Privacy Policy

We collect information you provide when you create an account, build a profile and use TrustBro. Depending on how you use the service, this can include:

• your name and Australian mobile number;
• account and authentication details (including phone verification records);
• your account role or roles (Tradie and/or Hiring Role) and username;
• your suburb, work radius, availability and work preferences;
• your trade, skills and work experience;
• endorsements you give or receive, including endorsement messages;
• qualification and licence information, and uploaded proof documents;
• resumes, profile photos and project images you upload;
• work-rights and sponsorship preferences;
• Hiring Role type and company information;
• job posts, job applications and saved profiles;
• shared profile links you create (your selected sharing options, expiry and revocation records) and the access requests needed to serve them;
• Profile Unlock purchase and usage records;
• contact and feedback submissions; and
• technical and security logs reasonably generated by hosting and operating the service.

Payments. Payments are processed by Stripe. TrustBro does not store complete payment-card details. We receive the payment status and transaction references needed to fulfil Profile Unlock purchases. Never send card numbers, one-time passcodes (OTPs) or passwords through support channels — we will not ask for them.

• signing you in with phone authentication;
• creating and displaying your profile;
• operating weighted endorsements and trust signals;
• matching tradies and hiring roles;
• operating job posts and applications;
• operating saved profiles;
• providing Profile Unlocks and fulfilling payments;
• preventing fraud, abuse and unsafe contact sharing;
• providing customer support and acting on feedback;
• security, record-keeping and legal obligations; and
• understanding and improving the product while it is an MVP.

Before an unlock, a Hiring Role may see privacy-safe profile information — for example your trade, skills, trust signals, general location and showcase content — but not your contact details.

After a valid Profile Unlock, a Hiring Role may access:

• your name;
• your mobile number;
• your resume, where you have uploaded one; and
• your qualification or licence proof files, where uploaded.

A Profile Unlock does not reveal your email address. Anything you never uploaded simply isn’t there to reveal — an unlock cannot show a resume or proof file you did not add.

Things worth knowing about how unlocks behave:

• an eligible completed Hiring Role receives 3 free Profile Unlocks each calendar month, after which further unlocks are bought in packs;
• unused free Profile Unlocks do not carry over to the next month, and purchased Profile Unlocks are unaffected by the monthly refresh;
• a Hiring Role’s existing unlocked access may remain available over time;
• reopening a profile that a Hiring Role has already unlocked does not consume another Profile Unlock;
• an unlock does not guarantee a reply, an interview or a hire; and
• you should upload only documents you are comfortable sharing with Hiring Roles who validly unlock your profile.

Uploaded files are stored in private storage. Raw private-storage paths are not intentionally shown, and private files are accessed through restricted storage rules and time-limited signed links.

Tradies can create temporary external links to their own profile (a “Shared TrustBro Profile”). Things to understand about these links:

• a link shows the profile information the Tradie selects, which can include their mobile number, resume, qualification proof documents, project images, work rights or rates;
• anyone who has the link can view the selected information while the link remains valid — links are designed to be sent outside TrustBro;
• every link expires automatically, and the Tradie can revoke it at any time;
• profiles restricted by TrustBro moderation stop being available through links;
• recipients may save, download or screenshot information while a link is active — TrustBro cannot recall copies a recipient has already kept;
• we process link records and link access requests as needed to operate and secure the feature; and
• no payment-card details are involved in shared profile links.

A shared link shows aggregate skill and endorsement information (such as trust signals and category counts) to anyone who opens it. Recent endorser details — such as an endorser’s display name, category, company where applicable, date and message — are shown only to a signed-in TrustBro user who also holds the valid link; they are the same details already shown inside TrustBro, and an endorser’s contact information is never shown. Viewing a shared profile does not consume a Profile Unlock.

Only share a link with people you intend to see the selected information, and revoke it when it is no longer needed.

When a Hiring Role browses tradies, profiles are not simply shown newest first. We order the results using signals such as trust level, how much supporting evidence a profile carries, stated availability, recent activity, and a rotation that varies the order from day to day so the same profiles are not always on top.

• the ordering is our editorial judgement about relevance — it is not a recommendation, endorsement, certification or ranking of skill, and a higher position does not mean TrustBro vouches for that tradie;
• the ordering can change at any time as the product develops, and we do not guarantee that any profile will appear, appear at a particular position, or be seen by any particular Hiring Role;
• no one can buy a higher position, and paying for Profile Unlocks does not affect ordering; and
• we do not publish the internal details of how ordering is calculated, because doing so would make it easy to game.

Filters a Hiring Role applies (such as trade, location or availability) also affect what they see.

To keep contact details locked until a Profile Unlock, and to protect tradies whose identity is hidden on locked screens, TrustBro runs automated checks over certain text and file names you submit — for example profile fields, endorsement messages, project captions, job posts and application notes.

• these checks look for things like phone numbers, email addresses, web addresses and social handles, and a submission may be blocked when it appears to contain them;
• on screens where a tradie’s identity is still locked, their own known name may be replaced with neutral wording such as “this tradie” before the text is shown;
• this changes only what is displayed on those locked screens — your original text is kept as you wrote it, and is shown to you, to a Hiring Role who has validly unlocked your profile, and on a Shared Profile link you chose to create; and
• these are automated best-effort checks. They will not catch every possible way of writing or hinting at contact details, so please don’t rely on them as a guarantee.

We don’t publish the detection rules themselves, because that would make them trivial to work around.

Hiring Roles can create job posts and share them. Tradies who meet the current eligibility rules can apply, and may attach an optional note of up to 500 characters.

• an application note is written by the applying tradie, is attached to that one application, and cannot be edited or removed after it is submitted;
• the note is visible to the tradie who wrote it and to the Hiring Role that owns the job post;
• notes are user-supplied and are not checked by us for accuracy — they pass through the automated contact-safety checks described above; and
• applying to a job does not reveal your contact details. Those stay locked until a valid Profile Unlock, and an application does not guarantee a reply, an interview or work.

Where a Hiring Role has asked applicants to include a rate or quote, you may optionally submit one, and change it while the job is still open.

• we store each amount you submit, including earlier ones, so that the record of what was provided and when is complete;
• your rate is not public. It never appears on a shared public job page, and it is not shown to other tradies or to Hiring Roles other than the one whose job you applied for;
• the Hiring Role that owns the job can see your current amount, and the earlier amounts you submitted for that job, including when each one was submitted. This is specific to that job and that Hiring Role — no other Hiring Role, and no tradie, can see any of it, and none of it is public. You do not need to be unlocked for the job’s owner to see it: a Profile Unlock controls access to your name, phone number, resume and proof files, not to what you asked for;
• you can always see your own current amount, and a rate cannot be removed once submitted — it can be changed while the job remains open; and
• a rate or quote is a number and a basis (hourly, day or fixed price). It is not a free-text field, and the note above remains the only place to add explanation.

Job posts can also be shared outside TrustBro. The Hiring Role that created a job, and any tradie who can see it, can share its link by message, social media or any other channel.

• a shared job link opens a public page that anyone holding the link can view without an account, and recipients can forward it on;
• that page shows the job details and the Hiring Role’s business display name. It never shows applicants, application notes, applicant rates or quotes, or anyone’s email, phone number or other contact details. It may state that the Hiring Role has asked applicants for a rate or quote, and which kind — that is the job poster’s own setting and says nothing about any applicant;
• applying still requires a TrustBro Tradie account — the public page has no way to apply; and
• public job pages ask search engines not to list them. That is a request, not a guarantee, and we cannot control what someone does with a link once it has been shared.

Profiles have a status that affects who can see them. A profile that isn’t complete enough stays in draft and is not discoverable; a complete profile can become discoverable to Hiring Roles. Separately, we may restrict a profile for safety, abuse or policy reasons, which can remove it from discovery and stop it being reachable through a Shared Profile link.

An endorsement shown on a profile may display:

• the endorser’s category (for example friend, past client, hiring role or tradie);
• a Hiring Role type and company name where relevant;
• the endorsement content supplied by the endorser; and
• the resulting trust signal or score.

The detailed weighting used to calculate trust signals is not published. Endorsements are opinions supplied by users — they are not independently verified facts, and a trust signal is not a guarantee of quality or suitability.

Trust levels are not a background check, licence check or professional assessment. Where a profile shows that proof is attached to a qualification or licence, that means the tradie uploaded a file — it does not mean TrustBro has verified, validated or approved that credential, and we do not guarantee that any endorsement, credential or uploaded document is accurate or current. Hiring Roles should carry out their own checks before engaging anyone.

We use a small number of service providers to operate TrustBro:

• Supabase — authentication, database and file storage;
• Twilio (via Supabase Auth) — sending phone verification codes (SMS OTP);
• Stripe — payment processing; and
• Vercel — application hosting.

These providers may process information on their own infrastructure and under their own privacy terms, which can involve processing outside Australia. We do not promise that every piece of data remains solely within Australia.

We keep information for as long as reasonably necessary to:

• operate the service;
• maintain safety and security;
• preserve payment and audit records;
• preserve historical unlock records;
• comply with legal obligations; and
• resolve disputes.

Some records — such as payment orders, credit-ledger entries, historical unlock records and fraud or security records — cannot be deleted immediately on request, because they are needed for accounting, audit and safety purposes.

You can contact support@trustbro.com.au for access, correction, deletion or any other privacy assistance.

We take reasonable steps to protect information, including phone-based authentication, access controls, private file storage, time-limited signed file links, restricted payment fulfilment, server-side authorisation and database security policies. No online service can promise absolute security, and we do not claim breaches are impossible — but we design the service to keep private information locked down by default.

Where applicable, we assess suspected data breaches and notify affected individuals and regulators when required by law.

• you can update many profile details directly in the app;
• optional uploads (such as your resume, proof files, photos and project images) can be removed through the app where that is supported;
• you can contact us about access, correction, deletion and privacy concerns at support@trustbro.com.au; and
• you should avoid uploading sensitive information that isn’t needed.

TrustBro is intended for adults who are legally able to work or hire in the construction industry. It is not intended for children.

We may update this policy as TrustBro develops. The newest version will always be published on this page, with the “Last updated” date above.

See also our Terms of Use, Profile Unlock and Refund Policy and Contact pages.