Privacy policy

This policy covers contractormortgageguide.co.uk. It is written to be read, not to be survived — if anything here is unclear, email us and we will explain it.

Who is responsible for your data

Contractor Mortgage Guide is an information website run by a CeMAP-qualified UK mortgage adviser. We decide how and why the limited personal data described below is handled, which makes us the data controller for it. You can reach us at [email protected].

What we collect

Only what you type in. This website does not run a credit search, we do not buy data about you, and we do not fingerprint or track you across other websites.

If you join the mailing list

• Your email address.
• The page you subscribed from, the date, and the version of the consent wording you agreed to — so we can prove what you actually agreed to.
• If you subscribed from one of our calculators, the answers you gave that tool (for example a property price or a visa type) so the emails we send are relevant. These are figures and short labels, never a name or an address.

Analytics and Google Ads measurement

If, and only if, you accept on the cookie banner, we collect anonymous usage data — which pages get read, roughly where in the world visitors are, what kind of device they use. Accepting also turns on Google Ads measurement: if you arrived by clicking one of our Google adverts, Google records that click and whether an enquiry followed, so we can see which adverts work. It is never used for remarketing or to personalise the adverts you see. See the cookie policy for exactly what that sets.

Why we use it, and our legal basis

• Consent — for the mailing list, the credit-timeline reminders, analytics and Google Ads measurement. You gave it deliberately and you can take it back at any time, as easily as you gave it.
• Legitimate interests — for keeping the site secure and working (for example rate-limiting our forms so they cannot be abused). We have weighed this against your privacy and it involves no profiling.

We do not sell your data, we share nothing with advertisers beyond the Google Ads measurement described above (and only if you accept it), and we do not use it to make automated decisions about you.

Who else touches it

These are processors acting on our instructions, not independent users of your data:

• Google Cloud — hosts the site and the database. Data is stored in Europe.
• Microsoft 365 — sends and receives our email.
• Cloudflare — sits in front of the site to keep it fast and to block malicious traffic.
• Google Analytics — only if you accepted the cookie banner.

If you accept Google Ads measurement on the cookie banner, Google also receives the reference of the advert you clicked and whether an enquiry followed, and handles it under its own privacy policy. It never receives your name, email address or phone number from us.

We will also disclose data where the law requires it. That is the complete list; there is no other advertising network in it.

The affordability tool

Our affordability page embeds a calculator operated by Mortgage Affordability. Anything you type into that calculator goes to that service and is covered by its own privacy policy, not this one. It does not pass your figures back to this site.

How long we keep it

• Mailing list: until you unsubscribe. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe link, and using it stops everything.

You can ask us to delete your data sooner and we will — see below.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the data we hold about you;
• correct it if it is wrong;
• delete it;
• stop or restrict how we use it, or object to us using it;
• send it to you, or to someone else, in a portable format;
• withdraw a consent you previously gave.

Email [email protected] and we will respond within one month. There is no charge.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would rather you told us first so we can put it right.

Cookies and analytics

Analytics and Google Ads measurement run only after you accept them on the cookie banner. Before that, none of their cookies exist and Google's tag runs in a consent-denied, cookieless mode. Rejecting is exactly as easy as accepting, and you can change your mind whenever you like:

Full detail in the cookie policy. See also our terms of use.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle your data we will update this page and move the date at the top. We do not touch that date for cosmetic edits, so if it has moved, something real has changed.