Privacy notice

Who we are

Letterbox Leads is run by Letterbox Leads.

We are the “controller” of the data in this notice. That means we decide how it is used, and we are responsible for it.

What we do

Letterbox Leads helps small builders write to homeowners who have just applied for planning permission. A builder picks planning applications near them. We print a letter from the builder and post it to each address. The letter is addressed to “The Homeowner”.

If a builder wrote to you

What we hold about you

• The address in the planning application.
• The application as the council published it: its reference, what the work is, its dates and a link to the council's page.
• A rough map position for the postcode.
• Which builders wrote to the address, when, and whether the letter was posted.
• If you asked us to stop, your address on our stop list, the date you asked and how you asked (on the website, by email or by phone).

We do not hold your name. We never take it from the planning register, and every letter goes to “The Homeowner”. We do not have your email or phone number unless you contact us.

Where it comes from

From the planning registers that London councils publish, and from the Planning London Datahub run by the Greater London Authority. Anyone can read these registers. Councils publish them because planning applications must be open to the public.

Why we use it

So builders can offer you a quote for the work you have planned.

Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: ours, in running this service, and the builders', in finding work. We think this is fair to you because:

• the information is already public, and we use only the address and the work, never your name
• each builder account writes to an address at most once in 12 months
• it is a letter, which you can ignore, and nothing comes by email, text or phone
• you can stop letters from every builder who uses us, at any time, in a minute.

We have written down how we weighed this up. You can ask us for a copy.

Stop letters to your home

Go to our stop page and type your address. No builder using Letterbox Leads will write to it again.

It is free, and you do not need to give a reason. We keep your address on the stop list so we can keep that promise, and use it for nothing else.

Who sees it

• Builders who use Letterbox Leads see the addresses and applications in the areas they pick, once they have signed in, so they can choose who to write to.
• Stannp, our printer, gets your address and the letter, to print and post it.

If you use Letterbox Leads as a builder

What we hold about you

• Your email address, and how you sign in: with a code we email you, or with Google. If you use Google, Google tells us your name, email address and profile picture.
• Your business details: business name, phone number and website, and your postal address if you ask for a copy of your letter.
• The letter you pick, your logo and your leaflet.
• The boroughs you work in.
• Your orders: which addresses you wrote to, what you paid and any refunds.
• For each phone or computer you sign in on: when you signed in, its IP address and the type of browser. We use these to keep your account safe.
• Records our hosting provider keeps to run the site and keep it secure, such as IP addresses in server logs.

The first time you pay, you pay on Stripe's page, and Stripe saves your card so you can pay next time without it. We never see or keep your card number. We see only the type of card and its last 4 digits, so we can show which card you are paying with. Stripe tells us whether the payment went through. You can remove the card on your account page.

Why we use it

• To provide the service you signed up for. Our lawful basis is our contract with you.
• To keep tax and accounting records. This is a legal obligation.
• To keep the service secure and stop misuse. This is in our legitimate interests.

We email you only about your account and your orders. We do not send marketing emails.

Who we share data with

These companies help us run the service. They use the data only to do that job for us.

• Stannp prints and posts the letters. It gets each address, and the builder's letter, logo and leaflet. It gets a builder's own address only if they ask for a copy.
• Stripe takes card payments. Stripe is also responsible for some payment data itself, for example to stop fraud.
• Resend sends our emails: sign-in codes, and emails about your orders.
• Railway hosts the website and the database.
• Google, only if you choose to sign in with Google.
• postcodes.io turns postcodes into boroughs and map positions. We send it postcodes, or a map position to find the nearest postcode.
• OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) finds the postcode when a council leaves it out. We send it the street address from the planning application, never a name.
• OpenFreeMap supplies the map on the jobs screen. Your browser fetches the map straight from it, so it sees your IP address.

We do not sell data. We share it with the police or other authorities only when the law requires us to.

Some of these companies may handle data in the United States. When they do, it is protected by the UK's data bridge with the US or by the UK's standard contract terms for transfers.

How long we keep it

• Planning applications: 2 years from when we first find them. One we load from a council's past records counts from the day the council registered it. If a builder wrote about it, we keep it until our record of that letter goes.
• Our record of which builders wrote to each address: 2 years from the letter. We need it for at least a year to keep each builder to one letter per address in 12 months.
• The stop list: for as long as we run the service, so the letters stay stopped. We take an address off only if it was added by mistake.
• Builder accounts: while your account is open. You can close it on your account page. We then delete your sign-in, business details, address, leaflet, logo and saved card straight away. We keep your orders and the addresses they went to, with no name or email on them, for the times below. Stripe keeps its own record of your payments.
• Order and payment records: 6 years, for tax. After 2 years an order no longer lists the addresses, only what was paid, any refunds and how many letters.
• Sign-in records: until you sign out, or about 30 days after you last used that phone or computer.
• Your leaflet and logo: until you replace them or close your account.
• Emails you send us: up to 2 years.

Cookies and storage on your device

We use one cookie to keep you signed in and, if you sign in with Google, a second one for a few minutes while you do. Both are strictly necessary for the site to work, so we do not need to ask first, and there is no cookie banner. We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies.

Your browser also keeps a few things on your own phone or computer: the boroughs and types of work you picked, the jobs you added, whether you last used the list or the map, and when you last visited. They make the site remember where you were. We do not use them to track you.

When you pay, Stripe's page sets its own cookies. Stripe's privacy notice explains them.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the data we hold about you
• correct it
• delete it
• stop using it. If a builder wrote to you, the stop page does this straight away.
• limit how we use it
• give you the data you gave us, in a form you can take elsewhere.

If you use Letterbox Leads as a builder, you can download a copy of your data and close your account yourself, on your account page. Your leaflet and logo download from the Your letter screen.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we use your data, please tell us first.

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or by phone on 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this notice

When anything changes, we update this page and the date at the top.