Privacy Policy

LDA / L Driving Academy is a UK learner-driver marketplace designed to connect learners with verified driving instructors. For data protection purposes, LDA acts as the controller for account, booking, verification, support, marketing, and platform administration data unless a specific service notice states otherwise.

Contact for privacy matters: info@ldrivingacademy.co.uk. Users may contact us about privacy, account data, marketing choices, deletion requests, or any concern about how their information is handled.

For learners, we may collect name, email address, optional phone number, date of birth confirmation, provisional licence confirmation, pickup postcode or preferred lesson area, booking details, lesson history, payment references, support messages, referral or promotion code use, reviews of instructors, and communication preferences.

For instructors, we may collect name, contact details, ADI status and badge number, profile information, photograph, vehicle details, transmission type, areas covered, availability, booking records, earnings and payout references, verification evidence, and support or dispute communications.

For all users, we may collect technical information such as IP address, device and browser information, security logs, cookie choices, precise or approximate location where enabled and needed for pickup accuracy, nearby instructor matching or live tracking, and usage information needed to keep the service secure, reliable, and responsive.

We use personal information to create and secure accounts, verify instructor eligibility, show approved instructors in search, calculate location and distance, manage availability, take bookings, process payments, send booking confirmations and service updates, handle cancellations and refunds, provide support, prevent fraud, investigate disputes, improve the platform, and comply with legal obligations.

We may use booking, cancellation, support, payment, and account activity to detect suspected off-platform solicitation, payment avoidance, duplicate accounts, fraud, misuse, policy breaches, or marketplace leakage that could harm learners, instructors, or LDA.

Live location features are used only where necessary for booking, nearby instructor matching, pickup accuracy, or accepted lessons near lesson time. Where a user enables device location, LDA may process precise GPS coordinates for those purposes. Browser, device, operating-system and network settings may still affect location accuracy and availability, so users should check the pickup address before checkout.

Where LDA uses matching, AI, risk flags, or automated routing tools, those tools are designed to support booking, safety, fraud prevention, and service guidance. They should not be used as the only basis for a significant legal, eligibility, suspension, or financial decision without appropriate human review.

We do not sell personal information. We do not collect special category information unless a user chooses to share accessibility or support needs for Smart Match or lesson support. Where this happens, we use that information only to support a suitable learning experience and apply additional care to access, retention, and sharing.

We rely on different lawful bases under UK data protection law depending on the purpose. These may include contract where we provide account, booking, payment and support services; legal obligation where we keep tax, payment, safety or regulatory records; legitimate interests where we protect the platform, prevent fraud, improve services and manage disputes; and consent where required for optional marketing, non-essential cookies, or certain optional features.

Where consent is used, users can withdraw it at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that took place before consent was withdrawn or processing that relies on another lawful basis.

Payments are processed securely by Stripe. LDA does not store raw card numbers, CVC codes, or full payment card details. We may store payment status, transaction identifiers, refund references, dispute records, subscription status, booking references, and confirmation records.

Instructor verification documents may be reviewed by LDA administrators or authorised verification providers. Instructors cannot appear publicly in search until approved under the platform process.

We may share limited personal information with service providers who help us operate the platform, including hosting, authentication, database, storage, payment processing, email and SMS delivery, mapping, postcode lookup, analytics where consented, support, security, verification, and professional advisers.

Providers may include Supabase, Stripe, Vercel, Google Maps or Places, Postcodes.io, Resend or another email provider, an SMS provider, DVLA/DVSA verification routes where configured, and other suppliers added as the platform develops. Suppliers that process personal information are expected to operate under appropriate contractual and security safeguards.

We may disclose information where required by law, to enforce our terms, to protect users and instructors, to respond to lawful requests, or in connection with a business transfer.

Some service providers may process information outside the UK. Where this happens, LDA should use appropriate safeguards such as adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to EU standard contractual clauses, or another lawful transfer mechanism.

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose collected, including account operation, booking history, tax and accounting, fraud prevention, safety, complaints, legal claims, disputes, and regulatory obligations.

LDA keeps retention periods proportionate to the data and purpose. Account records are normally kept while an account is active; booking, payment, refund and dispute records may be kept for accounting and legal limitation periods; verification records are kept only for as long as necessary to evidence approval, safety and compliance.

Subject to legal conditions and exemptions, users may have rights to access their personal information, correct inaccurate information, request deletion, restrict processing, object to processing, request portability, withdraw consent, and complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

LDA aims to respond to valid data rights requests without undue delay and within one month where UK data protection law requires it, unless an extension, exemption, identity check, legal hold, fraud-prevention need, payment record, safety record, or dispute record applies.

To make a request, contact info@ldrivingacademy.co.uk from the email address linked to the account. We may need to verify identity before responding. Users can also contact the ICO at ico.org.uk if they are unhappy with how their data is handled, and LDA will review privacy complaints before directing users to the ICO where appropriate.

We use technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information, including secure hosting, role-based access, authentication controls, encrypted transport, limited administrator access, audit trails where appropriate, and secure payment handling through Stripe.

No online service can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Users should keep login details private and contact us promptly if they believe their account has been compromised.