Privacy notice

Who we are

Graftsure is operated by Chris Longshaw (sole trader), trading as Graftsure, in the UK. For UK data protection law we are the “controller” of the personal data described here. Contact: hello@graftsure.co.uk. We're setting up a business postal address and will add it here; until then email reaches the same person. We're completing our registration with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and will show our registration number here. We're a small business, so we don't have a separate data protection officer: Chris handles privacy questions himself.

What we collect

We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking tools, and we don't make decisions about you by computer alone that have legal or similarly significant effects. Matching a job to nearby trades is automatic (by trade and distance), but every trade check, and every decision about a report, is made by a real person.

Where we get it from

• From you, when you sign up, post a job, fill in your trade profile, upload documents or send messages.
• From other people using Graftsure: for example a homeowner's review of a trade, a message someone sends you, or a report about something you posted.
• From public registers (trades only): to check your documents we look you up on registers such as the Gas Safe Register, your competent person scheme's register, the Environment Agency's waste carrier register, HSE's list of asbestos licence holders, or Companies House.
• From Stripe (trades only): whether a payment worked, and the brand, last four digits and expiry of a saved card.
• From your device: technical logs, and a notification token if you allow notifications.

What you have to give us

You need an email address to have an account, and a phone number so the other side can reach you once a homeowner shortlists a trade. Trades must give us their insurance details (and any registration the law requires for their trades, such as Gas Safe, a competent person scheme for electrical work, F-gas, waste carrier registration, or hire and reward van insurance) before they can see leads, because that's what we promise homeowners. Everything else (photos, an “about”, a Companies House number) is up to you. If you don't give us what's needed, we can't provide that part of Graftsure.

Sensitive information

We don't ask for sensitive information such as health, religion or ethnicity, and please don't put it in jobs or messages. If you upload photo ID, a person looks at it to check it matches your name; we don't use face recognition or any other biometric checks, and we delete it 30 days after the check. Basic DBS checks are explained in their own section below. Reports about messages sometimes include claims of crime (for example threats or scams). We use these only to keep people safe, keep them to a small number of named people, and pass them to the police only where the law allows or requires it.

Basic DBS checks (trades, optional)

Any trade can choose to add a “Basic DBS checked” badge. You apply for the check yourself (DBS in England and Wales, Disclosure Scotland in Scotland, AccessNI in Northern Ireland) and share the certificate with us. A basic certificate can show unspent convictions, so it's criminal offence data under UK GDPR Article 10.

• Condition and lawful basis: your explicit consent (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a), and Data Protection Act 2018 Schedule 1 paragraph 29). You tick a separate box to agree, it's entirely optional, it doesn't affect your leads, and you can withdraw at any time from your Checks screen, which deletes our record.
• What we look at: a named Graftsure admin checks the name, date and certificate number and whether it shows unspent convictions. We only accept basic checks, which never show spent convictions; we delete standard or enhanced certificates unread. In line with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 we never take spent convictions into account.
• What we keep: only the result (clear or not clear), the certificate date, when we checked and who checked it. We never write down or keep anything the certificate says about a conviction, and we don't keep the certificate number.
• The certificate: deleted as soon as the admin decides (our nightly clean-up deletes it if anything stops that).
• Who sees what: homeowners and other users see only “Basic DBS checked” and the certificate's month, and only if it's clear. Nobody else ever sees the result.
• How long: a clear result is kept while the badge is on your profile (we suggest a new check every 12 months); a “not clear” result or a certificate we couldn't check is deleted after 6 months.

Our appropriate policy document for this processing is available on request at hello@graftsure.co.uk.

Feedback about homeowners

After a homeowner marks a job done, the trade they picked can rate how it went within 14 days: paid as agreed, job described accurately, communication and kept appointments (1 to 5), with an optional short comment.

• Lawful basis: legitimate interests (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f)): helping trades decide which jobs to quote for, and encouraging fair dealing on both sides. We've weighed this against homeowners' interests (a written legitimate interests assessment is available on request) and limited it as below.
• It's never public. Only signed-in, checked trades looking at that homeowner's jobs see it, and only as a summary (for example “5 jobs · paid as agreed 5/5”) plus up to three recent approved comments, never which trades left them. It isn't shown on any public page or to search engines.
• Comments are checked by a person before they're shown, and our filter blocks contact details, insults, accusations of crimes, and anything about health, disability, religion, ethnicity, sexuality or union membership. We don't want sensitive information here.
• You're told as soon as feedback is left about you, and you can see all of it (including who left it and comments still being checked) under Reviews. New feedback waits 48 hours before it counts.
• Your rights: you can reply; ask us to correct it if it's inaccurate; object to it (we stop using it unless we have compelling reasons that override yours, and we'll explain if so); or send a formal complaint if you think it's defamatory. While a dispute is open, the feedback is hidden from trades.
• How long: 2 years after the job was marked done, or straight away if either account is deleted.

Our lawful bases

• Contract: running your account, matching jobs, sharing contact details when a homeowner shortlists a trade, messaging, taking trade fees, and service emails such as sign-in codes and new-lead alerts (trades can turn new-lead emails off under Notifications).
• Legitimate interests: checking trades before homeowners see them (including the optional text-message phone check), keeping reviews honest, feedback from trades about homeowners (see above), dealing with reports and blocks, preventing fraud and abuse, keeping the service secure. These protect homeowners, trades and Graftsure itself; we've weighed them against your rights, and you can object (see below).
• Legal obligation: keeping financial records for HMRC, dealing with illegal content under the Online Safety Act, and answering lawful requests from the police or courts.
• Consent: an optional basic DBS check (see Basic DBS checks); app notifications (you can turn them off in your phone's settings at any time).

Who can see what

• Trades matched to a job see the job description, photos, budget, timing and the first half of the postcode.
• When a homeowner shortlists a trade, that trade can see the homeowner's name, phone number, email and full postcode, and the homeowner sees the trade's name, phone number and email.
• Everyone can see a trade's public profile: business name, trades, area, verification badges with dates, and published reviews.
• Checked trades looking at a homeowner's job see a summary of feedback from other trades about that homeowner, without the other trades' names.
• Graftsure admins (named people only) can see trade documents to check them, and reported content to moderate it.

The companies that help us run Graftsure

These “processors” handle data only on our instructions, under contracts that protect it:

Our data is stored in London, but Supabase, Vercel, Resend, Stripe and Cloudflare are US-owned, so some data may be handled in the US (for example when their staff give technical support, or when an email is delivered). Twilio handles the phone number and the text message in the US. Vercel, Resend, Stripe, Cloudflare and Twilio are certified under the UK-US “data bridge” (the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework), which the UK government recognises as giving adequate protection. Where a company isn't covered by that, its contract with us uses the UK's approved transfer clauses (the ICO's international data transfer agreement or addendum). Email us if you'd like more detail.

Stripe also uses some payment data for its own purposes, such as preventing fraud and meeting its legal duties as a payment company. For that it is responsible itself: see Stripe's privacy policy.

We may also share information with professional advisers (such as an accountant or solicitor), or with the police, a court or a regulator where the law requires it or it's needed to protect someone. We never sell personal data.

How long we keep things

Deleting your account

You can delete your account any time in the app (Account → Delete my account) or by emailing us. Your name, email, phone number and trade profile are removed straight away, your open jobs close, and your trade documents are deleted within a day. We keep fee and payment records for 6 years, and reviews or messages you've already sent stay with the other person, shown as from a deleted account. More about deleting your account.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR) you have the right to:

• see the personal data we hold about you and get a copy;
• have it corrected if it's wrong;
• have it deleted;
• restrict or object to how we use it (including anything we do under legitimate interests);
• get it in a portable format;
• withdraw consent where we rely on it;
• not be subject to decisions made only by computer that significantly affect you (we don't make any).

Email hello@graftsure.co.uk and we'll reply within one month (we'll tell you if a complicated request needs up to two months more). It's free. We may need to check it's you first.

Complaints about your data

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your personal data, email hello@graftsure.co.uk with “Data complaint” in the subject (you don't need a form). We'll confirm we've got it within 30 days (usually within a working day), look into it, keep you updated, and tell you the outcome. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.

Keeping it safe

Everything travels over encrypted connections. Trade documents sit in private storage that only the trade and our named admins can open, through links that expire after five minutes. Database rules stop anyone seeing another person's private details.

Age

Graftsure is for adults. You must be 18 or over to create an account, and we don't knowingly collect children's data. If you think a child has signed up, tell us and we'll delete the account.

Changes

If we change this notice in a way that matters, we'll tell you by email or in the app before the change takes effect.