Privacy policy

The short version: we hold no accounts, we do not ask who you are, and we do not sell anything about you. This page sets out the detail, including the cookies that advertising uses, because the law requires us to and because you deserve to know.

What we collect

Browsing HygieneCheck does not require an account and we do not ask for your name, email or any personal detail to look up a rating. We collect only:

• Basic request logs. Like almost every website, our server and our network provider (Cloudflare) record standard technical details of each request, the page asked for, the time, the browser type and an IP address, to serve the site, keep it secure and count traffic. We use a coarse, de-identified version of this to run our own page-view counter; we do not build a profile of you from it.
• Anything you choose to send us. If you use the contact or corrections form, or subscribe to an email update, we keep what you type (for example your email address and message) so we can reply or send what you asked for. That is the only time we hold anything that identifies you, and only because you gave it to us.

Cookies and advertising

This site is free and is supported by advertising. To show ads, we use Google AdSense. Google, and its advertising partners, may set and read cookies or similar identifiers on your device to serve ads and, where you have allowed it, to personalise them and measure their performance.

• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visits to this and other sites.
• You can review and control how Google uses your data at google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and manage ad personalisation at My Ad Center.
• You can opt out of personalised advertising from many providers at aboutads.info/choices and youronlinechoices.eu.
• You can also block or delete cookies in your browser's settings. The site will still work.

We do not use advertising, or anything else on this site, to influence what a page says. A rating is a fact published by a regulator, and no advertiser can move it.

What we do not do

• We do not sell, rent or share your personal information.
• We do not accept payment from food businesses to change, hide or promote a rating.
• We do not require you to identify yourself to use the site.

How long we keep things

Messages you send us are kept only as long as needed to deal with them and any follow-up. Email subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe, which you can do at any time from any email we send. Technical request logs are short-lived and handled by us and Cloudflare in the ordinary course of running the site.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us what personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, and object to how we use it. Because we deliberately hold very little, and nothing at all unless you contacted us or subscribed, this is usually straightforward. To make a request, or to raise any privacy concern, use our contact page.

If you are not satisfied with how we handle a request, you can complain to the UK's Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Third parties

The services that help run this site each have their own privacy policies:

• Google (advertising) — policies.google.com/privacy
• Cloudflare (security and content delivery) — cloudflare.com/privacypolicy

Changes

If we change how we handle data, we will update this page. Because the site holds no accounts, the current version here is always the one that applies.

Questions about this policy? Please use the contact page. This site is not affiliated with the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland, or any local authority.