Privacy Policy

Who we are

Paayos ToolBox is a marketplace that connects people in the Philippines who need repair or construction work done with tradespeople who do that work. We are the personal information controller for the data described here, as that term is used in the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173).

What we collect

We collect only what the service needs to function. Nothing on this list is optional decoration — each item is used for the purpose given in the next section.

From everyone with an account

• Email address — your login identity and how we reach you about a job.
• Phone number, if you provide one — so the other party can coordinate a visit.
• Password — stored only as a one-way hash. We cannot read your password, and neither can anyone who obtains a copy of our database.

If you post a job

• The job description, category, and urgency you write.
• Photos of the problem you choose to attach.
• The location of the work and any budget rangeyou set. We do not read your device's GPS — location is only what you type.

If you register as a tradesperson

Verification is the reason customers can trust the platform, so this is the most sensitive data we hold:

• A photo of your government-issued ID. Under the Data Privacy Act this is sensitive personal information and we treat it accordingly: it is used to confirm you are who you say you are, it is reviewed by our staff, and it is never shown to customers or other tradespeople.
• Your trade licence or certificate where the category requires one — electrical and plumbing work in particular.
• Your trade categories, service areas, bio, and portfolio photos. These are shown publicly to customers, because that is their purpose.

While you use the service

• Quotes sent and received, including amounts and any note attached.
• Messages you exchange with the other party about a job. These are visible to you, to the other party, and — where a dispute is raised — to our staff reviewing it.
• Reviews and ratings you write, which are shown publicly alongside the reviewed profile.
• Payment records — the amount, the method you chose, our commission, and a reference number from our payment processor. We never receive or store your card number, GCash PIN, or bank credentials. Those go directly to our payment processor and are never visible to us.

If you join the waitlist

• Your email address, whether you signed up as a customer or a tradesperson, and which page you signed up from. That is all — a waitlist signup does not create an account.

How we use it

We use your information to:

• Create and secure your account, and sign you in.
• Show your job to tradespeople who work in your area and category, so you get quotes.
• Let you and the other party talk to each other and agree on a price.
• Verify that a tradesperson is a real, identifiable person before they are allowed to quote on work.
• Hold payment in escrow and release it to the tradesperson once you confirm the work is done.
• Investigate disputes when one of you raises one.
• Email you about the launch, if you joined the waitlist.

We do not use your information to build advertising profiles, and we do not make automated decisions about you that produce legal effects.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal information, and we never will. We share it in only three situations.

With the other party to a job

This is the service working as intended. When you post a job, tradespeople see the job details, photos, and location. When you accept a quote, you and that tradesperson can see each other's contact details so the work can happen. Your government ID is never part of this.

With service providers who run our infrastructure

Each of these processes data only on our instructions, for the single purpose listed. Some of them store data on servers outside the Philippines, which means your information may be transferred abroad; we rely on their contractual data-protection commitments when that happens.

• PayMongo — processes payments. Your card or e-wallet details go to them directly, not through us.
• Cloudinary — stores the images you upload, including job photos and verification documents.
• Neon — hosts our database.
• Render and Vercel — host our servers and this website.

When the law requires it

We will disclose information if we are legally compelled to — a court order, a lawful request from an authority — or where it is necessary to protect someone's safety or to establish or defend a legal claim.

What we don't do

It is worth being specific about the things a marketplace app of this kind often does, and this one does not:

• No analytics or tracking SDKs. There is no Google Analytics, no Facebook pixel, and no third-party analytics library in our apps or on this site.
• No advertising. We show no ads and share nothing with ad networks.
• No selling or renting of personal data to anyone, for any price.
• No background location. The apps never read your device location. Location is only ever the address you type into a job.
• No contact list access. The apps do not read your contacts.
• No camera access. The apps can open your photo library when you choose to attach a photo, and nothing more.

How long we keep it

We keep your account and the jobs, quotes, messages, and reviews attached to it for as long as your account is open, because that history is what the service is.

Verification documents — your government ID and any licence — are kept while your tradesperson account is active, because we may need to re-check them if a dispute is raised about who did the work.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account yourself, in either app: open Account from the header, then Delete my account. The app shows you exactly what will be erased and what is kept before you confirm, and asks for your password — a stolen phone shouldn't be able to erase your account. It happens immediately, not after a waiting period, and it cannot be undone.

If you would rather we did it for you, email privacy@paayostoolbox.com from the address on the account. We will confirm once it is done, and in any case within 30 days of your request.

What is erased. Your email address, your phone number, and your password. If you are a tradesperson: your government ID, your trade licence, your portfolio photos, and your profile bio — deleted both from our database and from the storage service that holds the image files. If you are a customer: the photos you attached to jobs you posted.

What we keep, and why. We want to be exact here rather than imply a clean erasure we cannot perform, because a marketplace record has two people in it:

• Payment records — retained for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
• The jobs you were part of— these stay, because they are equally the other party's history and their record of what they earned or paid. Your name, contact details, and photos are stripped from them.
• Reviews you wrote about others— the star rating and the comment text remain on the reviewed tradesperson's profile, because they form part of that person's rating history. They are no longer connected to you.
• Messages you exchanged about a job— kept as part of that job's record, since they are the shared account of what was agreed, and no longer attached to an identifiable person.

In short: what remains is the shape of the transactions, with no way to tell who you were. Once your account is deleted you cannot log in again, and the email address you used is released — you are free to sign up again from scratch.

One thing has to wait.If you have a job in progress or a payment still held in escrow, we cannot delete the account yet — doing so would strand the other party mid-job and leave money in limbo. Finish or cancel the job, or contact us to resolve the payment, and the deletion will go through. The app names the job that's holding things up.

Your rights

Under the Data Privacy Act of 2012 you have the right to:

• Be informed that we hold your data and what we do with it — that is this page.
• Access a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct anything inaccurate.
• Object to how we process your data, and to withdraw consent you have given.
• Erasure or blocking — ask us to remove your data where the law allows it.
• Data portability — receive your data in a structured, commonly used electronic format.
• Damages — be compensated for harm caused by inaccurate, unlawfully obtained, or unauthorised use of your information.

To exercise any of these, email us at privacy@paayostoolbox.com. We will respond within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with how we handle your request, you can complain to the National Privacy Commission.

Security

Passwords are stored as one-way hashes, never as text we could read. Traffic between the apps and our servers is encrypted in transit. Access to verification documents is limited to the staff who review them. No system is perfectly secure, and we will not pretend otherwise — if a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and the National Privacy Commission as the law requires.

Children

Paayos ToolBox is not intended for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, email us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change what we collect or what we do with it, we will update this page and change the date at the top. Where a change materially affects your rights, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect rather than expecting you to notice this page changing.

Contact us

For anything about this policy or your personal information, write to our Data Protection Officer at privacy@paayostoolbox.com.