Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how TradeKind collects, uses and protects personal information.

TradeKind is a Sussex-only trades directory and trust network for homeowners and local tradespeople across East Sussex and West Sussex.

This is a starter Privacy Policy for the early MVP version of TradeKind. It should be reviewed and updated before wider commercial launch, paid lead features, analytics, advertising, mobile apps or more advanced marketplace features are added.

Who this policy applies to

This policy applies to:

• homeowners or visitors using TradeKind
• people submitting a Request This Trade form
• tradespeople creating or managing trade profiles
• trade business owners
• Fleet Team and Partner contacts where applicable
• people contacting TradeKind directly
• users with TradeKind accounts

Who controls the data

TradeKind is responsible for deciding how personal information is used on the platform.

Controller/contact details: TradeKind hello@tradekind.co.uk

Information homeowners provide

When a homeowner submits a Request This Trade form, TradeKind may collect:

• name
• email address
• phone number
• town or location
• selected trade category
• message/enquiry details
• the trade business requested
• request status and timestamps
• technical information needed to process and secure the request

This information is collected so the requested trade business can receive and respond to the enquiry.

Information tradespeople provide

When a trade business creates or manages a profile, TradeKind may collect:

• business name
• business owner/user account details
• contact name
• email address
• phone number
• business description
• categories and towns served
• profile photos or work images
• website or social links, where provided
• Fleet Team and Partner information
• approval status
• admin notes or moderation records
• request and profile activity

Some trade profile information is public. Private contact details such as trade phone numbers and trade email addresses should not be shown publicly unless TradeKind later adds an explicit feature for this.

Public profile information

Approved trade profiles may be public and indexable by search engines.

Public profile information may include:

• business name
• business description
• trade categories
• towns/areas served
• public profile slug/URL
• profile images
• review summaries
• approval or verification indicators
• Fleet Team and Partner relationships
• website/social links if added as public fields

Private trade email addresses and phone numbers are not intended to be exposed on public profile pages.

If a trade business types a phone number or email address into a public description, TradeKind may automatically replace or mask that contact detail with a Request This Trade link.

Fleet information

TradeKind includes a Fleet feature.

A Fleet may show:

• Team members connected to a trade business
• Partner businesses connected to a trade business
• public relationship information between approved businesses

Team members are treated as internal to a business. Partners are independent businesses with their own profiles.

Internal notes about Fleet members should not be public.

Reviews

TradeKind may collect and display reviews.

The intended long-term rule is that reviews should be connected to completed work confirmed by both the trade and the customer.

Review information may include:

• reviewer name or display name
• rating
• review text
• related trade business
• moderation status
• timestamps
• job/request connection where applicable

TradeKind may remove reviews that appear fake, abusive, unsafe, misleading or not connected to genuine work.

How TradeKind uses personal information

TradeKind may use personal information to:

• create and manage user accounts
• create and manage trade profiles
• process Request This Trade submissions
• send request notifications to tradespeople
• notify admins about platform activity
• display approved public profile information
• moderate profiles, reviews and requests
• prevent abuse, spam and fraud
• maintain platform security
• respond to support enquiries
• improve the platform
• comply with legal obligations

Sharing homeowner request data

When a homeowner submits a Request This Trade form, their request details may be shared with:

• the specific trade business requested
• TradeKind admins where needed to operate, moderate or support the platform
• service providers used to process the request, store data or send notifications

Customer request details are not intended to be published publicly.

Service providers

TradeKind may use third-party service providers to operate the platform.

These may include:

• Supabase or similar backend/database services
• Resend or similar email delivery services
• hosting and deployment services
• domain/DNS services
• security, logging or performance tools where needed

These providers may process data only as needed to provide their services to TradeKind.

Emails

TradeKind may send emails such as:

• trade request notifications
• admin alerts
• account-related emails
• profile or platform updates
• support responses

TradeKind currently uses or may use Resend for email delivery.

Legal basis for using data

TradeKind may rely on different legal bases depending on the situation, including:

Contract or steps before a contract

For example, creating an account, managing a profile, or submitting a request that needs to be passed to a trade business.

Legitimate interests

For example, operating the platform, preventing abuse, moderating profiles, improving the service, and helping homeowners connect with tradespeople.

Consent

For example, optional marketing emails or non-essential cookies, if added later.

Legal obligation

For example, keeping records where required by law or responding to lawful requests.

How long information is kept

TradeKind keeps personal information only for as long as reasonably needed for the purposes described in this policy.

Retention periods may depend on:

• whether the user has an active account
• whether a trade profile is live
• whether the data relates to a request, review or dispute
• whether the data is needed for moderation, security or legal purposes
• whether deletion has been requested

Before full commercial launch, TradeKind should define clearer retention periods for contact requests, inactive accounts, logs and archived profiles.

Security

TradeKind takes reasonable steps to protect personal information.

This may include:

• database access controls
• role-based permissions
• private admin areas
• not exposing private trade contact details publicly
• restricting access to customer request data
• using secure service providers
• monitoring for suspicious activity

No online service can guarantee complete security, so users should avoid sending unnecessary sensitive information through the platform.

Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have rights to:

• ask for access to your personal information
• ask for inaccurate information to be corrected
• ask for deletion of your information
• object to certain uses of your information
• ask for restriction of processing
• ask for a copy of your information
• withdraw consent where consent is the legal basis

To make a request, email privacy@tradekind.co.uk.

Deleting or correcting information

Tradespeople can ask for incorrect profile information to be corrected.

Homeowners can ask about request information they submitted.

TradeKind may need to keep certain records where necessary for safety, moderation, legal, dispute or security reasons.

Children

TradeKind is not designed for children.

Homeowners submitting requests and tradespeople creating profiles should be adults.

Search engines

Approved public trade profile pages, town pages, category pages and Fleet pages may be indexed by search engines.

This means public profile information may appear in Google or other search results.

Private account pages, admin areas, request forms and dashboards should not be treated as public SEO pages.

Changes to this policy

TradeKind may update this Privacy Policy as the platform develops.

This policy should be reviewed before adding:

• paid lead credits
• Stripe or payment processing
• internal chat
• quotes or invoices
• analytics or advertising cookies
• mobile apps
• CRM features
• automated decision-making
• identity verification

Contact

For privacy questions or requests, email privacy@tradekind.co.uk.