Privacy policy

Who is responsible for your data

Tech Quotes, Cork, Ireland, is the controller of the personal data processed through TechQuotes, under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Irish Data Protection Acts 1988 to 2018. Contact us about anything in this policy at hello@techquotes.ie.

The data we collect

• Account details: name, email address, password (stored securely hashed) and, optionally, phone number. If you sign in with Google, Google gives us your name and email address (and a link to your profile picture, which we don't use); we never see your Google password.
• Provider profiles: business name, description, county, website, services, contact details, and any logo and photos of their work the provider adds (shown publicly).
• Requests and quotes: the details of projects you post, quotes you send, and messages and files (photos and PDFs) sent between users. If you change a request, we keep the earlier version too, so the providers who quoted can see what they quoted for. If you post a request before creating your account, we keep it back until you confirm your email address.
• Reviews: ratings and comments, shown publicly with your first name and last initial, and any public reply from the provider.
• Reports: reports you send us about content or users, with your name and email address (so we can tell you what we decided).
• Payments: if paid credits are introduced, Stripe processes payments; we don't see or store card details.
• Contact messages: what you send us through the contact form or by email.
• Technical data: essential cookies that keep you signed in, sign-in and server logs (such as IP address) kept for security, a scrambled (hashed) form of your IP address when you use the contact or report forms without signing in, so we can limit abuse, and a record of the emails we send you (address, subject and whether it was delivered).

You need to give us your name and email address to create an account, and providers need to give their business details to be listed. Without them we can't provide the service. Your phone number is optional.

When photos are uploaded, we remove hidden details such as the location where a photo was taken and the camera used, and resize them. Files sent in a conversation can only be opened by the two people in it, and by our team if the conversation is reported to us.

How we use it and our legal bases

• To provide the service (performance of a contract): your account, matching requests with providers, sharing a customer's contact details with providers who respond, messaging, reviews and service emails (new leads, quotes, messages, account emails).
• To keep the platform safe and fair (legitimate interests): vetting providers, preventing fraud and spam, handling reports and enforcing our terms.
• To meet legal obligations (legal obligation): accounting and tax records, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Matching requests to providers is automated (by service, county and remote preference), but it doesn't produce decisions with legal or similarly significant effects on you. We don't sell your data or use it for advertising.

Who we share it with

• Other users: providers who respond to your request see your name, email and phone number. Customers see the profiles of providers who respond. Reviews and provider profiles are public.
• Service providers who process data for us under data processing agreements: a hosting company in the EU, which hosts our server (the website, database and sign-in); Backblaze (encrypted backups, stored in the EU); Resend (email delivery); and Stripe (payments, if used).
• Authorities, where the law requires it.
• Google, only if you choose to sign in with Google: Google confirms who you are, under its own privacy policy.

Stripe acts as an independent controller for some payment data (for example fraud prevention), under its own privacy policy.

Resend, Stripe and Backblaze are based in the United States (our backups are stored in Backblaze's EU data centre). Where data leaves the EEA, it is protected by the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. Email us for a copy of these safeguards.

How long we keep it

• Account and profile data: while your account is open. Delete it any time from your account settings.
• Requests (including earlier versions of changed requests), quotes, messages and files sent in conversations: deleted 2 years after the request's closing date.
• Requests posted before an account was confirmed: deleted after 7 days if they are never sent, or straight away if you delete them.
• Provider logos and photos: while they are on the provider's profile (deleted within a day of being removed).
• Reviews: while both the reviewer's and the provider's accounts are open (shown with the reviewer's first name and last initial). A review our team removes is kept hidden, so it can't be posted again.
• Payment and invoice records: 6 years, as Irish tax law requires.
• Reports: 2 years after they are resolved (if you delete your account, your name and email are removed from reports you sent). Records of moderation decisions: 6 years; copies of removed content: 1 year.
• Contact messages: up to 2 years. Email delivery records: 90 days. Sign-in and security logs: up to 90 days. Hashed IP addresses used for rate limits: 1 day.
• If you ask us to delete your account while we are dealing with a report or decision involving it, we keep the related data until that is settled.
• Backups: deleted data and files can remain in our backups for up to 30 days before they are deleted.

Your rights

You have the right to access, correct, delete or move (port) your data, to object to or restrict how we use it, and to withdraw consent where we rely on it. You can download your data or delete your account yourself from your account settings, or email hello@techquotes.ie. We reply within one month.

If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, please tell us first. You also have the right to complain to the Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28 (www.dataprotection.ie), or to the data protection authority where you live or work.

Cookies

We only use strictly necessary cookies, which keep you signed in and secure. These don't need your consent. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies, or tracking pixels in our emails. If that changes, we will ask for your consent first.

If you buy credits, Stripe sets its own cookies on its checkout page.

Children

TechQuotes is for adults. You must be at least 18 to create an account.

Changes to this policy

We will post any changes here and tell you about significant ones by email.