Last updated 6 November 2026
The website
The site sets no cookies and runs no analytics, advertising or third-party scripts. Its fonts are served from the site itself. Mark images are loaded from an object-storage host that serves them for us; that host, like any web server, sees the address and browser type of each request for an image.
Searches
When you search or use the identify tool, the words, symbols and filters you enter are sent to our server as part of the page address, compared with the catalogue and answered. We do not save them or link them to you. Because they are part of the address, they can appear in the standard request logs of our hosting provider (see below) and in your own browser history.
Photos
A photo you add to the identify tool is sent to our server (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 4 MB), compared in memory with the catalogue and discarded when the answer is returned. It is not saved. Text recognition runs in your browser, and the letters it finds are sent with the photo. A photo you pick on the home page is kept in your browser tab’s session storage only so the identify page can open it, and it goes when you close the tab.
The app in ChatGPT and Claude
The app at marksandsignatures.com/api/mcp needs no account. It receives what the assistant sends it (a description of a mark, a maker name or an id) and returns catalogue entries with images and links. We do not store these requests. Your conversation is handled by the assistant you use, under its own privacy policy.
Link counts
Links in the app’s results open through marksandsignatures.com/q. When a link is opened we can count it with these fields: the time, the environment, which assistant showed the link, where in the app it was shown, the destination page, the catalogue item it points to, a two-letter country code from the request, and whether the visitor looks like a bot. We do not record your IP address, set a cookie, or record the words of your search: a link to a search leads to the identify page, and only the page address is counted. We keep these counts until we set a retention period, and we will state it here when we do. Nobody else receives them.
Hosting
The site is hosted on Vercel, which keeps standard technical logs of requests (the address requested, the time, the browser type and a network address) for a limited period. We do not use these logs to identify visitors.
If you write to us we keep your message and address to answer you, and we do not pass them on. Write to abishop1933@gmail.com to ask for a message to be deleted.
Changes
If this page changes, the date above changes with it.