Privacy notice
Written to be read, not to be filed. If anything here is unclear, ask us and we will answer in plain language rather than pointing you back to this page.
What we collect
- Enquiry details you submit: name, work email, company, country, quantities, required lead time, whether you need a sample, your stated budget, and the requirement text you write.
- Files you upload: drawings, specifications and spreadsheets, up to 20 MB each.
- Technical context needed to route and defend the enquiry: the page you submitted from, campaign parameters in the URL, the referring page, whether you were on mobile or desktop, and a coarse country signal.
- A hashed network identifier derived from your IP address, used only to stop automated abuse. It cannot be reversed into your IP address.
What we deliberately do not collect
- No advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. There is no third-party tracker on this site.
- No IP addresses stored in plain form — only the non-reversible hash described above.
- No payment card data. Card details, where card funding is used, are handled entirely by the licensed payment provider and never reach this platform.
Why we process it
- To answer your enquiry and produce a quote — this is the performance of a contract you initiate by submitting the form.
- To share the requirement with the specific suppliers able to fulfil it, which is what you agree to when you submit the form.
- To keep an auditable record of what was agreed. Where a dispute arises, the timestamps and uploaded evidence are the basis for a decision; without them neither side can be treated fairly.
- To prevent automated abuse of the enquiry form. This is our legitimate interest and is limited to rate limiting and spam signals.
How long we keep it
- Enquiries that do not lead to an order: retained for 24 months from the last contact, then deleted.
- Enquiries and orders that proceed: retained for the statutory period required for commercial records in the relevant jurisdiction, then deleted.
- Uploaded drawings: deleted on request, or automatically 24 months after the associated enquiry closes.
- Suppression records (so we do not contact you again): kept indefinitely, holding only the minimum needed to honour the request.
Your rights
- Access: ask for a copy of what we hold about you. We respond within one month.
- Correction: ask us to fix anything inaccurate.
- Erasure: ask us to delete your data. Where a statutory record-keeping obligation applies, we will explain what must be retained and why rather than silently refusing.
- Objection and restriction: you can object to processing based on legitimate interest, and we will stop unless we can show compelling grounds.
- Portability: ask for your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
International transfers
- Enquiries are routed to manufacturers, some of which are outside the EEA and the UK. Where a transfer leaves those areas, it is covered by an appropriate transfer mechanism, and you are told which suppliers your requirement was shared with on request.
- Payment handling is performed by a licensed payment provider under its own regulatory permissions and privacy terms.
How to reach us
- Write to sourcing@tradehub.example for any request under this notice.
- If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to your national data protection authority.
Note on this deployment. This is a demonstration environment using synthetic data. Retention periods, transfer mechanisms and the identity of the data controller must be reviewed against the actual operating entity and hosting location before this notice is published to real buyers. Nothing here is legal advice.