Privacy Policy

1. Who looks after your data

Robert Bode, trading as Hiveable (Salisbury, Wiltshire, United Kingdom), is the data controller for Hiveable. Contact us about privacy at hiveableuk@gmail.com. We follow the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and, for users in Ireland and the EU, the EU GDPR.

2. What we collect

• Account details: name or business name, email, password (stored encrypted), county and town.
• Phone number, only if you add it. It's shown on your profile to signed-in members only if you switch that on.
• Profile details: what you do, photography types, kit, bio, social links, availability calendar and portfolio photos you upload.
• What you post and send: jobs, requests, offers, questions, answers, kit listings, reviews, messages, and stories (deleted automatically after 24 hours).
• Your settings: which email notifications you want.
• Safety data: verification codes, reports, blocks, and basic sign-up checks that help us stop automated (bot) accounts.
• Cookies needed to keep you signed in.

3. Why we use it

• To run your account and show your profile and portfolio to other users (contract).
• To send verification codes, and the email notifications you've switched on — new messages, offers and bookings. You can turn these off any time in your profile (contract).
• To prevent fraud, fake accounts and scams, including sign-up bot checks and scanning messages and listings for common scam patterns (legitimate interests).
• To meet legal obligations and respond to lawful requests (legal obligation).
• We don't send marketing emails.

4. Who we share it with

Other users see your public profile, portfolio photos, posts, listings and reviews. Only the people you message can see your messages. We use trusted service providers who may only use your data to provide their service to us: Floot (hosting, database and file storage) and Brevo (sending account and notification emails). We never sell your personal data.

If data leaves the UK or EEA, we use approved safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.

4a. Your photos

You keep the copyright in photos you upload. By uploading them you let Hiveable show them on your profile. Only upload photos you took or have permission to share. When you delete a photo or your account, we delete it from our storage; copies may stay in a short-lived cache for up to a day.

5. How long we keep it

• Account and profile: while your account is open, then deleted within 30 days of closing it.
• Messages: while both accounts are open, up to 2 years.
• Reports and safety records: up to 2 years, longer if needed for a legal claim.
• Security logs: up to 90 days.

6. Your rights

You can ask to see, correct, delete or download your data, object to or restrict how we use it, and withdraw consent. You can delete your account yourself in your profile, or email hiveableuk@gmail.com and we'll reply within one month. If you're unhappy, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) in the UK, or the Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie) in Ireland.

7. Children

Hiveable is only for people aged 18 or over. If we learn that someone under 18 has an account, we'll close it.

8. Changes

We'll update this policy when how we use data changes, and tell you about important changes.