Privacy Policy

How we handle and protect your data

Introduction

Trade Prospector ("we", "our", "us") is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your information when you use our services.

We act as both a data controller and a data processor as defined in the UK Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

This policy applies to information we collect about:

  • Visitors to our website
  • Customers who register for and use our services
  • Information processed about planning application data

Information We Collect

We collect and process the following data:

  • Customer Data: Information you provide when registering for our services, including name, business details, email address, and trade specialty.
  • Planning Application Data: Publicly available planning application information from local authorities, which may include property addresses, planning application details, and applicant information.
  • Website Usage Data: Information about how you use our website, collected using cookies and similar technologies.

AI Processing & GDPR Compliance

All AI technology we employ processes data in a private LLM (Large Language Model) environment and all data is cleared after processing. This approach ensures compliance with GDPR data processing regulations by minimizing data retention and ensuring data is only used for its intended purpose. No personal data is retained in our AI systems beyond the necessary processing period.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

  • To provide and maintain our services
  • To notify you about changes to our services
  • To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service
  • To provide customer support
  • To gather analysis or valuable information so that we can improve our services
  • To monitor the usage of our services
  • To detect, prevent and address technical issues
  • To match planning applications with our customers' trade specialties
  • To generate prospecting letters on behalf of our customers

Prospective Client Data Handling

No prospective client details are stored after prospect letter information is shared with our customers. Once planning application data has been processed and provided to our customers, we delete this information from our active systems. This minimizes data retention and ensures we only hold the minimum necessary data for our service provision.

Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data on the following legal grounds:

  • Contract: Processing necessary for the performance of our contract with you
  • Legitimate Interests: Processing necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as improving our services
  • Legal Obligation: Processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation
  • Consent: Where you have given consent for specific processing activities

Agency Relationship

By using this service, clients are granting permission for Trade Prospector to act on their behalf in the capacity of identifying and contacting potential customers through planning applications. This agency relationship allows us to lawfully process planning application data and generate prospecting communications as your representative. You remain the data controller for any lead information we provide to you.

Communication Methods

We follow strict guidelines when it comes to prospecting on behalf of our clients:

  • All prospect communication is carefully designed to be relevant, non-intrusive, and compliant with UK marketing regulations
  • We only use information that is lawfully available through public planning applications
  • We ensure all communications are clear about who is sending the information and why

UK Communications Law Compliance

To comply with UK communications laws (including the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations), we cannot prospect clients via email unless explicit prior consent has been obtained. Postal prospecting is the only option we provide for contacting planning applicants. This ensures compliance with regulations governing unsolicited marketing communications while still allowing legitimate business communication.

Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data. We may share your information with:

  • Service providers who help us deliver our services
  • Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers
  • HM Revenue & Customs, regulators and other authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets

We require all third parties to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

Data Security

We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. These include:

  • Encryption of sensitive data
  • Regular security assessments
  • Access controls and authentication procedures
  • Staff training on data protection
  • Secure data processing environments

We have procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Data Retention

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider:

  • The amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data
  • The potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure
  • The purposes for which we process your personal data
  • Whether we can achieve those purposes through other means
  • The applicable legal requirements

Your Legal Rights

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, including:

  • Request access to your personal data
  • Request correction of your personal data
  • Request erasure of your personal data
  • Object to processing of your personal data
  • Request restriction of processing your personal data
  • Request transfer of your personal data
  • Right to withdraw consent where we rely on consent to process your personal data

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

Cookies

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's hard drive.

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last Updated" date at the bottom of this page.

We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

By email: info@tradeprospector.co.uk

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk).

Last Updated: 15 August 2025