Compare Data Group Ltd is the controller for Compare Builders. This notice explains how we use your personal information when you use Compare Builders, and the rights you have. It is written so you can read the short version of any section and go deeper where you want to. If anything here is unclear, please contact us using the details at the end.

Your privacy at a glance

What we collect and check

The details you give us at sign up and during verification. For builders this includes identity (a photo ID and a live capture of your face, which you can give to our identity verification partner, Plaid, or Credas if we use it instead) and right to work, company and registration details (including officers and persons with significant control), VAT registration, financial standing (a commercial credit report on a limited company), insurance, trade-body memberships, and portfolio and public reviews. For homeowners this includes identity (a photo ID and a live capture of your face, which you can give to our identity verification partner if we offer you our online check), contact details and that the job relates to a property you are connected to.

Why we use it, and our legal basis

To verify accounts, match jobs to verified builders, run the quoting process, keep the marketplace safe and meet our legal duties. Our lawful bases are performing our contract with you and our legitimate interests in a trusted marketplace. Where a use is genuinely optional, such as marketing or optional add-ons, we ask for your consent separately and you can withdraw it at any time.

Future checks

We may add further checks in future where they help keep the marketplace safe and trustworthy. We will update this notice and tell you before we introduce any new check.

Who we share it with

Our verification partners, who act on our instructions, including Plaid, our identity verification partner, if you verify your identity online, or Credas (part of Creditsafe) if we use it instead: it receives your name, contact details and our reference, takes a photo of your ID document and a live capture of your face from you directly, and we keep only the result; the verified counterparty you are matched with (a homeowner's contact details go only to the tradesperson they appoint, and on jobs we estimate at over £150k the tradespeople a homeowner picks to quote also receive the address, for a site visit our team arranges); AI providers who help us estimate project costs, who receive project details and uploads only, never your name or contact details; Plaid, an account information service provider authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, if you choose to verify your budget with your bank, in which case you give your open-banking consent to Plaid, we receive only the answer and we keep no balance; and other Compare Data Group services or providers where we explain a separate basis for doing so. We do not sell your information.

How long we keep it

For as long as your account is active, and for a set period afterwards so we can meet our legal and audit duties. The periods are set out in our retention schedule, for example financial records kept for six years to meet tax and company-law duties.

Your rights and how to complain

You can ask for a copy of your information, ask us to correct it, object to some uses, and ask us to delete it where it applies. You can complain to us directly and we will respond, and you can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. Contact us at privacy@comparedatagroup.com.

1. Who we are

Compare Builders is a service run by Compare Data Group Ltd, company number 16954162, registered at 20 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU. Compare Data Group Ltd is the data controller for the personal information collected through Compare Builders, which means we decide how and why it is used.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a data controller, registration number ZC087597. You can contact us, or our data protection contact, at privacy@comparedatagroup.com.

2. The information we collect

The information we collect depends on whether you use Compare Builders as a builder or as a homeowner.

If you are a builder

Your identity and right to work, your company and registration details (including your Companies House officers and any persons with significant control), your VAT registration, your financial standing (where you trade as a limited company, a commercial credit report on the company; we do not obtain a credit report on a sole trader), your insurance details, your trade-body memberships, your portfolio and public reviews, your contact details, and information about your account, quotes and activity on the platform. To verify your identity you give us, or our identity verification partner if you verify online (Plaid, or Credas if we use it instead), a photo of your identity document and a live capture of your face (see section 4).

If you are a homeowner

Your identity, your contact details, information confirming that a job relates to a property you are connected to, the details of the jobs you post, and information about your account and activity on the platform. To verify your identity you give us, or our identity verification partner if we offer you our online check and you use it, a photo of your identity document and a live capture of your face (see section 4).

If you review a tradesperson you appointed through us, your ratings and what you wrote are published on their public profile with your first name and postcode district, and the tradesperson can reply to it in public.

For everyone

Technical information such as device and usage data, and any messages or feedback you send us.

3. Where we get it from

From you, when you sign up, complete verification, post or quote on a job, or contact us.
From our verification partners, who check the details you give us against trusted sources on our instructions.
From public or official sources, such as company registers, where this is needed to verify an account.
From a credit reference agency (Creditsafe), which provides a commercial credit report on a limited company from its company number. We rely on our contract with you and our legitimate interests for this; it is a report on the business, not a personal credit check.

4. How and why we use your information

We use your information for the purposes below. For each one we rely on a lawful basis under data protection law.

What we do	Information used	Our lawful basis
Verify accounts and keep the marketplace verified-only	Identity, right to work, company and registration details (including Companies House officers and persons with significant control), VAT registration, insurance, trade-body memberships, and portfolio and public reviews (builders); identity, contact and property connection (homeowners)	Performing our contract with you, and our legitimate interests in a trusted marketplace
Verify your identity online, to prevent fraud and impersonation and so that builders are verified before they can trade on the marketplace	Plaid, our identity verification partner, runs this check for builders, and for homeowners when we offer it to them. It opens only after you have confirmed your mobile number with a code we text you. We send Plaid your name, email address and mobile number, and a reference for your account that is not your name or email address. You then give Plaid a photo of your identity document and a selfie directly. Plaid checks the document, checks that the selfie is of a live person and compares your face with the photo on the document: this uses biometric data (the features of your face) to confirm your identity. Plaid holds the images and the details read from your document. When you ask us to erase your information, we ask Plaid to delete them. We keep only the result: the outcome and its reason codes, the result of each step and when the check was completed, the name read from your document and whether it matches the name you gave us, and Plaid's reference for the check. We keep that result for as long as section 9 explains. If Plaid is unavailable, Credas, part of Creditsafe, may run the check instead. We send Credas your name, email address, phone number and our reference for your account (for a builder, also the business name). You then give Credas your identity document and a live capture of your face directly. Credas checks the document, matches your face to it, checks that the capture is live, checks your address, checks that the identity is not that of someone who has died, and screens against sanctions and politically exposed person lists. From a Credas check we keep the outcome and its reason codes, the result of each part of the check and when it was completed, your name as Credas holds it, the type and issuing country of your document, the screening results (such as a possible sanctions or politically exposed person match) and Credas's reference for the check. We do not keep the images, your document number, your date of birth or your address. For builders, a clear result can confirm your identity without a person; any other result goes to a person on our team, and nothing is rejected automatically. If you send us photos of your ID through our app instead, a person on our team checks them. For homeowners, a clear result confirms your identity and lets a job held for that check go live without a person; any other result goes to a person on our team, and nothing is rejected automatically	Performing our contract with you, and our legitimate interests in preventing fraud and impersonation on a trusted marketplace
Check a limited company's financial standing	A commercial credit report on the company, obtained from a credit reference agency (Creditsafe) using the company number. It is a report on the business, not a personal credit check on you, though it can include details of officers that appear on the public register	Performing our contract with you, and our legitimate interests in a trusted marketplace
Check that a homeowner's budget is covered, if they ask us to	If you choose to connect your bank, Plaid Financial Ltd, an account information service provider authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, reads the balances and account holder names on the accounts you select and passes them to us. You give your open-banking consent to Plaid at that point. We compare the total against the low end of the budget bracket you stated and the name on the account against yours, and we keep only the answer. We never keep your balance, your account numbers or any access to your bank, and the connection is closed as soon as the check finishes. Tradespeople see only that your funds were verified, never any figure	Your consent to the check, and our legitimate interests in a trusted marketplace once you have asked for it
Match jobs to verified builders and run the quoting process	Account, job, interest and quote information	Performing our contract with you
Estimate your project's likely cost	Your project details and any plans or photos you upload, sent (with location reduced to postcode area and photo location data removed) to AI providers acting on our instructions. Never your name or contact details	Performing our contract with you, and our legitimate interests in accurate guidance
Introduce a homeowner to the tradesperson they appoint	Job details, the property address and the homeowner's contact details, shared with the appointed tradesperson. The contact details go to no other tradesperson. On jobs we estimate at over £150k, the tradespeople the homeowner picks to quote also receive the address, for a site visit our team arranges	Performing our contract with you
Keep the marketplace safe and prevent fraud and misuse	Account, device and usage data, and verification results	Our legitimate interests in security and fraud prevention
Meet our legal and regulatory duties	Relevant account and transaction records	Complying with a legal obligation
Send you marketing, if you have opted in	Your contact details and preferences	Your consent
Improve our service	Usage and feedback data	Our legitimate interests in improving the service
Hold your place on our waitlist and tell you when we open	Your name, email address, phone number, what you told us about your project or business, and the campaign that brought you	Taking steps at your request before a contract with you; your consent for marketing emails

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interests against your rights and recorded that assessment. You can ask us about it at any time.

5. Future checks

We may add further checks in future where they help keep the marketplace safe and trustworthy. We will update this notice and tell you before we introduce any new check, and we will set out the specific legal basis and condition we rely on at that time.

6. Who we share it with

Our verification partners, who check your details on our instructions and only for that purpose. This includes Creditsafe, the credit reference agency that provides the commercial credit report on a limited company; it receives the company number to do so.
Plaid, our identity verification partner, if you verify your identity online, or Credas, part of Creditsafe, if we use it instead. We send the partner your name, contact details and our reference for your account (Credas also receives a builder’s business name), and you give it a photo of your identity document and a live capture of your face directly. It runs the check on our instructions and sends us the result. A clear result can confirm your identity without a person; any other result goes to a person on our team. The partner keeps the images; we keep only the result. See section 4 for what we keep, and section 10 to ask for a copy or for deletion.
Plaid Financial Ltd, an account information service provider authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, if you choose to verify your budget with your bank. You give your open-banking consent to Plaid, your bank sends Plaid the balances and account holder names on the accounts you select, and Plaid passes them to us. We keep only the answer, never your balance, and we close the connection as soon as the check finishes.
The verified counterparty you are matched with. A homeowner’s contact details go only to the tradesperson they appoint. The property address goes to that tradesperson too, and on jobs we estimate at over £150k also to the tradespeople the homeowner picks to quote, for a site visit our team arranges. We do not share your details with any other tradesperson or homeowner.
Analytics and advertising providers for our website: Google (Google Analytics), Microsoft (Microsoft Clarity) and Meta (the Meta Pixel). Google Analytics runs only after you accept analytics cookies, and the Meta Pixel only after you accept marketing cookies. The Meta Pixel runs on our public pages, our waitlist pages included, never on the pages you see when signed in. It tells Meta which of our pages you view, and when you join a waitlist, send us a job or send us a tradesperson application, with only the type of project or business, never your name, your contact details or anything you typed into our forms. Microsoft Clarity runs on every page, including our enquiry form and the pages you see when signed in, and records how you use each page. Before you make a cookie choice, and if you refuse analytics cookies, it does this without cookies. If you accept marketing cookies, Microsoft says Clarity shares data with Microsoft Advertising. Our cookie notice explains each of them.
HubSpot, the system we keep our customer records in. Its code runs on our public pages only after you accept analytics cookies, never on the pages you see when signed in, and records the pages you view, the links and buttons you click and a browser fingerprint. When you send one of our enquiry, sign up or download forms, HubSpot also receives a copy of what you entered and links it to your visits. Our waitlist forms are not copied this way. Our cookie notice explains how to refuse or withdraw this.
Service providers who help us run the platform, such as hosting and communications. They act on our instructions.
AI providers who help us estimate project costs. They receive your project details and any plans or photos you upload (with location reduced to postcode area and photo location data removed, and never your name or contact details), act on our instructions, and do not use your information to train their models.
An AI provider that looks at the photos of their work that builders send us for checking, and at builders’ profile photos, for contact details or branding (and, on a profile photo, that it shows one person’s head and shoulders). It receives the image only, with its location and camera details removed, never the builder’s name or the file name, and acts on our instructions.
Other Compare Data Group services, where we explain a separate basis for doing so. See section 7.
Authorities, advisers or other parties where the law requires or allows it.

We do not sell your information.

7. Using your information across Compare Data Group

Compare Data Group Ltd also runs other comparison services. Because they are run by the same company, using your information on another of our services is not sharing it with a separate organisation. It is the same controller using your information for a different purpose.

That does not mean we reuse it freely. If we want to use information collected through Compare Builders for a different purpose on another Compare Data Group service, we will make sure that use has its own lawful basis and that it is compatible with why we collected it, or we will ask for your consent, and we will tell you. We will not move your verification information into unrelated marketing without a proper basis and notice.

8. Sending information outside the UK

Most of your information is processed in the UK. Where a provider processes it outside the UK, we put appropriate safeguards in place, such as the UK approved transfer terms, and we check that the protection given is not materially lower than under UK law.

9. How long we keep it

We keep your information for as long as your account is active, and for a set period afterwards so we can meet our legal, audit and dispute-handling duties. After that we delete it or make it anonymous. Our retention schedule sets out how long we keep each type of information. For example, we keep financial records for six years to meet tax and company-law duties, and we keep account and verification records for a period after your account closes.

If you join one of our waitlists and don’t use the link we send when we open, we delete your waitlist entry 90 days after we last sent it, or a year after you joined if we never send one. If you use the link, your details move to your job or application and are kept as described above, and we delete the waitlist entry 90 days later. If you ask to leave a waitlist, we delete your entry within 30 days. A copy of your contact details and waitlist answers is also kept in our customer records system (HubSpot), and we delete that copy when you ask us to delete your details.

10. Your rights

You have the right to:

Ask for a copy of the information we hold about you.
Ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete.
Ask us to delete your information, where that applies.
Ask us to restrict or object to certain uses of your information.
Ask us to transfer certain information to you or another provider.
Withdraw your consent at any time for the uses that rely on consent, such as marketing or optional add-ons. This does not affect the verification checks, which rely on our contract with you and our legitimate interests.

To use any of these rights, contact us using the details below. If you have an account, you can also ask from its Privacy and your data page: in your account if you are a homeowner, or in your trade portal if you are a business.

This includes an online identity check. You can ask for a copy of what we keep from it, and of what Plaid or Credas holds from it (for Credas, its report), or ask for it to be deleted. If you are a homeowner and you delete your account, or ask us to erase your information, we reduce our record of the check to the fact that it took place and its outcome, and we ask Plaid or Credas, whichever ran it, to delete what it holds from your check. If you are a builder, ask from Privacy and your data in your trade portal, or contact us: when our team erases your information, we do the same. Either way, our audit log keeps a record of each decision on the check, who made it and when, which can include the name read from your identity document and the reason a reviewer gave.

11. How to complain

If you are unhappy with how we have used your information, please tell us first using the contact details below. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and respond as soon as we can. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

12. Cookies and marketing

We use cookies and similar technologies on our website. You can manage these in our cookie settings, and our separate cookie notice explains them in full. We will only send you marketing if you have opted in, and you can opt out at any time using the link in any marketing message or by contacting us.

13. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice from time to time. If we make an important change, such as introducing a new type of check, we will tell you before it takes effect. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.

14. Contact us

Compare Data Group Ltd, 20 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU.
Email: privacy@comparedatagroup.com.
ICO registration number: ZC087597.

Privacy notice