Privacy policy

This policy explains what Compare The Build Yard collects, why, how long we keep it and what you can ask us to do with it. It covers this website and the Compare The Build Yard app. It is written to be read, not skimmed past. If anything is unclear, email privacy@comparethebuildyard.co.uk.

Who we are

Compare The Build Yard is operated by Compare The Build Yard Limited, company number 17481225, registered at Lifford Hall Lifford Lane, Kings Norton, B30 3JN. We are the data controller for the personal data described here. Our ICO registration number is ICO:00015710750. Questions about your data go to the directors at privacy@comparethebuildyard.co.uk.

The waitlist on this website

When you join the waitlist we store your email address and, if you give it, the first half of your postcode (the outward code, for example SK8). We never ask for a full postcode here.

• Why: to send you one email when the app is available, and to see which areas builders are asking from so we can add local merchants there first. Legal basis: your consent, given when you press “Join the waitlist”.
• How long: until the app has launched and the launch email has been sent, or until you ask us to remove you, whichever is sooner. After launch the list is deleted within 90 days.
• Who else sees it: our email provider, Resend, sends the confirmation and launch emails on our behalf. Nobody else. We never sell or share the list.
• Spam protection: we count sign-ups per internet connection for one hour to stop automated abuse. The count is discarded after the hour.

The app

Everything in this part is held on our servers and used only to run the app for you, unless it says otherwise. Legal basis: providing the service you signed up for, except where a different basis is named.

Your account

• Email address, to sign you in and to send you a password reset link when you ask for one.
• Password, stored only as a one-way hash (bcrypt). We cannot read it, and nobody at Compare The Build Yard ever sees it.
• Sign-ins. Each phone you sign in on gets its own sign-in, which records when it was last used, when it expires and, if the app sends it, a short description of the device. The app keeps a random key in your phone’s secure storage; we store only a scrambled form of it. A sign-in expires after 90 days without use. Signing out deletes it, changing your password signs out your other phones, and resetting your password signs out all of them.
• Your settings: whether you buy as a trade or a homeowner, whether prices are shown ex VAT or inc VAT, the trades you picked so the app can put your categories first, and whether you have turned price drop alerts on.

Your postcode

Giving a postcode is optional. If you give one we store it in full on your account and use it to work out which merchants deliver to you, what delivery costs and which local prices apply. Without one you see national prices only, and skips and loose loads ask for a postcode before they can be priced. The full postcode is used only to answer your own requests: everything we record about what you searched for keeps only the first half of it (the outward code, for example SK8).

If you use “Use current location”, your phone works out the postcode itself and the app fills it in. Your location is not sent to us or to any lookup service; only the postcode is, once you save it.

Searches and the demand log

When you are signed in, we keep your last ten searches on your account, so they are there when you sign in on another phone. The app shows the three most recent. They are used only to show you your recent searches, and they are deleted when you delete your account. Searches you make while signed out stay on your phone until you sign in, when they are added to your account’s list. Suggestions shown as you type are never recorded.

When a search finds nothing, or a line on a list you added to a job does not match a product, we record what was asked for. This is how we learn what to add to the catalogue. Each record holds the text of the request, where it came from (a search, a photo, a spreadsheet, or pasted or typed by hand), the first half of your postcode only, the job it came from if any, and a link to your account.

• Legal basis: our legitimate interest in improving the catalogue. You can object at any time by emailing us; we will remove the link to your account.
• How long: the link to your account is removed after 12 months, and immediately if you delete your account. The request text and outward code are kept without any link to you.

Jobs

A job is a list of materials you are pricing. We store its name, a postcode if you give the job its own, the products and quantities on it, which merchant you chose for each, and whether you have marked each merchant’s order as placed. When you mark an order as placed we record the saving against the next cheapest price, for the savings total in the app.

Adding to a job from a photograph: the lines are read on your phone and only the text is sent to us. The photograph never leaves your phone. Text you paste, type or import from a spreadsheet is sent to us to match against products; lines that match are added to the job, and lines that don’t are recorded in the demand log above.

Trade discounts you enter

For each merchant you can tell the app whether you have an account there and what discount you get, overall or by category. If you give a price you pay for a product instead of a percentage, we store that price and the product and work out the percentage from the merchant’s list price. We use these only to adjust the prices you see. They are never shared with merchants or other users, and they are deleted with your account.

Your subscription

You subscribe, pay and cancel through the App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google takes the payment under their own privacy policies; we never see your card details, name or store account.

We use RevenueCat to check subscriptions with Apple and Google. RevenueCat knows you only by your random Compare The Build Yard account number, never by your email. From it we store which store you subscribed through, the plan, its status (trial, active, cancelled or expired), the dates the current period and any payment grace period end, whether the store reported a billing problem, when you cancelled, and the store’s own record of each change, which includes a transaction reference and the price, currency and country of the purchase.

Emails the app sends

Emails are sent through Resend. We do not send marketing email from the app.

• About your account, whatever your settings: a welcome when you create it, a password reset link when you ask for one (it works once, for one hour), a note when your password is changed, and a confirmation when your account is deleted.
• Price-drop alerts, only if you turn them on: a digest on Monday and Friday mornings for each job where a line you have not yet ordered has got cheaper. Every one carries a link that turns alerts off for that job with one tap, and the switch in Account turns them all off.

Security and abuse protection

To stop people guessing passwords, we count sign-in, sign-up and password reset attempts per internet connection, and sign-in and reset requests per email address. Each count is discarded after 15 minutes or an hour. Our servers also keep technical logs of the requests they receive, including the address requested (which can include a search or postcode), your IP address and, when you are signed in, your account number, to find faults and abuse. Our host, Sevalla, keeps these runtime and access logs for up to 30 days. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and working.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app at any time. It takes effect straight away and removes your email, password, postcode, settings, sign-ins, any unused reset links, trade discounts, jobs and everything on them, savings, and our record of your subscription. Your demand-log entries lose their link to you and to your jobs at the same moment.

Deleting your account does not cancel your subscription: cancel it in the App Store or Google Play first, or the store will keep charging you. RevenueCat and the store keep their own record of the purchase; after deletion it is linked only to an account number that no longer exists with us. Joining the waitlist on this website is separate, and so is leaving it.

Analytics and tracking

This website sets no analytics or advertising cookies and loads no third-party tracking scripts. If we ever add analytics, we will ask for consent first and update this policy. The app contains no analytics or advertising tools. If we add crash reporting, we will name the provider here before it is used.

Affiliate links

When you go from the app to a merchant’s website, the link may carry a code that tells the merchant the visit came from Compare The Build Yard. If you buy, the merchant may pay us a commission. The merchant does not tell us who you are or what you bought. Commission never affects the prices we show or the order merchants appear in.

Where data is stored

Our servers are in London, in the United Kingdom: all our apps and both our databases run on our host Sevalla’s London cluster (its europe-west2 region). Emails are sent through Resend’s EU region, in Ireland. Our subscription provider, RevenueCat, may process data in the United States under standard contractual clauses.

Your rights

You can ask us to show you the data we hold about you, correct it, delete it, or stop using it for a particular purpose. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk). To make a request, email privacy@comparethebuildyard.co.uk from the address on your account. We answer within one month.

Deleting your account in the app removes your data straight away, as described under “Deleting your account” above. If you cannot open the app, this page says how to ask us by email.

Changes

If this policy changes in a way that matters to you, we will say so in the app and update the date at the top of this page.