Privacy policy

1. Who we are

MyTrustedTraders is operated by etti.ai Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 15533048), with its registered office at 60 Lee Park, London, SE3 9HZ, United Kingdom.

etti.ai Limited ("we", "us", "our") is the data controller for personal data processed through MyTrustedTraders. This policy applies to the apex site (mytrustedtraders.com) and to every country-specific subdomain we operate, for example us., au., ca., nz., ie. and za.mytrustedtraders.com.

For any privacy question or to exercise your rights, contact privacy@mytrustedtraders.com.

2. The data we process

Public trade profile data: names, business or trading names, contact details such as phone numbers and websites, locations, services offered, credentials, and review or rating information that we collect and aggregate from named, publicly accessible review sources, official registers, and business directories.

Account data: if you create a homeowner or business account, we process your name, email address, a securely hashed password, and account settings.

Enquiry and saved-activity data: when you send an enquiry, build a shortlist, or use the assistant, we process the contact details and job information you provide so we can save it and carry out the actions you request.

Business outreach data: for UK corporate subscribers, we may hold a business email published on the company's own website or an official source, its source URL and observation date, our contact checks and approval, campaign history, replies, delivery status and opt-out state. These email addresses are not added to public business profiles.

Usage and technical data: standard server logs (IP address, approximate location, device and browser type, pages visited, timestamps), and analytics events about how the site is used.

Consent and preferences: your cookie or analytics choices and any data-protection requests you make.

3. Why we process it, and our legal bases

Operating the public directory and aggregating publicly available trade information. We rely on legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) UK/EU GDPR) to provide transparent public evidence that helps people evaluate contractors. We balance this against the rights of the individuals concerned and offer correction and removal options.

Limited business-to-business outreach to active UK corporate subscribers. We rely on legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) UK GDPR), subject to the applicable electronic-marketing rules. We record the purpose and source, identify ourselves, provide a simple opt-out, suppress further marketing after an objection, and do not cold-email sole traders under this programme.

Providing accounts, enquiries, shortlists and the assistant. We rely on performance of a contract or steps taken at your request (Art. 6(1)(b)).

Analytics and any advertising-measurement cookies. We rely on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), which you can give or withdraw via the cookie banner at any time.

Security, fraud and abuse prevention, and meeting legal obligations. We rely on legitimate interests and legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(f) and (c)).

4. Public trade profiles, sources and removal

Trade profiles are built from named public sources and are presented as evidence to inspect, not as an endorsement. Where information available about a business includes personal data, for example a sole trader's name or number, we process it on the legitimate-interests basis above.

A business email approved for outreach is kept in a protected contact list with the public source where we found it. It is not copied into public profile data, and selection for an evidence recognition never depends on whether an email address exists.

If you are a contractor and information about you is inaccurate, out of date, harmful, or you object to it being shown, you can ask us to correct, restrict or remove it on the Profile rights page or by emailing privacy@mytrustedtraders.com. We will review every request and, where we cannot fully action it, explain why.

5. Cookies and analytics

We use strictly necessary cookies to keep account, shortlist and conversation flows working. These do not require consent.

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how the site is used. Analytics and any advertising-measurement signals run under Google Consent Mode and only with your consent. We honour Global Privacy Control (GPC) and the cookie banner choice. We enable IP anonymisation and do not use the data for advertising profiling.

We also use Hotjar (provided by Contentsquare) for aggregated heatmaps and anonymised session recordings, to see where pages confuse people and improve them. It only loads with your consent and is not used by visitors who choose essential-only cookies or signal GPC/Do Not Track. Recordings mask what you type. We suppress form fields such as your name, phone, email and project details, so they are never captured.

You can change your choice at any time through the cookie banner, and control cookies in your browser settings.

6. Who we share data with

We do not sell personal data and do not use it for cross-site advertising profiling.

We use a small number of processors that act on our instructions under appropriate data-processing terms: hosting and infrastructure (Hetzner Online GmbH, data centres in the EU), analytics (Google, and Contentsquare or Hotjar for anonymised usage analytics), and, where used, email delivery and AI-assistance providers.

We may disclose data where required by law, to protect the service or users from abuse, or in connection with a corporate transaction.

7. International transfers

Our primary hosting is in the European Union. Where a provider, such as Google, processes data outside the UK/EEA, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as UK/EU adequacy decisions or Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK Addendum) together with supplementary measures.

8. How long we keep data

We keep data only as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected, plus any period required for legal, safety, dispute-handling or integrity reasons. As a guide: enquiry history is normally retained for up to 24 months; server logs for around 30 days; account data until you close the account; and public profiles are reviewed periodically and on request. Business outreach contact points are rechecked for their campaign purpose. Opt-out and suppression data may be retained as needed to honour the request and prevent another marketing message.

9. Your rights

Under UK and EU GDPR you may have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict or object to processing, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time. Where processing is based on legitimate interests, you can object and we will stop unless we have overriding legitimate grounds.

If you are in the United States, depending on your state, for example California's CCPA/CPRA, you may have rights to know, access, delete and correct personal information and to opt out of its sale or sharing. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.

If you are in Australia, the Australian Privacy Principles give you rights of access and correction.

To exercise any right, contact privacy@mytrustedtraders.com. You also have the right to complain to your data-protection authority. In the UK, this is the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

10. Security and children

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, including encryption in transit, least-privilege access, and hardened infrastructure. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

The service is intended for adults and is not directed at children under 18.

11. Changes and contact

We may update this policy from time to time; material changes will be reflected by the last updated date below.

Controller: etti.ai Limited, 60 Lee Park, London, SE3 9HZ, United Kingdom. Privacy: privacy@mytrustedtraders.com. General: hello@mytrustedtraders.com.