Some Lenders choose to place tracking or location-recovery devices on valuable rental items. This guidance explains Hygglo’s understanding of how such devices may be used in connection with rental items.
Hygglo’s Terms require all users to comply with applicable law. This guidance does not create separate Hygglo rules, but explains how that legal requirement applies to tracking or location-recovery devices.
Lenders are responsible for ensuring that their use of any tracking device complies with applicable law.
What counts as a tracking device?
A tracking device is any device or service that can identify, estimate, transmit, store, or make available the location of a rental item.
This may include, for example:
AirTags
Find My devices
Bluetooth trackers
GPS trackers
SIM-based trackers
similar location-recovery devices or services
General principle
Tracking devices may only be used to protect and recover valuable items that are at real risk of loss or theft.
They must never be used to monitor a borrower’s movements, habits, private life, home, workplace, travel route, or other personal behaviour.
Location information must only be used where necessary and proportionate, for example to:
recover an item
investigate suspected theft or fraud
support an insurance or police matter
resolve a serious rental dispute
Before accessing location information, lenders must consider less intrusive options first, such as contacting the borrower, using Hygglo’s messaging tools, agreeing a new return time, or asking Hygglo for help.
Continuous tracking
A tracking device is considered continuous tracking if it is active during the rental and can report, update, store, or make available the item’s location during the rental period.
This includes devices such as AirTags and similar Bluetooth or network-based trackers where the lender may be able to locate the item while it is away from them.
Requirements for continuous tracking
The lender must clearly inform the borrower before the borrower pays for the booking.
The notice should say:
This item contains a location-tracking or location-recovery device. The device is used only to protect and recover the item if it is lost, stolen, not returned, or involved in a serious dispute. It must not be used to monitor the borrower personally.
The lender does not need to tell the borrower exactly where the device is hidden.
If the lender forgets to inform the borrower before payment, they should inform the borrower as soon as possible. If the borrower does not want to continue the rental after receiving this information, the lender must accept cancellation and provide a full refund.
Even where continuous tracking has been disclosed, the lender must not routinely check the item’s location during the rental. Location should only be checked where there is a valid recovery-related reason, such as loss, theft, serious overdue return, suspected fraud, or a serious dispute.
Selective or dormant tracking
A tracking device is considered selective or dormant only if it is genuinely inactive during the normal rental period.
This means that:
no location is collected
no location is transmitted
no location history is stored
no “last seen” location is available to the lender
the lender cannot view or request the item’s location while the device is dormant
the device does not silently report location in the background
Simply choosing not to open the tracking app is not enough. If the device is technically active and capable of reporting location during the rental, it should be treated as continuous tracking.
Requirements for selective tracking
A lender may use a genuinely dormant recovery device without item-specific pre-booking disclosure, provided it is only activated in limited situations.
Activation may be appropriate if:
the borrower reports that the item is lost, stolen, or no longer in their possession
the rental is substantially overdue, the borrower is not cooperating with return arrangements, and reasonable attempts to contact the borrower have failed
there is a reasonable belief that the item has been stolen, fraudulently retained, abandoned, or otherwise placed at serious risk
activation would substantially increase the chance of recovering the item, and less intrusive options have first been considered
A dormant tracker must not be activated merely because the rental period has ended, because the lender is curious, or because the lender wants to check where the borrower is.
When a dormant tracker is activated, the lender should record:
why it was activated
when it was activated
what less intrusive steps were considered first
what location information was accessed
who the information was shared with
The borrower must be informed that location recovery has been used as soon as this can be done without seriously harming recovery of the item, a police matter, an insurance matter, or a legal claim.
Prohibited use
Lenders must not:
use tracking to monitor a borrower’s personal movements
check location during the rental without a valid recovery-related reason
use location data to harass, threaten, or pressure a borrower
go to a borrower’s home, workplace, or private location to recover an item without lawful authority
share location data publicly or with unrelated third parties
keep screenshots or location history longer than necessary
use tracking devices in a way that violates stalking, harassment, privacy, data protection, or criminal laws
If an item appears to be stolen or unlawfully retained, the lender should contact Hygglo and, where appropriate, the police. The lender must not take unsafe or unlawful recovery action.
Handling location data
Location data must be limited to what is necessary.
Lenders must not keep routine location logs. Location information, screenshots, maps, or tracker data should only be kept where needed for recovery, a police report, insurance claim, Hygglo dispute, or legal claim.
Once the matter is resolved, the lender must delete location information unless there is a valid reason to keep it.
Hygglo’s role
Hygglo does not place tracking devices on rental items and does not routinely track rental items.
Lenders who use tracking devices are responsible for ensuring that their use complies with applicable law and Hygglo’s Terms.
Where Hygglo becomes aware of tracking-device use that appears unlawful, unsafe, abusive, or inconsistent with this guidance, Hygglo may take action under its Terms. This may include cancelling bookings, requiring refunds, removing listings, suspending accounts, or reporting matters to relevant authorities where appropriate.
Legal note
This guidance is intended to explain Hygglo’s understanding of how tracking devices may be used on rental items. It is not legal advice. Lenders are responsible for ensuring that their own use of tracking devices is lawful.