Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what information Trades Reference collects, how it is used, and the choices you have.

1. Information We Collect

• Account information: name, email address, password (stored as a salted hash, never in plain text), phone number, company/employer, trade, and location. These are required at signup — they help us confirm you're a real tradesperson and unlock member-only content like Building a Better You lessons. As part of reviewing a new registration, we may contact you directly by phone or text, or contact the company/employer you listed, to confirm your registration and that you work there before your account is activated. Phone number is never used for marketing.
• Usage preferences: trades you choose to pin in the navigation, stored on your account (or in your browser's local storage if you're not signed in), notification read status, and whether you opted in to weekly learning reminders or occasional email announcements.
• Contact form submissions: name, email, and message content when you contact us.
• Email delivery records: recipient address, subject, message content, and delivery status for account emails, reminders, one-off emails, and announcements. For an announcement, each record is associated with the recipient's account.
• Suggestions: if you submit a "Suggest a Change" note on a trade page, we store the message text, the trade it relates to, your account, and timestamps. This is private — only you and the admin can see it; it is never published or shown to other users.
• Basic technical data: standard web server logs (e.g. IP address, timestamps) used for security and abuse prevention.
• Basic analytics: we record which pages are visited and when (linked to your account if you're signed in) to understand overall site usage. We do not use third-party analytics trackers or store IP addresses alongside this data. You can opt out of this at any time — see "Your Choices" below.

2. How We Use Information

We use this information to operate your account, review new registrations (including contacting you or your listed employer to verify your registration, as described above), personalize the navigation, respond to inquiries, and keep the Service secure. We email account registration and approval updates. If you opt in under Account Settings, we may send a weekly learning reminder after seven days without lesson activity; you can turn those reminders off at any time. If you separately opt in to site announcements, we may email you occasional news about Trades Reference. This setting is on by default; you can turn it off in Account Settings. Every announcement also includes an unsubscribe link.

3. Cookies & Local Storage

We use essential cookies to keep you signed in and local storage to remember navigation preferences for signed-out visitors. See our Cookie Policy for details.

3a. Your Choices

The first time you visit, a banner lets you accept or opt out of anonymous analytics tracking. You can change this decision at any time via "Cookie Preferences" in the site footer, or under Account Settings if you're signed in. Essential cookies (the session and CSRF cookies described in our Cookie Policy) are required to stay signed in and cannot be disabled while using an account.

Email announcements are on by default. You can turn them off under Account Settings or use the unsubscribe link included in any announcement.

4. Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. As part of verifying a new registration, we may share your name and stated job title/trade with the employer you listed, solely to confirm you work there — we don't share anything beyond what's needed for that confirmation. We may also share information with service providers who help us run the Service (such as hosting, database, and email-delivery providers), or when required by law.

5. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain account information for as long as your account is active. Contact us via the Contact page to request access to, correction of, or deletion of your data.

6. Security

See our Security page for an overview of how we protect your information.