Privacy policy
Last updated 4 September 2026 · Tradie2U, Melbourne, Australia
Tradie2U shows customers which tradies are available near them, and lets them ask one for a job. This page says exactly what we collect to do that, what we do not, and how to get rid of it. It is written to be read, not to be survived.
The short version
- We never give a customer a tradie's exact location while they browse. The map shows an area of about half a kilometre, worked out on our server before anything is sent.
- A tradie chooses whether they appear at all. Off the map means their phone stops sending location — not that we hide it at our end.
- We take no payments and store no card details.
- We do not sell anything to anyone, ever, and we run no advertising.
What we collect
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Email address and password | To sign you in. Passwords are hashed by our authentication provider and are never visible to us. |
| Name, phone number, and street address for customers | So an accepted tradie can reach you and find the job. Released only once a job is accepted — never while browsing. |
| Business name, ABN, licence numbers and expiry dates, insurance details and certificates, bio, logo, photos of work, rates, and how far you travel (tradies) | This is your public profile. Certificates are shown only to trades you have worked with. |
| Location | See the section below — it is the part that matters most. |
| Job details: description, suburb, address, photos, arrival times, completion notes | To run the job between the two of you. |
| Messages between the two people on a job | So you can sort out access, parking and timing without swapping phone numbers. |
| Ratings and review text | Shown on the profile of the person rated. |
| Reports and blocks | To keep people safe. See "Reporting and blocking". |
| Push notification token and a device identifier | To send you a job offer or a message. Nothing else. |
Location, in detail
Customers
We use your location to centre the map and work out who is near you. If you decline, the app shows a default suburb and still works.
Tradies
You choose one of three states, and the app defaults to the first:
- Off the map — nothing is sent from your phone. No location is collected at all.
- Area only — you appear inside a wide area, about 5 km across, and only in counts. Never as a point.
- Visible nearby — you appear as a circle roughly 500 m across.
Positions are coarsened to a fixed grid on our server before they are sent to anybody, and distance and radius filtering are calculated from the coarsened point. That second part matters: it means repeated searches cannot be used to work backwards to where you actually are.
Background location
Two things use it, and they are deliberately different:
- While you are visible, the app keeps a single boundary about 500 m across around where you last were, and notices when you leave it. It is no more precise than what the map already shows, and it exists so a tradie who pockets their phone does not appear frozen in one spot for hours.
- Between tapping "On my way" and arriving, the app sends your position continuously so that one customer can watch you approach. This is the only time an exact position leaves your device. It is limited to that one customer on that one job, it is enforced in our database rather than in the app, and it stops automatically on arrival.
Turning off the map stops your phone sending anything, immediately. We are also never the first to ask: the "Always" permission prompt only appears after a screen explaining both uses above, and only when you tap the button on it.
Reporting and blocking
You can report anyone and block anyone. A report is read by a person at Tradie2U, normally within a day; we record who reported whom, the reason, and anything you wrote.
Blocking is mutual — neither of you sees the other afterwards — and the person you block is never told. For safety we do record that a block happened, and our own staff can see it. That record is not shared with the person blocked or with anyone else.
Who else sees it
We use a small number of providers, and none of them is an advertiser:
- Supabase — hosts our database and handles sign-in. Data is stored in their Australian region.
- Expo — delivers push notifications, and receives only the token and the text of the notification.
- Apple Maps (iOS) — draws the map on iPhone.
- Mapbox — draws the map on Android, and works out driving routes on both. Drawing a map means Mapbox receives the part of the world you are looking at, for as long as the map is open. Route directions are worked out only while a tradie is on the way to a job.
We may also disclose information where the law requires it, or where it is necessary to prevent a serious threat to someone's safety.
How long we keep it
- Notification records are deleted after 30 days.
- A record that a job happened outlives the job itself, so that both people keep an accurate work history. It holds who, what and when — not your messages.
- Everything else is kept while your account exists.
Deleting your account
In the app: You → Delete my account. You can also ask us to delete it from the web without installing anything.
Deleting removes your profile, your location, your messages and your account. Where the law requires us to keep a record of a completed transaction, that record is kept without your contact details attached.
Your rights
Under the Australian Privacy Principles you can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, and ask us to delete it. Email support@tradie2u.com.au and we will answer within 30 days. If you are not happy with our answer you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au.
Children
Tradie2U is not for under-18s and we do not knowingly collect their information.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the date at the top, and tell you in the app if the change is one that matters.
support@tradie2u.com.au