Privacy policy

Effective 14 July 2026

This policy explains what personal data zantau collects when you use the service at zantau.com, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over it. It covers personal data about you as a user — not the advertising creatives in our research library, which are addressed separately below.

Who we are (data controller)

zantau is a trading name of HOOK VENTURES LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16969873), whose registered office is at 71–75 Shelton Street, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom. For the personal data described in this policy, HOOK VENTURES LTD is the data controller. For any privacy question, or to exercise your rights, contact us at privacy@zantau.com.

Data we collect

Account. Your email address, used for passwordless sign-in (we send a one-time code) and for service and billing emails you have not opted out of.
Profile. An optional display name and avatar, plus the persona, category interests and referral source you may provide during onboarding to personalise your feed.
Your activity. The advertisers you follow, the ads you save, the boards you create, your notification preferences and, for Team accounts, your team membership.
Billing. If you subscribe, our payment processor collects your payment details directly; we receive and store only your subscription status, plan and a customer/subscription reference — never your full card number.
Usage and product analytics. Product analytics about how the service is used (feature usage, page views, funnel and engagement events) and, to help us diagnose issues and improve usability, session recordings that capture on-screen interactions such as clicks, navigation and page content. Recordings are configured to mask text you type into form fields (including passwords and payment fields), and we use them only to understand and improve the product.
Technical data. Standard server and security logs (for example, IP address, device and browser type, and timestamps) generated when you access the service.

The ad library

The advertising creatives, copy and metadata in the library are sourced from advertising platforms’ public ad-transparency libraries and comparable public sources. This material relates to businesses and their marketing rather than to you as a private individual, and we index and annotate it for commentary and competitive-research purposes. If you believe library content includes your personal data, contact us at privacy@zantau.com or see our Content & Takedown Policy and we will review it.

How we use your data and our legal bases

Under UK and EU data-protection law we rely on the following legal bases:

To provide the service — authentication, your saves, boards, follows and feed, and to take payment and manage subscriptions and teams. Legal basis: performance of our contract with you.
To personalise what you see, understand product usage, secure the service and prevent abuse, and to improve zantau. Legal basis: our legitimate interests in running and improving the service, balanced against your rights.
To send optional notification or digest emails, and (where required) to set non-essential analytics cookies. Legal basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
To meet legal, tax and accounting obligations and to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. Legal basis: legal obligation and our legitimate interests.

Service providers

We use a small number of trusted processors that handle data on our behalf under their own terms and security commitments:

Supabase — database, authentication and file storage.
Vercel — application hosting and delivery.
Stripe — payment processing and subscription billing.
Resend — transactional and notification email delivery.
PostHog — product analytics and session recording.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for third-party advertising.

Cookies and local storage

We use cookies and browser storage that are strictly necessary to run the service — such as keeping you signed in and remembering interface preferences like your theme — and, where enabled, analytics technologies. For details of what we set and how to control it, see our Cookie Policy.

Retention

We keep your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we remove your profile, saves, boards and follows; limited records may be retained where required for legal, tax or fraud-prevention purposes, and for the period required by law. In-app notifications and session recordings are kept only for a limited period and purged on a rolling basis.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have rights to access, correct, export (data portability), delete or restrict the processing of your personal data, to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and to withdraw consent where we rely on it. You can edit your profile and delete your account at any time from your account settings, or contact us at privacy@zantau.com to exercise any of these rights. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) (or your local data-protection authority); we ask that you contact us first so we can try to resolve the matter.

Security and international transfers

We rely on reputable providers with industry-standard security controls, and access to personal data is limited to what is needed to run the service. Some of our providers may process data outside the UK or EEA; where they do, we rely on appropriate safeguards for international transfers, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or transfers to countries with an adequacy decision.

Children

zantau is a business research tool intended for adults and is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

Changes and contact

We may update this policy from time to time; the “effective” date above reflects the current version and we will take reasonable steps to notify you of material changes. For any privacy question, or to request an export or deletion, email privacy@zantau.com or use the contact page.