Privacy Policy

Trade Enquirer ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data responsibly. This Privacy Policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and your rights under applicable data protection law.

This policy applies to all users of the Trade Enquirer website and platform, including homeowners, tradespeople, and visitors.

We operate as a data controller for the personal data we process. If you have any questions about this policy, you can contact us at privacy@tradeenquirer.com.

We may collect and process the following types of personal data:

Account information

• Name, email address, phone number
• Password (stored in hashed form — we never store plaintext passwords)
• Account type (homeowner or tradesperson)
• Postcode and general location

Tradesperson profile data

• Company or trading name
• Trade categories and skills
• Qualifications and certification references (e.g. Gas Safe registration number)
• Insurance documentation references
• Service area and radius
• Portfolio images and descriptions
• Public profile content

Job and lead data

• Job descriptions, categories, and requirements submitted by homeowners
• Location data associated with jobs (postcode level)
• Quotes and messages exchanged between users
• Lead acceptance, rejection, and response data

Payment data

• Transaction records (amounts, dates, descriptions)
• Wallet balance and top-up history
• Subscription tier and status

We do not store full card numbers or bank account details. Payments are processed by our third-party payment providers (Stripe and GoCardless), who handle card and bank data under their own privacy policies and PCI DSS compliance.

Technical data

• IP address
• Browser type and version
• Device type and operating system
• Pages visited and time spent
• Referring website

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• Providing our service — matching homeowners with tradespeople, processing leads, facilitating quotes and communication
• Account management — creating and managing your account, authenticating logins, password resets
• Payment processing — processing lead purchases, wallet top-ups, subscription payments, and refunds
• Verification — verifying tradesperson identity, qualifications, and insurance
• Communications — sending transactional emails (lead notifications, quote updates, payment confirmations), and service-related announcements
• Platform improvement — analysing usage patterns to improve our matching algorithms, user experience, and platform performance
• Safety and fraud prevention — detecting and preventing fraudulent activity, abuse, or misuse of the platform
• Legal compliance — meeting our legal and regulatory obligations

Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), we process your data on the following legal bases:

• Contract — processing necessary to provide our service to you as agreed in our terms of use
• Legitimate interest — processing necessary for the operation, security, and improvement of our platform, where your rights do not override our interests
• Legal obligation — processing required to comply with applicable laws and regulations
• Consent — where we rely on your consent (e.g. for marketing communications), you can withdraw it at any time

We may share your personal data with:

• Other platform users — when a homeowner posts a job and a tradesperson accepts a lead, relevant contact details are shared to facilitate the work. Tradesperson profile information is visible on public profile pages.
• Payment processors — Stripe and GoCardless process payments on our behalf. They receive only the data necessary to process transactions.
• Hosting and infrastructure providers — our servers and services are hosted by third-party providers who process data on our behalf under data processing agreements.
• Communication providers — we use third-party services to send emails and notifications.
• Law enforcement or regulators — where we are legally required to disclose data, or to protect our rights, property, or safety.

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. We do not share your data with advertisers.

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Essential cookies — maintain your session, remember login state, and apply CSRF protection. These are necessary for the site to function.
• Analytics cookies — understand how visitors use our site so we can improve it. These are only set with your consent.

You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings. Disabling essential cookies may affect the functionality of the site.

We retain your personal data for as long as necessary to provide our service and fulfil the purposes described in this policy. Specifically:

• Account data — retained while your account is active, and for a reasonable period after account closure to allow for reactivation or dispute resolution
• Transaction data — retained for 7 years to comply with UK financial record-keeping requirements
• Communication data — retained while relevant to active jobs or disputes, then archived
• Technical logs — typically retained for up to 12 months

When data is no longer required, it is securely deleted or anonymised.

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including:

• Encryption of data in transit (HTTPS/TLS)
• Secure password hashing (bcrypt)
• CSRF protection on all forms
• Rate limiting to prevent abuse
• Role-based access controls for administrative functions
• Regular security reviews

While we take reasonable steps to protect your data, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. We encourage you to use a strong, unique password for your account.

Under UK data protection law, you have the following rights:

• Right of access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to erasure — request deletion of your data in certain circumstances
• Right to restrict processing — request that we limit how we use your data
• Right to data portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Right to object — object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, withdraw it at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@tradeenquirer.com. We will respond within one month as required by law.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk if you believe your data protection rights have been breached.

Our platform may contain links to external websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We encourage you to read their privacy policies before providing any personal data.

Our platform is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make significant changes, we will notify registered users by email. The "last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when the policy was last revised.

We recommend reviewing this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your data.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us:

• Email: privacy@tradeenquirer.com
• General enquiries: Contact form