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Cervo App Privacy Notice

Last updated: 4 November 2026

1. Who we are and what this notice covers

This notice explains how Cervo Ltd uses personal information in the Cervo app for iPhone and Android. Locksmith businesses use the app to take card payments on a card machine (POS), send payment links, run jobs and manage their team. It applies to business owners, managers and locksmiths who use the app, and to the customers whose details they record in it.

The data controller is:

Cervo Ltd
Company number: 17451882 (registered in England and Wales)
11 Welbeck Street, Office M, London, England, W1G 9XZ
support@cervopay.co.uk
020 3371 1067

If you apply for a merchant account in the app, or use the merchant portal or Cervo Apply, our Privacy Notice for Merchants and Applicants also applies and gives more detail about applications and verification checks. Our website is covered by our Privacy Notice.

2. What the app collects

Your account

  • Your name, email address and password, and the one-time codes we email to confirm your address
  • Your business, your role in it (owner, manager or locksmith) and the card machine (POS) assigned to you
  • Messages you send us from the app, including a request to delete your account

Your password is stored only in protected (hashed) form by our hosting and database provider, and we cannot see it. The app keeps you signed in using your phone's secure storage (the Keychain on iPhone, the Keystore on Android). Signing out removes it from that phone.

Payments, payment links and receipts

  • Payment and refund records: amount, reference, date and time, status, card type and the last 4 digits of the card, the card machine (POS) used and who took the payment
  • A customer's name and email address when you send a payment link, a receipt or an invoice by email

Card numbers never pass through the app. The card machine (POS) reads the card and our regulated payment services partner processes the payment. While a payment is in progress, the app keeps its amount and reference on your phone for up to 24 hours, so that it cannot be charged twice. If you send a link by text message or WhatsApp, the app opens your phone's own app to do it: we never receive or keep that phone number.

Jobs and customers

  • The customer's details you enter for a job: name, phone number, email address, who is paying, the address, a description of the job, the type of problem and your notes
  • Invoices for the job, and the emails we send the customer for you
  • The customer's agreement to the work: the name they type, their connection to the property (owner, tenant, landlord or agent, or other) and the date and time. If they agree through an emailed link, we also record the IP address and browser used
  • What proof of identity the locksmith saw before starting work, and any notes about it

Photos and documents

  • Photos of the work before, during and after the job, taken with the camera or chosen from your photos. With each photo we keep the time it was taken, your phone's time zone, a digital fingerprint that shows the photo has not been changed, and the location (see below). For a photo chosen from your library, we use the date and location saved in the photo, if it has them
  • Photos and PDF files you upload as evidence for a chargeback
  • Identity and business documents you upload with an application (see our Privacy Notice for Merchants and Applicants)

Photos waiting to upload are kept in the app's own storage on your phone until they are sent.

Technician ID cards

A business can issue each locksmith an ID card, so that customers can check who is at the door. It holds a photo of the locksmith's face taken with the front camera, the name on the card, a card number and how long it is valid, and can include a photo of the business's own ID card and its logo. Owners and managers issue the card. The customer's tracking link shows the card of the locksmith who is coming, and anyone can check a card is valid by scanning its QR code.

Location

The app asks to use your location only while you are using it, which includes a live trip (see below). It uses it in three ways:

  • Job photos: one position when you take a photo with the camera.
  • Job progress: one position when you tap On the way, Arrived or Finished.
  • Live tracking: only on a job where the person who assigned it chose to send the customer real-time tracking. From On the way until you tap Arrived or Stop sharing location, the app sends your position every few seconds, and the customer sees it on a map through their tracking link. This carries on if you switch to another app or lock your phone during the trip, and your phone shows that your location is in use (Android shows a "Sharing your location" notification).

For live tracking we keep only your latest position, with no trail or history, and delete it when you tap Arrived or Finished, when sharing is turned off or the job is cancelled, and in any case within 12 hours. The positions noted with photos and job progress are kept with the job as a record of the work.

Your fee agreement and application (owners)

  • When you sign your fee agreement: your full name, your role, your typed or drawn signature, the date and time, and the IP address and device used
  • When you apply for a merchant account: details of the business and the people connected with it, payout bank details and identity documents, as described in our Privacy Notice for Merchants and Applicants. When you agree to the terms, the app asks an IP-address lookup service (ipify) for your public IP address so it can be included in the record.

Technical information

Our hosting and database provider records sign-ins and requests to our systems, including IP addresses, to keep accounts secure. When the app checks for an update, the update service receives standard technical details such as your IP address, a random identifier for that installation of the app, the type of phone and the app version. We do not link these details to your account.

What the app does not collect

The app does not use your contacts or microphone. It does not use analytics, advertising or crash-reporting tools, does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and does not use your advertising ID. We do not sell personal information.

Phone permissions

The app asks for the camera (job photos, ID card photos, chargeback evidence and the documents for your application), your photos (to add pictures you choose to a job, chargeback evidence or your application) and your location while you use it (see above). You can say no, or change your mind at any time in your phone's settings. The features that need a permission will not work without it, and everything else will.

3. If you are a customer of a locksmith business

When a locksmith records your details in the Cervo app, the locksmith business is responsible for them and decides how they are used for its work. We store and process them for the business, on its instructions. Where we use them for our own purposes, such as sending payment links and receipts, keeping payment records and preventing fraud, we are responsible for that use as set out in this notice.

For questions about your details, contact the locksmith business first. You can also contact us at support@cervopay.co.uk and we will help. Complaints about a locksmith's work are handled by the locksmith business: see our Complaints page.

4. Why we use it and our lawful bases

  • To provide the app and your account: signing you in, taking payments, sending payment links, receipts and invoices, running jobs and supporting you. Lawful basis: performance of our contract with the business (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR). For managers and locksmiths, and for customers, our legitimate interests, and the business's, in providing the service the business has asked for (Article 6(1)(f)).
  • To keep a record of the work: job photos with their time and location, progress stamps, the customer's agreement and identity checks, so that the business can show what was done, where and when, and answer questions, chargebacks and disputes. Lawful basis: legitimate interests in evidencing the work and protecting the business and its customers against fraud (Article 6(1)(f)).
  • To show the customer who is coming and where they are: the ID card on the tracking link and, when chosen for the job, live tracking until arrival. Lawful basis: legitimate interests in customers' safety and in telling them when to expect the locksmith (Article 6(1)(f)). Live tracking is limited to the trip, and you can stop sharing at any time.
  • To open and run a merchant account: applications, verification checks and the fee agreement, as described in our Privacy Notice for Merchants and Applicants. Lawful basis: performance of a contract, or steps before entering into one (Article 6(1)(b)), and legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)).
  • To keep accounts and payments secure: sign-in records, preventing payments being taken twice and investigating misuse. Lawful basis: legitimate interests in protecting you, your customers and Cervo (Article 6(1)(f)).
  • To meet our legal obligations: accounting and tax records, and lawful requests from regulators, law enforcement and courts. Lawful basis: legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)).
  • To answer your messages and complaints. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)).

Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have balanced them against your interests and rights.

5. Who can see it and who we share it with

  • Your business: owners and managers can see the payments, jobs, photos and progress stamps of their team. Locksmiths see their own card machine (POS), their payments and the jobs given to them.
  • The customer: the business's name and contact details, the invoice, the ID card of the locksmith who is coming and, when chosen for the job, the locksmith's live position until arrival.
  • Our regulated payment services partner, an FCA-authorised payment institution: it receives applications, verification information, payment details and chargeback evidence, so that it can assess applications, process payments, make payouts and handle chargebacks. It uses them as a controller under its own privacy notice.
  • Hosting and database provider: runs our systems and stores the app's data.
  • Email provider: sends sign-in codes, payment links, receipts, invoices and notifications.
  • App update service: delivers updates to the app.
  • ipify: an IP-address lookup service, used only when you agree to the terms of a merchant account.
  • Regulators, law enforcement and professional advisers: where the law requires it, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

Every third party we share personal information with, including our service providers and our payment services partner, must give it the same or equal protection as this notice and as data-protection law requires. Our service providers process it only on our instructions. Cervo staff can see your information only when they need to support you or check an account, and each time they open an uploaded document or bank details, it is logged.

6. International transfers

Some of our service providers may process personal information outside the United Kingdom. Where they do, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as UK adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses. Contact us for more information about the safeguards for a particular transfer.

7. How long we keep it

  • Your sign-in: until your account is deleted. You can delete it in the app under Profile, Delete my account: a locksmith's or other team member's account is deleted straight away, and an owner's, manager's or applicant's within 30 days. See Delete your Cervo account.
  • Payments, refunds, jobs, invoices, job photos and customer agreements: for as long as the business uses Cervo, and then 6 years (accounting and tax records, and to deal with chargebacks and legal claims).
  • Live tracking position: deleted at the end of the trip, and in any case within 12 hours.
  • ID card photos: deleted 90 days after the card stops being valid, or as soon as your account is deleted.
  • Chargeback evidence: 18 months after the chargeback's outcome. Files removed before they are sent, or uploads that were never finished, are deleted after 7 days.
  • Fee agreements: signed agreements for as long as we work with the business, and then 6 years; agreements that were never signed are deleted 90 days after they expire or are withdrawn.
  • Applications, identity documents and payout bank details: as set out in our Privacy Notice for Merchants and Applicants.
  • Customer contact details on payment links and card machine (POS) payments: deleted 6 months after the payment, so we can answer a card dispute. What the payment was for is kept with the payment record.
  • Messages you send us: for as long as needed to deal with them, and no longer than 3 years unless the law requires a longer period.
  • On your phone: a payment in progress for up to 24 hours, photos until they upload, and your sign-in until you sign out. Removing the app deletes everything it stored on the phone.
  • Card numbers: never stored by Cervo.

8. Your rights

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

  • Access: ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
  • Rectification: ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
  • Erasure: ask us to delete your information in certain circumstances.
  • Restriction: ask us to limit how we use your information in certain circumstances.
  • Objection: object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests.
  • Portability: where we rely on contract and the processing is automated, ask for your information in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.

Some rights are limited where information must be kept to meet legal requirements. To use any of these rights, contact us at support@cervopay.co.uk. We will respond within one month and may need to check your identity first. To delete your account, see Delete your Cervo account.

9. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please contact us first at support@cervopay.co.uk or through our Complaints page. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK regulator for data protection: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.

10. Children

The Cervo app is for businesses and their staff. It is not meant for anyone under 18.

11. Changes to this notice

We may update this notice when the app changes. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.

Delete your Cervo account · Support · Privacy Notice for Merchants and Applicants · Complaints