Privacy and cookies policy
Last updated: 28 July 2025.
Most websites talk a "good game" about privacy—but it's all talk. They, or their "advertising partners", are logging and tracking every single thing you do. We're different. Briefly:
- We do not routinely use server logging. Our server logs visitors, but we don't look at those logs unless there's a technical issue we need to fix.
- We do not use tracking, marketing, or social media cookies of any kind—and have no plans to do so in future. If you opt to sign up for our email list, our server make set "strictly necessary" cookies while it gathers your address, and your browser will delete them shortly afterward.
- If you sign up to our email list, we will store your email address securely, we will not share it with anyone else, and we will not use it for any purpose other than sending you our newsletter—in line with the UK GDPR.
Logging
Like every other website on the Net, our site is hosted on a web server (a powerful computer at our ISP) that can keep a log of all the pages and graphics it serves and where it sends them to. The logs don't tell us who you are or where you live—but they do record your IP number (a number that uniquely identifies your computer). They also note how much information you downloaded, the operating system and browser you're using, the date and time of your visit, how you came to our site, and so on. In theory, none of this information is personally identifiable; in practice, we could figure out some things about what computer 12.34.56.78 was doing at 5am on Thursday, October 5 2007, if we really wanted to, but we don't know who that computer belongs to—and frankly we've got much better things to do with our time.
We browse our server logs only on very rare occasions when there are technical problems with the server that need diagnosing and fixing or to investigate hacking or other abuse of our system.
Cookies
This website does not (currently) use advertising, statistical tracking (analytic), or social media cookies of any kind. If you sign up to our email list, our email list software (phplist) may use strictly necessary, temporary session cookies during the sign-up process that expire when your session ends.
Email list
We send out a weekly email list to people interested in the latest UK rivers news and events. Our list is strictly opt-in, which means you must confirm your email address after signing up.
How we use your data
- We will use your email address (the only personal data we collect about you) to send you a weekly newsletter about news, events, jobs, and other information likely to be of interest. We will not use it to send you anything else or for any other purpose.
- We will store and process your email address (your personal data) strictly according to UK law (the UK GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation) and best-practice guidance from the Information Commissioner.
Consenting to our use of your data
- We will only send you our email newsletter if you consent to this.
- You may withdraw your consent and unsubscribe at any time. If you have any difficulties unsubscribing, please email us and we'll help.
- You may complain or report concerns about our use of your data to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Your Rights
Under the GDPR, you have rights in relation to your personal data, with some exceptions. These include the right to:
- Be informed about how your data is being used
- Access personal data
- Have incorrect data updated
- Have data erased
- Stop or restrict the processing of your data
- Data portability (allowing you to get and reuse your data for different services)
- Object to how your data is processed in certain circumstances
Please email us if you would like us to do/help with any of these things. To reiterate, the only data we store about you is your email address (with your explicit, opt-in consent).
You also have rights when an organisation is using your personal data for automated decision-making processes (without human involvement) and profiling, for example to predict your behaviour or interests. The UK Rivers Network does not do either of these things.
Sharing your data
The only information we store about you is your email address, which we keep on our own secure server. We do not use a third-party email provider (Intuit Mailchimp, Google, etc), so we're not sharing your details with them.
- We will never sell or share your email address with anyone else.
- We may disclose your email address if required by law or to enforce our own legal rights.
Keeping your data
If you sign up to our newsletter, we will store your email address securely on our server until you unsubscribe or otherwise ask for your data to be deleted.
If you send us a conventional email, our email program will automatically delete it (and any replies) after 180 days. If you'd like us to delete anything sooner than that, please let us know.
Questions or queries?
Please don't hesitate to email us if you have any privacy issues—and we'll be happy to help!