Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 2026

TrueCost is a trading name of ESPC Group Ltd, registered in England and Wales. Company number: 17148581. Registered office: 22a Ongar Road, London, SW6 1SJ.

ESPC Group Ltd (trading as TrueCost) is the data controller for the purposes of UK GDPR. We are committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and your rights.

What data we collect

Account data

When you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and password (securely hashed by our authentication provider, Clerk). If you sign in with Google, we receive your name and email from Google.

Profile data

During onboarding and in your account settings, you may provide: your role (buyer, renter, landlord, agent), target area, budget range, property type preferences, timeline, household income, and data sharing preferences. This data is stored securely and used to personalise your experience.

Search and usage data

We record which properties and areas you search, which properties you save, and your interactions with the site. This helps us improve the service and generate your monthly reports.

User-submitted data

You may choose to submit property data such as prices, floor areas, or EPC information. This data is stored anonymously and used to improve the accuracy of our estimates for all users.

How we use your data

We use your data to: provide property reports and area overviews, personalise affordability calculations based on your income, send monthly market reports for your target area, match you with relevant property listings (if you opt in), and improve the accuracy of our data.

Data sharing

We operate an opt-in data sharing model. If you choose to opt in during onboarding or in your account settings:

  • Your search criteria (area, budget, property type) are shared anonymously with vetted estate agents
  • Agents can see your search profile but not your name, email, or contact details
  • Your contact details are only shared if you choose to respond to a matched listing by clicking "I'm interested"
  • You can opt out at any time in your account settings

We do not sell your data to third parties. We do not use your data for third-party advertising. We do not share your data with anyone other than the vetted agents described above, and only with your explicit consent.

Data retention

Account and profile data is retained for as long as your account is active. Search history is retained for 12 months. User-submitted property data is retained indefinitely in anonymised form. You can request deletion of your data at any time.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to: access the data we hold about you, request correction of inaccurate data, request deletion of your data, request data portability (receive your data in a machine-readable format), withdraw consent for data sharing at any time, and lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Cookies

TrueCost uses the following cookies:

  • Session cookies (Clerk authentication) — essential for keeping you signed in
  • Preference cookies — cookie consent choice (tc-cookie-consent), plan impersonation (tc-impersonate-plan, admin only)
  • Functional cookies — invite tokens (tc-invite-token, tc-invite-role) used during the team invitation flow

We do not currently use third-party analytics cookies. If we add analytics in the future, we will update this policy and respect your cookie consent preference.

Security

We use industry-standard security measures including encrypted connections (HTTPS), secure authentication (Clerk), and encrypted data storage (Upstash Redis with TLS). Payment data is handled entirely by Stripe and never touches our servers.

Contact and ICO registration

ESPC Group Ltd (trading as TrueCost) is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office. Registration number: C1899173.

For privacy-related queries, contact us at: hello@truecost.live

ESPC Group Ltd · Company number: 17148581 · Registered office: 22a Ongar Road, London, SW6 1SJ