Privacy Policy

This policy covers visitors and account holders. Account holders must be 18 or over. A school or youth group must use an adult-managed account and must not create child profiles or post content that identifies children.

• Account information, including email address, sign-in records, account dates and authentication information handled through GBPH's hosted account service.
• Private profile information you provide, such as name, organisation, region and biography.
• Plot information, including name, organisation, outward postcode, habitat, area, notes and approximate map coordinates derived from the outward postcode.
• Wildlife records, including species names, group, count, observation date, notes, entry method, AI suggestion and review state.
• Public photos, captions, Community stories and related content that you choose to post.
• AI identification request usage, results and technical information needed to operate the request. GBPH's allowance log does not store the submitted photo.
• Messages, reports, complaints and privacy or removal requests sent to GBPH.
• Subscription, invoice, payment status and billing contact information once payment processing is connected. Payment card details will be handled by the payment provider and will not be stored by GBPH.

• To provide accounts, member tools, the national map, public records, member stories, data export and deletion controls.
• To perform the membership agreement, administer active pins and payments once checkout is enabled, and respond to support requests.
• To keep the service secure, prevent misuse, enforce policies and meet legal obligations.
• To operate the optional AI identification helper when a member deliberately requests it.
• To display and promote member media under the licence explained in the Digital Image Policy.

Depending on the activity, GBPH relies on performing its agreement with members, legitimate interests in operating and protecting the service, consent where requested, and legal obligations.

GBPH asks for an outward postcode, not a full postcode. It normalises that outward code and uses a postcode lookup service to derive approximate postcode-district centre coordinates. GBPH stores that outward code and the approximate latitude and longitude so a pin can appear on the map. These are not a property coordinate, but a district centre can still reveal a general area and several pins may overlap.

Members must not put full addresses, house numbers or precise sensitive-species locations in names, notes, captions, records or stories.

Public plot display names and organisations, habitat, outward postcode, approximate map pins, species records, photos, captions and Community stories can be viewed by anyone. Profile rows, plot addresses and private notes, record notes and AI payloads are not public. Search engines and other people may copy or cache public material.

Members keep ownership of their media but give GBPH permission to display and promote it as explained in the Digital Image Policy. Members can remove platform content and ask GBPH to stop new promotional uses, but a request cannot undo material already printed, published, shared or cached.

• Supported photos are re-encoded before storage, replacing the original filename and removing EXIF and embedded metadata, including GPS data.
• A photo is sent for AI identification only when the member deliberately selects the identification action. A cleaned, resized copy is sent to an external AI service to return a suggestion.
• AI results are suggestions, not verified determinations. Members can record wildlife without using AI.

GBPH uses suppliers that provide account authentication, database hosting, file storage, application hosting, email delivery and optional AI processing. A postcode lookup service receives the outward postcode needed to find an approximate district centre. OpenStreetMap tile servers receive ordinary web request information, such as an IP address, when the map loads.

Once payments are enabled, a payment provider will process payment and billing information. GBPH may also disclose information where required by law, to protect people or wildlife, to investigate misuse, or as part of a properly managed transfer of the service. GBPH does not sell personal data to advertisers.

Some suppliers may process data outside the UK. GBPH will use appropriate contractual or legal safeguards where required.

When you use the Contact Us form, GBPH stores your chosen topic, name, email address, message, any content reference included from a report link, a reference number and the dates the enquiry was received, answered and closed. GBPH also keeps a short-lived, one-way scrambled form of your email address and network address to limit repeated submissions and spam.

GBPH uses this information only to respond to you, handle reports, privacy requests or complaints, and keep a record of how the enquiry was dealt with. Enquiries can be read only by authorised GBPH administrators. They are not public and are not shown to other members. An automatic acknowledgement email is sent only when email sending is set up; the page after you submit tells you whether one was sent.

Enquiries are kept for up to 24 months after they are closed, unless they need to be kept longer for a legal, safeguarding or payment dispute. After that they are deleted or anonymised. This is currently a manual review carried out by GBPH, not an automated process. Contact enquiries may remain for this retention period after you delete your account, with the link to the deleted account removed. Your data protection rights below apply to enquiry data too.

GBPH keeps account and member content while the account is active or as needed to provide the service. Members can delete individual content and can request account deletion through the Account page. Account deletion removes the account and its database records, then attempts file cleanup. If cleanup is incomplete, GBPH reports that honestly.

Support messages, complaint records, security logs and, once payments are enabled, transaction records may be retained for as long as reasonably needed for security, disputes, accounting or legal duties. Deleted information may remain briefly in backups, caches or material already shared publicly. GBPH uses access controls and other reasonable safeguards, but no online service can promise absolute security.

Depending on the circumstances, you may have rights to access your personal data, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to its use, receive portable data, and withdraw consent without affecting earlier lawful use. The Account page provides data export, correction and deletion tools.

Use our Contact Us form to exercise a right. GBPH may need to verify your identity and may refuse or limit a request where the law permits. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office. Please contact GBPH first if you would like the issue investigated directly.

GBPH may update this policy when the service or law changes. The last-updated date will change, and significant changes will be brought to members' attention where appropriate. Policy, privacy, removal and complaint enquiries can be sent through our Contact Us form.