Privacy notice

Cookies

When we switch on Google Analytics, a banner asks first. Only if you press Accept does Google Analytics set _ga and _ga_<id> (up to 2 years) to count visits and see which pages help; until then, or if you press Reject, nothing is sent to Google Analytics. We send Google only that an enquiry was made and from which form, never your name, email, phone number or message. Google Ireland Ltd acts as our processor. Your choice is kept in your browser's local storage as site-consent for 6 months; change it with Cookie settings at the foot of every page, and rejecting deletes those cookies. The sign-in session cookie is strictly necessary and needs no consent.

Who we are

MyLocalAccountants is a trading name of Property Architecture Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 17536132, registered office 90 Hendon Lane, London N3 3SL. Property Architecture Ltd (the "operator") is the controller: it decides how personal data on this site is used. You can reach us at [email protected].

Enquiries to a firm

When you message a firm from its profile we ask for your name, email address, an optional phone number, the service you want and your message. We save the enquiry in our database and email it to the firm you chose, and only that firm.

A quote request (the "Get a quote" form) collects the same details plus your town or postcode; we save it and show you matching firms, and it goes only to the one firm you then choose, or nowhere if you choose none.

A copy of every enquiry also goes to the operator's inbox ([email protected]). We use it to check the site is working and to deal with complaints. We also email you a copy of your message. We do not sell enquiries, share them with other firms or run an auction for them.

We keep enquiries that do not lead to work for up to 24 months, then delete them. We review enquiries and delete them by hand; deletion is not automated. Listing and review data are kept while the listing is live, plus any further period we need to meet legal or accounting obligations.

Reviews

You must be signed in to write a review. We store the review, your rating, the kind of work and the month it was done, and link it to your account. Before it is published we check you were a client: if the firm has claimed its listing we email it a one-time link that shows your name, the kind of work, the month and the date you wrote the review, never your email address, your rating or your text; otherwise a moderator checks. A published review is shown on the firm's profile with your name.

If you change a published review, moderators keep the earlier wording for 90 days, then the text is deleted. If you delete a review, we delete it and its earlier versions, and keep only a record that a review existed (its rating and date) in our audit log.

We email you at your account address when your review is published or when a moderator could not publish it (with the reason), and a moderator may email you to ask for evidence that you were a client. We do not store a separate email address for reviews: your review is linked to your account, and your account data, including that link, is kept and deleted under the account route below (ask us to delete your account at any time).

Accounts and sign-in

We have no passwords. To sign in we email a one-time link to your address. We store your email address and your account role, and a session cookie that keeps you signed in. We use no advertising cookies, and analytics cookies only if you accept them (see Cookies below).

Firms claiming a listing

To claim a listing a firm gives us a name, a work email address and its professional register number. We match the number to the listing, then compare the email address the firm signed in with against the email address and website on that listing; we record the result of each check. Anyone may report a listing: we keep the reason, the details, a reply address if given and a one-way hash of the connection's IP address, so a person can check the report and we can limit floods. Payments for verified and featured listings go through Stripe. We keep a record of the payment (amount, date, Stripe references and invoice number); card details go to Stripe and are not stored by us.

A firm on a paid listing may add a WhatsApp number to its profile. We store the number, whether the firm wants the button shown and when it confirmed the number is its business number and may be shown publicly. We show it only while the firm wants it shown and the listing is a paid listing that a moderator has not hidden; the firm can remove it at any time, and then we delete the number. Until the firm removes it we keep it, also while the button is not shown (for example after the listing stops being a paid listing).

Messaging a firm on WhatsApp

If a firm adds a WhatsApp number, we show it on their profile because the firm asked us to. Tapping Message on WhatsApp takes you to WhatsApp, a service owned by Meta: what you send there goes from you to the firm through WhatsApp, under WhatsApp's own terms and privacy policy, and we do not see it. We keep a count of taps per firm per day for 13 months and then delete it; the count does not record who tapped. To count each connection once a day, our server keeps a scrambled form of your internet address in memory for the rest of that day; it is never written down.

Who handles data for us

Email (sign-in links, enquiries, review checks) is sent through Resend. Payments are processed by Stripe. The site and its database run on a server we rent from Hetzner. Some of these providers may process data outside the UK; where they do, we rely on the safeguards they provide.

Your rights

You can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to how it is used, by emailing [email protected]. If you are unhappy with our answer you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

We handle enquiries, reviews and accounts to provide the service you asked for, and for our legitimate interests in running a trustworthy directory and preventing abuse. We keep records needed for tax and accounting to meet our legal obligations.