Privacy Policy

Who we are

Rent-a-Skip.co.uk (the "Site") is operated by Jakes Creates Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company no. 16971656), registered office 3rd Floor, 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE, trading as Rent-a-Skip.co.uk. The Site is a referral service that connects visitors with local skip-hire operators. For the personal data described in this policy we are the data controller, registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under registration reference ZC196536. You can reach us about anything in this policy at hello@rent-a-skip.co.uk.

What data we collect from site visitors

We collect a small set of data needed to operate the Site and route enquiries to the right local Operator:

• Postcode area, town name or county: typed into the search box on the Site to find your local Operator
• Phone-call metadata: when you call a tracking number on the Site, we record your phone number, the time, duration and outcome of the call, and the Operator the call was routed to. We do not record call audio
• Page-view and phone-click analytics: first-party event logs (which pages were viewed, which phone link was tapped, browser type, referring page, and country derived from your IP address — the IP address itself is not stored in these logs) plus aggregated, cookieless analytics via Plausible. If (and only if) you accept analytics cookies via our cookie banner, we also use Google Analytics 4; see "Cookies" below
• Review-request and feedback data: if we text you after a call (see below), we record that the message was sent, your reply (if any), whether you followed the review link in the message (the time you followed it and your browser type — we do not store your IP address), whether you have opted out, and any feedback you choose to submit through our feedback form
• Newsletter signups: your email address, plus the IP address and browser details of the signup request (kept briefly for abuse prevention — see "How long we keep your data")
• Cookies: see "Cookies" below for the full list

How we use visitor data, and our lawful bases

We use the data above for the following purposes:

• Routing your call to the local Operator covering your postcode, and keeping a log of routed calls as the billing record between us and Operators — our legitimate interests in operating the service and in accurate billing, and taking steps prior to a contract at your request
• Improving the Site (which pages users land on, which towns are most searched) — our legitimate interests; the analytics logs contain no direct identifiers
• Sending a single text message after a qualifying call to ask about your experience, and acting on feedback you give us — our legitimate interests in quality control and genuine reviews (details below)
• Sending you our email newsletter if you signed up for it — your consent, withdrawable at any time via the unsubscribe link
• Generating aggregate, non-identifying market intelligence (e.g. "Bristol skip-hire searches grew 12% in Q1") — our legitimate interests; aggregates only

Sharing your data with Operators

When you call a tracking number on the Site, your phone number is presented to the Operator covering your postcode so they can take and return your call. The Operator becomes a separate data controller for that personal data once your call connects, and processes it under their own privacy policy.

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal data with anyone outside the chain needed to fulfil your enquiry.

Review requests by text message

After a phone enquiry that lasts long enough to be a genuine conversation, we may send you a single SMS text message asking how your enquiry went. We rely on our legitimate interest in understanding and improving the service you received, and in inviting genuine feedback, as the lawful basis for these messages.

You can opt out at any time by replying STOP; we keep a suppression list so you are not contacted again. We do not send these messages to landlines, and we do not text the same number more than once in any 90-day period.

That message contains a link inviting you to leave a public review on Trustpilot. The link is the same for everyone we text, whatever you thought of the service — we do not decide who to invite based on how happy you are. Trustpilot is an independent review platform and a separate data controller with its own privacy policy; we do not pass your phone number to Trustpilot, and whether you leave a review is entirely your choice.

The link carries a random reference so we can see how many people follow it. That reference tells us the message it came from, and therefore the number we sent it to; we use it only to measure whether the invitation works, never to identify what you wrote in a review. If you reply that your experience could have been better, we invite you to send us private feedback through a short form on the Site, which comes directly to us.

Data about skip-hire companies

We also process business contact data about skip-hire companies (prospective and current Operators):

• Operator accounts and signup: company name, Companies House number, waste-carrier registration number, contact name, email and phone numbers, county selections, prices you set, sign-in records, and the date you accepted the Operator Terms — processed to provide the Operator service (performance of a contract, and steps prior to one)
• Verification checks: if you use our "claim your counties" form, the company number and waste-carrier registration you submit are checked against the public Companies House and Environment Agency registers. A check that cannot be completed automatically is reviewed by a person — no application is ever refused by automated means alone
• Our outreach database: we contact UK skip-hire companies using business contact details compiled from public sources — the Environment Agency public register of waste carriers, the Companies House register, and contact details the company itself publishes on its own website. We rely on our legitimate interest in offering a relevant business service to licensed waste carriers. If you ask us not to contact you (reply "unsubscribe" to any email, or email us), we add your company to a do-not-contact list and stop
• Billing: Operator payment methods are collected and held by Stripe, our payment processor — card and bank details never touch our servers

Our service providers and international transfers

We use a small number of service providers to run the Site, each processing data on our behalf under a data-processing agreement:

• Supabase (database hosting) and Vercel (website hosting) — site data and databases
• Twilio (telephony) — call routing runs in Twilio’s Dublin (EU) region; review text messages are processed through Twilio’s United States platform, which means the mobile numbers we text are processed in the US
• Stripe (Operator payments), Resend (email delivery), Google (Google Analytics 4, only after you accept analytics cookies) and Mapbox (the static maps on town pages) — each may process data in the United States
• Where personal data leaves the UK, we rely on the safeguards in the UK GDPR: the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified, and otherwise the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum built into the provider’s data-processing terms

Cookies

The Site uses a minimal set of cookies:

• Essential session cookies: required for the Site to work; set on first visit and cleared when you close your browser
• Cookieless analytics (Plausible): aggregated page-view counts and route attribution. Plausible sets no cookies and uses no cross-site identifiers, so it runs without consent
• Optional analytics cookies (Google Analytics 4): set the _ga and _ga_* cookies to measure how the Site is used. These are denied by default and are only set if you choose "Accept" on our cookie banner. Reject (or simply dismiss) the banner and no Google Analytics cookie is set
• You can change your mind at any time via the "Cookie settings" link in the footer of every page, which reopens the banner

How long we keep your data

We delete personal data on a schedule enforced by an automated weekly job:

• Phone-call records: 12 months from the call, then deleted
• Review-request texts, replies and feedback submissions: 24 months, then deleted (numbers on the opt-out suppression list are kept so we can honour the opt-out)
• Raw page-view and phone-click analytics events: 24 months, then deleted; aggregate statistics (no individual identifiers) are kept indefinitely
• Newsletter signup IP address and browser details: 12 months, then removed (your email subscription itself lasts until you unsubscribe)
• Operator account and billing records: kept for the life of the account and for 6 years afterwards, as required for tax and accounting
• Administrative audit logs (a record of actions taken in our internal systems, including by Operators in the portal): kept for the life of the business relationship for security and dispute-resolution purposes

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to ask us:

• For a copy of the personal data we hold about you (and to receive it in a portable format)
• To correct any data that is wrong
• To delete your data, where the lawful basis we relied on is no longer valid
• To restrict or object to processing, including to object to any processing based on legitimate interests
• To complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk

Automated decision-making

We do not make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects about you by automated means alone. The automated register checks in our Operator signup can approve an application for an invitation, but can never reject one — anything the checks cannot confirm goes to a person.

Security

Personal data is held in encrypted-at-rest databases. Access is restricted to a small number of operating staff under role-based access controls. We use industry-standard transport encryption (HTTPS/TLS) for all traffic to and from the Site.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our processing activities change. The "last updated" date at the top of the page reflects the most recent revision.

Contact

Privacy questions or data-subject requests can be sent by email to hello@rent-a-skip.co.uk, or by post to Jakes Creates Ltd, 3rd Floor, 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE. We respond within one calendar month as required by UK GDPR.