Privacy

FerryHawk asks for your phone number, so you should know exactly what happens to it. Short version: it is used to text you about the sailing you asked about, and nothing else. Updated August 2026.

What I collect

Your phone number — only if you set an alert. Browsing the site, checking availability and reading the guides never ask for one.

What you asked to watch — the route, date, vehicle type and sailing times attached to your alert. That is what makes the text possible.

A visitor cookie — a random ID stored in your browser for 30 days. It is how the site remembers which sailings you are already watching after a refresh, and how I count visits.

Basic page analytics — which page was loaded, the domain name of the site that linked you here, and any campaign tags in the link. This runs on my own server. Your IP address and browser user-agent are never stored, and there is no Google Analytics, no advertising pixel and no third-party tracking script anywhere on this site.

How to stop the texts

Reply STOP to any FerryHawk text. That stops everything immediately and permanently — no reply needed, no account to close. Reply START if you ever want alerts again, or HELP for a reminder of what FerryHawk is.

You can also cancel a single alert on the sailing card without stopping the rest, or manage all of your alerts at ferryhawk.ca/manage.

FerryHawk only ever texts you about a sailing you asked it to watch. There is no marketing list, no newsletter and no promotional messaging.

Who else sees it

Your number is never sold, rented, or shared with anyone for marketing. There is no advertiser, data broker or partner in this at all.

Two companies handle it because they have to: Twilio delivers the text messages, so they receive your number in order to send it, and Railway hosts the site and its database. Beyond those two, nobody else gets it.

How long it is kept

Thirty days after your sailing date, your alert and its text-message records are deleted automatically, phone number included. What is left behind carries no way to identify you: the route, the date, the vehicle type, whether an alert fired, and the area code of the number (for example 778) — never the number itself. I keep that to see which routes and dates are worth watching.

Page-view analytics are deleted after 180 days.

One thing is kept indefinitely on purpose: if you text STOP, that number stays on the do-not-text list. Deleting it would mean forgetting that you asked me to stop, and texting you again later.

If you would rather not wait, email me and I will delete your number right away.

Who runs FerryHawk

FerryHawk is built and run by one person in British Columbia. It started because I kept missing sailings that had quietly opened back up after somebody cancelled, and refreshing the BC Ferries page every ten minutes is a bad way to spend a Friday.

It is free, there are no ads, and there is nothing to sign up for beyond the alert itself. FerryHawk is not affiliated with BC Ferries — it simply reads the same publicly available sailing availability you would see on their website, and tells you when it changes.

Contact

Questions about any of this, or want your number removed? Email info@ferryhawk.ca.