Privacy & Cookie Policy

Last updated: 21st May 2026

This Privacy & Cookie Policy explains how Rated Driving Instructors Ltd (“Rated Driving”, “we”, “our”, “us”) collects, uses, stores and shares your personal data.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your information in an open, clear and transparent way.

This policy applies when you use our website, booking forms, mobile app, customer support channels, payment services, instructor-matching services and any related Rated Driving services.

1. Who We Are

Rated Driving Instructors Ltd
The Carriage House
Mill Street
Maidstone
Kent
ME15 6YE
United Kingdom

Email: support@rateddriving.com
Website: https://www.rateddriving.com

Rated Driving Instructors Ltd is the data controller responsible for your personal data.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the UK.

2. What Personal Data We Collect

We may collect the following types of personal data.

Identity data

This may include your name, title, date of birth and gender.

Contact data

This may include your address, email address, mobile number and other contact details you provide to us.

Driving and booking details

This may include your licence status, theory test status, theory pass number, lesson preferences, course preferences, availability, postcode area, preferred transmission type, driving experience and practical test details where provided.

Payment data

This may include payment transaction IDs, billing information, payment status, refund details and payment provider records.

Payment card details are handled securely by our payment providers. We do not store or directly access your full card number.

Technical data

This may include your IP address, browser type, operating system, device identifiers, app activity, website usage logs, cookie identifiers and similar technical information.

Marketing and communications data

This may include your communication preferences, marketing opt-ins, enquiry history, abandoned-booking consent status, unsubscribe status, email engagement and responses to messages.

Communications

This may include emails, calls, WhatsApp messages, live chat messages, app messages, contact forms, support tickets and social media messages.

Location data

For mobile app users, this may include approximate or precise location data where needed for app features such as instructor matching or test route navigation. More detail is set out in the “Reason for Location Access” section below.

3. How We Collect Your Data

We may collect personal data when you:

• fill out a booking form, enquiry form, contact form or feedback form;
• start but do not complete a booking;
• register an account;
• book lessons or a course;
• make or attempt to make a payment;
• communicate with us by phone, email, WhatsApp, app message, live chat or social media;
• interact with our website or app;
• use our instructor-matching, lesson-booking or test-route features;
• consent to receive marketing or follow-up communications;
• accept or reject cookies through our cookie banner.

4. Legal Bases for Processing

We only process your personal data where we have a valid lawful basis under UK GDPR.

The lawful bases we may rely on include:

Contract

We may process your data where it is necessary to provide our services to you, manage your booking, process your payment, connect you with an instructor, or take steps at your request before a contract is entered into.

Consent

We may process your data where you have given us clear permission to do so. This may include optional marketing, non-essential cookies, abandoned-booking reminder emails and certain app permissions.

You can withdraw consent at any time.

Legitimate interests

We may process your data where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided your rights and freedoms do not override those interests. This may include improving our services, preventing fraud, maintaining security, managing customer enquiries and keeping internal records.

Legal obligation

We may process your data where we are required to do so by law, including accounting, tax, regulatory or legal record-keeping requirements.

5. How We Use Your Data

We may use your personal data to:

• manage your enquiry, booking or course;
• connect learner drivers with independent driving instructors;
• process payments, refunds and payment-related queries;
• provide customer support;
• send booking confirmations, service messages and administrative updates;
• respond to questions, complaints or support requests;
• manage unfinished bookings and saved quotes;
• send an abandoned-booking reminder where you have asked us to do so;
• improve our website, app, booking process and customer experience;
• monitor website and app performance;
• maintain security and prevent misuse, fraud or unauthorised access;
• comply with legal, tax and accounting obligations;
• send marketing communications where permitted;
• manage cookie consent and advertising preferences.

6. Saving an Unfinished Booking

When you start a booking and reach the payment step, we create a record of your enquiry.

This record may include the details you entered, such as:

• your name;
• email address;
• mobile number;
• chosen lessons or course;
• postcode area;
• booking preferences;
• payment status.

We do this so we can process the payment you started, deal with any query about that booking, and keep a short-term record of the steps you asked us to take before entering into a contract.

Our lawful basis for creating and storing this unfinished-booking record is contract, because the processing is necessary for steps leading up to a booking or service contract.

7. Abandoned-Booking Follow-Up Emails

If you tick the box confirming that you would like us to email you about your quote, and you do not finish paying, we may send you a single reminder email about your saved quote.

This reminder is normally sent around one hour after the unfinished booking.

We only send this reminder where you have asked us to do so by ticking the relevant box. Our lawful basis for sending this reminder is consent.

You can withdraw that consent at any time by:

• clicking the unsubscribe link in the reminder email; or
• emailing support@rateddriving.com and asking us to remove your details.

We will not pass your details to anyone else for marketing as part of this abandoned-booking reminder process.

8. How Long We Keep Unfinished Bookings

If you start a booking but do not complete payment, we delete the unfinished-booking record within 90 days.

This includes your name, email address, mobile number and other unfinished-booking details entered during that process.

If you unsubscribe before then, we stop sending reminder emails straight away and the unfinished-booking record is removed on the next scheduled clear-out.

Completed bookings, where payment has been made, are kept under our normal records-retention rules set out in this policy.

9. Payment Security

We use secure third-party payment providers, including Stripe and Ryft Pay, to process payments.

We do not store or directly access your full payment card details.

Payment transactions are encrypted and processed through secure payment systems. Card data is collected through secure payment fields or hosted payment pages and handled by the relevant payment provider.

Payment providers may process your personal data in accordance with their own privacy policies and legal obligations.

Our payment partners may include:

• Stripe;
• Ryft Pay.

10. Data Sharing and Third Parties

We only share your personal data where necessary and lawful.

We may share your personal data with:

• independent driving instructors, where needed to fulfil or manage your booking;
• payment processors, including Stripe and Ryft Pay;
• hosting, IT, website and app service providers;
• analytics and cookie consent providers;
• communication providers, including email, SMS, live chat or support tools;
• professional advisers, including accountants, insurers or legal advisers;
• legal, regulatory or government authorities where required by law.

We do not sell your personal data.

We will not pass your abandoned-booking reminder details to anyone else for marketing.

11. International Transfers

Some of our service providers may process personal data outside the UK or EEA.

Where this happens, we rely on appropriate safeguards where required, such as:

• UK-approved international data transfer agreements;
• standard contractual clauses;
• data processing agreements;
• adequacy decisions;
• other UK GDPR-compliant safeguards.

12. Cookie Policy

We use cookies and similar technologies on our website and app.

Cookies help us:

• make our website and booking forms work properly;
• keep the site secure;
• remember your cookie preferences;
• measure traffic and website performance;
• understand how users interact with our website;
• support advertising and retargeting where consent has been given.

Types of cookies we use

Essential cookies

These are needed for the website, booking process, payment journey and security features to work properly.

Analytics cookies

These help us understand how visitors use our website so we can improve performance and usability.

Marketing cookies

These may be used to personalise advertising, measure campaign performance and support retargeting.

We use CookieYes as our cookie consent management tool.

When you first visit our website, our cookie banner allows you to accept or reject non-essential cookies.

You can change your cookie preferences at any time through the cookie settings available on our website.

For full cookie details, including individual cookies, purposes and retention periods, please view our CookieYes cookie declaration.

13. Direct Marketing

We may send marketing communications where we are allowed to do so under data protection and electronic marketing rules.

This may include updates, offers, service information or relevant promotions.

We will only send marketing where we have a valid lawful basis and where electronic marketing rules allow it.

You can opt out of marketing at any time by:

• using the unsubscribe link in our emails;
• contacting us at support@rateddriving.com;
• updating your communication preferences where available.

Service messages relating to bookings, payments, instructor matching, account use or support are not the same as marketing messages and may still be sent where necessary to provide our services.

14. Your Rights

Under data protection laws, you have rights over your personal data.

These may include the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you;
• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data;
• ask us to delete your data in certain circumstances;
• ask us to restrict processing in certain circumstances;
• object to certain processing;
• withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent;
• request data portability where applicable;
• complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

To exercise your rights, email support@rateddriving.com.

We aim to respond within one calendar month.

You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data.

ICO website: https://ico.org.uk

15. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected, including legal, accounting, tax, operational and customer-support purposes.

We may keep limited records for longer where required to comply with law, resolve disputes, prevent fraud or establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

16. Children’s Data

Our services are not directed at children under 16.

We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16.

Where a learner is under 18, a parent or guardian may need to be involved in the booking, payment or communication process.

17. Data Security

We use technical and organisational measures to help protect personal data.

These may include:

• SSL encryption for data in transit;
• secure payment processing;
• access controls;
• password-protected systems;
• firewalls and malware protection;
• staff access restrictions;
• regular security reviews;
• supplier due diligence where appropriate.

No system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure.

18. Automated Decision-Making and Profiling

We do not carry out automated decision-making that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

We may use matching logic within our app or booking system to help connect learners with suitable independent driving instructors based on information such as location, availability, lesson preferences and instructor settings.

This matching process supports service delivery and does not make a legal or similarly significant decision about you.

19. Reason for Location Access

Our mobile app may request location permissions to support essential app features.

1. Instant Instructor Matching

We may use your location or postcode area to help match you with nearby driving instructors.

This helps us identify instructors who may be able to provide lessons based on proximity and availability.

2. Test Route Navigation Service

Learners may purchase a driving test route and use in-app navigation to practise along that route.

This may require access to your location, including background access, for features such as:

• turn-by-turn navigation;
• route progress tracking;
• accurate route replay;
• route completion history;
• troubleshooting navigation issues.

We do not use location data for unrelated marketing or analytics purposes.

Location data is processed securely and only retained for the duration of your active navigation session or where needed for necessary troubleshooting.

You can revoke location permissions at any time through your device settings. Some app features, such as route navigation or location-based instructor matching, may not work correctly if location access is turned off.

20. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy & Cookie Policy from time to time.

If we make material changes, we may notify you by email, through our website, or through the app where appropriate.

The latest version of this policy will always be available on our website.

Last reviewed: 21st May 2026