TradesRoute

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 April 2026

1. Who We Are

TradesRoute Ltd. (“TradesRoute”, “we”, “us”) is a UK-registered company that operates the TradesRoute platform at tradesroute.co.uk. We act as the data controller for personal data collected through our website, mobile app, and related services.

Contact: privacy@tradesroute.co.uk

2. What Data We Collect

From Homeowners

  • Name, phone number, email address (provided in the intake form)
  • Postcode and job description
  • Urgency level and trade type selection
  • Payment details (processed by Stripe — we never store card numbers)

From Tradespeople

  • Business name, owner name, email, phone number
  • Postcode and service radius
  • Trade vertical and job types
  • Gas Safe registration number and ID card photo (for gas engineers)
  • Working hours and availability slots
  • Payment and billing information (processed by Stripe)

Automatically Collected

  • IP address, browser type, device information
  • Pages visited and interaction data
  • Cookies and similar technologies (see our Cookie Policy)

3. How We Use Your Data

  • Service delivery: Matching homeowners with qualified tradespeople, processing bookings and payments
  • Verification: Validating trade qualifications (Gas Safe, NICEIC, etc.)
  • Communication: Sending booking confirmations, lead notifications, and service updates via email, SMS, or WhatsApp
  • Improvement: Analysing usage patterns to improve our matching algorithm and user experience
  • Legal compliance: Retaining records as required by HMRC (6 years for financial records) and other regulators

4. Legal Basis for Processing

  • Contract: Processing necessary to provide our service (matching, bookings, payments)
  • Legitimate interest: Service improvement, fraud prevention, analytics
  • Legal obligation: Tax records, compliance reporting
  • Consent: Marketing communications (you can withdraw consent at any time)

5. Data Sharing

We share personal data only with:

  • Matched tradespeople/homeowners: Contact details shared when a lead is accepted or a booking is confirmed
  • Payment processors: Stripe (PCI DSS compliant)
  • Communication providers: Twilio (SMS), Resend (email), Meta (WhatsApp)
  • Hosting: Our servers are located in the UK/EU

We do not sell your personal data to third parties.

6. Data Retention

  • Lead records: anonymised after 3 years
  • Customer contact details: retained 6 years (HMRC requirement)
  • Consent records: retained 7 years (ICO guidance)
  • Payment records: retained 6 years (HMRC requirement)
  • Engineer profiles: anonymised 3 years after account closure

7. Your Rights Under UK GDPR

You have the right to:

  • Access your personal data
  • Rectify inaccurate data
  • Erase your data (“right to be forgotten”)
  • Restrict processing
  • Data portability — receive your data in a structured format
  • Object to processing based on legitimate interest
  • Withdraw consent for marketing at any time

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@tradesroute.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Security

We protect your data with HTTPS encryption, bcrypt password hashing, row-level security in our database, and role-based access controls. Payment processing is handled by Stripe (PCI DSS Level 1 certified).

9. Cookies

We use essential cookies for authentication and session management. See our full Cookie Policy for details.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via email or a notice on our website. The “last updated” date at the top reflects the most recent revision.

11. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.