Last updated: October 30, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Forthcast, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company ("ForthClear", "we", "us"), handles personal data when business users browse the B2B surplus marketplace, create an account, list inventory, communicate, complete an order, or connect an AI assistant. ForthClear is the controller of personal data it processes for the marketplace. The seller sells the goods. ForthClear runs the marketplace. Stripe processes payments.
We collect the information needed to operate a buyer or seller account and the transactions initiated through it.
A Shopify merchant may choose to send surplus-listing fields to ForthClear from inside the separate Forthcast app. ForthClear receives the listing data the merchant submits for that purpose. The standalone ForthClear marketplace does not require a direct Shopify OAuth connection.
We use the information to create and secure accounts, publish and manage listings, connect buyers and sellers, process and document orders, support payment and payout workflows, prevent misuse, respond to support requests, and comply with legal obligations.
Stripe processes buyer payments, seller payouts, and the identity checks sellers complete before receiving payouts. Stripe handles payment and identity data under its own privacy terms. ForthClear receives the account, verification, and transaction status needed to operate the marketplace.
We share information with the buyer or seller involved in a transaction, with the service providers listed below, and when disclosure is required by law. Transaction parties receive only the information needed to communicate, fulfil, receive, or resolve that transaction.
We do not sell personal data. We do not share connector data (section 9) with third parties for their own marketing or promotions.
Service providers we can confirm from the application code and deployment config:
A local embedding model can run inside the application process. That path does not send the text to another company.
We retain account and marketplace records for as long as needed to provide the service and to meet transaction, fraud-prevention, tax, accounting, dispute, and other legal obligations. When information is no longer required, we delete or de-identify it. A verified deletion request is completed within 30 days, except for data we must keep for legal, tax, or fraud reasons.
Where the code does define a period, it is:
AGENT_ANALYTICS_RETENTION_DAYS). Tool-invocation rows attached to those logs are removed with them.AGENT_ANALYTICS_SUMMARY_RETENTION_DAYS).We use administrative, technical, and organisational safeguards designed to protect marketplace data, including TLS and hashed storage of OAuth tokens and API keys. No internet transmission or storage method is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or export your personal data, or to object to certain processing. To make a request, contact info@forthclear.io. We may need to verify your identity before acting. A verified deletion request is completed within 30 days, except for records we must keep for legal, tax, or fraud reasons. Revoking a connected app at https://app.forthclear.io/oauth/connections invalidates that grant on the next request.
You can use ForthClear through third-party AI assistants, such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Meta Muse, that connect to our MCP server. Anyone can search listings and request a quote without an account. To reach your account, you sign in on app.forthclear.io and approve the specific permissions requested, for example reading your orders or managing your listings. You can approve read-only scopes and leave write and purchase scopes unticked. Connected apps never receive your password. Access tokens and API keys are stored only in hashed form, and you can revoke access at any time by disconnecting the app or contacting us.
When an assistant calls one of our tools, we receive the tool name, the inputs it sends (such as search terms, product IDs, quantities, and the email address supplied with a quote request), and technical data such as IP address and user agent. We use this to fulfil the request, prevent abuse, and measure search quality. We do not use connector or query data to train models, for advertising, for third-party marketing, or for profiling that is unrelated to the request. We do not sell it. If semantic search sends the query text to OpenAI to compute an embedding, that call uses the API default: the data is not used for training, and the request does not opt in to data sharing.
We return only the data needed to answer each request, and only data your account is authorised to see. The assistant provider is an independent controller of the conversation it shows you and handles that conversation under its own privacy policy. We do not receive the conversation beyond the tool inputs described above.
The controller is Forthcast, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. We do not publish a postal address. Questions or privacy requests: info@forthclear.io.