Privacy

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 21 October 2026 (version 2026-10-21)

This policy explains how personal information is collected, used, shared and protected when people use Registration Compare.

1. Who we are

Registration Compare is a trading name of State of Care Limited.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, State of Care Limited is the controller of personal information processed through Registration Compare.

Registration Compare provides an independent research, comparison and introduction service for people looking for care registration specialists.

State of Care Limited
Company number: 16962106
Registered office: 128 City Road, London, United Kingdom, EC1V 2NX

Email: hello@registrationcompare.uk

Data protection contact: hq@stateofcare.uk

2. What this policy covers

This policy describes how State of Care Limited, trading as Registration Compare, collects, uses, shares and protects personal information when people:

use the Registration Compare website
request a proposal
contact Registration Compare
book a discovery call
register interest as a registration specialist
claim an existing specialist profile
participate in the specialist panel
connect a business calendar as a registration specialist
submit or update a registration outcome, milestone or related evidence
otherwise interact with Registration Compare

It applies to Registration Compare activities carried out by State of Care Limited. It does not cover the privacy practices of an independent registration specialist once you deal with them directly.

3. Information we collect from customers

People seeking registration support may submit a proposal request, complete qualification questions, contact Registration Compare, book a discovery call with a specialist, or write to us about their enquiry.

Information may include:

first and last name
email address
telephone number
business or proposed business details
location
type of service being registered
stage of registration
relevant regulator
support required
Registered Manager status
answers to qualification questions
preferred specialist
booking information
correspondence and enquiry history

If you arrive from a Google advertisement, we store the click code from the web address on your device for 90 days, save it with your enquiry when you submit the proposal form, and use it to match a later booked discovery call to that advertisement. See our Cookie Policy for cookies and similar technologies.

We use this information to:

understand what you need
qualify the enquiry
prepare a personalised comparison and proposal
identify relevant registration specialists
facilitate a discovery-call booking if you choose one
communicate about the enquiry
understand referral outcomes
follow the progress and outcome of introductions made through Registration Compare
improve future matching

Registration Compare does not provide the registration service itself. If you appoint a specialist, that work is between you and them.

4. Registration specialists joining

Businesses may submit a Register Interest form through the specialist section of the website.

Information may include:

first name
last name
job title or role
company or trading name
website
email address
telephone number
optional message
later onboarding information, if we invite the business to join

We use this to:

assess whether the business may be suitable for the specialist panel
contact the applicant
research and verify the specialist
complete onboarding where the business is accepted

Registering interest does not automatically add a business to the panel.

Where we invite a business to complete onboarding, the invitation is sent to a named email address. The link expires after 7 days. It does not open the form until that person confirms the same email address. They can open that same link again until it expires. After they confirm, a first-party session cookie keeps the form open until the invitation expires. It is not a permanent editing address. Opening it on a new browser needs the same link and the same email confirmation. If we later ask the specialist to connect a business calendar, section 12 explains that connection.

5. Existing specialists / claim your profile

Registration Compare may research a specialist and create a profile before the specialist has contacted us.

We may then send an authorised representative a private specialist-specific Claim Your Profile link.

The claim flow may process:

name
job title or role
business email
telephone number
confirmation of authority to represent the business
corrections or additions to the specialist profile
supporting evidence
onboarding information

We use this to:

verify who is claiming the profile
allow the specialist to review information already held
receive corrections and additional information
complete specialist verification and onboarding

Information supplied by a specialist is kept distinguishable from information we have independently verified. Claiming a profile does not mean that everything supplied becomes independently verified.

Private claim links must not be shared with people who are not authorised to represent that business.

Changes a specialist asks us to make to public wording, services or photographs are reviewed before they replace what is already published. A specialist cannot change their own verification status, review classification, fees or other administrative fields through the form.

If a photograph is supplied, we ask the specialist to confirm they have the rights to authorise our use of it, including on the profile after review. We record that confirmation with the submission. A personal photograph is not published until that permission and our review are both in place. Where a photograph was taken from a public website or a professional network and the right to reuse it is not clear, we keep it off the public profile until that question is resolved.

6. Information we receive from other sources

State of Care Limited, through Registration Compare, researches registration specialists. That research may include personal information about directors, founders, Persons with Significant Control, lead consultants, relevant employees or contractors, and other identifiable people materially connected with the registration service.

Sources may include:

Companies House
regulator records
specialist websites
LinkedIn and other professional profiles
Google
Trustpilot
Reviews.io
Facebook
other publicly accessible professional or business sources
information supplied by the specialist

Information researched may include:

names
roles
directorships
business ownership or control
professional history
publicly available professional profiles
relevant qualifications and memberships
relationship to the specialist
experience connected with registration work
business contact information
registration outcomes where evidence connects the specialist to them

Some of this information is obtained from public or third-party sources rather than directly from the individual. Publicly available personal information is still personal information. It is processed under UK data-protection law.

7. Specialist verification

Research may involve checking information against:

Companies House
relevant regulator records
the ICO register
professional membership bodies
insurance or credential evidence
professional profiles
independent review platforms

The purpose is to:

check the identity and standing of businesses on the panel
distinguish specialist claims from independently confirmed information
improve the quality and reliability of customer comparisons
identify inaccurate or misleading specialist information

8. Registration outcome and verification information

State of Care Limited, trading as Registration Compare, may collect and process information relating to registration-support engagements and their outcomes. This can include:

case and reference identifiers
the registration specialist used
the type of registration
engagement and milestone dates
onboarding and work-commencement dates
submission and resubmission dates
application status
regulator correspondence or outcome information supplied to us
whether an application was returned, refused, withdrawn or registered
reasons given by the regulator where relevant
evidence used to verify an outcome
customer reviews, ratings and the calculated review score, which are collected on a separate form from the outcome dataset
information necessary to match the outcome to an existing Registration Compare enquiry or referral

We process this information to:

operate and administer the Registration Compare service
follow the outcome of introductions made through Registration Compare
verify specialist and customer claims
prevent misleading or fraudulent reviews or outcome claims
measure registration timescales and outcomes
evaluate and improve specialist verification
produce statistical, analytical and benchmarking information
develop Registration Compare's proprietary market and outcomes dataset
publish anonymised or aggregated insights and statistics
improve the information available to future users of Registration Compare

Identifiable case information will not ordinarily be published as a public case record simply because it has been supplied for verification. Where we later publish insights, those insights are aggregated or anonymised. Information that has been effectively anonymised is no longer personal data.

Structured case and outcome records may be retained for as long as reasonably necessary for verification, analysis and historical statistical integrity. Underlying verification evidence is retained only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. We minimise or anonymise information where continued identification is unnecessary. We do not keep every document permanently.

Completing an outcome form or a review is not, by itself, consent to marketing. The lawful basis depends on the purpose, as explained below.

9. How we use personal information

State of Care Limited may use personal information through Registration Compare to:

operate the Registration Compare service
respond to enquiries
qualify customer requirements
prepare proposals
identify and compare relevant specialists
facilitate bookings
operate a specialist's connected calendar for discovery-call bookings
administer specialist relationships
research and verify specialist information
process profile claims and corrections
administer payments
maintain business records
improve referral matching
understand referral outcomes
verify registration outcomes and related reviews
develop aggregated or anonymised registration insights and Registration Compare's outcomes dataset
secure the service
prevent fraud, misuse or unauthorised access
comply with legal obligations

10. Our lawful bases

We process personal information under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. The lawful basis depends on the purpose.

Contract, or steps before a contract. We use this where processing is necessary to provide a service you have asked for, or to take steps at your request before a contract. Examples include responding to a proposal request, preparing a comparison, facilitating a requested booking, managing a specialist application or claim, and administering a registration-support engagement that originated through Registration Compare, including asking for factual progress and outcome information needed to operate that service. When a specialist connects a calendar, we process the connection and the bookings on it in order to provide the discovery-call booking they have asked us to run. Customer details on a booking the customer has requested are processed for that booking.

Legitimate interests. We rely on this where necessary for our legitimate interests, and those interests are not overridden by the individual's interests or rights. Those interests include researching and verifying specialists, maintaining specialist profiles, improving matching and comparison quality, operating and securing Registration Compare, maintaining business records, understanding referral outcomes, communicating with relevant business contacts, preventing fraud or misuse, and using a specialist's primary calendar to avoid offering a time that is already busy. That availability check is not a reason to build a separate record of the specialist's other appointments.

For registration outcome information, those legitimate interests also include: verifying specialist and customer claims about registration support; preventing misleading or fraudulent reviews or outcome claims; measuring registration timescales and outcomes; evaluating and improving specialist verification; producing statistical, analytical and benchmarking information; developing Registration Compare's proprietary outcomes dataset; and publishing anonymised or aggregated insights so future users can compare registration support on evidence rather than unverified claims. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests. We will stop unless we have a compelling reason to continue, or the processing is needed for a legal claim.

Legal obligation. We use this where State of Care Limited must process information to comply with applicable law, including accounting and regulatory requirements.

Consent. We use consent only where it is the appropriate basis. Examples include non-essential cookies, and any direct marketing that is not a necessary service message. Consent is not the basis for all processing. You can withdraw consent where we rely on it, without affecting processing that already took place.

11. Customer proposals and specialist matching

We use customer information to understand requirements, identify relevant specialists, prepare a personalised proposal, and support a booking with the specialist the customer chooses.

We do not automatically disclose customer details to every specialist in the Registration Compare database. Being shortlisted does not, by itself, give a specialist the customer's name, email or telephone number.

A person reviews the match before a proposal is published. Matching rules may suggest a draft shortlist. They do not appoint a specialist for you.

After you submit a proposal request, our automation may send the enquiry details to OpenAI to help draft the personalised proposal text. A person checks that material before we send you the proposal.

Where necessary for the actual customer journey, we may share information with:

the specialist you choose to book, so they can take the discovery call
a specialist you write to through a specialist file, using the name, email and message you submitted
the calendar and booking systems used to hold an appointment, as described in section 12

Before a discovery-call booking is completed, we ask you to confirm that Registration Compare may share your enquiry and contact details with that specialist.

In some cases a specialist may be given limited enquiry context, such as a proposed business name and notes about the request, so they can consider whether they can help. That is not the same as sending them a full customer file, and it is not an appointment.

12. Bookings and calendars

Registration Compare facilitates discovery-call bookings between customers and registration specialists. It does not provide the registration work that may follow.

Calendar connections are for registration specialists. A customer books a time. A customer does not connect a calendar, and we do not ask a customer for access to their email.

A specialist may connect a business calendar so we can offer times and place discovery calls. The specialist can currently connect Google Calendar or Microsoft 365 / Outlook. The account they sign in with must match the calendar email they have given us. We do not ask for or store the password for that account. The permission covers the calendar. It does not cover Gmail, Outlook mail, or any other inbox.

Before the connection starts, the specialist confirms: "I authorise Registration Compare to connect to my calendar to check availability and arrange, change or cancel discovery calls." We record that confirmation and the date. A specialist who has already accepted an earlier agreement is not asked to sign that agreement again. A new specialist accepts the current specialist terms in the usual way.

Connecting a calendar does not by itself make the specialist bookable. Customer bookings from that calendar are offered only once the specialist has saved their availability after connecting, and Registration Compare has marked the connection ready for bookings.

The connection runs through Nylas, using Nylas's EU API. The specialist approves the permission with Google or Microsoft. Nylas then holds the connection so availability can be checked and discovery-call events can be managed. While the connection is needed, we store the calendar provider, the calendar email, the connection status, and the technical identifiers for that connection and its bookings.

What the permission allows.

For Google Calendar, we request permission to see and download any calendar the account can access using Google Calendar, and to view and edit events on all calendars the account can access. On Google's consent screen these are the Calendar scopes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly and https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events. Google Calendar permissions may cover other calendars accessible through your account. Registration Compare uses your primary writable calendar for arranging discovery calls and does not show customers the details of your other events.

For Microsoft 365 and Outlook, Microsoft asks for full access to the calendars on the account. That permission is Calendars.ReadWrite. It allows the connection to create, read, update and delete events in those calendars. It does not include mail.

We use those permissions to confirm that the connected account matches the calendar email, to select the primary calendar that can take bookings, to calculate free times on that primary calendar within the hours the specialist has set, and to create, reschedule or cancel discovery-call events on that primary calendar.

The specialist also tells us which days and hours to offer, how much notice they need, any buffer around a call, and dates to block. Where a booking schedule already exists, saving those settings updates it. They are choices the specialist makes with us. They are not a download of past events.

What we do with calendar data.

Booking information may include:

customer name
customer email
specialist identity
specialist email
appointment date and time
available start and end times
appointment identifier
booking status
rescheduling or cancellation status
the calendar provider, calendar email, connection status and technical connection identifiers

Nylas uses the primary calendar to leave out times that are already busy. The times we show a customer are start and end times. We do not show the customer the title, notes, location or guests of the specialist's other events, and we do not copy those other events into Registration Compare records.

A discovery-call event on the specialist's primary calendar is titled as a Registration Compare discovery call, with a short description. The booking includes the customer's name and email address. Discovery-call appointments contain the information needed to arrange the meeting and may include an appointment reference. While the connection works, we can move or cancel that event if the booking changes.

We also keep our own booking record. Where our own diary is in use, we may add a separate copy of the call there. That copy can include the customer's name, email, telephone number and organisation, the specialist's name, and the appointment reference. That diary belongs to Registration Compare.

Google Calendar data is used only to provide this booking feature. We do not sell it, and we do not use it for advertising. Nylas processes it to operate the connection. The discovery-call event is placed on the specialist's own calendar. We also disclose information where the law requires it. Our booking website does not display the details of your other calendar events. Calendar connections are managed through Nylas, whose administration tools may provide access to underlying calendar information. Microsoft calendar data is used for the same booking purposes.

A calendar can include appointments with other people, and sometimes details the specialist has typed into an event. The specialist should connect a calendar only if they are allowed to let us use it to avoid double-booking. Those other people are not added to our customer records because their appointment made a time busy.

After a booking, we may prepare an applicant handover for the specialist you chose. That handover can include the contact details and qualification answers you already gave us.

Google API Limited Use compliance.

Registration Compare's use of information received from Google APIs complies with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Google Calendar data is used only for providing calendar availability and managing discovery-call bookings. We do not use Google Calendar data, including derived data, to create, train or improve general-purpose artificial intelligence or machine learning models.

Disconnecting a calendar.

You can ask us to disconnect your calendar at any time. We will stop new bookings through that connection and remove the connection details we no longer need. Existing appointments are not automatically cancelled. There is no disconnect button on the website. You can also withdraw the permission in the Google or Microsoft account you connected. Withdrawing it there means new bookings can no longer be placed through that connection. It does not, by itself, update our record or cancel an appointment already booked. Ask us using the data protection contact in this policy, and we will do the disconnection. Booking records follow section 20.

13. Payments

Specialists may pay Registration Compare a referral fee. The request is sent when the scheduled call is due to finish, unless it was cancelled or rescheduled. It is not sent when the call is booked, and it is not collected if the customer does not attend. Customers are not charged that fee.

Payments are taken through Stripe Checkout. Registration Compare does not collect or store full payment-card details. Card information entered into Stripe is processed by Stripe under Stripe's own privacy arrangements.

We may process or receive:

specialist identity
specialist email
payment amount
payment status
Stripe checkout or transaction identifiers
invoice-related information

14. Automation and AI-assisted processing

Some Registration Compare workflows are automated. That includes:

form submissions creating or updating records
operational notifications to our systems
booking-status updates
payment-status updates

Shortlists are drafted using matching rules and reviewed by a person. We do not use solely automated processing to decide which specialist a customer must appoint, and we do not use automated decision-making that produces a legal or similarly significant effect without human involvement.

For proposal requests, Make.com automation may pass relevant enquiry fields to OpenAI so proposal copy can be drafted. That copy is not sent to you until a person has reviewed it. OpenAI is not used to choose which specialist you must appoint. The website sends form submissions to our automation layer, not directly to OpenAI from your browser.

15. Outcome reporting

Specialists may be asked to report basic referral milestones, such as:

whether the discovery call was attended
optional private feedback from the customer about whether the call took place
whether the customer proceeded
whether the opportunity was won or lost
whether registration was ultimately completed

The purpose is to:

understand referral quality
assess whether matching is working
improve future comparisons
maintain credible performance information

Customer feedback about whether a discovery call took place is voluntary and private. It is not published as a review. A request that we contact the customer about next steps is separate from marketing consent.

This is not a guarantee of specialist success rates, and it is not published as a combined Registration Compare score. Structured registration-case information is described in section 8. We do not publish specialist success percentages until there is an adequate sample, a stated methodology, a date range and an evidence standard.

16. Contact forms and correspondence

Registration Compare may process:

names
email addresses
telephone numbers
message contents
correspondence history

We use this to reply and to keep appropriate business records. If you write through the website contact form, we use those details to respond. We do not add them to a marketing list.

If you send a message through a specialist file, we pass your name, email and message to that specialist so they can reply. We also keep a record of the message.

17. Special category information

Registration Compare forms are not intended to collect unnecessary special-category personal data, such as health information, political opinions or other data of that kind.

Please do not submit sensitive personal information unless it is genuinely required and we have asked for it. Do not send DBS certificates, passports, driving licences, medical information, bank details or other unnecessary identity or special-category documents to verify a registration outcome. If we receive information of that kind unexpectedly, we will consider whether we can delete it or whether we need to hold a limited record.

18. Who we share information with

State of Care Limited may share information through Registration Compare, where necessary, with:

the specialist selected for a discovery call
a specialist you have chosen to write to through a specialist file
technology and hosting suppliers
calendar and booking services
payment processors
email and communications services
automation and database services
processors used to collect, store and analyse registration outcome and verification records
professional advisers
regulators, courts or public authorities where legally required
a purchaser or successor in the event of a legitimate sale, merger or restructuring, subject to appropriate safeguards

We do not sell customer details as a lead list. We do not send a customer file to every specialist on the panel.

Operational records from website submissions are normally held in our Airtable base, updated through Make.com automation. We may also use cloud hosting and database providers for the website and for limited operational pages, such as tokened handover sheets after a booking.

Suppliers or systems we may use include:

Airtable
Make.com
OpenAI, when Make.com sends enquiry details to draft proposal copy
Stripe
Nylas, for specialist calendar connections and discovery-call booking
Google, when a specialist connects Google Calendar
Microsoft, when a specialist connects Microsoft 365 or Outlook
website hosting and infrastructure providers
analytics and cookie services, where you have enabled them

A third party may process information on our behalf as a processor, or as an independent controller, depending on the service. For example, Stripe processes payment-card information as a payment service. A specialist you book or write to processes the details we pass them for their own service. For a connected specialist calendar, Nylas processes the calendar data needed to check availability and manage discovery-call events. Google or Microsoft provides the account the specialist approves. We do not sell that calendar data or use it for advertising. Section 12 describes what is accessed and why.

19. International transfers

Some technology services may process information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, State of Care Limited will use appropriate safeguards required by UK data-protection law. We do not claim that all Registration Compare data remains in the UK.

20. Retention

State of Care Limited retains personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, taking account of:

active enquiries
specialist relationships
contractual requirements
accounting and legal obligations
disputes
fraud prevention
research accuracy
legitimate business record-keeping
verification of registration outcomes
historical statistical integrity of anonymised analysis

Structured case and outcome data may be retained for an appropriate period for verification, analysis and historical statistical integrity. Underlying verification evidence is retained only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. Where continued identification is unnecessary, we minimise or anonymise the record. A formal retention schedule for outcome documents has not yet been approved, so we do not promise a fixed number of years for those files.

Unless a longer period is required by law, or needed for a complaint or claim, we keep:

proposal enquiries, shortlists, proposal access records, and any advertising click code stored with an enquiry: 24 months after the last activity on that enquiry
contact-form and specialist-file messages: 12 months after the last correspondence, unless they become part of an enquiry, booking or complaint
discovery-call bookings, referral-fee and payment records: 6 years after the end of the financial year in which the booking or payment occurred
specialist interest, claim, onboarding and panel records: for the life of the specialist relationship, then 6 years after it ends
the fact that a specialist authorised a calendar connection, and the date it was withdrawn if they ask us to disconnect: with the specialist record, for the life of the relationship, then 6 years after it ends
cookie and similar-technology choices: until you clear site data
the Google click code on your device: 90 days from the date you arrived from that advertisement

We may keep information for longer if we need it for a legal claim, an accounting or tax obligation, or to deal with a complaint. If you ask us to erase information and we have no legal reason to keep it, we will delete it.

We retain technical calendar connection details while needed to operate the connection and remove them when they are no longer required. We do not keep a copy of a specialist's other calendar events. A discovery-call event stays on the connected calendar until it is cancelled or the calendar provider removes it. While the connection works, we can cancel an event we created.

21. Security

State of Care Limited uses appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information processed through Registration Compare. Proposal, claim, handover, onboarding and registration-outcome and registration-review links are private. Public search engines are not invited to index those pages. Those responses are also marked so a shared cache should not keep them. Invitation links and session cookies are checked on the server before any pre-filled specialist record is shown.

No online service can eliminate all risk. If we become aware of a personal-data breach that we are required to report, we will do so as the law requires.

22. Your rights

Under UK data-protection law you may have the right to:

access personal information we hold about you
correct inaccurate information
ask us to erase information
restrict how we use it
object to processing based on legitimate interests
receive certain information in a portable form
withdraw consent where we rely on consent
rights relating to certain automated decision-making

These rights are not absolute in every circumstance. For example, we may need to keep information where the law requires it, where it is needed for a legal claim, or where we are still providing a service you asked for.

Send requests to: hq@stateofcare.uk

23. Specialist profile corrections

If you appear in Registration Compare research, or you represent a specialist whose profile you believe is factually inaccurate, contact hello@registrationcompare.uk.

State of Care Limited will review reasonable correction requests. We may:

correct demonstrably inaccurate factual information
update outdated information
record specialist-supplied corrections
distinguish disputed claims from independently sourced findings

We will not automatically remove accurate, lawfully processed research simply because a specialist does not want it displayed.

A specialist can ask to correct their own profile by using a fresh invitation to the email address we hold, or by writing to the address above. Public profile text and photographs they submit are checked before publication. They can also ask us to stop using a photograph.

24. Direct marketing

Service and transactional messages are different from direct marketing. If you have asked for a proposal, booked a call or started a specialist application, we may send messages that are necessary to provide that service, such as a proposal link or a booking confirmation. You cannot opt out of those messages while they are needed to deliver what you asked for.

If we send direct marketing, you will be able to opt out. We do not currently operate a newsletter or marketing mailing list from the website. Contact-form details are not added to a marketing list.

If a marketing programme is added later, we will use an appropriate lawful basis and provide a way to opt out.

25. Children

Registration Compare is a business and professional service. It is not intended for children.

26. Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies as explained in our Cookie Policy.

27. Changes to this policy

State of Care Limited may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version and last-updated date will be published on this page.

28. How to contact us

Registration Compare is a trading name of State of Care Limited.

State of Care Limited
Company number: 16962106
Registered office: 128 City Road, London, United Kingdom, EC1V 2NX

Email: hello@registrationcompare.uk

Data protection contact: hq@stateofcare.uk

29. Complaints to the ICO

If you are unhappy with how State of Care Limited has handled your personal information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint

We would welcome the chance to address your concern first. Write to hello@registrationcompare.uk or the data protection contact above.