1. Introduction & scope
Sapling IT Solutions Limited ("Sapling IT", "we", "us", "our") provides managed IT support, DevOps and cloud engineering services through saplingit.uk, and develops the PriceTracker UK mobile application (Android, available via Google Play). This policy applies to:
- visitors to saplingit.uk, including anyone who contacts us through the site;
- users of the PriceTracker UK app and its associated backend services; and
- anyone we correspond with in connection with our consultancy services.
If you are a client of our managed-services or consultancy work, separate contractual terms may also apply to how we handle data belonging to your organisation — this policy covers our handling of your personal data as an individual.
In short: we collect the minimum personal data needed to run our business and our app, we don't sell it, and — unlike many apps — PriceTracker UK contains no third-party advertising or analytics trackers. Section 3 sets out exactly what the app stores and why.
2. Information we collect
2.1 When you visit saplingit.uk
If you simply browse our website, we collect very little: your browser sends us standard technical information (such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you view) so that the site can be served to you and we can keep it running reliably and securely. See our Cookies Policy for details of the small number of cookies the site uses.
2.2 When you contact us
| What you provide | Why we ask for it |
|---|
| Name and email address (contact form, email or phone) | So we can identify you and reply to your enquiry |
| Company name and the details of your enquiry | So we can understand what you need and provide an accurate quote or response |
| Any further information you choose to share while we work together | To deliver, manage and support the services you've engaged us for |
2.3 When you use the PriceTracker UK app
PriceTracker UK is a paid for grocery price comparison app. To provide its features, it stores a deliberately small set of account and preference data — summarised below, and covered in full in section 3.
What we don't collect: PriceTracker UK does not use Google Analytics, Meta/Facebook Pixel, advertising SDKs, or any other third-party tracking or analytics service. We don't build advertising profiles, and we don't sell personal data to anyone — in the app or on our website.
3. PriceTracker UK app — data in detail
Here is exactly what the PriceTracker UK app and its backend store about registered users, drawn directly from our database design rather than a generic template:
| Category | Data held | Purpose |
|---|
| Account details | Email address, hashed password, first name, last name, profile photo (optional), email-verification status, account role, account creation date | To create and secure your account, personalise the app, and verify your identity |
| Tracked products & preferences | Products you choose to track, your preferred supermarkets | To show you the prices and stores that matter to you, and to compare them over time |
| Price alerts | Target prices you set, the type of alert, whether and when it has triggered | To notify you when a product you care about hits the price you want |
| Saved locations | A name you give the location, its latitude/longitude, and whether it's marked as your primary location | To help you find nearby stores and relevant local pricing — only for locations you choose to save |
| Push-notification tokens | A device token issued by Firebase Cloud Messaging, and your device platform (e.g. Android) | To deliver price-drop and alert notifications to your device |
| Account security records | Login sessions, password-reset requests and email-verification requests (each with expiry timestamps) | To keep your account secure, let you reset your password, and confirm your email address |
Location data is opt-in. PriceTracker UK only stores a location if you actively save one (for example, to find your nearest stores). We do not track your location in the background, and you can delete a saved location from within the app at any time.
Where this data comes from
All of it comes directly from you — either when you register and use the app, or indirectly as a natural result of using its features (for example, an alert "triggered" record is created automatically when a price you're tracking drops to your target).
Product & pricing data
The product names, prices and store information shown in the app are gathered from publicly available UK supermarket listings. This is general retail data, not personal data, and isn't linked to your account except where you choose to track a product or set an alert on it.
4. How we use your information
- To provide our services — running the PriceTracker UK app, delivering managed IT and consultancy services, and responding to enquiries.
- To communicate with you — replying to messages, sending account-related emails (verification, password resets), and delivering the price-alert push notifications you've asked for.
- To keep things secure — detecting and preventing fraud, abuse, or unauthorised access, and maintaining the integrity of our systems.
- To improve what we offer — understanding, in aggregate, how our website and app are used so we can make sensible decisions about what to build or fix next.
- To meet our legal obligations — such as keeping appropriate business records and responding to lawful requests from authorities.
5. Our legal basis for processing
UK GDPR requires us to have a valid legal basis for each way we use personal data. Here's how that maps onto what we do:
| Legal basis | Where it applies |
|---|
| Contract | Creating and running your PriceTracker UK account; delivering the consultancy services you've engaged us for |
| Consent | Sending push notifications; storing an optional saved location; any marketing communications (which we'll always ask before sending) |
| Legitimate interests | Responding to enquiries; keeping our website, app and systems secure and reliable; understanding aggregate usage to improve our services — always balanced against your right to privacy |
| Legal obligation | Retaining certain business records, and responding to valid requests from regulators, courts or law-enforcement bodies |
6. Who we share information with
We don't sell personal data, and we keep the list of people we share it with deliberately short:
6.1 Service providers who process data on our behalf
| Provider | What they do |
|---|
| Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google) | Delivers push notifications to the PriceTracker UK Android app. Google processes your device's push token to route notifications — it does not receive your account details. |
| Email delivery infrastructure | Sends account-related emails (verification links, password-reset emails) on our behalf, using standard secure mail delivery (SMTP). |
| Hosting & infrastructure providers | Run the servers, databases and cloud infrastructure that power saplingit.uk and PriceTracker UK, under contracts that require them to protect data appropriately. |
6.2 Legal & safety reasons
We may disclose information if we're required to by law, or where we reasonably believe it's necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others — for example, in response to a valid request from the police, a court, or a regulator such as the ICO.
6.3 Business changes
If Sapling IT Solutions Limited were ever to merge with, or be acquired by, another organisation, personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction — subject to the same protections described in this policy, and we'd let you know before anything changes.
What's deliberately absent from this list: advertising networks, data brokers, analytics platforms, and social-media trackers. PriceTracker UK and saplingit.uk simply don't use them.
7. How long we keep information
- Account data is kept for as long as your PriceTracker UK account is active. If you delete your account, we remove your personal data within a reasonable period, except where we're required to keep limited records for legal or accounting reasons.
- Sessions, password-reset and email-verification requests are short-lived by design — each carries an expiry, and expired records are cleared out automatically by routine maintenance.
- Push-notification tokens are removed automatically once they're no longer valid (for example, if you uninstall the app or your device stops accepting notifications).
- Enquiry & client correspondence is retained for as long as needed to deliver our services and meet our legal/accounting obligations, then securely deleted.
8. How we protect your information
We use industry-standard measures to keep personal data safe, including:
- encryption of data in transit (HTTPS/TLS) across our website, app and backend services;
- secure password storage — passwords are never stored in plain text, only as salted cryptographic hashes;
- access controls that limit who within Sapling IT can reach personal data, and why;
- regular patching and monitoring of the infrastructure that hosts our services.
No system is ever 100% secure, but as an IT and infrastructure consultancy, security isn't an afterthought for us — it's a large part of what we do for a living.
9. Your rights under UK GDPR
As a UK resident, you have a number of rights over your personal data. You can:
- Access the personal data we hold about you;
- Rectify inaccurate or incomplete data;
- Erase your data ("the right to be forgotten") — for PriceTracker UK, you can also delete your account directly from within the app;
- Restrict or object to certain processing of your data;
- Port your data to another service in a structured, commonly-used format;
- Withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent — for example, by turning off push notifications in your device settings or removing a saved location in-app.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details in section 14 — we'll respond within one month, as required by law. If you're ever unhappy with how we've handled your data, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's independent regulator for data protection:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 · Website: ico.org.uk
10. Cookies
saplingit.uk uses a small number of cookies needed to make the site work properly, plus optional ones that help us understand how it's used. The PriceTracker UK app does not use cookies — it's a native mobile app, not a website. Full details, including how to manage your preferences, are in our Cookies Policy.
11. Children's privacy
Our website and the PriceTracker UK app are intended for general audiences and are not directed at children. We don't knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us using the details below and we'll remove it promptly.
12. International transfers
We aim to keep personal data within the UK wherever practical. However, some service providers we rely on — for example, Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging, used to deliver push notifications — may process data on servers located outside the UK, including in the United States. Where this happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards recognised under UK data-protection law, such as the UK's International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) or adequacy regulations, to ensure your data continues to receive a comparable level of protection.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time — for example, if we change how the app works or add a new feature that affects what data we collect. We'll update the "last updated" date at the top of this page, and where a change is significant, we'll make reasonable efforts to let app users know directly (for example, via an in-app notice).
14. How to contact us
If you have any questions about this policy, or want to exercise any of your data-protection rights, we'd like to hear from you:
Postal address: Sapling IT Solutions Limited, 34 Boulevard, Weston-Super-Mare, North Somerset, United Kingdom, BS23 1NF.
