This policy explains what personal information London Planning handles, why, and what rights you have over it. It is written to be read rather than survived.
What we collect
Site usage. Loading a page here generates the usual technical record: the page requested, the time, the referring page or search, and your browser and device type. Your IP address is used to derive an approximate location, generally at city level, and to defend the site against abuse. Analytics tells us which subjects are read, in aggregate. We are not trying to work out who you are.
Correspondence. If you email hello@londonplanningawards.com we necessarily hold your address and the content of your message, together with anything you attach.
There are no user accounts and we take no payments, so we hold no passwords or financial details.
Why we process it
To operate and secure the publication, to make editorial decisions informed by what readers actually read, and to reply to you. The lawful basis is our legitimate interest in running a publication, and consent for anything non-essential stored on your device. We do not sell personal data or use it for targeted advertising.
Sources and confidentiality
If you contact us as a source, we take that seriously. We will not publish your name or identifying details without your agreement, and we will not pass your correspondence to a council, a developer or anyone else. Email is not a secure channel, though, so we cannot guarantee what happens to a message before it reaches us.
Cookies
The strictly necessary ones make the site work; the analytics ones count and describe visits. Where consent is required for non-essential cookies, we ask first, and declining costs you no functionality. Your browser lets you inspect, block and delete all of them.
Third parties
We use a hosting provider, a content delivery network, an analytics service and an email provider. Each processes data on our behalf under its own terms and may not use it for its own ends.
Our articles link heavily to planning portals and council websites. Once you follow a link, that organisation’s privacy policy governs, not ours.
Retention
Analytics is held in aggregate, not attached to an identified person. Email is kept while the matter is active and for a reasonable period afterwards as a record. Ask for it to be deleted and we will, absent a legal reason to keep it.
Your rights
Under the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR you may ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, have inaccurate data corrected, have data erased, object to or restrict our use of it, obtain it in a portable format, and withdraw consent previously given. There is no fee and you need give no reason. Email us saying what you want, and we will respond within one month. These rights are balanced against the exemptions that apply to journalism; where one applies we will say which, and why.
If you are dissatisfied, you may complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office or to the supervisory authority in your country. We would rather resolve it directly.
Misdirected awards enquiries
Because of this domain’s history we receive email intended for the Building London Planning Awards. We have no connection to that programme and cannot forward messages. Such emails, and any personal data in them, are deleted rather than kept.
Children
This is a specialist publication for an adult readership, not aimed at children, and we do not knowingly collect their data.
Changes
Revisions appear on this page, with anything material flagged at the top.
