Privacy Policy & Data Retention Schedule

Cantab Snagging Specialists ("Cantab", "we", "us" or "our") respects the privacy of everyone who visits this website or uses our services. This policy explains how we collect, store, process and protect personal data, in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We act as the Data Controller for the personal data described in this policy. That means we decide how and why your information is used, and we are responsible for looking after it.

We collect only what we need to run a professional inspection service:

• Enquiry details. Your name, email address, phone number (if provided) and message, when you use our contact form. Used to reply to you and arrange your inspection. Lawful basis: performance of a contract, or legitimate interests prior to a contract being formed.
• Inspection details. The property address, plot number, your contact details and any notes you give us. Used to generate your snagging checklist and inspection report. Lawful basis: performance of a contract.
• Inspection media. Defect photographs, thermal images, drone footage and report findings relating to your property. Used as evidence capture and to document defects in your report. Lawful basis: performance of a contract.
• Billing and payment records. Your invoice address and transaction records. Card payments are processed by our payment provider; we never see or store your card details. Lawful basis: performance of a contract and legal obligation.
• Technical records. Basic technical information such as your IP address and browser type, processed by our hosting provider to keep the website secure and running. We also use Google Analytics to count visits and see which pages are used.
• Advertising measurement (only with your consent). If you accept cookies, Google Ads sets cookies and receives information such as whether you arrived from one of our ads, the pages you visited and whether you went on to submit a Plot Hold form. We use this only to measure which ads work and to help Google show our ads to people more likely to need an inspection. We do not send Google your name, email or phone number. Lawful basis: your consent. In the UK and Europe nothing is set until you choose Accept; you can withdraw at any time via Cookie settings, and rejecting stops further measurement. Your choice and the time you made it are stored in your own browser. Google uses this data as described in How Google uses information from sites that use its services.

All data, database records and inspection media we process are held in professional cloud infrastructure operated on our behalf, and are transferred only over encrypted connections (TLS). Enquiries are stored in an access-controlled database available only to authorised personnel of Cantab Snagging Specialists. We review who has access regularly and remove access when it is no longer needed.

In line with the UK GDPR principle of storage limitation, we keep personal data only as long as necessary for the purpose it was gathered:

• Contact enquiries: retained for as long as needed to handle the enquiry, then for 12 months, after which they are deleted.
• Completed inspection reports and supporting media: retained for 6 years following the inspection, in line with UK contract limitation periods, after which they are permanently deleted.
• Accounting and tax records: retained for 6 years to satisfy UK statutory record-keeping requirements, then destroyed.
• Technical and security logs: retained for up to 90 days by our hosting provider, then automatically purged.
• Booking enquiries: retained for as long as needed to arrange and complete your inspection, then for 12 months, after which they are deleted.

You keep ownership of your information. At any time, you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, including your enquiry history, inspection report and any photographs we hold in relation to your property. We will provide this in a clear, portable format such as PDF or CSV, free of charge, within one month of your request.

We do not sell personal data. We share data only with the providers essential to running our service:

• Website and database provider, which stores contact enquiries securely so we can read and respond to them;
• Our email service, which delivers confirmation and notification emails;
• Google, if you leave a review of our service, which Google publishes under its own terms; for website visit statistics (Google Analytics); and, only if you accept cookies, for advertising measurement (Google Ads).

We may also disclose information where we are legally required to do so, for example to comply with a court order or to exercise or defend a legal claim.

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights:

• Right of access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you (a Subject Access Request).
• Right to rectification: request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal records.
• Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"): request deletion of personal records where there is no overriding statutory requirement to retain them.
• Right to restriction of processing: limit how we process your personal data while a dispute is being resolved.
• Right to data portability: obtain your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Right to object: object to processing carried out on the basis of legitimate interests.

To exercise any of these rights, email us using the details below. We will respond within one month.

To submit a data access request or raise any question about data privacy, contact:

Data Protection Lead
Cantab Snagging Specialists
Email: office@cantab.app
Telephone: 07359 343709

UK Supervisory Authority
If you believe your data has been handled unlawfully, you have the statutory right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):

• Website: ico.org.uk
• Helpline: 0303 123 1113
• Address: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF