Privacy and data
How REFUR.BID handles job evidence and account data
This page explains the information used to prepare and manage a job record. It is written for UK users and describes the service’s UK GDPR approach in plain language.
Capture and your phone
Media goes straight to REFUR.BID and is not saved to your phone. A temporary copy is held only until upload completes.
What is captured and why
- Job information
- The work requested, property context, postcode district, access, timing, budget information and notes. This gives builders a structured basis for considering the job.
- Photographs, video and audio
- Guided evidence used to prepare a draft job specification and to give builders relevant context. Media goes directly to REFUR.BID and never to the phone’s gallery.
- AI consent record
- A record of the consent wording version, time, scope, account and job is kept when you ask for AI processing. This records the basis on which the draft was requested.
- Job activity
- Specification versions, questions, answers, bids, bid revisions and audit events provide a record of how job information and bids changed over time.
Privacy controls during capture and review
Blur a region
Mark a private region during review. Currently these marks are preview overlays; marked media is withheld from builders until permanent sanitisation is available.
Flag sensitive content
Flag an item as sensitive to withhold it from builders during review.
Delete an item
Remove captured media from the job when it is no longer wanted.
Check automatic detections
Automatic detection may miss items - please check.
Location from photographs and your device
To save typing, REFUR.BID can read the location stored in a photograph, or use your device’s location when you press the button, on your own device. The coordinate is rounded and sent from our server to the free postcodes.io service to find your postcode district (for example SE17). The coordinate is not stored; only the district is kept, and only after you confirm it. The photograph itself is re-encoded before upload, which removes its location data.
Photographs captured or re-encoded through the app canvas omit EXIF/GPS metadata. Server-side stripping for all uploaded file formats is a release requirement still awaiting live verification. Automatic detection is an aid to review, not a complete privacy check.
Retention and deletion
The periods below are read from the service retention configuration.
- Unpublished drafts
- Media for unpublished drafts is deleted after 90 days of inactivity.
- Closed jobs
- Photographs, video and audio for closed jobs are deleted 12 months after closure.
- Text record
- Specification versions, bids, bid revisions, questions, answers and audit events are kept as text for 6 years after closure.
- Account deletion
- Media is deleted and personal details are anonymised immediately. The anonymised text record is kept for the rest of the 6-year period.
Your account controls
You can request a data export or delete your account in Account settings.