Privacy policy

Who we are

Scout is a marketplace that connects horse owners with equine professionals such as grooms, farriers, physiotherapists and equine dentists. We are the marketplace, not the service provider: the contract for the work itself is between the horse owner and the professional. This policy explains what we do with the personal information you give us when you use the site, and Scout is responsible for that information.

What we collect

We only collect what the site needs to work:

• Account details - your email address and password, or your Google account if you sign in with Google. We remember your Google account by Google's own ID for you, so changing your email address never stops Google sign-in working.
• Profile - your first and last name.
• Horses and addresses - the horses you add, and the yard or visit address where work takes place.
• Bookings and messages - the details of bookings you make or accept, and the messages owners and professionals send each other about them.
• Reviews and problem reports - what you write after a booking, and anything you report to us about one.
• Business listings - if you list a business: its name, the services you offer, your prices, the area you cover, and your photos. Listings are public.
• Images - the photos you upload.

What we use it for

To run the marketplace: showing owners the professionals who cover their area, letting the two sides arrange, accept and complete a booking, and carrying the messages between them. We use your email address, and your mobile number if you choose to receive texts, to send you notifications about your bookings and messages.

We also use reviews and problem reports to keep the marketplace honest. Reviews are screened automatically before they appear, and anything the screening flags is checked by a person - see the review guidelines for how that works. Reporting a problem creates a record on the booking and pauses payment until the dispute is resolved.

Reviews are published without reviewer names, and dates shown to the month only. The business you reviewed can usually tell which booking a review came from; not showing names protects you from other users, not from them. Neither side can see the other's review until both are in or the review window closes.

Who we share it with

• The other side of your booking - a professional sees the booking details they need to do the job, and the visit address is revealed to them when they accept the booking.
• Stripe - processes payments and pays professionals through Stripe Connect. Scout never sees or stores your full card details.
• Google Cloud - runs the service and stores the images you upload.
• Neon - runs our database, which holds your account and everything you add to the site apart from uploaded images.
• Mapbox - when you search for a location, your search text is sent to Mapbox to turn it into a place. The map on the search page also loads from Mapbox, so your browser asks Mapbox for the area it shows.
• Ideal Postcodes - when you enter an address, the postcode you type is sent from your browser to Ideal Postcodes to look up the addresses at it.
• Postmark - delivers the emails we send you; they receive your email address and the email's content.
• Twilio - delivers the text messages you opt in to; they receive your mobile number and the message text.
• Anthropic - their AI model checks reviews and business listings against our rules. For a review it receives the text and star rating, not who wrote it; for a listing, the business name, type, description, website links and services.

We never sell your personal data. Scout sets no cookies and runs no analytics or tracking - see the cookie policy.

Where your data lives

Scout's website and services run on Google Cloud in the EU (the europe-west1 region), and uploaded images are stored on Google Cloud Storage. Our database is run by Neon on Amazon Web Services in London (the eu-west-2 region). Your sign-in session is kept in your own browser's localStorage. The other companies listed above handle the data they receive under their own privacy policies.

How long we keep it

We keep your information for as long as your account is open. You can delete your account yourself, from Account settings, once nothing you are part of still needs it: an upcoming booking, a visit still waiting to be confirmed, or a problem or payment still being sorted out. The page tells you exactly what is in the way.

When you delete your account, we erase straight away your name, email address, phone number, photo, horses, saved places, favourites, availability alerts and settings, and the reviews professionals wrote about you. Any business you own closes: it leaves Scout, and its team loses access.

Some records stay, without your name or contact details and shown as "Deleted account", because other people rely on them or because the law requires us to keep records of money: your past bookings (date, service and price), payments and payouts, the messages you sent, and the reviews you wrote. We erase these six years after you delete your account. Money already on its way to you still arrives.

If we have suspended your account, we keep it while it is suspended, so the suspension can't be got round by signing up again with the same email address. You can still ask for a copy of your data. If you can't delete your account yourself, email us and we will do it for you, with the same checks.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, ask for it in a portable form, or object to how we are using it. Email us and we will deal with it.

A copy of your data comes as a single file in a standard format any computer can open (JSON), sent only to your account's own email address. It includes both sides of your conversations and, because the law counts opinions about you as your data, the reviews professionals have written about you, without saying which business wrote them.

If you are not happy with how we have handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk. This policy is governed by the law of England and Wales.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or a request about your data? Email help@scoutequine.com. See also our terms of service and cookie policy.