Privacy policy
1. Who we are
Know Before Signing (“we”, “us”, “our”) is an independent research and pilot initiative operated by Mohammed Abdul Jabbar. We are the data controller for the personal data collected through this site.
For privacy questions, data access requests or deletion requests, contact us at hello@knowbeforesigning.com, or use the Your data page.
2. What we collect and why
| What we collect | Why we collect it | Legal basis (GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | To reply to you and deliver your quote review | Taking steps at your request before entering a service |
| Project status answer | To understand your project timeline and scope before beginning | Taking steps at your request before service |
| Quote documents (may contain names, property addresses, contractor pricing/terms) | To identify hidden fees, scope gaps, material allowances and milestone risks in your quote | Performance of the requested service |
| Payment confirmation (payer name, email and amount, as shown by PayPal) | To confirm you have paid, issue refunds and keep accounting records | Performance of the requested service; legal obligation (accounting) |
| Email communications | To discuss your review, answer follow-up questions, and maintain communication records | Legitimate interests (managing inquiries and operational records) |
Providing this information is voluntary, but we cannot evaluate your quote or return an audit report without a valid email address and the document itself.
3. What we do not collect
- No advertising or marketing cookies: we do not run advertising pixels or build advertising profiles. The only analytics tool is Google Analytics, which stays off unless you click Accept in the cookie notice (see “Website analytics” below and our Cookie policy).
- No passive visitor tracking: browsing our site does not record your personal identity beyond standard, transient server connection logs maintained by our hosting network.
- No unnecessary financial data: please black out or redact sensitive payment details (such as bank account numbers, credit card details or national identity numbers) before uploading or emailing documents.
4. Who we share data with (our processors)
We do not sell, rent or monetise your personal data. We only use technical service providers strictly necessary to deliver the review service:
- Cloudflare, Inc. (USA / global): website hosting, content delivery and inbound email routing.
- Formspree, Inc. (USA): receives the form you submit and routes it to our inbox.
- PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. and its group: processes your payment if you pay for a review. PayPal acts as an independent controller of your payment details; we do not receive or store your card or PayPal login details, only confirmation that payment was made.
- Google LLC (USA / global): hosts our email through Gmail.
- Google Analytics 4 (Google Ireland Ltd / Google LLC): website analytics, only if you accept analytics cookies. See “Website analytics” below.
- AI analysis tools and providers: we use advanced language models and research engines, including OpenAI (ChatGPT), Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini) and Perplexity AI, to help read construction terminology, cross-reference industry line-item benchmarks, and spot omissions or unclear contract clauses. Data submitted to these tools is processed strictly to assist with document evaluation and clause extraction. We actively configure our account privacy settings and data controls to opt out of our submitted text being used to train public machine-learning models.
We may also disclose information if strictly required by law, regulation or formal legal process.
Website analytics (Google Analytics 4)
If you click Accept in the cookie notice, we use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and see which pages are useful. It sets cookies (_ga and _ga_T81B1NK69R) and sends Google your IP address (which Google shortens and does not store in full), the pages you view, your device and browser type, and your approximate location. We do not send your email address or anything you type into our forms to Google Analytics, and we have turned off Google signals and advertising personalisation.
- Legal basis: your consent. If you click Reject, or ignore the notice, no analytics script is loaded and no analytics cookie is set.
- Withdraw consent: click “Privacy choices” in the footer and choose Reject. This stops tracking and deletes the analytics cookies.
- Retention: Analytics data is kept for [14 months: set this under Admin > Data settings > Data retention in GA4], then deleted automatically.
5. International data transfers
Our technical service providers and infrastructure rely on secure servers located in the United States, the European Union and globally. When personal data is transferred outside the UK or European Economic Area, we rely on established international transfer safeguards recognised under applicable data protection laws. These include the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (the UK-US Data Bridge) for certified providers, as well as standard contractual clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum incorporated into our service providers’ data processing terms.
6. Data retention and archiving
- Active review and audit records: we keep your submitted quote documents, audit reports, project notes and email correspondence in our active records to maintain an accurate business audit trail, help with follow-up inquiries, and address potential claims. These are kept for up to 6 years, in line with standard contract limitation periods.
- Anonymised industry benchmarks and archives: to continuously refine our quote analysis models, market pricing baselines and review frameworks, we permanently archive audit details and contractor terms in an anonymised format, with all direct personal identifiers (such as names, personal email addresses, phone numbers and specific residential street addresses) fully stripped or redacted. Anonymised records are kept indefinitely.
- Deletion requests: You can ask us to erase your personal identifiers from our active records at any time by emailing hello@knowbeforesigning.com or using the deletion form. We delete your data on request, unless we are required or entitled to retain it to deal with or defend against a legal claim.
7. Your rights
Under applicable data protection laws, including the UK GDPR, you have the right to:
- access the personal data we hold about you;
- request correction of inaccurate details;
- request erasure (“the right to be forgotten”) of your personal identifiers from our active records (we will comply unless the data is necessary to deal with or defend against legal claims);
- restrict or object to our processing of your information.
To use any of these rights, email hello@knowbeforesigning.com or use the Your data page. We will process and confirm your request within 30 days, at no charge.
8. Human-in-the-loop review
Our reviews combine structured renovation audit checklists with AI-assisted text extraction to review lengthy contractor specifications quickly. Every review is inspected, validated and finalised by a human reviewer before being delivered to you. We do not make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects.
9. Complaints
If you have concerns about how your data is handled, please contact us first at hello@knowbeforesigning.com so we can resolve the issue directly. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, such as the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.
10. Updates
If we update this policy, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top. For active reviews, significant changes will be communicated directly by email.
Contact
Know Before Signing
Email: hello@knowbeforesigning.com
Website: knowbeforesigning.com