Privacy policy

Who we are

Spark is run by Rachel Wallis, trading as Spark, a sole trader in the United Kingdom. For the people who join the waitlist or hold a Spark account, we decide how their information is used, which makes us the controller under UK GDPR.

Write to privacy@spark-app.co.uk with any question or request about your data.

Two kinds of data, two roles

Spark is used by trade businesses. Some of what passes through Spark is about the business and its own people. Some of it is about the business's customers.

• For waitlist sign-ups and Spark account holders, we are the controller.
• For a business's customers, the business is the controller and Spark is its processor. We handle that data only to run Spark for the business, on the terms set out in our terms of service. If you are a customer of a trade that uses Spark, the trade is who to ask first.

What we collect, and why

• Waitlist: your email address, and which link brought you to the form if you followed one. We use it to send you the email you asked for when Spark opens. Lawful basis: your consent, which you withdraw by unsubscribing.
• Accounts: your name, email address, the businesses you belong to and your role in each. Our sign-in provider, Clerk, holds these. Lawful basis: contract, because we need them to give you the account.
• Business details: trading name, address, postcode, phone, email, trades, registration and VAT numbers, logo, and what prints on quotes. Lawful basis: contract.
• QuickBooks connection: the access tokens Intuit gives us when a business connects, stored encrypted, and the QuickBooks company name. We never see a QuickBooks password.
• Receipts: the photo or PDF, when and by whom it was taken, and the supplier, date, total, VAT, job and customer read from it or typed in.
• Jobs and visits: the customer's name and job address as they were when the job started, who was on each visit, and the times a member taps when they set off, arrive and finish. Only taps: Spark does not collect your location.
• Ask: what a member types or says into Ask, what Spark did with it, and whether they tapped Yes, with who asked and when. We use it to show what was asked if anyone questions why something changed, and to see what people ask so we can improve Spark. Lawful basis: legitimate interests, which here means making Spark work better for the businesses that use it.
• Use of Spark: which tools each member of a business opens, and when they make a quote or an invoice, with who and when. Nothing a customer sees, and nothing from your browser: it's recorded on our side when the page or action runs. We use it to see which parts of Spark help and which nobody uses, so we know what to fix next. Lawful basis: legitimate interests, the same as Ask.
• Review requests: when a business asks a customer for a review, the customer's email address, when the request was sent, and whether they unsubscribed, so nobody is asked twice.
• Certificate reminders: which of a business's properties are due a gas safety check, worked out from its invoices, and when a reminder was emailed and to which address. If a customer unsubscribes, or tells the business to stop, their email address is kept on that business's opt-out list so Spark never emails them a reminder again.
• Ask by voice: only while the mic is on (held, or from one tap to the next), Spark records what you say and sends it, with your business's customer names so they're spelt right, to be written out. The words come back to your phone for you to check. Spark doesn't keep the recording, and it's deleted from your phone once it's sent. Once you tap Ask, the words are kept like a typed ask.
• Referral links: each business's link code and name. When someone opens a link or signs up through it, we count it, with no name, email, IP address or other detail about that person.

A business's customer list and invoices are read live from its QuickBooks company each time a member opens them. Spark does not keep a copy, apart from the job and review records above.

Anonymised averages

We're also building a way to compare costs. Once enough people are on Spark, we plan to share anonymised averages of what trades charge and earn, so you can see how your pricing compares.

This is not built yet and nothing is shared today. Before it starts, we will update this page to say exactly which figures are used and on what basis. An average will never be shown for so few businesses that one of them could be picked out.

Who else handles it

We do not sell your data or pass it to anyone for their own use. These companies handle it for us, only to run Spark:

• Vercel: hosts the site and app, and counts page visits without cookies.
• Turso: the database Spark's records are kept in.
• Clerk: sign-in and accounts.
• Intuit: QuickBooks Online, reached only with a business's own permission. Spark reads customers, items, invoices and estimates, and, when a member checks a receipt, creates the supplier, the expense or bill, and attaches the photo.
• Anthropic: reads receipt photos and PDFs to fill in the supplier, date, total and VAT, and reads what a member types into Ask to work out what they want. Anthropic's terms don't allow it to train its models on what Spark sends it.
• Resend: sends review-request and certificate reminder emails on a business's behalf.
• OpenAI or Deepgram, one at a time: writes out what's said to Ask, and doesn't use it to train its models.

Some of these companies are based in, or process data in, the United States.

How long we keep it

• Waitlist: until 12 months after Spark opens, or until you unsubscribe, whichever comes first.
• Accounts and business details: for as long as the account is open.
• Ask: what was typed or said, what Spark did with it, and what Spark replied (so your earlier chats show both sides), for 100 days, then deleted.
• When a business leaves Spark: we revoke its QuickBooks connection and delete the data we hold for it within 30 days. We keep a record that it closed, when, and which account closed it, with nothing about its customers.
• Receipts: a business should keep business records for at least 5 years after the 31 January filing deadline, as HMRC expects, so download or send them to QuickBooks before leaving.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, delete it, or stop using it, and you can withdraw consent at any time. Email privacy@spark-app.co.uk. We reply within one month.

If a trade that uses Spark holds your details as its customer, ask the trade. We help them answer.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Cookies

Spark sets only the cookies it needs to work, so it does not ask for cookie consent:

• Sign-in cookies from Clerk, set only when you sign in.
• A cookie that lasts 10 minutes while a business connects QuickBooks, to check the connection came back from Intuit.
• A cookie that lasts up to 7 days after you follow a referral link and tap Sign up, so the sign-up is counted against the link. It holds the link's code, nothing about you.

Page visits are counted by Vercel Web Analytics, which does not use cookies.

Keeping it safe

Everything travels over HTTPS. QuickBooks tokens are encrypted where they are stored. Members only see the businesses they belong to.

Changes

When what Spark collects changes, this page changes with it, and the date at the top moves. If a change affects what you agreed to, we tell you before it takes effect.