Effective date: 20 October 2026
This policy explains what information the IFC India China Sourcing Tool with Import Duty, Landed Cost Calculator collects, how it is used, who it is shared with and how long it is kept. The tool is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that AI assistants such as Claude connect to. It is operated by IFC – Imports From China Inc., Delhi, India (“IFC”, “we”, “us”).
This policy covers:
- the MCP server at
https://mcp1.importsfromchina.com/mcp - its web pages on
mcp1.importsfromchina.com: the photo upload page (/upload), product card pages (/r/…), product image links (/img/…) and the IFC staff pages (/staff)
How to connect and use the tool is explained in the documentation. Our other MCP server at importsfromchina.com/mcp has its own privacy policy.
1. Summary
- No sign-in. We do not ask for your name, phone number, email address or payment details.
- We receive only what your AI assistant sends to our tools, such as search words, filters, product references, shipment details and product photos.
- Product photos are deleted after 24 hours. Landed-cost calculations are not stored.
- Search words, filters and product images are sent to our product-data provider to fetch results from 1688.com.
- We do not sell or rent your information, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models.
2. Information we collect
2.1 Tool inputs
When you ask your AI assistant something, the assistant decides which of our tools to call and what to send. Depending on the tool, this may include:
- Product search: search words, filters (price range, supplier type, province, years on 1688, rating, minimum order quantity) and IFC product references (for example
IFC-AB12CD34) - Photo search: a product photo, a link to an image, or an upload code (
UP-…) - Duty and landed cost: HS codes, product descriptions, invoice value and currency, weight, volume or carton sizes, quantity and shipping mode (sea or air)
We use these inputs only to answer the request. We do not receive your conversation with the assistant, only the inputs to the tool that was called. Please do not include personal information in searches or photos.
2.2 Product photos
If you upload a photo on our upload page, or your assistant sends a photo to the photo-search tool, we store the image file on our server so it can be matched. For photos uploaded on the upload page we also record the uploader’s IP address, which we use only to limit the number of uploads per hour. Photos and their IP addresses are deleted automatically after 24 hours.
2.3 Technical information
Our server keeps standard logs of each web request: IP address, time, the address requested and the response status. Logs do not contain the inputs sent to the tools. We use them to keep the service running, prevent abuse and fix problems. Logs are rotated automatically, and the oldest entries are deleted once they reach a fixed size limit (30 MB per service).
2.4 Cookies
Public users get no cookies. IFC staff who sign in to the staff pages get a sign-in cookie that lasts 30 days.
3. What we store and for how long
| Information | Why we keep it | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Uploaded or submitted product photos, and the uploader’s IP address | To run the photo search and limit uploads | 24 hours |
| Cached product results from 1688.com, stored under a one-way hash of the request | To answer repeated requests quickly and limit calls to our provider | About 24 hours at most |
Product card pages (/r/… links) |
So you can open the cards in a browser | 7 days |
IFC product references: each IFC-… code, the 1688 listing it stands for and the product title |
So IFC can find the product when you ask for a quote | Kept while the service runs. Contains no information about you. |
Product image addresses behind our /img/… links |
To show product images | Kept while the service runs. Contains no information about you. |
| Daily count of product-data requests | To stay within our daily usage limit | Kept while the service runs. Contains no information about you. |
| Duty and landed-cost inputs and results | Not stored | — |
| Server logs | See section 2.3 | Until rotated out (size limit) |
4. Who we share information with
- TMAPI (tmapi.top), our product-data provider for 1688.com. To fetch search results, product details and reviews, we send TMAPI the search words, filters, 1688 product IDs and image links. For a photo search this is a temporary link to your photo on our server, valid for 24 hours. We do not send TMAPI your IP address or anything that identifies you. TMAPI handles this data under its own terms and privacy policy.
- 1688.com / Alibaba. Product images are downloaded by our server from Alibaba’s image servers and shown to you through our
/img/…links, so your device does not contact Alibaba to show the cards. - Amazon Web Services (AWS) hosts the server in the Mumbai (ap-south-1) region in India.
- Exchange rates: the landed-cost tools fetch current currency rates from Moneycontrol (moneycontrol.com). Only the currency (for example USD) is requested; no information about you is sent.
- Cloudflare provides DNS for our domain only. Requests to this server do not pass through Cloudflare.
- WhatsApp (Meta). If you tap “Get a quote”, or open an enquiry link, WhatsApp opens with a message to IFC filled in: the product title and variant, the quantity, the China warehouse and a product link that only IFC staff can open. Nothing is sent unless you choose to send the message. Once sent, it is handled under WhatsApp’s privacy policy and as a normal business enquiry to IFC.
- Your AI assistant (for example Claude) receives our tools’ answers and handles your conversation under its own privacy policy.
We may also disclose information if the law requires it. We do not share information with anyone else, and we do not sell or rent it.
5. Supplier information
Product results come from suppliers on 1688.com. We do not show supplier names, contact details or listing links. This keeps quotes and orders with IFC; it does not affect your own information.
6. Security
All connections use HTTPS. Only IFC has access to the server. Staff pages are password-protected, and repeated wrong passwords are blocked.
7. Children
The tool is meant for businesses and adults importing goods. It is not directed at children under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
8. Your choices
- You can use every tool without giving any personal information.
- Don’t upload photos that show people, documents or anything private. If you uploaded something by mistake, contact us with the
UP-…code and we will delete it before the 24 hours are up. - For questions about the information we hold, or to ask for it to be deleted, contact us using the details below.
9. Changes to this policy
If the tool’s data handling changes, we will update this page and the effective date at the top.
10. Contact
IFC – Imports From China Inc., Delhi, India
Email: info@importsfromchina.com
WhatsApp: +91 99119 51631
Contact page: importsfromchina.com/contact-us