Privacy Notice.
How we collect, use and look after your personal information. We've kept it short and in plain English, because a privacy notice you can actually read is the whole point.
Loacally helps you find a trusted local tradesperson by your postcode and arrange a visit. This notice explains what personal information we handle when you use the platform, and the choices you have. It sits alongside our Terms & conditions.
Who we are
Loacally is a UK platform that introduces customers to independent local tradespeople. When you use loacally.com, Loacally looks after the personal information described here and decides how it is used, so this notice explains what we do with it.
We're launching in London first, with more of the UK to follow. Loacally is free to use for customers; tradespeople list free during our founding period. If you want to reach us about anything in this notice, see how to get in touch at the end.
Loacally is a trading name of Motexu Builds Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17107919), registered office 43 Dovercourt Avenue, Thornton Heath, England, CR7 7LJ. Motexu Builds Ltd is the data controller for the personal information described in this notice.
What we collect
We try to collect only what we need to run the service. In practice that falls into a few groups.
- Account details
- Your name, email address, mobile number and the password you set. Tradespeople also give business details when they list.
- Verification details
- If you list a trade, we collect business and identity information so we can run our checks and confirm your details. We keep this to what we need to verify you, and we don't use it for anything else.
- Location
- The postcode you search with, and the address you give for a visit. We use this to show who is nearby and to help a provider reach you.
- Booking details
- The trade and service you choose, the date and time of a visit, and any notes you add about the job.
- Content you add
- Reviews, ratings and anything you write to us or to a provider through the platform.
- Technical data
- Basic usage information, such as your browser type and the pages you visit, mostly through cookies (see section 7).
We do not ask for special category data, and we would rather you did not include sensitive personal details in free-text job notes or reviews.
Why we use it
We use your information to provide the service and keep it working. The main reasons are:
- To run your bookings. Showing you nearby providers, arranging a visit, and sending confirmations and updates by email.
- To manage your account. Signing you in, keeping your visit history and saved providers, and helping if something goes wrong.
- To list and run trades. For tradespeople, showing your profile, trade and availability to nearby customers, and verifying your business so people can book with confidence.
- To keep the platform safe and fair. Verifying tradespeople and contact details, moderating reviews, and dealing with misuse.
- To improve Loacally. Understanding what works so we can make the service better, using aggregated and minimal data wherever we can.
Under UK data protection law, we rely on a few different legal bases for this: performing our contract with you, our legitimate interests in running and improving a safe platform, your consent for non-essential cookies, and meeting our legal obligations. We do not sell your personal information.
Unclaimed business listings
Alongside tradespeople who have joined Loacally directly, we list a small number of local tradespeople who have not signed up yet. We build these listings from publicly available business information, currently OpenStreetMap, the open map database, read through its public Overpass query service. We hold the business name, trade, borough, an outward postcode, a rough location for search, a link to the business's own website where one was publicly listed, and, where it was publicly listed, a phone number. We show the business name, trade, borough and, where we have them, the website and a general description of the trade; where a phone number was publicly listed, anyone can reveal it on the listing with a click, and we log each reveal. We never write the phone number into the page itself, and we do not store a street address or an email address for these listings. We name the source and the date on every listing we publish this way. Because this information is already public, an unclaimed listing can appear in search engine results and is included in our sitemap; you can have one removed at any time using the link on the listing, as set out below.
We do this because it helps people find a wider range of local tradespeople, and it gives tradespeople an easy way to see and claim a free profile. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: building a useful, accurate directory and inviting tradespeople onto the platform, weighed against the limited amount of information we hold, the fact that it was already publicly listed by or about the business, and the controls on how we show it, in particular that the phone number is never written into the page and is revealed only on a deliberate click, which we log.
We keep an unclaimed listing until the business claims it or asks us to take it down. If someone asks us to remove a listing, we keep a minimal record that it was removed, indefinitely, because that record is what stops the same business being added again from the same source. That record also holds anything written in the optional box on the removal form, which we delete after 12 months. We do not keep anything beyond that.
If you run a business we've listed this way and it isn't right, or you'd simply rather it wasn't there, use the 'Not your business? Remove this listing' link on the profile. We remove it straight away, no account or ID needed. You can also object to being listed, or ask us to erase the record entirely, using the contact details in section 9 (Your rights). There is more detail on where our listings come from.
Payments are off-platform
Loacally does not take payments. You pay your tradesperson directly, on or after the visit, by whatever method you both agree. Prices are shown on the platform for transparency only.
Because of this, we do not ask for or store your card or bank details. Any payment you make is a matter between you and the provider, under their own arrangements.
How long we keep it, and where
We keep your information for as long as you have an account, and for a reasonable period afterwards to handle queries, disputes and our legal obligations. When we no longer need it, we delete it or make it anonymous.
Your information is stored on secure servers provided by our suppliers. Some of them may process data outside the UK. Where that happens, we take steps to make sure it is protected to a standard the law recognises.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have rights over your personal information. You can ask us to:
- See a copy of the information we hold about you.
- Correct anything that is wrong or out of date.
- Delete your account and the information tied to it, where we are not required to keep it.
- Export your information in a portable format.
- Object to or limit certain uses, and withdraw any consent you have given.
Many of these you can do yourself from your account settings, including deleting your account. For anything else, get in touch through the Contact page and we will sort it out. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, although we'd appreciate the chance to put things right first.
Keeping it secure
We use sensible technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit and limiting who can access it. No service can promise perfect security, but we take it seriously and keep our approach under review.
Accessibility
We want Loacally to be usable by as many people as possible, and we aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 at level AA across the platform.
In practice, that means we work to keep pages usable with a keyboard and with common screen readers, use clear, readable text with sufficient colour contrast, provide text alternatives for meaningful images and icons, and respect your browser and device settings, including reduced-motion preferences.
Loacally is a growing platform and some areas may not yet fully meet this target. We test as we build, and we fix issues as we find them. If you have trouble using any part of Loacally, or you would like information in a different format, get in touch through the Contact page and we will do our best to help.
Under-18s
Loacally is meant for adults. The platform is not aimed at children, and you need to be at least 18 to create an account or arrange a visit. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.
Changes to this notice
As Loacally grows, this notice will change. When it does, we'll update the date at the top of the page. The version with the most recent date is the one that applies.
How to get in touch
For anything about your information, your rights, or this notice, use the Contact page and pick the topic that fits. There's a real person at the other end, and we read everything.
Something here not clear?
Ask us. We'd rather explain it properly than leave you guessing.