Who we are
ProofCut AI is the trading name of Karl Smith, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom. We are the data controller for the personal information described here.
For anything about this notice or about information we hold, email hello@proofcut.co.uk.
The short version
We collect very little. We do not use cookies, advertising or tracking of individuals on this website. We count visits in total, without cookies, so we know whether people are finding the site. We do not buy, sell or share contact lists. If you fill in our intake form, the information goes to our email inbox and nowhere else.
What we collect, and when
If you fill in the intake form we collect the name, email address, company name and the description of your situation that you type into it. Nothing else — we do not collect your IP address, we do not profile you, and we do not place anything on your device.
If you email us we hold your email and whatever you put in it, in our mailbox. That mailbox is hosted by Zoho Mail on its EU data centre.
If you become a client we hold what is needed to do the work and get paid: contact details, billing details, and the material described in our Terms of Business. Payment card details go directly to Stripe and we never see or hold them.
If you just read the site we do not know who you are. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits in total: which pages are viewed, which website sent the visitor, and broad details such as browser type and country. Cloudflare states that it uses no cookies or other stored data on your device and does not fingerprint visitors, so it cannot identify you or follow you to other websites. We only ever see totals, never individuals.
Why we are allowed to hold it
For the intake form and email enquiries, we rely on taking steps at your request before entering into a contract, and on our legitimate interest in replying to people who contact us about our services. For client work we rely on performance of a contract, and for keeping financial records we rely on our legal obligations.
For counting visits to the site, we rely on our legitimate interest in knowing whether people find it, using a method that does not identify anyone.
We do not send marketing emails to people who have not asked for them.
Where it goes
Your intake submission travels through these services before it reaches us:
| Service | What it does | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Hosts this website and passes the form submission on | Global network, UK and worldwide |
| Resend | Turns the submission into an email and sends it to us | United States |
| Google (Gmail) | The inbox the email arrives in | United States |
| Stripe | Takes payment, for clients only | United States and Ireland |
Some of these are outside the United Kingdom. Where that is the case, the transfer is covered by the UK's approved safeguards — the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or an adequacy decision — under those providers' standard terms.
We do not store your intake submission in a database. There is no such database. It becomes an email and lives in our inbox.
Material you send us as a client
If you engage us, you send us usage exports and examples of your AI's work. Our Terms of Business require you to redact these before sending, and we explicitly refuse API keys, logins, system access and unredacted customer data. To run an evaluation we send redacted examples, through Vercel AI Gateway (United States), to the AI models being compared and to the AI model that grades the answers. Flagged answers are checked by a person: us, or an independent checker bound by a written confidentiality and data-processing agreement. Every service, and any checker, is named in your engagement letter before anything is sent, and we use only services whose business terms state that API data is not used to train their models. The full detail is in our Terms of Business, clause 6.
How long we keep things
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Intake form submissions and enquiry emails | 12 months from our last contact with you, then deleted |
| Client material (exports, examples) | Deleted within 30 days of the engagement finishing, unless you ask in writing for longer |
| Our own reports and working notes | Retained |
| Invoices and financial records | 6 years, as UK tax law requires |
Your rights
You can ask us to give you a copy of what we hold about you, correct it, delete it, restrict what we do with it, or object to us holding it at all. Email hello@proofcut.co.uk and we will respond within one month. There is no charge.
If you are not happy with how we have handled your information you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would rather you told us first, but you do not have to.
Changes
If this notice changes we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant and we hold your contact details, we will tell you.