Ground Intel

Privacy Policy

Last updated 6 October 2026

This policy explains how KHO Consulting Limited (“we”, “us”), registered in Ireland, company no. 798040, handles personal data when you use Ground Intel. We are the data controller. Contact us about anything in this policy at groundintel@khoitconsult.com.

1. What we collect

  • Account details if you sign in: your email address, a password (stored only as a secure hash by our authentication provider), and optionally your name and organisation.
  • Details you choose to give us, such as your name, email, company and role on the profile form, and the message and optional email you send through the feedback form.
  • Projects and saved reports: the locations, routes or areas you query, project names, report details you enter, the ground investigation scope, and the reports themselves. Specification details you fill in (such as the names of the parties to the contract) are saved with the report.
  • Your own rates, if you upload a rates workbook to price a bill of quantities. Only you can see them.
  • Technical data: your IP address and request details, used briefly to run the Service, apply rate limits and keep it secure.
  • Usage statistics: we count page views with a privacy-focused analytics tool we host ourselves. It sets no cookies, does not track you across sites and does not store your IP address.

Some settings stay only in your own browser’s local storage and are never sent to us: your light/dark theme, whether you have seen the welcome message and guided tour, and projects you save without signing in.

2. Why we use it

  • To provide the Service you ask for: accounts, saved projects and reports (performance of a contract with you).
  • To keep the Service secure and working, prevent abuse, fix problems and understand which features are used (our legitimate interests).
  • To reply to feedback and questions you send us (our legitimate interests).
  • To tell you about Ground Intel updates, only where you have agreed to it. You can withdraw that at any time.

We do not sell personal data and do not use it for advertising.

3. Who else handles it

We use service providers who process data on our behalf under contract:

  • Supabase, for sign-in and our database, hosted in the EU;
  • our hosting providers, Hetzner Online (EU) and, while we complete our move to it, Vercel, which may process data in the United States.

When you use the map, your browser connects directly to these services, which receive your IP address and the map area or search text involved: OpenStreetMap (map tiles and place search), OpenTopoMap and Esri (map tiles), and the public data services of Geological Survey Ireland, the EPA, NPWS, GSNI, OPW and Teagasc (map layers). Queries you run are also sent from our servers to those public data services. Each handles data under its own privacy policy.

We may disclose data where the law requires it.

4. Transfers outside the EEA

Most data stays in the European Economic Area. Where a provider processes it elsewhere, we rely on safeguards recognised under GDPR, such as an adequacy decision (including the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) or the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses.

5. How long we keep it

  • Account details, projects and saved reports: while your account is open, then deleted within 30 days of your account being closed.
  • Profile-form and feedback details: up to 24 months, unless you ask us to delete them sooner.
  • Server logs: up to 30 days.

6. Your rights

You can ask to access, correct, delete or receive a copy of your personal data, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to withdraw consent you have given. Email groundintel@khoitconsult.com; we reply within one month. You can also complain to the Data Protection Commission (dataprotection.ie).

7. Cookies

We only use cookies that are strictly necessary: when you sign in, our authentication provider sets cookies to keep you signed in. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and our analytics uses none.

8. Security

Data is encrypted in transit, access to our systems is restricted, and each account can only reach its own projects and reports.

9. Children

The Service is for professional use and is not intended for anyone under 18.

10. Changes

We will post any changes here with a new date, and tell account holders about significant changes. See also our Terms of Service.