Privacy policy

The short version

• We set no cookies.
• We run no advertising and no third-party trackers.
• We never sell, rent, or share your data for marketing.
• We measure visits with a tool that does not use cookies and does not identify you.
• The only personal detail we ask for is your email address, and only if you choose to join our newsletter.
• You can ask to see or delete your data at any time.

Who we are

This site is run by The Centre for Digital Consumers, a UK non-profit. We are not a registered charity. For data protection law, we are the data controller. That means we are responsible for your information. You can reach us about anything on this page at privacy@digitalconsumers.org.uk.

This policy is governed by UK data protection law: the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

What we collect, and why

When you visit the site

Our hosting provider, Vercel, processes basic technical information every time a page loads: your device’s IP address, your browser and device type, the pages you request, and the time you request them. This happens for every website you visit anywhere. It is how a server sends a page back to you and keeps the site secure and online. We rely on it for our legitimate interest in running a safe, working website. Vercel keeps these access logs only for a short period.

How we measure visits

We use Vercel Web Analytics to understand roughly how many people visit and which pages they read. It does not use cookies, it does not build a profile of you, and it does not follow you to other websites. The numbers we see are aggregated and cannot be traced back to an individual. We rely on our legitimate interest in understanding whether our work is useful.

The newsletter

If you subscribe, we collect your email address. We use it for one thing: to send you the monthly digest you asked for. Your address is stored by our email provider, Buttondown, who send the emails on our behalf. We have turned off open and click tracking, so our emails contain no tracking pixels and we do not know whether you opened one or what you clicked.

We rely on your consent, which you give by subscribing. You can withdraw it at any time using the unsubscribe link in every email, or by emailing us. When you unsubscribe, we remove your address.

Our tools

Our free tools are built to work without an account and without storing what you enter. If a specific tool ever needs to handle your information differently, it will tell you at the point where you use it.

Cookies

We do not use cookies for analytics, for advertising, or for anything else. Because there are no cookies, there is no cookie banner to click through.

Who else can see your data

We do not sell, rent, or trade your information, and we never share it for anyone else’s marketing. We use two service providers to run the site, and they only handle data so that they can provide their service to us:

• Vercel hosts the website and provides the visitor analytics described above.
• Buttondown stores newsletter subscribers and sends the digest.

Both providers are based in the United States, so using them involves transferring data outside the UK. Where that happens, the transfer is covered by the safeguards UK law requires for international transfers, such as the UK’s International Data Transfer Agreement or standard contractual clauses. We may also disclose information if the law requires us to.

How long we keep things

• Newsletter email: until you unsubscribe, then we remove it.
• Server logs: kept by our host for a short period, then deleted.
• Analytics: only aggregate figures are kept, so there is no personal record to hold.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

• tell you what data we hold about you, and give you a copy;
• correct anything that is wrong;
• delete your data;
• restrict or object to how we use it;
• withdraw your consent to the newsletter.

To do any of these, email privacy@digitalconsumers.org.uk. We will respond within one month, and it is free.

Complaints

If you think we have handled your data badly, please tell us first so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, at ico.org.uk.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle data, we will update this page and change the date at the top. If the change is significant and we hold your email, we will tell you.