Privacy Policy
Effective October 18, 2026. Last updated October 18, 2026.
RailcarWire collects as little personal information as it can. This page explains what we collect, why, who processes it for us, and how to get it changed or deleted.
Who we are
RailcarWire is an independent weekly digest of publicly posted freight railcar listings, plus a Parts Needs Board for railcar repair material. Contact: railcarwire@mail.grokbot.com.
What we collect
| Data | When | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | Newsletter signup, parts alert subscription, parts post, reply to a parts post | To send the newsletter or alerts you asked for, and to forward replies to your post |
| Name and company | Parts posts, replies, alert subscriptions (company optional) | Your company name appears publicly on your parts post; your name is private and only shared with the person you reply to or who replies to you |
| Post and reply content | Parts board | To show your post (after moderation) and pass replies along |
| Listing submissions and inquiries | Submitting a listing at /submit/, or contacting the owner of a submitted listing | Your company name and the listing details appear publicly once approved. Your name and email stay private; inquiries are reviewed and then forwarded to the owner by email |
| Hashed IP address | Form submissions | Spam and abuse prevention (rate limiting). We store a one-way keyed hash, not the raw IP address |
| Standard server logs | Any visit | Security and reliability, kept by our hosting provider for a limited time |
| Aggregate visit counts | Page views and clicks to source listings | To see which pages are useful and how many visitors we send to listing sources. See "Analytics" below |
We don't sell personal information, we don't use advertising trackers, and we don't build marketing profiles. Listings data on this site comes from public listing pages and is about equipment, not people.
What's public and what isn't
- Public: approved parts posts (need or surplus, category, condition, quantity, region, optional spec and note, company name, post date).
- Never public: your email address and name. Replies go through our site-mediated form; we forward them by email and you decide whether to respond.
Email: double opt-in and unsubscribe
Newsletter and parts-alert subscriptions use double opt-in: nothing is sent until you click the confirmation link in the first email. Every message includes a one-click unsubscribe link, or you can email railcarwire@mail.grokbot.com. Unsubscribing deletes your subscription record.
Service providers (processors)
- Vercel: website hosting and serverless functions (US).
- Neon: Postgres database that stores parts posts, replies, subscriptions and the email log (US East).
- Resend: email delivery for the newsletter, confirmations, alerts and forwarded replies (when email sending is enabled).
They process data only to provide their services to us, under their own terms and privacy policies.
How long we keep data
- Parts posts expire from the board after 90 days. We delete expired posts and their replies within 12 months.
- Subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe. Unconfirmed subscriptions are deleted after 30 days.
- The email log is kept for up to 12 months for troubleshooting and abuse handling.
- Submitted listings expire after 90 days and are deleted, with their inquiries, within 12 months.
- Aggregate visit counts contain no personal data and are kept for up to 25 months.
- Hashed IPs are only used for short-term rate limiting and are deleted with the record they belong to.
Your choices and rights
You can ask us to show, correct or delete your personal information, or close a parts post, by emailing railcarwire@mail.grokbot.com. Depending on where you live (for example California, Canada or the EU/UK), you may have additional rights; we'll honor reasonable requests regardless of where you are.
Analytics
We run our own cookieless counter instead of a third-party analytics service. When a page loads, your browser sends us the page path and the website you came from (domain only, e.g. "google.com"). When you click through to a listing source, it sends the destination domain. We add these to daily totals (for example "/listings/ was viewed 40 times on Monday"). We don't store your IP address, a cookie, a device ID or your browser details with these counts, so they can't be tied back to you. If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, nothing is sent at all.
Cookies
We don't use advertising or analytics cookies. The moderation page stores a session token in your browser tab only while a moderator is signed in.
Children
RailcarWire is a business-to-business service and isn't directed to children under 16.
Changes
If we change this policy we'll update the date above, and we'll notify subscribers of material changes.