Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Rate.ie publishes independent travel guidance about England from an office at 222–226 Jubilee St, Stepney Green, London E1 3BS, United Kingdom. For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, Rate.ie is the data controller for personal data collected through this website.

You can reach us about anything in this policy by email at support@rate.ie, by telephone on +44 20 7790 1050, or by post at the address above. We aim to answer data protection enquiries within five working days and are required to respond substantively within one month.

This policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, how long we keep it and what you can require us to do about it. It applies to rate.ie and to correspondence you send us. It does not apply to third-party websites we link to.

2. What we collect

We deliberately collect very little. There is no account system, no login and no advertising network on this site.

Category	What it includes	When
Enquiry data	Name, email address, travel dates and the message you write	When you email us or use the contact form
Subscription data	Email address only	If you join the monthly dispatch
Technical data	Browser type, approximate region, referring page	Automatically, in server logs
Usage data	Pages viewed, time on page, scroll depth	Only if you consent to analytics
Preference data	Your cookie choice and region setting	Stored locally in your browser

We do not collect payment details, because we do not sell anything. We do not ask for addresses, dates of birth or identity documents. We do not knowingly collect data about children and this site is not directed at them.

Special category data. We do not seek health, religious or similar sensitive data. If you volunteer it in an enquiry — for example describing a mobility requirement so we can check step-free access — we use it only to answer that enquiry and delete it with the rest of the correspondence.

3. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

To answer your enquiry. Lawful basis: legitimate interests — you asked us a question and we cannot answer it without reading it and replying to you.
To send the monthly dispatch. Lawful basis: consent, given when you enter your address, withdrawable in one click from every email we send.
To keep the site secure and available. Lawful basis: legitimate interests in preventing abuse, spam and denial-of-service traffic.
To understand which guides are read. Lawful basis: consent, given through the cookie banner and withdrawable at any time from the cookie settings link in the footer.
To comply with legal obligations. Lawful basis: legal obligation, where we must retain correspondence or respond to a lawful request.

We do not use your data for automated decision-making or profiling, and we never use enquiry data for marketing. Asking us a question does not add you to a mailing list.

4. Cookies and local storage

This site sets no third-party cookies. What it does use is a small amount of browser local storage to remember the choice you make in the cookie banner, so that we do not ask again on every page.

Optional analytics are aggregate and anonymous: page counts and reading depth, with no cross-site tracking, no advertising identifiers and no data sold to anyone. They run only if you accept them, and stop the moment you withdraw consent.

Full detail, including the exact storage keys and how to clear them, is set out in our Cookie Policy. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time via the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page.

5. Who we share it with

We do not sell, rent or trade personal data. We share it only where necessary to run the site, and only with providers bound by contract to process it on our instructions:

Hosting and content delivery. Servers that store the site and deliver pages, which necessarily process your IP address.
Email provider. Handles the mailbox that receives your enquiries and sends the monthly dispatch.
Privacy-focused analytics. Only if you consent, and configured to collect aggregate data without cross-site identifiers.
Professional advisers and authorities. Where we are legally required to disclose information, or need advice on a legal claim.

Where a provider processes data outside the United Kingdom, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or the International Data Transfer Addendum to the standard contractual clauses, and we assess the transfer before it begins.

6. How long we keep it

Data	Retention	Then
Enquiry correspondence	24 months from the last message	Deleted
Dispatch subscription	Until you unsubscribe	Deleted within 30 days
Server logs	90 days	Deleted automatically
Analytics aggregates	26 months	Anonymised permanently
Cookie preference	12 months, or until you clear it	Re-asked

We keep enquiry correspondence for two years because travel questions recur — people often write back a year later about the same trip, and the earlier context makes the answer better. You can ask us to delete it sooner and we will.

7. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

Be informed about how your data is used — which is what this document is for.
Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Rectification of anything inaccurate or incomplete.
Erasure of your data where there is no overriding reason to keep it.
Restrict processing while a concern is investigated.
Data portability — a machine-readable copy of data you gave us.
Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
Withdraw consent at any time, for analytics or the dispatch.

To exercise any of these, email support@rate.ie. We will not charge you and we will not ask why. We may ask one question to confirm you are the person the data relates to. We respond within one month, extendable by two for genuinely complex requests, in which case we will tell you.

If you are unhappy with how we handle a request, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to put it right first.

8. Security

The site is served over HTTPS. Access to the mailbox and hosting is limited to the four people who run the bureau, each using two-factor authentication. We keep no separate customer database, which is the most effective security measure available to us.

No transmission over the internet is completely secure. If you need to send us something sensitive, ask first and we will suggest a better route than email.

In the event of a personal data breach likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will notify the Information Commissioner's Office within 72 hours and tell affected people directly without undue delay.

9. Changes to this policy

We review this policy at least once a year and whenever we change how the site works. The date at the top of the page always reflects the current version. Material changes — for example a new category of data or a new recipient — will be flagged on the site for thirty days.

This version replaces all earlier versions. We are happy to tell you what changed if you ask.