Privacy policy
Who we are
SelfBuildGuide.ie (selfbuildguide.ie) is run by Rudy. We are the data controller for the details you give us. Contact us at privacy@rudy.ie.
Reading the site
We don't use cookies or advertising trackers, and no third-party scripts run on this site. We count page views, views and clicks on insurance links, which cover-wizard screens are reached, and successful quote requests. These events don't include your answers or contact details. Each event has a hosting request reference so we can match it to an access log; the event logs are deleted after 30 days.
Our hosting service, Amazon Web Services, also records requests to the site: your IP address, browser type, the time, the requested address (including any query string), the referring page if your browser sends it, and technical details such as the response status. Cookies and form contents are not included in these access logs.
We keep the logs in a private, encrypted store in Ireland, scheduled for deletion after 90 days. Saved query results are scheduled for deletion after 7 days. We use access logs to measure traffic and investigate errors; they are separate from your quote request.
For traffic reports, we temporarily combine your IP address and browser type with a different random value for each day to estimate visits. We discard those values and visitor references after calculating the report. The saved reports contain totals, page addresses and referring website names; they contain no IP addresses, browser types, contact details or visitor references. We exclude known bots, visits without a JavaScript signal, and our own tests from visitor totals.
Using the calculators
The calculators and the cover wizard (the short question form that leads to an insurance quote request) work on your device. The cover wizard keeps your answers in this browser tab so you can go back and change them. It clears the saved answers when you send a quote request, and they are gone when you close the tab. Your answers are sent to us with that request only when you tick the consent box and submit it.
Quote requests
When you ask for a self-build insurance quote, we collect:
- your cover-wizard answers: your build stage and expected start window, whether it is a new house or work on an existing one, who runs the work, whether you pay tradespeople or buy materials, and whether you use a self-build mortgage;
- about you: your name, phone number, preferred time to call and email address if you choose to give it;
- the page and insurance link on this site you came from, the number of screens in your completed cover wizard, the time of your request and the version of the consent wording you agreed to.
We also record whether your build is near starting, further away or somewhere in between, based on your answers. We pass that label on with your request so the broker can decide whom to call first.
We use these to pass your request to a lead broker, a company that connects people with insurance providers. The lead broker passes it to one insurance broker that covers self-builds, who contacts you about quotes. We are paid for this introduction. We don't use your details for anything else, and we don't contact you for marketing.
Our legal basis is your consent (GDPR Article 6(1)(a)), which you give by ticking the box on the form. You can withdraw it at any time by emailing privacy@rudy.ie. We will stop passing your details on and delete them, but we can't recall details already passed on: ask the lead broker and the insurance broker directly.
Who receives your details
The recipients, by category, are a lead broker and the insurance broker it passes your request to. Each becomes a controller of your details once it receives them, with its own privacy notice, which will tell you how to exercise your rights with it.
Where your details are kept, and for how long
Requests are stored encrypted in Amazon Web Services' data centres in Ireland. They are deleted automatically 24 months after you send them, or sooner if you ask. Encrypted backups are kept for up to 35 days after that.
Your rights
You can ask us for a copy of your details, to correct them, or to delete them, and you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing consent doesn't affect anything we did before. Contact us using the details above.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Data Protection Commission.