Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

CouncilIQ (“we”, “us”) provides UK public-sector intelligence services, including live tender search and Bid Buddy drafting tools, at counciliq.co.uk.

Contact: hello@counciliq.co.uk. Registered business name and UK address: to confirm.

2. Data we collect

• Account data — email/name if you sign in (e.g. Google or magic link), plan tier, and preferences.
• Usage data — feature use (tender views, postcode lookups, Bid Buddy activity), approximate device/browser data, and IP address for security and rate limits.
• Communications — messages you send us and newsletter emails if you subscribe.
• Payment data — when checkout is live, billing is handled by our payment provider (e.g. Stripe or a merchant of record such as Paddle). We do not store full card numbers.
• Bid Buddy / supplier inputs — profile details and draft content you enter. Treat these as confidential to your account.

We also process public government datasets (for example Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, and planning.data.gov.uk). That material is not your personal data, but public notices may contain names.

3. Why we use data

• Contract — to provide the service you request.
• Legitimate interests — security, abuse prevention, reliability, and product improvement using aggregated insights.
• Consent — optional emails or non-essential cookies where required; you can withdraw anytime.
• Legal obligation — records we must keep (e.g. accounting once payments are live).

4. AI processing

Ask AI and Bid Buddy send relevant prompts and context to our AI provider (currently Anthropic / Claude) to generate responses. Do not submit special-category data or secrets you are not allowed to share with processors. AI outputs are assistive drafts only.

5. Sharing

We share personal data with processors who help run the service, such as:

• Hosting (e.g. Vercel)
• Database (e.g. Neon)
• Authentication providers (e.g. Google sign-in where used)
• Email delivery (e.g. Resend)
• AI provider (Anthropic)
• Payment provider when checkout is enabled

We do not sell personal data. We may disclose information if required by law.

6. International transfers

Some processors may handle data outside the UK. Where they do, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses or the provider’s documented transfer mechanism.

7. Retention

Account data is kept while your account is active. You may request deletion; we may retain limited records where needed for security, disputes or law. Bid drafts remain until you delete them or close your account.

8. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you may have rights to access, rectify, erase, restrict or object to processing, and to data portability. Email hello@counciliq.co.uk. You can also complain to the ICO (ico.org.uk).

9. Cookies

We use cookies and similar storage needed for sign-in, security and basic preferences (for example theme). If we add analytics cookies, we will describe them here and obtain consent where required.

10. Changes

We may update this policy. The “Last updated” date will change when we do.