Privacy Policy

Arkadia Connect is an online marketplace operated by Arkadia Connect LTD. Company name: Arkadia Connect LTD Company number: 17524644 Registered in England and Wales Registered office: 66 Paul Street, London, England, EC2A 4NA Email: info@arkadiaconnect.co.uk Website: arkadiaconnect.co.uk VAT: Arkadia Connect LTD is not registered for VAT. Arkadia Connect LTD is the controller of the personal data described in this Policy, unless we say otherwise. We can post a job on your behalf if you ring us and agree to it. If you contact us on WhatsApp, we use your messages and photos to post and manage your job.

This Policy explains how we collect, use, store, share and protect personal data when you: - Visit the Arkadia Connect website; - Create a Customer account or a Trader account; - Post a Job, respond to a Job, or send or receive quotes and invoices through the Platform; - Send messages through the Platform; - Submit verification documents as a Trader; - Subscribe to a Trader Membership and pay through Stripe; - Leave or receive a review; - Contact us by email or through a contact form. It applies to Customers, Traders and visitors. Trader businesses are covered where they are sole traders or where the information relates to an identifiable individual.

Account information: name, email address, password (stored in protected form), account type (Customer or Trader), and the date you registered. Customer information: phone number, address and postcode, and any details you add to your profile or to a Job. Trader and business information: business name, trading name, trades you offer, base postcode and service area, business address, phone number, website, description, logo, portfolio photographs, qualifications, years trading, and any company or VAT details you choose to provide. Job information: job title, description, location and postcode, photographs, documents, preferred timing and budget where given. If you use My home, we store the documents you upload and the reminders you set so you can see them later. Only you can see them. We only look at a document if you choose to share it with us in a support request. You can delete them at any time. If you give us a UK mobile number when you sign up, we text you service updates about your account (not marketing) through our SMS provider, Twilio. You can turn the texts off at any time in your settings. Messages: the content of messages sent between Customers and Traders through the Platform, and the times they were sent. Quotes and invoices: the details of quotes and invoices issued through the Platform, including line items, amounts, payments you record, and payment claims made by Customers. Verification documents: documents Traders submit to show their qualifications, insurance or identity, together with the status of each review. These are used only for Verification. Payment and subscription information: the subscription plan you choose, the billing interval, the amount, the subscription status, and the Stripe customer and subscription references. We do not receive or store your full card number. Stripe processes card details on our behalf. Reviews: ratings, written comments and any category ratings you give. Usage and technical information: device and browser type, IP address, pages visited and the times of visits, collected through the cookies described in section 9. Enquiries: the name, email address and message you send through a contact form. These are kept in our secure records so that we can reply. Verification documents may include identity documents, business documents, trade certificates, insurance certificates, qualification certificates, DBS check results, reference letters and licences, as relevant to your trades.

We use personal data to: - Create and manage accounts and to let you log in; - Run the marketplace, including showing Jobs and profiles and sending Leads to eligible Traders; - Enable messaging between Customers and Traders about a specific Job; - Provide quote, invoice and payment-claim tools; - Carry out Verification of Trader documents and decide whether Lead access is approved; - Set up, manage and renew Trader Memberships, and handle failed payments; - Publish reviews and maintain trust and safety on the Platform; - Respond to enquiries and complaints; - Keep the Platform secure, prevent fraud and misuse, and fix technical problems; - Meet our legal, tax and accounting obligations; - Understand how the Platform is used so that we can improve it. Our lawful bases under UK GDPR are: performance of a contract (running your account, Jobs, messaging and Memberships); legitimate interests (securing and improving the Platform, and preventing misuse, balanced against your rights); legal obligation (for example, tax and accounting records); and consent where we ask for it (for example, some marketing or optional cookies). Verification documents are used only to assess Trader applications. Whether a Trader has an active Membership does not decide Verification, and Verification does not depend on payment. We do not sell your personal data. We send marketing communications only where you have agreed to receive them. You can opt out at any time.

Other Users: where you post a Job, respond to a Job or message another User, the relevant information is shown to that User. Trader profile information is publicly visible. Customer contact details are shared with a Trader only when you have engaged with that Trader, as described on the Platform. Service providers: we use trusted providers to run the Platform. They process personal data only on our instructions. The main providers are: - IONOS, which hosts the Platform and stores its records; - Render, which hosts our payment service, in Frankfurt, Germany; - Stripe, described below. Stripe: we use Stripe to take Membership payments. Stripe receives the information needed to process payments and manage subscriptions, and uses it under its own privacy policy as an independent controller for its payment functions. Professional advisers and authorities: we may share information with our accountants, lawyers or insurers where necessary, or with a regulator, law enforcement or a court where the law requires it. Business transfers: if the business is sold or restructured, personal data may transfer to the new owner under the same protections.

Our main hosting and payment service is in the United Kingdom or in Germany, which the UK recognises as providing adequate protection for personal data. Stripe may process payment data outside the UK; where it does, it relies on the safeguards described in its own privacy policy.

Trader Membership payments are made through Stripe. When you subscribe, you give your payment details directly to Stripe. Arkadia Connect LTD receives confirmation of the subscription status, the plan, the billing interval and the amount, but not your full card details. Cancelling a subscription is done through the Stripe billing page. Information about your payments is kept with your account record so that we can manage your Membership, meet our accounting obligations and resolve disputes. Subscription status does not decide Verification. Lead access requires both an active eligible plan and approval after Verification.

Traders may be asked to upload documents such as insurance certificates, qualifications and identity documents. These files are: - Visible only to the Trader who uploaded them and to Arkadia Connect staff who review Verification; - Used only to decide Verification and to keep records of that decision; - Not shown on public profiles. Where a document expires or is withdrawn, we will stop relying on it. You can ask us to remove a document that is no longer needed for Verification, unless we must keep it for legal or record-keeping reasons.

The Platform uses the storage it needs to run, and analytics and marketing cookies only if you agree: - Sign-in: when you sign in, the Platform stores your session in your browser. If you choose "keep me signed in", or you sign up and keep the default setting, this session persists across browser restarts. It is needed to keep you signed in and to keep your account secure. - Security and settings: essential storage that keeps the Platform working and protects it from misuse. - Payments: when you open Stripe's checkout or billing pages, Stripe may set its own cookies to process payments and keep them secure. Those cookies are governed by Stripe's policies. - Advertising (Meta pixel, only if you agree): if you choose "Accept all", or switch on Marketing in Cookie settings, we load the Meta (Facebook) pixel from Meta Platforms. It tells Meta which pages of our public site you view and when a job is posted or a tradesperson signs up (with the type of trade only), and it sets cookies so we can measure our adverts and reach the right people. Meta also receives your IP address and browser details, and may use them under its own privacy policy. We do not send Meta your name, email address, phone number, address or anything you write in a job, and we send no page views from your dashboard, quote, invoice or account pages. The pixel does not load unless you accept. "Reject non-essential" keeps it off. You can change your choice at any time with "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page; switching it off stops it from your next page view. - Analytics (only if you agree): if you choose "Accept all", or switch on Analytics in Cookie settings, we load three tools. Google Analytics counts which public pages of our site are viewed and how visitors move between them, and sets cookies to tell visits apart; we switch off its advertising features. If you don't accept analytics, Google Analytics sets no cookies on your device. It may still receive a basic, cookieless signal that a page was viewed (with no identifier), which Google uses to estimate visitor numbers. Microsoft Clarity records anonymous sessions and heatmaps (where people click and scroll) so we can find parts of the site that are hard to use; everything typed into a form field is masked, and nothing is recorded on your dashboard, quote, invoice or account pages. HubSpot's tracking code records which public pages are viewed and sets a cookie that tells visits apart; we do not give it your name or email address, and we mark our forms so it does not collect what you type into them. Each of these providers also receives your IP address and browser details, and uses them under its own privacy policy. We send them no names, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses or job text, and no page views from your dashboard, quote, invoice or account pages. Clarity and HubSpot do not load unless you accept, and "Reject non-essential" keeps cookies from all three off. You can change your choice at any time with "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page; switching Analytics off stops them and removes their cookies from our site. We do not load any other analytics or advertising scripts. If we add any other non-essential cookie in future, we will ask for your consent before setting it. You can clear stored sessions and cookies through your browser settings. Blocking essential storage may stop parts of the Platform from working.

We keep personal data only for as long as needed for the purposes in this Policy. In general: We review these records every month. Our review checks whether each record is still needed and, where it is not, we delete it or make it anonymous. In general: - Accounts that have been closed are reviewed, and removed once they have been closed for 12 months, unless we need them for a dispute, a legal claim or a legal obligation; - Completed or cancelled jobs, quotes and enquiries are reviewed, and removed or made anonymous once they are more than 24 months old, unless we need them for a dispute, a legal claim or a legal obligation; - Identity documents from Verification are reviewed and deleted once they are no longer required to complete Verification; - Financial records, including invoices and payment records, are kept for at least six years from the end of the relevant financial year, as UK tax and accounting law requires, and are not deleted before then. These periods do not apply where we need to keep information for a dispute, a legal claim, a legal obligation or another genuine need, in which case it is kept until that need ends. When data is no longer needed, we delete it or make it anonymous.

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse and unauthorised access. Access to personal data is limited to people who need it. Passwords are stored in protected form. No system is completely secure. If we become aware of a personal data breach that is likely to affect your rights, we will tell you and the Information Commissioner's Office where required by law.

Under UK GDPR you have the right to: - Be informed about how your personal data is used; - Access the personal data we hold about you; - Have inaccurate data corrected; - Have your data erased in certain circumstances; - Restrict or object to certain processing; - Request a copy of your data in a portable format; - Withdraw consent where we rely on it; - Object to direct marketing at any time; - Not be subject to decisions made solely by automated means that have a significant effect on you. To exercise any of these rights, email info@arkadiaconnect.co.uk. We may need to confirm your identity before responding. We respond within one month of receiving your request. For a complex or numerous request we may extend this by up to two further months; if we do, we will tell you within the first month and explain why. We keep a record of each request and the action we took, so that we can show what was done and when. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). We would welcome the chance to address your concern first.

The Platform is intended for adults. Customers and Traders must be 18 or over to create an account. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please email info@arkadiaconnect.co.uk and we will delete it.

We may update this Policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top shows when it was last revised. For material changes, we will give reasonable notice by a clear notice on the Platform.

For any questions about this Policy or how we use personal data, contact: Arkadia Connect LTD Company number: 17524644 Email: info@arkadiaconnect.co.uk Website: arkadiaconnect.co.uk