Privacy Policy

Abx Technologies Ltd(“we”, “us”, “our”) operates the Abx-Handymanplatform, which connects customers (“Clients”) with self-employed trades and service professionals (“Experts”).

For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, Abx Technologies Ltd is the data controller of the personal data described in this policy.

• Registered name: Abx Technologies Ltd
• Registered office: 77 Renfrew St. Glasgow, Scotland

Where an Expert uses your data for their own purposes — for example, keeping their own job records or invoices for tax purposes — that Expert is a separate, independent data controller and is responsible for their own compliance.

This policy applies to our website, our mobile applications, and any related services (together, the “Platform”). It covers Clients, Experts, and visitors who browse without an account.

It does not cover third-party websites or services we link to. Those organisations have their own privacy policies, which we encourage you to read.

Information you give us

• Account details — name, email address, telephone number, password, profile photo, and your account type (Client or Expert).
• Job information — the service address, access instructions, descriptions of the work, photos or videos you upload, preferred dates and times.
• Payment information — billing address and, for Experts, bank account and tax details for payouts. Card details are entered directly with our payment provider and are never stored on our systems.
• Expert verification records — proof of identity and right to work, trade qualifications and registrations (for example Gas Safe or a competent person scheme for electrical work), public liability insurance certificates, and the outcome of background checks.
• Communications and content — in-app messages, ratings and reviews, support tickets, and correspondence with us.

Information we collect automatically

• Device and technical data — IP address, device identifiers, operating system, browser type, app version, crash logs and diagnostic data.
• Location data — with your permission, approximate or precise device location, so we can show nearby jobs to Experts and provide live tracking to Clients. You can withdraw this permission in your device settings at any time, though some features will stop working.
• Usage data — pages and screens viewed, searches, features used, and timestamps.

Information from third parties

• Identity, background-check and right-to-work verification providers.
• Payment and fraud-prevention providers.
• Mapping and address-lookup providers when you enter a service address.
• Social or single sign-on providers, if you choose to register using one.

UK data protection law requires us to have a “lawful basis” for every use of your personal data. The table below sets out what we do, and why we are permitted to do it.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have carried out a balancing assessment to confirm our interests do not override your rights and freedoms. You may ask us for a summary of that assessment, and you have the right to object — see Your rights.

Experts who apply to offer services through the Platform are asked to complete identity and background checks, which may include a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check (or Disclosure Scotland / AccessNI equivalent), carried out through an approved third-party provider.

Information about criminal convictions and offences is given special protection under Article 10 of the UK GDPR. We process it only where a condition in Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018 applies — in our case, for the prevention or detection of unlawful acts and the protection of the public — and we maintain an appropriate policy document as required by that Act.

• We record the outcomeof a check (for example “cleared” or “not cleared”) and the date, not the full certificate content, unless a disclosure requires individual assessment.
• Access is restricted to the small number of staff responsible for onboarding and safeguarding decisions.
• Criminal record data is not shared with Clients. Clients see only that an Expert has passed our verification process.

We use automated systems to rank and route job requests to Experts based on distance, skills, availability, rating and past performance, and to flag suspicious activity for review.

Ranking and matching do not produce legal or similarly significant effects on you and are therefore not “solely automated decisions” within the meaning of Article 22 of the UK GDPR. Where an automated system flags an account for suspension or removal, a member of our team reviews the case before any final decision is taken. You may ask for human intervention, express your point of view, and contest any such decision by contacting info@abxhandyman.co.uk.

• Between Clients and Experts — when a job is accepted we share the details each side needs: the Expert receives your name, service address, contact number and job description; you receive the Expert’s name, photo, rating and contact number. Before acceptance, Experts see only an approximate location and the job description.
• Service providers — cloud hosting, payment processing, identity and background-check providers, mapping, messaging and notification services, customer support tooling, and analytics. They act on our instructions as processors under a written contract, except where they are independent controllers in their own right (such as payment institutions meeting their own regulatory duties).
• Professional advisers and insurers — lawyers, accountants and auditors, where necessary.
• Law enforcement and regulators — where we are legally required to disclose, or where disclosure is necessary to prevent harm, investigate a crime, or protect our rights.
• Corporate transactions — a prospective buyer or successor, if our business is reorganised, sold or merged. We will notify you if your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with third parties for their own advertising purposes.

We aim to keep personal data within the UK and the European Economic Area. Some of our service providers operate outside the UK. Where personal data is transferred internationally, we make sure one of the following safeguards is in place:

• the destination country is covered by UK adequacy regulations; or
• the transfer is made under the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK Addendum to the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, together with a transfer risk assessment; or
• another safeguard or exception permitted by Chapter V of the UK GDPR applies.

You can request a copy of the safeguards we rely on by emailing info@abxhandyman.co.uk.

We keep personal data only for as long as we need it for the purposes set out in this policy, and to meet our legal obligations. Our standard periods are:

Where we no longer need to identify you, we may anonymise your data instead of deleting it and continue to use it for statistical purposes. Anonymised data is no longer personal data.

We use cookies and similar technologies (including mobile SDKs and local storage) on the Platform. Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), we set non-essential cookies only with your consent.

• Strictly necessary — required to sign you in, keep your session secure, remember your basket or job draft, and balance load. These cannot be switched off.
• Functional — remember your preferences, such as language or saved addresses.
• Analytics — help us understand which features are used and where people run into problems.
• Marketing — measure the performance of our campaigns and show relevant advertising.

You can change or withdraw your consent at any time through the cookie settings link in the site footer, and you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking strictly necessary cookies will stop parts of the Platform from working.

We will only send you marketing by email or SMS where you have opted in, or where you have previously used a similar service from us and did not opt out at the time (the “soft opt-in” permitted by PECR). Every marketing message includes an unsubscribe link, and you can update your preferences in your account settings at any time.

Opting out of marketing does not stop service messages such as booking confirmations, receipts, safety notices and security alerts, which we need to send to operate your account.

We maintain technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk, including encryption of data in transit and at rest, role-based access controls, multi-factor authentication for staff, logging and monitoring, secure development practices, supplier due diligence, and staff data protection training.

No system can be guaranteed completely secure. If a personal data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will report it to the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, and we will tell you directly if the risk is high.

Under UK data protection law you have the following rights, free of charge:

1. Access — to be told whether we hold data about you and to receive a copy of it.
2. Rectification — to have inaccurate data corrected and incomplete data completed.
3. Erasure (‘right to be forgotten’) — to have your data deleted where we no longer have a good reason to keep it.
4. Restriction — to ask us to pause processing while a concern is investigated.
5. Portability — to receive the data you gave us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another provider.
6. Objection — to object to processing based on legitimate interests, and an absolute right to object to direct marketing.
7. Withdraw consent — where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out beforehand.
8. Rights relating to automated decisions — see Automated decision-making.

To exercise any right, email info@abxhandyman.co.uk, or use the account deletion page for erasure requests. We may ask you to verify your identity before we act. We will respond within one month (30 days). If your request is complex or you have made several, we may extend this by up to two further months and will tell you why within the first month.

Some rights are qualified. For example, we may not be able to erase transaction records we are legally required to keep, and reviews you left about an Expert may remain on the Platform in anonymised form so other users are not misled.

The Platform is not intended for children. You must be at least 18 years old to hold an account. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, contact info@abxhandyman.co.uk and we will delete it.

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of the page shows when it was last revised. If we make a change that significantly affects how we use your personal data, we will tell you directly — by email or an in-app notice — before it takes effect.

If you have any question about this policy or how we handle your data, please contact us first — we would like the chance to put things right.

• Email: info@abxhandyman.co.uk
• Post: Abx Technologies Ltd, 77 Renfrew St. Glasgow, Scotland
• Telephone: +44 7448 788659