Privacy notice

About Ruth

The Berr Group Business Directory — Powered by Ruth is operated by Ross Hutchison trading as Berr Group, a UK sole trader. Ruth is not a separate limited company. Berr Group is responsible for the directory's processing of personal information.

This draft builds on the published Berr Group Privacy Policy, reviewed on 26 October 2026. It covers the directory, not Genesis 1 or unrelated corporate services.

Information we handle

• Business account details, verification and sign-in information; listing descriptions, services, contact details, photographs, declared qualifications and coverage.
• Private account contact details and location information used to manage listings. A full private address or postcode is not shown publicly unless the business separately chooses a public address.
• Customer enquiries and booking requests: name, email, optional telephone, message, requested service, urgency, availability, optional photographs, reference and activity timestamps.
• Limited search/category/location and AI usage records, and coded technical identifiers to prevent misuse. Postcode input is used to determine location; ordinary-search logs do not retain the entered full postcode or free-text search.

Please include only what is needed. Avoid sensitive personal details and photographs identifying other people without permission.

Purposes and lawful bases — proposed

We use information to manage business accounts and listings, pass requests to the selected business, provide search assistance, measure response aims, moderate content and protect the service. Proposed bases are contract or steps at your request before a contract, legitimate interests in running a safe directory and handling enquiries, and legal obligations where applicable. The owner and legal reviewer must approve the purpose-by-purpose lawful-basis assessment.

Submitting a request does not subscribe you to marketing. A request is not a confirmed appointment.

Who can see it

Approved listing content is public. When you submit an enquiry or booking request, it is passed to the independent business you selected. Customer messages, contact details and uploaded request photographs are private to that business account and authorised Berr Group administrators. Photos are opened through short-lived private links.

We do not sell personal information. We restrict access through sign-in, account permissions, validation and spam controls, but no internet service can guarantee complete security.

Berr Group and the receiving business — subject to legal review

Berr Group is responsible for operating Ruth: storing requests, passing them to the selected business, securing the service and running the directory. Once a business receives your request, it decides how to respond to you and is responsible for its own use of your information, including any record it keeps outside Ruth. The precise controller/processor roles must be confirmed by legal review before launch.

Businesses must use customer information only to deal with the enquiry and the related service, unless they have a separate lawful basis for another use. Submitting an enquiry does not enrol you in marketing from Berr Group or the business.

Ruth AI and service providers

Ruth search uses approved directory descriptions, services and coverage. Listing drafting uses the business's own website and supplied information. It does not automatically search private Facebook groups or unrestricted social media. Do not put confidential or sensitive customer information into AI prompts.

Lovable provides hosting, Lovable Cloud account/data storage and the AI gateway; the currently approved AI model is GPT-6 Luna. The application requests that AI responses are not stored by the model service. Provider retention, processors, data location and international-transfer safeguards must be verified and documented before launch; the corporate site's database location must not be assumed to describe this separate project.

Other services include Cloudflare delivery, postcodes.io location lookup, Google Fonts, OpenStreetMap map tiles and Proton Mail for Berr Group support email. Providers may receive connection details necessary to provide those services. External links and booking providers have their own policies.

Retention

Owner-approved principles (not yet automated):

• Closed enquiries and booking requests, their photographs and relevant activity are kept for up to 12 months after closure, subject to lawful exceptions such as a dispute or legal obligation.
• Unresolved requests are flagged for owner review after 90 days without activity. They are not automatically closed or deleted. A maximum retention period for unresolved requests is proposed for owner approval: review at 90 days, then close and delete within a further 9 months (12 months from last activity) unless a lawful exception applies.
• Individual routine search and AI activity records are kept for up to 90 days where operationally sufficient.
• Anonymous monthly totals — such as searches by trade, town and category, unsuccessful searches and AI usage costs — may be kept longer for business analysis. They do not identify individual users or their searches.

Security incidents, financial records and legally required records are assessed separately. Automatic deletion is not activated; until it is, deletion follows the principles above through owner review.

Retention for accounts, listings, revision history, administrative logs, backups and exports is awaiting owner approval and legal review. Service providers may keep their own records for their own periods; these have not yet been verified.

Emails

Account verification and password recovery remain available. Customer receipts, business notifications and replies through Ruth are not activated. An approved authenticated sending arrangement and delivery tests are required before enabling those emails. Preparation alone does not mean an email was sent or delivered.

Your rights and complaints

Depending on the circumstances, you may request access, correction or deletion, object to or restrict processing, withdraw consent where used, and request portability. Contact enquiries@berr.group; we may need to verify your identity and will respond within the applicable legal time limit. You may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Contact Berr Group first if you have a concern. See the correspondence details below and the cookie policy for browser storage and external resources.