Privacy Policy

Lancelot Technology Limited ("Lancelot", "we", "us", or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and safeguard your personal data when you use the Lancelot website, join our waitlist, use the Lancelot mobile app once it is available, and use the related services we provide (together, the "Platform").

Lancelot connects people who need everyday help (our "Clients") with trusted local service providers (our "Heroes") through a chat-led experience powered by Lance, our AI assistant. Because we handle payments, location, identity, and trust information, we take data protection seriously and only collect what we genuinely need to run the Platform.

This policy is written to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

The short version (the full policy below is what governs):

• We collect only what we need to run Lancelot, and we explain why for each type of data.
• We never sell your personal data.
• Your card and bank details go directly to our payment provider (Stripe) — we never see or store them.
• You can ask for a copy of your data, correct it, or ask us to delete it at any time.
• You can leave the waitlist or unsubscribe from our emails whenever you like.

1. Who we are

Lancelot Technology Limited is a company registered in England and Wales and based in Manchester, United Kingdom. For the purposes of the UK GDPR, we are the data controller responsible for your personal data.

• Company: Lancelot Technology Limited (registered in England and Wales)
• Data protection contact: support@trylancelot.com

We will publish our registered office address and company registration details on this page before the Lancelot app launches. If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data in the meantime, please contact us using the details in the "How to contact us" section below.

2. The personal data we collect

We collect and process the following categories of personal data:

• Waitlist data — the details you give us when you join the Lancelot waitlist (see section 3).
• Identity and account data — your name, username, date of birth (to confirm you are 18 or over), the role you use (Client or Hero), and authentication identifiers created when you sign in with Google or another supported sign-in provider.
• Contact data — your email address, phone number (which we verify), and the postal or area details you share so a Hero can reach a job.
• Hero profile data — for Heroes, the services you offer, your rates, availability, business details, photos or videos of your work, and any qualifications, certifications, or right-to-work information you provide.
• Verification and trust data — information used to verify identity and build trust on the Platform, such as identity-document checks (handled by our verification partner, Veriff), ratings, reviews, and referral relationships.
• Booking and transaction data — the requests you make to Lance, the bookings you create, quotes, schedules, receipts, and a record of amounts paid or received. Card and bank details are handled entirely by our payment provider and are not stored by us (see section 7).
• Chat and communications data — the messages you exchange with Lance and with Heroes or Clients, along with photos or attachments you choose to share in a conversation, and any support requests you send us.
• Location data — your device location while you are using the app, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and your timezone (see section 6).
• Device and technical data — device type, operating system, app version, language settings, unique device or push-notification identifiers, IP address, and diagnostic or crash information.
• Usage data — how you interact with the Platform, such as features used, screens viewed, and actions taken, which helps us improve the service.
• Marketing and communications preferences — your choices about receiving updates and marketing from us.

We do not deliberately collect special category data (such as health or biometric data). Please avoid sharing sensitive personal information in chat messages unless it is strictly necessary for a booking.

3. The waitlist

Before the app launches, the main way we collect personal data is through our waitlist. When you join, we collect:

• your email address (required);
• your first name and city (optional);
• whether you are interested in Lancelot as a Client or a Hero;
• for Heroes, the types of services you are interested in offering; and
• if you joined through someone's referral link or code, a link between your entry and theirs.

We use this information to:

• manage your place on the waitlist and invite you when Lancelot becomes available;
• email you about our launch, early access, and how Lancelot is progressing;
• operate our referral programme, including recognising the people who referred others; and
• understand demand by area and by type of service, so we launch in the right places with the right Heroes.

By joining the waitlist, you are asking us to email you about Lancelot's launch and early access. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and you can ask to be removed from the waitlist entirely at any time by emailing support@trylancelot.com.

Joining the waitlist does not create a Lancelot account. We keep waitlist data until public launch and for up to 12 months afterwards, or until you ask to be removed, whichever comes first.

4. How we collect your personal data

We collect personal data:

• Directly from you — when you join the waitlist, create an account, build a Hero profile, message Lance, make or accept a booking, contact support, or otherwise use the Platform.
• Automatically — as you use the app and website, through cookies and similar technologies (see section 13) and through our infrastructure and analytics tools.
• From third parties — from your chosen sign-in provider (for example, Google) when you authenticate, from our identity-verification partner when a check is completed, and from our payment provider in relation to the status of a payment.

5. How and why we use your personal data

Under the UK GDPR we must have a lawful basis for using your personal data. We rely on the following bases:

• To provide the Platform and fulfil our contract with you *(lawful basis: performance of a contract)* — creating and managing your account, connecting Clients with Heroes, enabling Lance to understand your requests, coordinating bookings and schedules, processing payments and payouts, and providing customer support.
• To keep the Platform safe and trustworthy *(lawful basis: legitimate interests and, where applicable, legal obligation)* — verifying identity and phone numbers, detecting unusual sign-ins, preventing fraud and abuse, moderating content, enforcing our Terms of Service, and protecting our community.
• To improve and develop our services *(lawful basis: legitimate interests)* — understanding how the Platform is used, fixing problems, improving the quality and relevance of Lance's suggestions, and building new features. Where we analyse chat content to improve Lance, we take steps to minimise and, where practical, de-identify the data used.
• To communicate with you *(lawful basis: performance of a contract, legitimate interests, or consent)* — sending service messages (such as booking updates and security alerts) and, where you have signed up for them or have not opted out, sending news and marketing about Lancelot.
• To comply with our legal obligations *(lawful basis: legal obligation)* — meeting accounting, tax, anti-money-laundering, and other regulatory requirements, and responding to lawful requests from authorities.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced those interests against your rights and freedoms. You can ask us for more information about this balancing exercise at any time.

6. Location data

Location is central to what Lancelot does — finding trusted help near you — so we want to be precise about how we handle it:

• Device location (with your permission). The app asks for permission to access your device location only while you are using the app ("when in use"). We do not track your location in the background, and we do not request continuous or "always on" location access.
• What we store. We store your most recent location — coordinates, the locality they resolve to (for example, "Northern Quarter, Manchester"), and your timezone — so Lance can find Heroes near you and show sensible times. Each update replaces the last one: we do not build a history of your movements.
• How we resolve localities. We use the Google Maps Geocoding service to convert coordinates into a place name.
• IP-based approximate location. If you have not shared device location, or for security purposes (such as spotting a sign-in from an unexpected place), we may derive an approximate location from your IP address. This is coarse (roughly city-level) and never overrides the location your device provides.
• Your control. You can withdraw location permission at any time in your device settings. Some features — like finding Heroes near you — may not work as well without it.

7. Payments

Payments on the Platform are processed by our third-party payment provider (Stripe). When you add a payment method or make a payment, your card, bank, and other payment credentials are collected and processed directly by the payment provider under their own terms and privacy notice. Lancelot never receives or stores your full card number, CVV, or bank details.

We receive limited information from the payment provider — such as a payment reference, the status of a transaction, and the last few digits or card type — so that we can show receipts, manage Hero payouts and wallets, handle refunds, and detect fraud.

8. Lance, AI, and automated processing

Lance is an AI-powered assistant that helps interpret your requests, suggest suitable Heroes, and coordinate bookings, quotes, invoices, and payments. To do this, Lance processes the messages and booking details you provide.

We use enterprise AI services from providers such as Anthropic and Google to power Lance. These providers process message content on our behalf, under agreements that do not permit them to use your content to train their general-purpose AI models.

Lance may draft suggestions, match you with Heroes, and prepare invoices, but meaningful human review and your own confirmation remain part of key steps such as accepting a booking and releasing payment. We do not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you based solely on automated processing without a lawful basis and appropriate safeguards. If that ever changes, we will tell you and explain your rights.

AI-generated suggestions may occasionally be inaccurate or incomplete. You remain responsible for reviewing bookings and confirming details before you rely on them.

9. Who we share your personal data with

We share personal data only where necessary, and with appropriate safeguards in place. Recipients include:

• Other users of the Platform — we share the information needed to fulfil a booking. A Client's request details and relevant contact information are shared with the Hero they book, and a Hero's profile, ratings, and relevant details are shown to Clients.
• Our technology and hosting providers — we use Google Cloud Platform, Firebase, and related Google services to host the app and website, authenticate users, store data, send notifications, and run our backend infrastructure.
• Our AI providers — such as Anthropic and Google, which process message content to power Lance, as described in section 8.
• Our payment provider — Stripe, to process payments, payouts, and refunds securely.
• Our identity-verification partner — Veriff, to help confirm identity and support trust and safety.
• Location and security services — the Google Maps Geocoding service (to convert coordinates into place names) and an IP-address lookup service (to derive approximate location for the purposes described in section 6).
• Analytics, messaging, and support providers — who help us understand usage, deliver notifications and emails, and provide customer support, acting on our instructions.
• Professional advisers and authorities — such as our lawyers, accountants, insurers, auditors, regulators, and law-enforcement bodies, where required to run our business, comply with the law, or protect our rights and the safety of our community.
• Business transfers — if Lancelot is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this policy.

We require all our service providers to respect the security of your personal data, to process it only on our instructions and for specified purposes, and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not sell your personal data.

10. International transfers

Some of our providers — including Google, Stripe, and our AI providers — may process personal data outside the United Kingdom. Where we transfer personal data outside the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection by relying on an approved safeguard, such as a UK adequacy decision, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or the International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. You can ask us for more detail about the safeguards we use.

11. How long we keep your personal data

We keep personal data only for as long as we need it for the purposes described in this policy, including to satisfy legal, accounting, tax, or reporting requirements. Our standard periods are:

• Waitlist data — until public launch and for up to 12 months afterwards, or until you ask to be removed.
• Account and profile data — while your account is active, and for up to 6 years after it closes, in line with the limitation period for legal claims.
• Booking, transaction, and receipt data — at least 6 years, as required by tax and accounting law.
• Chat and communications data — while your account is active, and for up to 2 years after it closes, to resolve disputes and keep the Platform safe.
• Marketing preferences — if you opt out, we keep a minimal suppression record so we can continue to honour your choice.

When we no longer need personal data, we delete it or anonymise it so it can no longer be associated with you. Where you ask us to delete your data (see section 14), we may still need to retain limited records where the law requires it — for example, transaction records for tax purposes.

12. How we protect your personal data

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data, including:

• Storing authentication tokens and secrets in your device's encrypted secure storage.
• Encrypting data in transit and, where appropriate, at rest.
• Restricting access to personal data to those who need it.
• Redacting personal information from our system logs.
• Handling payment credentials only through our payment provider, never through our own systems.

No system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If we become aware of a personal-data breach that is likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will notify the ICO and, where required, you, in line with our legal obligations.

13. Cookies and similar technologies

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to make the site work, remember your preferences, keep you signed in, and understand how the site is used. Non-essential cookies (such as analytics) are used only with your consent, which you can give, refuse, or change at any time through our cookie controls or your browser settings. Our mobile app uses similar technologies, such as device identifiers, for equivalent purposes.

14. Your rights

Under the UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectify inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Erase your personal data in certain circumstances ("the right to be forgotten").
• Restrict or object to our processing in certain circumstances, including processing based on legitimate interests and processing for direct marketing.
• Data portability — receive certain data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent, without affecting processing carried out before you withdrew it.

You can exercise these rights by contacting us using the details below. We will respond within one month, though we may extend this by up to two further months for complex requests. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. Exercising your rights is free of charge in most cases.

15. Marketing

We will only send you marketing communications where you have signed up for them (for example, by joining the waitlist) or where you have not opted out. You can opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe link in our emails, adjusting your notification settings, or contacting us. Opting out of marketing does not stop essential service messages, such as booking confirmations and security alerts.

16. Children

The Platform is intended for adults. You must be at least 18 years old to join the waitlist, create an account, or use Lancelot. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will take steps to delete it.

17. Third-party links and services

The Platform may link to third-party websites, apps, or services that are not operated by us. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties, and we encourage you to read their privacy notices. Your use of the Google, Firebase, and Stripe services in connection with the Platform is also subject to their respective terms and privacy notices.

18. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law — including when the Lancelot app launches. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date shown at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you by email or in the app. Please review this policy periodically.

19. How to contact us and the right to complain

If you have any questions, requests, or concerns about this policy or how we handle your personal data, please contact us:

• Email: support@trylancelot.com

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would, however, appreciate the chance to address your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please do get in touch with us first.