Privacy Policy

RatedStylists Ltd ("RatedStylists", "we", "us", or "our") is the data controller responsible for your personal data. We are registered in England and Wales under company number 12345678, with our registered office at 123 High Street, Shoreditch, London E1 6AN.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@ratedstylists.com.

We collect and process the following categories of personal data:

Account Information

• Full name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Password (encrypted)
• Profile photo (optional)

Booking Data

• Booking history and upcoming appointments
• Selected services and stylist preferences
• Appointment notes and special requests
• Reviews and ratings you leave

Payment Information

• Payment card details (processed securely by our payment provider; we do not store full card numbers)
• Billing address
• Transaction history

Technical Data

• IP address and approximate location
• Browser type and version
• Device type and operating system
• Pages visited and time spent on our platform
• Referring website or source

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• Providing our services — creating and managing your account, processing bookings, connecting you with salons, and facilitating payments.
• Communication — sending booking confirmations, reminders, service updates, and responding to your enquiries.
• Improving our platform — analysing usage patterns, conducting research, and enhancing the user experience.
• Marketing — with your consent, sending promotional offers, newsletters, and personalised recommendations.
• Safety and security — detecting and preventing fraud, abuse, and security incidents.
• Legal obligations — complying with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes.

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), we rely on the following lawful bases to process your personal data:

• Contract — processing necessary to perform our contract with you, such as managing your bookings and account.
• Consent — where you have given clear consent for us to process your data for a specific purpose, such as marketing communications. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interest — processing necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party), provided your rights do not override those interests. This includes improving our services, preventing fraud, and ensuring platform security.
• Legal obligation — processing necessary to comply with our legal obligations, such as tax and accounting requirements.

We share your personal data only when necessary and with appropriate safeguards in place. We never sell your personal data.

• Salon partners — when you make a booking, we share relevant details (name, contact information, booking details) with the salon to fulfil your appointment.
• Payment processors — we use Stripe to process payments securely. Your payment data is handled in accordance with PCI DSS standards.
• Authentication provider — we use Clerk for secure account authentication and identity management.
• Analytics providers — we use analytics tools to understand how our platform is used. Data is aggregated and anonymised where possible.
• Law enforcement — we may disclose data when required by law, regulation, or legal process, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of RatedStylists, our users, or others.

We use cookies and similar technologies to improve your experience, analyse usage, and deliver personalised content. Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit our platform.

Types of cookies we use

• Essential cookies — required for the platform to function properly, including authentication and security.
• Functional cookies — remember your preferences such as language, theme, and display settings.
• Analytics cookies — help us understand how visitors interact with our platform so we can improve it.
• Marketing cookies — used to deliver relevant advertisements and measure campaign effectiveness. These are only set with your consent.

You can manage your cookie preferences at any time through your browser settings or our cookie consent tool. For more details, see our Cookie Policy.

We retain your personal data only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected, or as required by law.

• Account data — retained for the duration of your account, plus 30 days after deletion to allow for account recovery.
• Booking history — retained for 3 years after the booking date for dispute resolution and business records.
• Payment records — retained for 7 years as required by UK tax legislation.
• Analytics data — aggregated and anonymised data may be retained indefinitely.
• Marketing consent records — retained for the duration of your consent plus 2 years.

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access — you can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification — you can ask us to correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Right to erasure — you can request that we delete your personal data, subject to certain legal exceptions.
• Right to data portability — you can request your data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
• Right to object — you can object to the processing of your data based on legitimate interests or for direct marketing purposes.
• Right to restrict processing — you can ask us to limit how we use your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at privacy@ratedstylists.com or write to our Data Protection Officer at the address above. We will respond within one month of receiving your request.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

Our services are not directed at children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us at privacy@ratedstylists.com and we will promptly delete such information.

Your personal data is primarily stored and processed within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (EEA). Where we transfer data outside the UK/EEA, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, including:

• Transfers to countries with an adequacy decision from the UK Secretary of State or the European Commission.
• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the ICO or European Commission.
• Binding Corporate Rules where applicable.

You can request further information about these safeguards by contacting our Data Protection Officer.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or for other operational reasons. When we make material changes, we will:

• Update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
• Notify you via email or a prominent notice on our platform.
• Where required by law, seek your consent to the changes.

We encourage you to review this policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your data.

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us: