Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 1st August 2026
Last Updated: 9th November 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Bricks and Bot Ltd ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, and protects your personal data when you use Buildsnapper (formerly Buildsnpper), Buildsnapper Assessor (formerly Buildsnpper Assessor), and Buildsnapper Manager (formerly Buildsnpper Manager) mobile applications (the "Apps").

It also covers our websites: www.buildsnapper.com, our support page at support.buildsnapper.com and the assessor portal at assessor.buildsnapper.com. Buildsnapper is a product of Bricks and Bot Ltd.

1. DATA CONTROLLER

Bricks and Bot Ltd
Company No: 15693496
Address: 9 Quayside, Congleton, Cheshire
Email: dpo@bricksandbot.com

We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as a data controller (registration reference ZB769071) and pay the annual data protection fee.

2. CRITICAL INFORMATION ABOUT DATA STORAGE

2.2 What Is Stored in the Cloud

To provide the service, some data is stored server-side:

• Project and plot records (names, addresses, progress, photo metadata - not the photographs themselves) are synced to our cloud database (see Section 5) so your account works across sign-ins
• Sent reports and photo archives: when you send a report, the report PDF and a photo archive are uploaded and stored (see Sections 5.1 and 5.8) so your assessor, and the managers named on the project, can open them
• Photographs are never uploaded until you send a report - unsent photos exist only on your device (see 2.1)
• Copies in your phone's gallery: every photo you take in Buildsnapper also leaves a full-size copy, with its location and time, in your phone's gallery (Photos on iPhone, the DCIM camera folder on Android) when the app is allowed to add photos there. We don't upload that copy. If your phone backs up its gallery (such as iCloud Photos or Google Photos), Apple or Google copy it under your own account with them. On Android, importing a photo from your gallery asks for access to your photos, so the app can read where the photo was taken

3. DATA WE COLLECT

3.1 Information You Provide

• Account information (name, email address, contact telephone number, company, DEA certification details for assessors)
• Assessor contact details recorded by builders in their in-app address book (name, email address and business telephone number)
• Managers' email addresses recorded by builders on a project, so those managers can follow its progress and open its reports
• Subscription payment details (processed by Apple/Google for in-app purchases)
• Assessor payment information for client licence purchases (processed by Stripe via web portal)
• Project information and descriptions (including Part L evidence requirements)
• Photos and metadata (stored locally on your device, with a copy of each photo in your phone's gallery - see 2.2; only device-level OS backups such as iCloud/Google apply until you send a report)
• Assessor profile information (for discovery in app and report branding)

3.2 Automatically Collected Information

• Device information (model, OS version, unique identifiers)
• Crash reports and performance metrics
• Location data (when permission granted)
• IP address (for security and analytics)
• Confirmation from Google Play or Apple that the App is genuine (App Check - see 5.15)

3.3 Third-Party Data

• Authentication data from sign-in providers
• Payment confirmation from app stores
• Client assignment data when assessors purchase licences on behalf of clients

3.4 Assessor Portal Data

When using the assessor web portal, we additionally collect:

• Licence purchase history and client assignments
• Bulk purchase preferences
• Assessor branding for reports
• Client project management data
• Evidence review and download activity

3.5 Feedback When You Cancel

If you cancel a subscription, we may send you one email asking, optionally, why. Answering is entirely up to you. Your answers are linked to your account so we can understand and improve the service (our legitimate interest, see Section 4), and are kept for 24 months, then automatically deleted. Every such email has a link to stop them.

4. LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING

We process your data based on:

• Contract Performance: To provide subscription services
• Legitimate Interests: For security, analytics, service improvement, and onboarding and service-related communications
• Consent: For optional features (such as device permissions) and any promotional marketing that requires it
• Legal Obligations: To comply with applicable laws

5. THIRD-PARTY SERVICES AND DATA PROCESSORS

6. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS

Your data may be transferred outside the UK. We only transfer personal data where a lawful transfer mechanism applies:

• Adequacy: the UK has adequacy regulations covering the European Economic Area (EEA), so transfers to EEA countries (such as Ireland) are permitted on that basis;
• Standard Contractual Clauses / the UK International Data Transfer Addendum, for transfers to countries without an adequacy decision;
• Data Privacy Framework certification, where a US recipient is certified.

AI support answers (UK and EU): When you ask a question on our support page, its text is processed by Amazon Bedrock in London or in one of AWS's EU regions to write a first answer from our help-centre articles (see 5.6 above). Where it is processed in the EU, the transfer from the UK relies on the UK's adequacy regulations for the EEA. Your question is not stored by AWS or used to train any AI model.

Report and photo downloads (Amazon CloudFront): A sent report PDF or photo archive is stored in London. When it is downloaded through Amazon CloudFront (see 5.8 above), it passes through the CloudFront server nearest the person downloading it, and is not kept there. That server may be in the EEA, which relies on the UK's adequacy regulations for the EEA, or in North America, which relies on the safeguards in AWS's data processing terms (standard contractual clauses with the UK Addendum).

Security check (Cloudflare, USA): The signals Cloudflare Turnstile collects on our support page, assessor sign-up form and password reset page (see 5.14 above) may be processed in the USA, relying on Cloudflare's certification under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, with standard contractual clauses as a fallback.

7. DATA RETENTION

Data Type	Retention Period
Account Data	Duration of account, then permanently deleted 30 days after account deletion (transaction and tax records are kept per the Financial Records row)
Local Device Data	Until you delete from device
Cloud-Synced Project Records	Until you delete them or your account; a deleted plot or project is kept for 30 days so it can be restored, then permanently deleted
Deleted Account (Recovery Window)	30 days, then permanently deleted
Sent Report PDFs	Until the report is deleted, then removed within about 30 days; when a builder sends a plot to a different assessor, the earlier report is kept for the builder and the first assessor's access ends at once
Sent Photo Archives	Retained after report/account deletion; removed by periodic manual housekeeping (not immediate) - earlier deletion on request (Section 8)
Photo Evidence Archive (paid add-on)	15 years plus up to 6 months' grace; WORM-immutable for the retention term (see 5.13)
Support requests and their conversations	6 months after resolution, then automatically deleted
Cancellation feedback	24 months, then automatically deleted
Crash & Diagnostic Data	90 days
Financial Records	7 years (UK tax requirements)
Payment Data	Transaction records retained per legal requirements; card details not stored
Marketing Data	Until consent withdrawn

8. YOUR RIGHTS

9. DATA SECURITY

9.1 Technical Measures

• Encryption in transit (TLS)
• Secure authentication
• App Check, which lets our cloud services tell requests from the genuine Apps from anything else (see 5.15)
• Regular security updates
• Access controls
• No storage of payment card details (handled by Stripe/App Stores)

9.2 Your Responsibilities

• Device security (PIN, biometric locks)
• Regular backups of local data
• Secure network usage
• Strong password selection

10. COOKIES AND TRACKING

10.1 Mobile Apps

• The Apps contain no advertising trackers, and your advertising identifier is not collected - the advertising ID permission is removed from every build
• Firebase Analytics records basic app-usage events (such as app opens, screen views and session length) to help us understand which features are used. It is not used for advertising or profiling
• Crash reporting (Firebase Crashlytics - essential for app stability)
• Performance monitoring (helps improve app reliability)

10.2 Website Analytics

Our website and web portal use Simple Analytics, a privacy-first, cookie-free analytics service that collects no personal data and respects Do Not Track.

10.3 Support Page

• No advertising or tracking on the support page
• Your browser keeps a draft of your question in that tab only (session storage), so a reload doesn't lose it
• If you open a help article from an answer, your browser keeps a copy of your question for up to 30 minutes (local storage), so "No, I still need help" can bring you back to it without retyping. It is deleted when you send your question, or the next time you visit after it expires
• Cloudflare Turnstile's security check uses only what is strictly necessary to tell people from bots (see 5.14)

10.4 Security Cookies

Our support page, the assessor portal (including the report pages that builders' emails link to) and our account pages (such as password reset) set two small cookies of their own. They stop other websites sending forms in your name, and keep you signed in to the portal:

• _csrf_token - a random code that shows a form came from our page. Kept for 5 days
• session - holds the same code and, once you sign in to the portal, keeps you signed in. When you open a report from a builder's email, it also holds the email address you entered, for up to 12 hours, so you aren't asked again (Close the report on this device removes it); if you then apply for an assessor account from that page, it holds the name the builder gave for you, and the builder's, to fill in the form, for up to a day. Deleted when you close your browser

Both are strictly necessary for these pages to work securely, so they don't need your consent. They are never used for tracking, analytics or advertising. Our main website, www.buildsnapper.com, sets no cookies of its own. Its homepage plays videos from YouTube and shows a sample report in Smallpdf's viewer, and those services may set their own cookies when they load.

10.5 Managing Preferences

• Device-level tracking controls apply as normal
• Do Not Track respected where technically feasible

11. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

12. DATA BREACH NOTIFICATION

In case of a data breach affecting your rights and freedoms:

• We will notify the ICO within 72 hours
• We will notify affected users without undue delay
• We will provide information about the breach and mitigation steps

13. PRIVACY BY DESIGN

We implement privacy by design principles:

• Data minimisation
• Purpose limitation
• Privacy defaults
• Transparency
• User control

14. MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

14.1 Onboarding and Marketing Emails

• When you create an account we may send onboarding and service-related emails on the basis of our legitimate interest (and, where applicable, the PECR “soft opt-in” for our own similar products and services)
• Any separate promotional marketing is sent only where we have a lawful basis to do so
• Managed through MailerLite
• You can opt out at any time using the unsubscribe link in every email

15. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

15.1 Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements.

15.2 Notification

Material changes will be notified through:

• In-app notifications
• Email to registered users
• 30 days' notice before changes take effect (unless required sooner by law)

15.3 Your Options

If you disagree with Privacy Policy changes:

• You may stop using the Apps and request data deletion
• Subscription users: Continue access until current paid period ends under previous policy
• Free users: Must accept new policy or lose access immediately
• Passive acceptance: Continued use after notice period constitutes acceptance
• After the current period, continued use requires acceptance of the new policy
• No refunds for unused subscription time if you choose to discontinue use
• You retain the right to request deletion of your personal data per Section 8

15.4 Legal Requirements

Changes required by law or regulatory requirements may take effect immediately with notice.

16. CONTACT US

17. LOCATION SERVICES

With your permission, the Apps collect your device's location for:

• Geolocation Services: Adding location metadata to Part L compliance photographs - this is what makes a photograph usable as evidence
• Compliance Requirements: Location data may be required for certain building regulation evidence requirements

Location is used only while you are using the app, and you can change the permission at any time in your device settings (photographs captured without location may not meet evidence requirements).

18. THE BASIS OF OUR PROCESSING

We process personal data on the lawful bases set out in Section 4. Where we rely on your consent (for example, marketing communications or device permissions such as location), you can withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal. Using the Apps is not itself treated as consent - where the law requires consent, we ask for it explicitly.