Privacy notice

What we collect, why we have it, how long we keep it, and how to get it removed.

Who this is about

LiveQuote is quoting software for UK sole traders. Two different groups of people have data here, and the answers are different for each.

Traders — people with a LiveQuote account. We decide what we collect from you and why, so for your data we are the data controller.

Customers of traders — homeowners and businesses who receive a quote. Your details were entered by your tradesperson. They decide what to collect and what to do with it, so they are the controller and we are their processor. If you want your details changed or removed, ask your tradesperson first — they can do it directly. You can also contact us and we will help, but we will normally need to involve them.

What we collect

If you have a LiveQuote account

• Your name, business name, email address and password.
• A separate contact email, phone number, trade, service area and “about” text — only if you choose to put them on your public page.
• Your logo, if you upload one.
• Your bank sort code and account number, if you add them so customers can pay your deposits. These are encrypted before they are stored, and we keep a record of every change to them — including the time and IP address — because a silent change to a bank account is what a compromised account looks like.
• Your quotes: your customers’ details, your prices, your costs and your margins.

We do not hold your card number. Card details are entered on a payment page hosted by Stripe and never reach our servers. We store only a reference to the saved card and its last four digits.

If you received a quote from a trader

• Your name, email address and phone number, if given.
• The description of the work, and its prices.
• If you sign a quote: the image of your signature, the name you typed, the date and time, and your IP address and browser user agent.
• If you send an enquirythrough a trader’s page: your name, email, phone if given, what you wrote, and your IP address and browser user agent.

We do not collect your postal address anywhere, and we never see or handle your payment. Deposits are paid by bank transfer directly to your tradesperson.

Why we collect the signing details

The IP address and user agent recorded with a signature exist for one reason: to show that a signature is genuine. A signed quote is the evidence that a price was agreed, and if it is ever disputed, the record of when and from where it was signed is what supports it. That protects both sides.

The lawful basis is legitimate interests— our interest, and the trader’s, in having a reliable record of an agreement. The same basis covers the IP address kept with an enquiry, which is what lets us block abuse of the enquiry form.

Signature images are stored privately. They are not published, not indexed, and not reachable by anyone who happens to have the link — every request for one is checked against the account it belongs to.

Our lawful bases, in full

• Contract — running your account, sending quotes to the people you tell us to, and taking your subscription payment.
• Legitimate interests — evidence that a quote was signed, security records for bank-detail changes, preventing abuse of public forms, and keeping the service working.
• Legal obligation — keeping records of concluded business for tax purposes.

We do not use your data, or your customers’ data, for advertising. We do not sell it. We do not share it with anyone for their own purposes.

How long we keep it

Two obligations pull against each other here, and rather than decide case by case we have taken a position:

• Quotes nobody signed — drafts, and quotes that were sent, expired or cancelled without a signature — we will delete on request. Your tradesperson can do this themselves, from the quote itself.
• Quotes that were signed are the record of what was agreed. We keep those, because deleting one would remove the evidence that protects both you and your tradesperson. If you want a signed quote erased anyway, ask us and we will look at it properly — the answer is not automatically no.
• Quotes that were signed and accepted we must keep for 6 years, because UK tax rules require records of concluded business to be retained. Neither we nor your tradesperson can delete these, whoever asks.

The retention above applies while a tradesperson’s account is open. If they close it, all of it is deleted — including accepted quotes — because once they have left we are holding personal data for someone who has not asked us to. Keeping records of their concluded business is their obligation, and they are told to download those before closing.

Quote links stay valid for as long as the quote itself does. We do not recycle a tradesperson’s web address to anyone else, so a link you were sent can never lead somewhere unexpected.

Who else touches the data

We use a small number of suppliers to run the service. They act on our instructions and cannot use the data for anything else.

Neon

The database. Hosted in London.

Vercel

Hosting, and private file storage for logos and signature images. Storage is in London; requests may be served from other locations.

Hostinger

Email delivery, for the messages the service sends.

Stripe

Trader subscription payments only. Stripe never touches money between a trader and their customer.

Some of these are based outside the UK. Where data leaves the UK it is protected by the safeguards UK data protection law requires, such as approved standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• tell you what we hold about you, and give you a copy;
• correct anything that is wrong;
• delete it, within the limits described above;
• stop or restrict what we do with it;
• reconsider, where we have relied on legitimate interests and you object.

Email privacy@livequote.uk. We will reply within one month. There is no charge.

If you received a quote or sent an enquiry and want your details removed, your tradesperson can do that themselves from their own account, and it will usually be faster than going through us. The limits above still apply.

Complaints

If you think we have handled your data badly, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the UK data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Security

Bank details are encrypted before storage, with a key held separately from the database. Signature images are stored privately and served only after the request is authorised. Passwords are hashed, never stored as text. Dashboard sessions are tied to a single web address so one trader’s session cannot be read on another’s page.

No system is perfect. If you find a security problem, email privacy@livequote.uk and we will act on it.

Contact

LiveQuote is responsible for this service.

20 Hesketh Road, Yardley Gobion, Towcester, NN12 7TS

Email: privacy@livequote.uk

Changes

If we change how we use personal data in a way that affects you, we will email account holders before it takes effect. Minor corrections are made here and the date at the foot of the page is updated.