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Privacy policy

LAST UPDATED: 15 SEPTEMBER 2026

In short: we collect what we need to run your account and to publish the reports and stories you choose to contribute to the map. Sign-in is passwordless and handled by Auth0, so we never store a password. Contributions you submit, including photos and their location, are published to the public map and feed. Our servers, database and file storage are hosted by DigitalOcean in their UK regions.

1. Who we are

Explore The River Dôn is run by The River Dôn Project, a multi-disciplinary partnership working across South Yorkshire.

Registered organisation details: [to be confirmed]
Privacy questions and rights requests: [privacy contact email to be confirmed]

The UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 apply to the personal data described in this policy.

2. The data we collect

  • Account data - your display name and profile picture, and an internal reference to your Auth0 sign-in identity. Sign-in is passwordless, so we never store a password, and we do not keep a copy of your email address once your account is created.
  • Contributions - reports and stories you submit, including title, description, category, the location you mark on the map, the date, and any photos you attach.
  • Photo metadata - where a photo you upload contains embedded location or date information (EXIF data), we read this to help pre-fill the location and date fields. Uploaded photos, including the original file, are stored and published publicly, so any metadata embedded in that original file may remain attached to it.
  • Organisation and role data - if you are part of a partner organisation on the platform, we hold your role within that organisation.
  • Technical data - standard hosting and security logs, and, only if you accept them, analytics cookies (see section 8).

3. How and why we use it

  • To create and run your account, and to show your contributions on the map and feed - necessary to provide the service to you.
  • To publish the reports and stories you submit, so that other visitors can see and explore them - this is the core purpose of the platform.
  • To keep the platform secure and working properly - our legitimate interest in running a reliable service.
  • To understand how the site is used, so we can improve it - only with your consent to analytics cookies.

4. Contacting your MP

Some reports let you contact your local MP about an issue you've reported. This feature looks up your local MP based on the report's location, then opens a pre-filled email in your own email application for you to review and send. We do not send your personal or account data as part of this lookup - only the location of the report is used.

5. Who we share it with

  • Everyone - reports, stories and photos you contribute are shown publicly on the map and feed. Do not include anything in a contribution that you don't want to be public.
  • Auth0 - our authentication provider, who handles your passwordless sign-in and sends you sign-in emails on our behalf, using Amazon SES to deliver them.
  • DigitalOcean - our cloud hosting provider, who host our servers, database and file storage in their UK regions, acting on our instructions to run the service.
  • Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, only if you accept analytics cookies (see section 8).
  • A public MP lookup service, only if you use the Contact MP feature, and only the location involved (see section 4).
  • Authorities, where the law requires it.

We do not sell your personal data.

6. How long we keep it

We keep your account data for as long as your account is active. If you close your account, we remove your name and profile picture and disconnect it from your sign-in identity, rather than deleting it outright, because your past contributions remain part of the public record on the map. Contributions themselves - reports, stories and photos - are kept indefinitely as part of that record, unless removed by an administrator.

7. Your rights

You have the right to:

  • access the personal data we hold about you;
  • have inaccurate data corrected;
  • have data erased where we no longer need it;
  • restrict or object to certain processing;
  • receive your data in a portable format;
  • withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing before you withdrew it.

Contact us using the details in section 1 and we will respond within one month. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

8. Cookies and similar technologies

  • Essential cookies - sign-in, session and your cookie preferences. These are always on because the site can't work without them.
  • Analytics cookies - Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, used to understand how the site is used so we can improve it. These are only set with your consent.

You can change your cookie choice at any time on our Cookies page, which also has full details of every cookie we use.

9. Security

Data is encrypted in transit, and access to administrative functions is limited by role. We will tell you and the relevant regulator about a personal data breach where the law requires it.

10. Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practices change and revise the date at the top.