Privacy notice

Who we are

This notice explains how Compare Local Trades Ltd, trading as Compare Local Trades, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17566575), registered office 20 Wenlock Road, London, N1 7GU ("we", "us") uses personal data. We are the data controller. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZC295687. Questions: privacy@comparelocaltrades.co.uk.

What we collect from tradespeople

• Account: your email address and sign-in records.
• Business details: business type, business and trading name, Companies House number (limited companies), your name, phone number, Gas Safe number (gas work).
• Where and what you work on: trades, base postcode, how far you travel and the postcodes within that distance.
• Choices: when you accepted our terms (and which version), whether you asked for marketing emails (with the time and the wording you saw), and whether you switched on job texts.
• Invites: the invite code you signed up with, so we know who invited you, and the people who joined using your link.
• How you found us: advert or campaign tags in the link you used (for example utm_source). Never your browsing elsewhere.
• Checks: the results of the checks described below, your insurance certificate and (for gas work) your Gas Safe ID card.
• Credit and payments: the packs you buy, the amounts, dates and Stripe's payment references, your credit balance and how you spent it, refunds, chargebacks and disputes. Stripe handles your card details: we never see or store your full card number.

What we collect from visitors

• Technical data our hosting provider logs to keep the site running and secure (such as IP address and browser type).
• Only if you agree: analytics (which pages are visited) and the Meta pixel (whether our adverts work). See our cookie notice.

Why we use it, and our lawful basis

• To create and run your free account and keep you informed about it (contract).
• To tell you about new jobs that match your trades and area: by email, and by text only if you switch job texts on (contract).
• To sell you credit, unlock leads for you, and handle disputes and refunds (contract).
• To prevent payment fraud and deal with chargebacks (legitimate interests). Stripe also runs its own fraud checks on each payment (Stripe Radar), as a separate controller under its own privacy policy.
• To keep the service secure, prevent misuse and duplicate accounts, and record invites (legitimate interests).
• To check your phone, ID, insurance, company, Gas Safe registration, electrical scheme registration and waste carrier registration (legitimate interests; the optional face match also needs your explicit consent). See "Checks we run on tradespeople".
• To understand which adverts and campaigns bring trades to us, using link tags (legitimate interests).
• To send offers on tools to grow your business, only if you ticked the box (consent). Untick it any time in your account or use the unsubscribe link.
• Analytics and advert measurement cookies, only if you accept them (consent).
• To meet legal obligations, such as keeping records and responding to authorities (legal obligation).

We do not sell your personal data. Marketing never affects which jobs you see or what they cost.

Who we share it with

Service providers who process data for us under contract, and only as we instruct:

• Supabase: database, sign-in and private file storage for certificates (servers in London, UK).
• Vercel: website hosting, and Vercel Web Analytics (cookieless page statistics), only if you accept analytics.
• Resend: sending our emails (EU region).
• Cloudflare: domain name, email routing, and Turnstile, a check on our sign-in form that stops automated abuse. Cloudflare looks at technical details from your browser and device (such as IP address, browser type and connection details) to tell people from bots. We only receive a pass or fail. Cloudflare also uses these details, as a separate controller, to improve its bot detection (Cloudflare's Turnstile Privacy Addendum).
• Twilio: text-message codes to confirm your mobile number, and job texts if you switch them on.
• Stripe Identity (Stripe): ID checks and, only with your consent, the face match.
• Anthropic: its AI service reads the details on insurance certificates and Gas Safe ID cards. Anthropic deletes what we send within 30 days, unless it must keep it longer to enforce its usage policy or by law.
• Stripe: card payments for credit, refunds and chargebacks.

When you unlock a job, we tell that homeowner your business name (and trading name, if you gave one) and your trade, so they know who has their details.

We also look up public records on Companies House, the Gas Safe Register, the electrical competent person registers and the Environment Agency's register of waste carriers. Meta Platforms Ireland runs the Meta pixel, only if you accept marketing cookies; Meta is jointly responsible with us for collecting and sending that data, and responsible on its own for what it does with it afterwards (see Meta's privacy policy).

Some providers (including Stripe, Twilio, Anthropic, Vercel, Cloudflare and Meta) may process data outside the UK, for example in the USA. Where they do, we rely on UK adequacy regulations (including the UK–US data bridge) or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

Checks we run on tradespeople

Before you can buy credit or unlock jobs, we check you, so we can honestly tell homeowners their details go to ID-checked and insured businesses.

• Mobile number: Twilio texts you a code. We keep only the time your number was confirmed.
• ID check: you photograph your passport, driving licence or ID card on the secure page of Stripe Identity. Stripe checks the document is genuine and reads your name and document number.
• Face match, only if you tick the box: Stripe also compares a selfie with the photo on your ID. This uses biometric data, so we only do it with your explicit consent. If you don't tick the box, Stripe checks your ID document only. You can ask for another way to check your ID if neither works for you.
• As soon as your ID check is decided, passed or failed, we ask Stripe to delete the images and personal data. We never receive your ID images, and we never store your document number: our system reads it once to make a scrambled code. We keep the result, Stripe's reference for the check, whether a face match was used, and that scrambled code, so the same ID can't be used for a second account.
• During the ID check, Stripe may ask whether it can use your images to improve its own technology. This is Stripe's own request, and your choice: saying no doesn't affect your check. If you say yes, Stripe keeps those images under its own privacy policy, even after we ask it to delete your check. To change your mind later, contact privacy@stripe.com.
• Insurance certificate and Gas Safe ID card (gas work only): you upload them and we store them privately. Anthropic's AI service reads the names, numbers and dates on them; our own rules decide the result, and anything unclear goes to a person. We look up your Gas Safe number on the Gas Safe Register.
• Electricians: the business name as it appears on the register, the postcode on the register and your electrical scheme (and your registration number, if you give it). A person at Compare Local Trades looks you up on the public electrical registers, and again once a year.
• Waste and rubbish clearance: your waste carrier registration number. We look it up on the Environment Agency's public register (we send it only the number) and check it again each month.
• Limited companies: we look up your company number on Companies House (a public register) when you sign up and once a month.

Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: preventing fraud and fake accounts, keeping homeowners safe, and making sure what we tell them is true. For the optional face match it is also your explicit consent, which you can refuse.

Automatic decisions

Some checks are decided automatically: a failed ID check, a phone code, a company that Companies House shows as not active, a document that has expired, a waste carrier registration that the Environment Agency register shows as in date, upper tier and in your business's name (passed automatically; anything else goes to a person), and our monthly re-check, which fails a waste carrier registration the register no longer shows in date. If the register can't be reached, nobody is failed. A failed check stops you buying credit or unlocking jobs until it is passed. Our AI never fails a document by itself, and a small difference in your name goes to a person. If a check fails and you think it is wrong, use "Ask a person to review it" on your checks page or email support@comparelocaltrades.co.uk. A person will look at it again, and you can try any check again at any time. If Stripe can't check your ID, you can ask for a short Google Meet video call instead: we look at your ID and your face on the call, never record it or take screenshots, and keep only a note that we checked it.

How long we keep it

• Your account data: while your account is open. If you close it, we delete or anonymise it within 3 months, except anything we must keep by law.
• Records of terms you accepted and marketing choices: for 6 years after your account closes, so we can show what you agreed to.
• Payment and credit records (packs, amounts, dates, payment references, refunds and chargebacks): for 6 years after the end of the financial year they belong to, because tax and accounting rules require it. This applies even if you close your account.
• ID check images and details at Stripe: deleted as soon as the check is decided, passed or failed.
• Check records (results, dates, numbers and what the public registers showed; no files): while your account is open and for 6 years after it closes, in case of legal claims.
• The scrambled code made from your ID document number: for 2 years after your account closes, so the same ID can't be used to open a new account straight away.
• Insurance certificates and Gas Safe cards: deleted 12 months after they expire, or 30 days after we reject one.
• Hosting security logs: as set by our hosting provider, usually no more than 30 days.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• give you a copy of your personal data;
• correct anything that is wrong;
• delete your data or close your account;
• restrict or object to how we use it, including any use based on legitimate interests;
• send your data to you or another organisation in a common format.

You can withdraw consent at any time: switch off marketing emails in your account, choose an ID check without a face match next time, and change cookie choices with "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page. Email privacy@comparelocaltrades.co.uk for anything else. We reply within one month.

Complaints

Please tell us first and we will try to put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this notice

We will update this notice when we add new services, for example paid features, and tell account holders by email about important changes.