Privacy Policy

1.Who We Are

Tradie Brain Limited is a New Zealand company operating the AI-powered trades marketplace at tradiebrain.co.nz. We connect homeowners looking for tradespeople with qualified, local tradies across New Zealand.

We are subject to the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 and comply with its information privacy principles.

Company: Tradie Brain Limited (trading as Tradie Brain)
Location: Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand
Contact: admin@tradiebrain.co.nz

2.What We Collect

We collect different information depending on whether you’re a homeowner or a tradie.

From homeowners:

• Name and email address (when you post a job)
• Phone number (shared with claiming tradies only)
• Location / region
• Job description and details you provide via our AI chat
• Photos or images you upload with your job posting

From tradies (subscribers):

• Full name, email address, phone number
• Business name and trade type
• Region(s) you operate in
• Payment information (processed securely by Stripe — we do not store card details)
• Bank account details for referral payouts (stored securely by Stripe Connect — we do not store these)
• Referral activity and earnings history
• Login credentials (password stored as a secure hash — never in plain text)

Automatically collected:

• IP address and browser type
• Pages visited and time spent on site
• Device information
• Referral source (how you found us)

3.How We Use It

We use your information to:

• Match homeowners with the right tradies in the right region
• Notify tradies of new job opportunities matching their trade and region
• Process subscription payments and referral commissions
• Send transactional emails — job notifications, payment receipts, account updates
• Improve our AI matching and job categorisation
• Respond to support enquiries
• Comply with legal obligations
• Prevent fraud and protect platform integrity

We do not sell your personal information. We do not use your data for third-party advertising.

4.Who We Share It With

We share your information only where necessary:

With tradies (when a job is claimed): When a tradie claims your job, we share your name, phone number, and job details with that tradie so they can contact you directly.

With homeowners (when a job is claimed): We share the claiming tradie’s name and contact details with you.

With our service providers:

• Supabase — our database provider (data stored in secure cloud infrastructure)
• Stripe — payment processing and referral payouts (PCI-DSS compliant)
• Resend — transactional email delivery
• Anthropic — AI processing for job descriptions (no personal data is used to train their models under our agreement)
• SiteGround — website hosting

All service providers are bound by data processing agreements and may not use your data for their own purposes.

Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or to protect the safety of users or the public.

5.AI & Data Processing

Tradie Brain uses artificial intelligence (powered by Anthropic’s Claude) to process job descriptions entered via our chat interface. This helps us understand what trade is needed, categorise jobs accurately, and ask the right follow-up questions.

We do not make any automated decisions that significantly affect you based solely on AI — all job matching is rule-based (trade type + region).

6.Stripe & Payments

All payment processing is handled by Stripe, a PCI-DSS Level 1 certified payment processor. Tradie Brain never sees or stores your full card number, CVV, or bank account details.

When you subscribe, Stripe stores your payment method securely and charges it on your behalf. For referral payouts, Stripe Connect handles bank account verification and transfers directly — your bank details go to Stripe, not to us.

Stripe’s privacy policy is available at stripe.com/nz/privacy.

7.Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies for:

• Keeping you logged in (authentication session cookies)
• Tracking referral codes so we can attribute signups correctly
• Basic analytics (page views, traffic sources)

We do not use advertising cookies or sell cookie data. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but this may affect your ability to log in or use the platform.

8.Your Rights

Under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, you have the right to:

• Ask what personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate information
• Ask us to delete your information (subject to legal retention requirements)
• Withdraw consent for marketing communications at any time
• Complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner if you believe we’ve mishandled your information

To exercise any of these rights, email us at admin@tradiebrain.co.nz. We’ll respond within 20 working days as required by the Privacy Act.

9.Data Retention

We retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide our services. Specifically:

• Active tradie accounts — retained while subscription is active plus 7 years for financial records
• Homeowner job postings — retained for 2 years then anonymised
• Cancelled accounts — personal data deleted within 90 days of cancellation request (financial records retained 7 years for IRD compliance)
• Email logs — retained for 12 months

10.Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your information including:

• HTTPS encryption on all pages
• Passwords stored as secure hashes (never in plain text)
• Database access restricted to authorised systems only
• Payment data handled entirely by Stripe — never touches our servers
• Regular security reviews

No system is completely secure. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at admin@tradiebrain.co.nz.

11.Children

Tradie Brain is not intended for anyone under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

12.Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we’ll update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. For significant changes, we’ll notify active tradie subscribers by email. Continued use of the platform after changes means you accept the updated policy.

13.Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your information:

You can also contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz or on 0800 803 909 if you have a complaint about how we’ve handled your information.