Privacy Policy

• Account details — your email address and a securely hashed password.
• Profile information — for tradies and apprentices: your name, location, trade, qualifications, work experience and contact preferences. For employers: company details.
• Uploaded files — CVs, portfolios and company logos you choose to upload. CVs and portfolios are private and only shared with an employer when you apply to their job or they unlock your profile.
• Messages — the content of messages you exchange with other users through the site.
• Usage data — with your cookie consent, an anonymous visitor identifier and the pages visited, used only for aggregate visit counts. See our Cookie Policy.

Payments on the site are simulated — we do not process or store real card or bank details.

• To provide the service — creating your account, showing profiles to employers, handling applications and messaging (lawful basis: performance of a contract).
• To send transactional emails such as password resets and, where applicable, application updates (lawful basis: legitimate interests / contract).
• To understand aggregate site usage (lawful basis: consent, which you can withdraw at any time).

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with service providers who help us run the platform, under appropriate safeguards:

• our hosting and database providers, who store the data;
• our email provider, used to deliver transactional emails such as password resets.

Where a provider processes data outside the UK/EEA, that transfer is covered by appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

We keep your account data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account we remove your profile, uploaded files, messages and related records. Anonymous, aggregated usage statistics that cannot identify you may be retained.

You have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• have inaccurate data corrected (edit it from your dashboard);
• erase your data — you can delete your account yourself at any time, which permanently removes your data;
• withdraw consent for analytics cookies at any time;
• lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

For any privacy question or request, contact us at privacy@thetradenetwork.co.uk.