Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

This privacy policy explains how Forecourt Prices ("we", "us", "our"), accessible at forecourtprices.co.uk, collects, uses and protects information when you use our website. We are the data controller for the purposes of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. You can contact us about anything in this policy at [email protected].

2. No accounts, minimal personal data

Forecourt Prices doesn't require you to register or create an account, and we don't ask you for your name, address or payment details. When you search, we process the postcode, place name or coordinates you enter only to find nearby fuel stations and show you results — we don't build a profile of you or store your search history against an identity.

3. Information we collect automatically

Like most websites, some technical information is collected automatically as you browse:

• Usage analytics — page views, approximate location (derived from IP address, never stored precisely), device and browser type, and how you navigate the site. This helps us understand which pages are useful and fix problems.
• Location, if you allow it — if you use "find near me", your browser asks your permission before sharing your device location with us; it's used only to return nearby results and isn't stored beyond your session.
• Postcode lookups — a postcode you search is sent to a third-party geocoding service (see section 5) to convert it into map coordinates. Town and city names are looked up in our own database and aren't sent anywhere.

4. Cookies and similar technologies

We try to use as few cookies as possible:

• Strictly necessary — a small amount of browser storage remembers your light/dark theme choice, your preferred fuel and your cookie consent decision. These don't require consent as they're essential to the site working as you'd expect.
• Cookieless analytics — our primary traffic measurement is privacy-focused and sets no cookies or identifiers, so it runs without asking for consent and can't follow you across other websites.
• Analytics cookies — we also use Google Analytics to understand how pages are used. It sets cookies that recognise your browser between visits and is only loaded after you consent to analytics cookies.
• Advertising and measurement cookies — Google AdSense shows the ads that keep the site free, and we use the Google Ads and Meta (Facebook) pixels to measure how well our own advertising campaigns perform. Each of these sets cookies and is only loaded after you accept advertising cookies through the consent banner shown on your first visit. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page.

5. Third-party services we use

We rely on a small number of third-party services to run the site. Each only receives the minimum data it needs to do its job:

• UK Government Fuel Finder feed — the source of station and price data we display; see how our data works.
• Postcodes.io — used to convert a postcode you search into map coordinates. Town and city names are looked up in our own database.
• OpenStreetMap — used for map tiles and station location data.
• Cookieless analytics — used to understand overall site traffic without cookies or cross-site tracking.
• Google Analytics — with your consent, collects page views, approximate location, device and browser information and how you move around the site. IP addresses are not stored. Google describes its processing in its privacy policy and you can opt out of Google Analytics everywhere with its browser add-on.
• Google AdSense — where advertising is shown, Google may process data as described in its privacy policy, only once you've consented to advertising cookies. You can control ad personalisation in your Google ad settings.
• Google Ads — with your consent, a conversion tag tells Google when a visit came from one of our adverts so we can tell which campaigns work. It's covered by the same Google privacy policy and ad settings as above.
• Meta (Facebook) Pixel — with your consent, records that you visited the site so we can measure our Facebook and Instagram advertising and avoid showing you adverts for a site you already use. Meta describes its processing in its privacy policy, and you can adjust your ad preferences in your Meta ad settings.

Postcodes.io and OpenStreetMap are UK-based and don't involve an international transfer of your data. Google and Meta are US companies; where they process data outside the UK, the safeguard each currently relies on is the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (the "UK-US Data Bridge") — see Google's disclosure at policies.google.com/privacy/frameworks and Meta's at facebook.com/privacy/policies/data_transfers. We haven't independently verified this beyond what each company publishes. For a copy of the safeguard details for any provider we use, email [email protected].

6. Legal basis for processing

We process the limited data described above under the legal bases of legitimate interests (running, securing and improving the site) and, for optional cookies such as Google Analytics, advertising and the measurement pixels, your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

7. Data retention

We keep aggregated analytics data for no longer than 12 months from collection, after which it's deleted or fully anonymised. We don't retain individual search queries once they've been used to return results. Fuel price and station data is refreshed continually from the Fuel Finder feed and superseded by newer imports rather than kept indefinitely.

8. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Ask what personal data we hold about you and receive a copy of it.
• Ask us to correct inaccurate data.
• Ask us to delete data we hold about you.
• Object to, or ask us to restrict, certain processing.
• Withdraw consent for anything we process on the basis of consent, such as advertising cookies.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you also have the right to complain to the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

9. Children's privacy

Forecourt Prices is a general-audience tool and isn't directed at children. We don't knowingly collect personal data from children.