Privacy, plainly.

The assessment at /start asks five fixed questions, with optional extra detail. No AI request is made while you answer them. When you choose to show your assessment, your answers are sent through our server to OpenAI to prepare one practical recommendation and a report. You can read the core assessment on the page without giving contact details. Suggested answers are options, not facts about your business. Only what you select or write becomes your answer. Please do not enter passwords, confidential customer records or sensitive personal information. If you prefer not to use AI, you can email Scott directly instead.

Your unfinished answers and recovery tokens are kept in this browser tab for up to 24 hours of inactivity. Closing the tab or selecting “Start again” clears that tab-local draft. Generating the assessment stores your answers and report in Convex as an anonymous draft, scheduled for deletion after 24 hours unless you choose to save a copy or request implementation help. Starting or generating an assessment does not enrol you in messaging. We use hashed network identifiers and request counters for abuse prevention; hashed submission records are retained for up to 90 days to protect against duplicate requests. OpenAI’s service and security retention policies also apply.

The report is an AI-generated starting point based on your answers, not a verified inspection or a report personally reviewed by Scott. Recommendations and any labelled time-cost scenarios need checking before you act; they are not promises of savings.

If you request a PDF copy or implementation help, your contact details, answers, report, chosen next step and permission are saved with your enquiry in Convex. Implementation interest is separate from PDF delivery: it asks about timing, decision-making and budget before offering an eligible booking. Permission to arrange that conversation does not enrol you in PDF delivery or unrelated marketing. A submitted enquiry's receipt and any unresolved booking attempt can remain in the tab for up to seven days so a retry does not create a duplicate. The secure enquiry receipt expires seven days after submission.

Saved reports have a private web page and PDF. Anyone with the unlisted link can open the report, so only share it with people you trust. The link expires after 30 days and the hosted report files are removed. Copies downloaded or delivered to your device are not remotely deleted.

By selecting “Send my audit” after choosing iMessage or WhatsApp, you ask Scott Sharples and his AI assistant to send your AI-generated audit and related follow-up about that audit on your selected channel. The same notice appears beside the submission action; a phone number alone or viewing this policy is not permission. We record the selected channel, the notice version and wording, and the time you submit. This does not subscribe you to a newsletter, unrelated marketing or messages on another channel.

Photon delivers the PDF by iMessage or WhatsApp. Scott's AI assistant can use your submitted answers and generated report to discuss the recommendations and possible next steps on that channel. Messaging conversations use OpenAI to help the assistant respond. A call is optional; if you later choose one, the booking flow checks Google Calendar and creates the invitation. Existing direct-booking enquiries do not also start an automated qualification conversation. You can ask for Scott personally or reply STOP to opt out of messages at any time.

We use Plausible Analytics on the audit form to understand aggregate visits, offer views, steps reached and completed, backward navigation, validation problems, and submission attempts, failures and successes so we can improve the form. For contact fields, we count interaction, valid completion and validation errors using fixed field labels, never what you type. We also count interaction with the delivery selector without recording the selected channel. Plausible does not set tracking cookies or use persistent visitor identifiers. We do not send your answers, contact details, enquiry identifiers, raw error messages or private audit links to Plausible, and we do not record keystrokes or replay your session. Our implementation also removes query parameters and referrer information. Plausible processes the technical information needed to produce these statistics on European infrastructure. You can switch these statistics off at any time: open “Form options” (the three dots at the top of the form) and switch “Form statistics” off. Only your on/off preference is saved in a first-party cookie for up to 180 days. We honour an earlier rejection of combined optional tracking unless you turn form statistics on.

Advertising measurement remains separate and requires your optional advertising consent. If you accept, Meta Pixel receives named offer views, form starts and steps reached, without the answers you give. The existing consented conversions report successful enquiries and bookings. Our consented form event records are removed after 90 days; Meta processes received events under its own terms. Plausible's aggregate form statistics are not sent to Meta or joined to your enquiry. Short-lived, hashed network identifiers are used separately to limit abuse.

Steps before a contract and performance of a contract: when you ask about work, book a call or become a client.

Legitimate interests: to respond to business enquiries, run and protect the site, manage records, improve the service and understand which advertising produces relevant enquiries. I balance these interests against your rights and expectations.

Legal obligation: where records must be kept to meet tax, accounting or other legal requirements.

Consent: where consent is required, including for optional direct marketing or non-essential advertising technologies. You can withdraw consent at any time.

I use a small number of service providers where needed to run the site and respond to you. These currently include Vercel for website hosting, Meta for Facebook and Instagram lead forms, advertising measurement and conversion reporting, Convex for secure lead and booking workflow records, Resend for transactional email, and Google for calendar invitations and online meetings.

If you expressly choose iMessage or WhatsApp as your contact method, Photon and the selected messaging provider may process the number, message content and delivery information needed to contact you about that enquiry or appointment. I do not treat a phone number alone as consent to message you on either channel.

I may also share information with professional advisers or authorities where reasonably necessary to protect legal rights or meet a legal obligation. I do not give your information to unrelated businesses for their own marketing.

Some providers may process information outside the UK. Where required, I rely on the provider's contractual safeguards and data-protection terms for international transfers.

I keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably needed for the purpose it was collected, including follow-up, an active client relationship, record keeping and legal requirements.

Where an enquiry does not become client work, I aim to delete or anonymise it within 24 months of the last meaningful contact. Client, transaction and accounting records may be kept for up to seven years after the relationship ends where needed for legal, tax or dispute purposes.

Short-lived delivery and retry records used to prevent duplicate emails or messages may be removed sooner. Channel-consent and opt-out evidence may be retained where reasonably needed to honour your preference and demonstrate compliance.

The site stores a currency preference in local storage and a first-party cookie so prices can be shown consistently. With your choice, it can also use Meta Pixel and Meta Conversions API technology to understand visits and completed applications. Meta may receive identifiers and technical data, and submitted contact details may be matched in hashed form for conversion measurement.

Meta advertising technology stays off unless you accept it through “Cookie choices” in the site footer or form options menu. The panel does not open automatically. Your choice is stored for up to 180 days. Cookieless form statistics have a separate on/off control in Form options. You can also control or delete browser cookies through your browser settings and manage how Meta uses information for ads through your Facebook or Instagram account settings. Rejecting optional tracking does not stop you reading the site or contacting me.

Meta processes information under its own terms and privacy policy. If you submit a Meta instant form, Meta also handles the information as described in its own privacy information.

For any privacy request or question, email hello@scottsharples.com. I will respond as soon as reasonably possible and normally within one month where UK data-protection law applies.

If you are unhappy with how your information is handled, you can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office through ico.org.uk.

I may update this notice when the website, services or legal requirements change. The date at the top shows when it was last revised.