Privacy

What happens to your details.

Plain English, no small print. This page covers people who ring our AI receptionist or try a demo, and businesses we might get in touch with. If something here is unclear, email hello@karakuri.uk and you will get a straight answer.

Last updated 14 October 2026

Who we are

Karakuri is run by Roman Rohalevskyi, trading as Karakuri, based in Cheltenham, UK. Roman decides how your details are used, which makes him the controller under UK data protection law. It is a one-person business, so there is no separate data protection officer: write to hello@karakuri.uk and Roman reads it himself.

If you ring Kai or try a demo

Kai is the AI receptionist on +44 2922 714612. It tells you at the start that it is AI and that the call is recorded. The same rules cover our demos: the Telegram demo bot, the WhatsApp demo and the web-call demos we send people.

What we keep

your phone number, as it shows on our side
a recording of the call and a written transcript
a short summary, plus anything you tell Kai: your name, business, trade, town, what you need and a good time to ring back
if you book a call with Roman, the slot in his calendar
on a demo, the messages you send and any demo booking you make

Why, and on what basis

To answer you, ring you back or book the call you asked for, and to check how Kai handled the call so we can fix its mistakes. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in answering people who contact us and making sure the receptionist works. When you ask for a price or book a call, it is also a step you asked for before a possible contract.

You do not have to give us anything. If you would rather not be recorded, hang up and email us instead. Without a name and number, though, Roman cannot ring you back.

If your number matches a business on our list (see below), we note that you rang, so Roman can call you back quickly.

Recordings in our videos and posts

We never publish a recording, transcript or quote from your call unless you say yes first. If you say yes and later change your mind, tell us and we take it down wherever we control it.

If you rang a business that uses Karakuri

Some businesses use a Karakuri receptionist to answer their phone or messages. Then that business decides what happens to your details and is the controller. Karakuri works for them as a processor, under a written agreement and only on their instructions. Ask the business first. If you cannot reach them, email us and we will pass your request on.

If you run a business we might contact

We look for small UK businesses, mostly trades such as plumbers, heating engineers and electricians, who might want a receptionist. Most of what we hold is about the business. If you are a sole trader or a partnership, some of it is also about you, so here is the full picture.

Where it comes from

your Google Maps listing: name, address, phone, website, rating and reviews
Companies House: company status, registered address, type of business and directors’ names
your own website and your public Facebook and Instagram business pages
public reviews of your business
the Telephone Preference Service registers (TPS and CTPS): only whether your number is listed

What we hold

Business name, trade, address and area, phone, email, website, social links, whether you are a limited company or a sole trader, directors’ names for companies, your rating and number of reviews, short notes on signs that calls get missed (for example a review saying “never answers the phone”), a score for how good a fit you look, and a log of any contact we have had.

Why, and on what basis

To decide who to contact and to offer you our service. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in offering a relevant service to businesses, using details that you or public registers have already published. We have written this up as a legitimate interests assessment and will send you a copy if you ask.

Software scores the list to suggest who Roman contacts first. Nothing with a legal or similar effect on you is decided by software alone: a person decides whether to get in touch.

How we contact you, and the rules we keep

Limited companies and LLPs: we may email or message you, always with our name and an easy way to say no.
Sole traders and partnerships: we do not send unsolicited emails, texts or social media messages. We may ring you if your number is not on the TPS or CTPS, call in person, or reply to a public post.
We check numbers against the TPS and CTPS before we ring.
When we first contact you, we say who we are and point you to this page.

To be left alone

Reply “stop”, or email hello@karakuri.uk with your business name, number or email. We delete your details and add the bare minimum (your number, email, website or company number) to a do-not-contact list, so our software never picks you up again. That list is used for nothing else. You can do this at any time, and we will not ask why.

Who helps us run this

These companies process details for us, under their data processing terms. We do not sell your details or share them with anyone else, unless the law makes us.

Vapi: Runs the AI receptionist, records and transcribes calls; USA
Twilio: The phone number and the call connection; USA
Deepgram: Turns speech into text, inside Vapi; USA
ElevenLabs: The receptionist’s voice, inside Vapi; USA
Anthropic: The AI model behind Kai and the demos; USA
OpenRouter: Passes text to AI models for scoring, research and drafting messages; USA
Railway: Hosts our automation software (n8n), which moves details between tools; USA
Supabase: Our database; UK (London)
Hetzner: The server that runs our background jobs; Germany
Google: Sheets, Calendar, and business listings from Google Maps; USA
Telegram: Notes to Roman’s phone, and the Telegram demo bot; Outside the UK
Meta (WhatsApp): The WhatsApp demo and WhatsApp messages; Ireland, USA
Apify: Collects public business pages and reviews; EU, USA
TPSCheck: Checks phone numbers against the TPS and CTPS; UK
Zoho: Email for hello@karakuri.uk; EU
Vercel: Hosts this website and counts visits; USA

Several of these are outside the UK. Details only go to a country the UK treats as adequate (the EU and EEA count), to a US company certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, or under the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum in the provider’s terms.

How long we keep things

Call recordings and transcripts: 14 days, then Vapi deletes them
Your details from a call or an enquiry: 12 months after our last contact
Demo messages and demo bookings: 30 days
A business we have never contacted: deleted once its details have not been refreshed for 12 months
A business we have contacted: 12 months after our last contact
The text of public reviews: 90 days, then only counts and scores
Our do-not-contact list: for as long as we trade, so we never contact you again
Technical logs in our tools: deleted automatically, normally within 14 days
A recording you agreed we could publish: until you ask us to take it down
If you become a client: while you are a client, then invoices and accounts for as long as UK tax law asks (up to six years)

We refresh our list of businesses from public sources every week, so a business that stays listed keeps its record up to date. Once a business drops out of those sources, its record goes after 12 months.

Your rights

You can ask us, for free, to:

tell you what we hold about you and send you a copy
correct anything that is wrong
delete it
stop or limit how we use it, and stop all marketing to you, no questions asked
give you the details you gave us in a format you can take elsewhere
have a person, not software, make a decision about you

Email hello@karakuri.uk. We may ask you to confirm it is your number or business. We reply within one month, usually much sooner.

Cookies and visit stats

This site sets no cookies, which is why there is no cookie banner. We count visits with Vercel Web Analytics, which does not use cookies and does not follow anyone across days or other sites. The fonts come from our own site, so opening a page does not tell Google or anyone else.

If you tap a WhatsApp or Telegram button, you leave this site, and that app’s own privacy policy applies.

Our own tools connect to Roman’s Google account to read his calendar. They do not touch anyone else’s Google account. Use of information received from Google APIs follows the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Complaints

Tell us first at hello@karakuri.uk and we will try to put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office atico.org.uk/make-a-complaintor on 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this page

If we change how we use your details, we update this page and the date at the top. If the change is a big one and we have your contact details, we tell you directly.