Who we are
ETF Matchmaker is a trading name operated as a sole trader business. For the purposes of UK data protection law, we are the data controller, meaning we decide how and why your personal data is processed.
Data protection contact: legal@etfmatchmaker.com
Address: ETF Matchmaker, Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall Industrial Estate, Suffolk IP28 7DE
What we collect and why
We collect as little as possible. Here is exactly what we gather, why, and the legal basis under UK GDPR:
Quiz answers
Your responses to our questionnaire (things like your investment goal, risk comfort, and timeline). We use these to generate your ETF recommendations. We could not provide the service without them.
Legal basis: Contract performance (Article 6(1)(b)) - necessary to deliver the service you paid for.
Email address
Collected from Stripe when you complete checkout. We use it to send you a link to your results. That is the only email you will receive from us unless there is a technical issue with your purchase or you contact us first.
Legal basis: Contract performance (Article 6(1)(b)).
Payment information
Card details, billing address, and transaction data are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card number. What we receive from Stripe: your email address, a confirmation that payment succeeded, and a transaction reference.
Legal basis: Contract performance (Article 6(1)(b)).
Website usage data
Pages visited, time spent, clicks, scrolls, device type, and browser information. Collected through Umami (our privacy-focused analytics tool) and Microsoft Clarity (session recording for UX improvement). We use this to understand how people use the site and fix problems.
Legal basis: Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)) - improving the service. You can opt out (see the Analytics section below).
What we do not do
To be clear about what does not happen with your data:
- We do not sell your data to anyone, for any reason
- We do not share your data with ETF providers, investment platforms, or advertisers
- We do not send marketing emails. Your email is used once to deliver your results link, and only again if there is a problem with your order or you get in touch
- We do not add your email to any mailing list
- We do not build advertising profiles from your data
- We do not use your quiz answers for anything other than generating your recommendations
Analytics
Umami
We use Umami for website analytics. Umami is a privacy-focused tool that does not use cookies, does not collect personally identifiable information, and does not track you across websites. It tells us things like "42 people visited the pricing page today" without telling us who any of them were. Umami is fully GDPR compliant.
Microsoft Clarity
We use Microsoft Clarity to record how visitors interact with the site. This means session recordings (anonymous replays of mouse movements, clicks, and scrolling) and heatmaps (showing which parts of a page get the most attention). It helps us spot confusing layouts and broken features.
Clarity may collect: mouse movements, clicks, and scrolls; pages visited and time spent; device, browser, and screen size; anonymised interaction patterns. Clarity automatically masks text entered into form fields so your quiz answers are not visible in recordings.
Clarity does use cookies for session identification. See the Cookies section below.
You can learn more at Microsoft's privacy statement.
Google Ads conversion tracking
If you arrived at our site through a Google ad, we use Google Ads conversion tracking to measure whether the ad led to a purchase. This uses a cookie set by Google. It tells us "someone who clicked ad X made a purchase" but does not identify you to us personally.
Opting out of analytics
You can opt out of analytics tracking by using a browser extension that blocks analytics scripts (such as uBlock Origin), enabling "Do Not Track" in your browser settings, or contacting us at legal@etfmatchmaker.com to request exclusion.
Cookies
Cookies are small files stored on your device. Here is exactly what we use:
Strictly necessary
Your quiz progress is stored in your browser's session storage (not a cookie, technically, but worth mentioning). It disappears when you close the tab. No login cookies exist because there are no user accounts.
Analytics cookies
Microsoft Clarity sets cookies to identify your browsing session for recording purposes. These cookies do not track you across other websites. Umami does not use cookies at all.
Advertising cookies
If you arrived through a Google ad, Google may set a conversion tracking cookie. We do not set any advertising cookies ourselves.
We do not use cookies for cross-site tracking, retargeting, or advertising profiles.
Data storage and retention
Your quiz answers, recommendations, and email address are stored on Upstash Redis, hosted on servers in the EU. Your data is retained for 12 months from the date of purchase. After that, it is automatically deleted.
Your results page remains accessible during this 12-month period. After deletion, the link will stop working. If you want to keep your results longer, save or screenshot them.
Payment records are held by Stripe according to their own retention policy (typically for legal and tax compliance purposes). We cannot delete Stripe's records, but we can delete any data we hold directly.
If you want your data deleted before the 12-month period expires, email legal@etfmatchmaker.com and we will delete it within 30 days. Note that this will also disable your results link.
Who else sees your data
We use a small number of third-party services to run ETF Matchmaker. Each one only receives the minimum data needed to do its job:
- Stripe (payment processing) - receives your card details and email address at checkout. Based in the US with EU data processing. Stripe's privacy policy
- Vercel (website hosting) - hosts the website and serves pages. May process IP addresses in server logs. Based in the US with EU data processing. Vercel's privacy policy
- Upstash (database) - stores your quiz answers and results. EU-hosted servers. Upstash's privacy policy
- Resend (email delivery) - sends your results email. Receives your email address and the email content. Resend's privacy policy
- Umami (analytics) - collects anonymous usage data. No personal data is shared. Umami's privacy policy
- Microsoft Clarity (session recording) - receives anonymised interaction data. Microsoft's privacy statement
We do not share your data with anyone else. We will disclose data if legally required to do so (for example, by a court order), but this has never happened.
International data transfers
Some of our service providers (Stripe, Vercel, Resend) are based in the United States. When your data is transferred outside the UK, it is protected by appropriate safeguards including Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and, where applicable, the UK-US Data Bridge. These providers have committed to handling your data in accordance with UK data protection standards.
Your quiz answers and results are stored in the EU (Upstash's EU region), so the core data stays close to home.
Children's data
You must be at least 18 to use ETF Matchmaker. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18.
If you use our service to research ETFs for a Junior ISA (JISA), the account holder completing the quiz and making the purchase must be the parent or legal guardian. The child's personal information is not collected or processed by us at any point.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights over your personal data:
- Access: You can ask us for a copy of all personal data we hold about you
- Correction: If any of your data is wrong, you can ask us to fix it
- Deletion: You can ask us to delete your data (though this will disable your results link)
- Restriction: You can ask us to stop processing your data in certain circumstances
- Portability: You can ask for your data in a machine-readable format
- Objection: You can object to processing based on our legitimate interests (such as analytics)
To exercise any of these rights, email legal@etfmatchmaker.com. We will respond within 30 days, as required by law.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):
- Website: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Phone: 0303 123 1113
We would appreciate the chance to address your concern before you contact the ICO, but you are not required to contact us first.
Email preferences
We only send transactional emails related to your purchase (your results link, and any order-related support). Because we do not send marketing emails, there is no unsubscribe option and no need for one.
If you want your email address removed from our records entirely, contact us at legal@etfmatchmaker.com and we will delete it. This will not affect your ability to view your results via a bookmarked link, but we will no longer be able to re-send the link if you lose it.
Changes to this policy
If we make changes to this privacy policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. For significant changes (like adding a new third-party service or changing how we use your data), we will make reasonable efforts to notify affected users by email.
Contact
General questions: hello@etfmatchmaker.com
Privacy, data requests, or complaints: legal@etfmatchmaker.com
Post: ETF Matchmaker, Unit A, 82 James Carter Road, Mildenhall Industrial Estate, Suffolk IP28 7DE