billing addresses (payment card details are handled by Stripe and subject to their retention policies)
• Communication Records: Support messages, feedback, email communications

What Data May Be Retained

Some records are kept rather than deleted. Where we keep one, we remove the personal details from it — your name, email address, notes and free text — and keep only the parts that have to survive. Our Privacy Policy describes this as deleting or anonymizing your information.

• Transaction Records: Payments, sales, refunds and invoices, kept for 7 years for tax and accounting. Amounts, dates and payment-processor references remain; your details are removed.
• Records Shared With Someone Else: If you sold, bought, loaned, borrowed or transferred an item, the record of that dealing belongs to the other person as much as to you, and deleting your account does not delete their copy. Examples: a completed marketplace sale and the buyer's receipt; bids in someone else's auction; an item you still have on loan from another member; a change of ownership in an item's history. Your personal details are removed from these; the transaction itself remains.
• Conversations Other People Took Part In: A post, a comment, a telegraph thread or a direct message is not only yours once somebody has replied to it. If we deleted the thing you wrote, we would also be deleting the replies other members hung underneath it, or leaving their replies answering nothing. So we keep the row and clear what you wrote: the text is replaced with "[Deleted Account]" and any name, email address, IP address or attachment on it is removed. The conversation keeps its shape, every reply still answers the thing it actually answered, and nothing is silently moved to look like a reply to somebody else. In a private message, only the half you sent is cleared — the other person's messages are theirs.
• Security and Moderation Logs: Sign-in and security events, reports made about or by you, and moderation decisions including account restrictions. Kept for fraud prevention and to keep those decisions effective. Identifying details such as IP addresses are removed.
• Legal Obligations: Anything we are required to keep by law, or that is subject to a legal hold.
• Anonymized Data: Data that no longer identifies you.
• Backups: Our database backups are managed by our cloud provider on a rolling schedule and are not edited individually. A backup taken before your deletion still contains your data until that backup ages out of the retention window. Backups are used only to restore the service after a failure — never to look up an individual — and if one is ever restored, the deletion is re-applied.

Some items in your collection may be kept as an anonymous record rather than removed, for the same reason: if an item was ever sold, loaned or transferred, deleting it would erase the other party's record of that dealing. In that case the item's description, notes and prices are cleared and only an unidentifiable placeholder remains.

How to Request Data Deletion

Option 1: Self-Service Deletion (Recommended)

1. Log in to your RailScanPro account
2. Navigate to Settings → Account → Privacy & Data
3. Click Delete My Account and Data
4. Review what will be deleted
5. Confirm your identity (re-enter password)
6. Click Permanently Delete Account

What happens then:

• Straight away: your account is suspended and you are signed out. You cannot sign in, and any paid subscription is cancelled at once. Your memberships of clubs and museums end.
• For the next 14 days: your data still exists and the request can be cancelled. There is a Cancel Deletion & Restore Account button under Settings → Account → Privacy & Data if you are still signed in. Because requesting deletion locks the account, you will usually need to email privacy@railscanpro.com instead — do so within the 14 days and we will restore your account.
• After 14 days: the erasure runs. It cannot be undone, and the account cannot be reactivated afterwards. We email you when it has finished.

Note: Once the 14-day period has passed and the erasure has run, it cannot be reversed.

Option 2: Email Request

If you cannot access your account, email us at:

Email: privacy@railscanpro.com
Subject: Data Deletion Request

Include the following information:

• Full name
• Email address associated with your account
• Account username (if different from email)
• Reason for deletion (optional)
• Any additional information to help us verify your identity

Option 3: Written Request

For formal written requests:

Winsit LLC
RailScanPro Data Privacy Officer
Attn: Data Deletion Request
[Mailing Address]

Identity Verification

To protect your privacy, we must verify your identity before processing deletion requests. We may ask you to:

• Provide additional identifying information
• Answer security questions
• Verify access to the email address on file
• Provide government-issued identification (in rare cases)

Processing Timeline

Erasure is carried out by a job that runs once a day, at 03:00 UTC, and picks up every account whose 14 days have elapsed. So the erasure happens on the first such run after your 14 days are up — in practice between a few minutes and about 24 hours after the fourteenth day, not at the exact moment it ends. Your access has already been cut off since the moment you made the request.

The 14-day period is deliberate. It gives you time to change your mind, and it leaves us time to detect and fix a problem if the erasure does not complete on the first attempt — while still finishing inside the one-month limit below.

Legal Requirement: We complete deletion requests within one month of receiving them, as required by GDPR Article 12(3) and by CCPA. If we ever cannot, we will tell you why before that month is up.

What Happens After Deletion

1. Access ends immediately. From the moment you confirm the request you are signed out and locked out, 14 days before anything is erased.
2. On the first nightly run after your 14 days, your data is erased from our active systems: your account, your collection, your photos and files, your activity and your settings.
3. A small number of records are kept and anonymized instead of deleted — see What Data May Be Retained above. Your personal details are removed from them.
4. Confirmation email. We email you once the erasure has actually completed — including the removal of your photographs and files from storage, not just their records in the database. If any part of it has not completed, you will not receive that email; it is held back and the failure is raised with our team instead. We do not send it in advance.
5. Backups age out on their own schedule. See the note under What Data May Be Retained.
6. No recovery. Once the erasure has run, we cannot restore your account or your data, and the account cannot be reactivated.

Exceptions to Deletion

We may deny or delay deletion requests if:

• Legal Hold: Data is subject to a legal hold or investigation
• Outstanding Obligations: You have outstanding payments or disputes
• Fraud Prevention: Deletion would interfere with fraud investigations
• Technical Limitations: Third-party systems require additional time

If we cannot complete your request, we will explain why and provide alternatives.

Impact on Services

After account deletion:

• Subscription Cancellation: Active subscriptions are cancelled as soon as you request deletion, not at the end of the 14 days (no refunds for partial periods)
• Club and Museum Memberships: Your memberships end immediately. If you are the sole owner of a club or museum organization, you must transfer ownership before you can delete your account
• Data Loss: Your collection data, photos and settings are permanently lost after day 14
• No Restoration: We cannot restore your account or data once the erasure has run
• Third-Party Services: Some third-party services, including our payment processor, retain data according to their own policies

Children's Data

If you believe we have data for a child under 13 and you are the parent/guardian, please contact us immediately at legal@railscanpro.com with:

• Child's name and email (if applicable)
• Your relationship to the child
• Proof of guardianship

We will expedite deletion of children's data.

Data Portability Before Deletion

Before deleting your account, you may want to:

1. Export Your Data: Use the "Download My Data" feature
2. Backup Photos: Download all uploaded images
3. Save Reports: Export any reports you want to keep
4. Transfer Data: Move to another service while data is still available

See our Privacy Policy for data portability rights.

Partial Deletion Requests

You can request deletion of specific data types without deleting your entire account:

• Inventory Items: Delete individual items or collections
• Photos: Delete specific images
• Communication History: Request deletion of support messages
• Usage Data: Request deletion of activity logs

Email privacy@railscanpro.com with your specific request.

Reactivation Policy

If you change your mind within the 14-day period, use the Cancel Deletion & Restore Account button if you can still reach your settings, or email privacy@railscanpro.com. Either way we cancel the request and restore your account intact.

Once the erasure has run:

• No Reactivation: Erased accounts cannot be reactivated
• New Account: You must create a new account
• Data Loss: All previous data is permanently lost
• Fresh Start: Your new account starts from scratch

Questions and Support

If you have questions about data deletion:

• Email: privacy@railscanpro.com
• Support: https://railscanpro.com/support
• Response Time: We respond within 2 business days

Your Privacy Rights

Data deletion is just one of your privacy rights. See our Privacy Policy for information about:

• Right to access your data
• Right to correct inaccurate data
• Right to data portability
• Right to restrict processing
• Right to object to processing

Complaints

If you're not satisfied with how we handle your deletion request, you can:

1. Contact our Data Privacy Officer at legal@railscanpro.com
2. File a complaint with your local data protection authority
3. For EU residents: Contact your national supervisory authority

Contact Information

Winsit LLC
RailScanPro Data Privacy Officer
Email: privacy@railscanpro.com
Website: https://railscanpro.com