Privacy Notice

This notice applies when you browse the website, complete the Free Deal Assessment, view or download a result or report, ask a question about a result, request a Detailed Deal Review, or otherwise contact DealReview.

The assessment is used by people evaluating an acquisition. Much of what you enter is commercial information about a business rather than personal information about an individual. We treat that information with the same care as personal information, because acquisition information can be commercially sensitive even where it is not personal data. Nothing in this notice reduces any protection that applies where information is personal data.

The controller responsible for the personal information described in this notice is the operator of DealReview:

Privacy questions, requests and complaints should be sent to hello@dealreview.co.uk, or raised through the contact page.

Assessment answers. When you complete the Free Deal Assessment we record the answers you give to the diagnostic questions, together with any deal context you choose to provide.

Deal context is optional apart from the acquisition stage. Where provided it may include a target or opportunity reference, turnover, EBITDA, asking price or enterprise value, acquisition stage and buyer type. You can use a reference name or code instead of identifying the target business — nothing requires you to name it or to identify any individual.

Derived analysis. Your answers are used to calculate category scores, an overall classification and a set of issue flags. These are stored with the assessment record. The report itself is generated in your browser from that record and is not stored by us.

Enquiries. When you ask a question about a result, or request a Detailed Deal Review, we collect the details you provide. This may include your name, email address, company or opportunity name, telephone number, transaction stage, turnover band and your message, together with the assessment reference where your question relates to a result.

Product events. We record a small number of first-party product events — for example that an assessment was started or completed, that a result was viewed, or that a report was downloaded. These are counts of activity within the product. They do not contain your answers or your contact details.

Technical information. As with any website, our hosting and infrastructure providers process technical information in order to serve the site and keep it secure, such as IP address, browser type and request details. We do not use this information to build advertising profiles.

No documents. The current version of DealReview does not ask you to upload confidential transaction documents. There is no document upload facility in the assessment, on a result page or in the enquiry forms. Please do not send confidential documents through the message fields.

Not anonymous. Assessment records are not anonymous or anonymised. A result link uses a random reference rather than a name, but the record can be linked to the answers submitted and to any enquiry made about it, and authorised administrators can access it.

We use the information described above to:

Your assessment is not publicly visible. It is not listed, browsed or searchable by other users, and it can only be retrieved by presenting its reference.

Authorised DealReview administrators may access submitted information where necessary to operate the service, respond to enquiries, maintain security and provide requested support or services.

Where you complete the Free Deal Assessment, we process your answers in order to provide the result and report you have asked for. This is processing at your request, in anticipation of a service relationship.

Where you send an enquiry or request a Detailed Deal Review, we process your details to take steps at your request before entering into an agreement, and on the basis of our legitimate interest in responding to professional enquiries and scoping requested work.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, those interests are: operating, securing and improving the service; preventing automated or abusive submissions; understanding at a product level how the assessment is used; and maintaining a record of professional enquiries. We have considered that this processing does not override your interests, given that the information is provided by you for a purpose you have chosen.

We also process information where we are required to do so by law.

We do not rely on consent for the assessment itself, and we do not use consent as a general basis for processing. If we introduce optional marketing communications or any non-essential cookies or browser storage, we would ask for your consent first, and you would be able to withdraw it at any time.

The Free Deal Assessment produces its output automatically, using configured scoring rules. Each answer carries a defined score and weight. The answers are combined into weighted scores for five categories, an overall classification and a set of rule-based issue flags. Suggested seller questions and information requests are selected from the flags your answers raise.

This processing does not make a legally binding decision about you, and it does not decide anything about your circumstances. In particular, it does not decide whether you may or should buy a business, whether a transaction can proceed, or whether finance is or will be available. It produces preliminary decision-support information for you to consider alongside your own judgement and professional advice.

The output is produced by these configured rules. No artificial intelligence or machine-learning model is used in the assessment. You can ask a question about any result, and a person will reply.

DealReview does not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.

We use a small number of service providers who process information on our behalf:

We do not use third-party advertising networks, third-party analytics products, social media embeds, tracking pixels or advertising cookies. The product events described above are recorded through the platform hosting the application and are not shared with advertising or data-broking services.

We may also share information with professional advisers where necessary to respond to an enquiry or provide a service you have requested, and where we are required to do so by law, by a regulator, or in connection with legal proceedings.

Base44 may process personal information outside the United Kingdom. Where international transfers occur, Base44 states that it uses lawful transfer mechanisms required by applicable data protection law, including adequacy arrangements and contractual safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses and applicable UK transfer provisions.

There is no automatic deletion period built into the current version of the service. Assessment records and enquiries remain in the database until an administrator removes them.

We keep information only for as long as is reasonably required for the purposes it was collected: providing the assessment and its result; responding to your enquiry or review request and any related follow-up; maintaining the security and integrity of the service; meeting legal and accounting obligations; and resolving any dispute.

If you would like an assessment or an enquiry removed, contact us and we will delete it, unless we are required to retain it.

We would prefer to operate a formal retention schedule with defined periods rather than relying on this general approach, and we intend to introduce one.

Result links use a random reference of 32 characters rather than a sequential identifier, and a result can only be retrieved by presenting a valid reference.

Assessment records and enquiry records are not publicly listed or searchable, and access to them is restricted to authorised administrators.

Submissions are accepted only through validated server-side endpoints. Those endpoints restrict which fields can be stored, limit the length of each value, and reject malformed or automated submissions.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we do not claim otherwise.

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

Your rights are not absolute. What applies depends on the lawful basis for the processing and the circumstances, and there are situations in which we may need to keep information — for example to meet a legal obligation or to deal with a legal claim. Where that is the case we will explain why.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@dealreview.co.uk or through the contact page. We will respond within the period required by law.

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your information or your request, you have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). We would ask that you raise the matter with us first so that we have the opportunity to put it right.

DealReview does not set advertising or analytics cookies, and we do not use cookies to track you across other websites. Two things are stored in your browser:

The storage described above is strictly necessary to provide the service you have asked for, so no cookie banner is displayed and no consent is requested for it. We do not add a banner for appearance where there is nothing optional to consent to.

If we later introduce analytics or any other non-essential cookies or browser storage, we will ask for your consent before it is set, and we will update this notice at the same time.

We may update this notice to reflect changes to the service or to legal requirements. The version in force is the one published on this page, and the date at the top shows when it was last updated.