Privacy
Privacy notice
What locksmiths.trade holds about the people who use it and about the locksmiths it lists: where it comes from, why, who else handles it, and for how long. Browsing the directory needs no account.
Who we are
locksmiths.trade is operated by locksmiths.trade, 7 Princes St, Edinburgh. To reach us, use the contact form or write to the address above.
We decide how the personal details described here are used, which makes us the controller under UK data protection law.
If your business is listed
What we publish. The business name, which for a sole trader can be your own name; its phone number, website and social pages; its address, or for a locksmith working from home only the town and the first half of the postcode unless the business publishes its street itself; the services and areas it lists, its hours, how long it has traded, any qualification it states, and any membership we have checked on a public register; the date we last checked it and where we read it.
Where it comes from. Public sources: the business's own website and social pages, local search listings, Companies House and public registers such as the Master Locksmiths Association's, and whatever the business sends us.
Why, and the basis. Legitimate interests: the public's interest in a free, factual list of the locksmiths based near them, with direct contact details and no fee, and ours in publishing it. We weighed that against yours. We publish only details the business already publishes so customers can contact it, in its own terms; we add no reviews, ratings or verdicts; a home address is never shown unless the business shows it; a listing costs nothing; and its position is never sold.
Prices. Prices from a business's own published price list feed our price figures, naming the business beside each price.
Your choices. You can object at any time and we take the listing down, or ask us to correct it or remove its prices. Use the Modify listing button on its page, or the contact form. There is no charge and no condition. A listing stays while the business trades and is published; one that has stopped trading is taken down when we find out.
If you use the site to find a locksmith
| When | What we keep | Why, and the lawful basis | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| You send a locksmith an enquiry | Your name, email, phone if given, message, the days that suit you, and your job card: the job, the door and the lock, how many locks, the keys, whether you own or rent, whether it is for an insurance claim, when you need it and the first half of your postcode | To pass your enquiry to the locksmith you chose, who replies to you directly. Basis: doing what you asked us to do | 12 months, then deleted. The locksmith keeps the email we sent them under their own privacy terms |
| You open a listing or tap its number | A count per listing per day. To count you once a day, a one-way code made from your IP address and a secret that changes daily, never the address itself | For the locksmith's monthly figures, and to limit spam on the forms. Basis: legitimate interests | The code: deleted after a day. The daily counts, which identify nobody: 2 years |
| You use the contact or listing form | Your name, email, company if given and message | To answer you. Basis: legitimate interests in replying | In our mailbox while we deal with it, and up to 2 years after |
Your job card, your shortlist and the numbers you marked as called are kept in your own browser, not sent to us. Clearing the site's data in your browser deletes them. The job card leaves your browser only inside an enquiry you send, and only to that locksmith. Saving it from the enquiry form is off unless you tick the box. The quote check sends nothing anywhere: the price and the number you type stay on the page.
If you claim or pay for a listing
| When | What we keep | Why, and the lawful basis | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| You claim a listing | The email you give, and a record of the claim: when, how it was decided, and whether it was accepted | To check you run the business before you can change anything. Basis: legitimate interests | An accepted claim while the listing is claimed; a rejected, superseded or undecided one 90 days |
| You sign in | A one-time link and a session, both stored only as a keyed code, and a session cookie in your browser | To keep you signed in to your dashboard. Basis: providing the service you asked for | Links last 30 minutes and are deleted a day later; sessions 30 days |
| You use the dashboard | Your settings, and on Premium your price list, reply note, availability and the photos you upload, with their captions and before and after pairing (we remove the location and camera details stored inside a photo before keeping it, and a person sees each one) | To show them on your profile. Basis: our contract with you | While the listing is claimed. When Premium ends they stop showing, and are deleted 90 days later |
| You pay for Premium | Your Stripe customer and subscription numbers, the plan, the date it is paid to, and when you accepted the terms. Card details go to Stripe only | To run the Premium you bought. Basis: our contract with you, and tax law | While the account exists; Stripe keeps payment records as long as tax law requires |
| We do a verification check | When it was done, whether by your published phone number or email, and a short note of what was confirmed, including what we found for any MLA, Buy With Confidence, Which?, ALA or SERMI membership you gave us, and whether we saw a DBS or insurance certificate (only that we saw it and its date, never what it says) | To show the Owner verified badge truthfully. Basis: our contract with you | 2 years; a check that could not be completed, 90 days |
| We email you | Enquiries, the monthly report and the result of a check | To run the listing tools. The monthly report rests on legitimate interests, and every one has a one-click link to stop it | Sent, not stored, beyond the records above |
The name, phone number and logo you type into the job sheet stay in your browser and are never sent to us.
Cookies
One cookie, and only for locksmiths who sign in: a session cookie that keeps the dashboard open for up to 30 days. The spam check on forms (Cloudflare Turnstile) reads technical details of your browser to tell people from scripts. There are no advertising cookies, no analytics scripts and no tracking across sites.
Who else handles it
- Cloudflare hosts the site, the database and locksmiths' photos, runs the spam check, and sends and receives our email.
- Stripe takes locksmiths' payments for us; card details go to Stripe and never reach us.
- Mail to our address is forwarded by Cloudflare to the site owner's mailbox, and replies go out from it, so that email provider holds those messages too.
- A locksmith you send an enquiry to receives what you wrote by email, through their own mailbox provider, and is responsible for it from then.
Nothing is sold, and nothing is passed to anyone else for marketing.
Outside the UK
Cloudflare and Stripe are American companies and may process these details in the United States and elsewhere. Those transfers rely on the UK extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the company has signed up to it, and otherwise on the UK International Data Transfer Addendum in its data processing terms.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, have it corrected, have it deleted, restrict how we use it, object to our using it where we rely on legitimate interests (and always to any marketing), and receive what you gave us in a format you can reuse. No decision about you is made automatically.
Ask through the contact form or by post to the address above. We reply within one month. If you are unhappy with the answer you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
Last updated 2 October 2026. Terms for locksmiths · How this directory works