Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

WildSmiths (“we”, “us”, “our”) is a sole trader business operating from the Isle of Coll, Scotland. This policy explains how we collect and handle your personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, please contact us at info@wildsmiths.co.uk.

What data we collect and why

Analytics (Google Analytics 4)

If you give your consent, we use Google Analytics 4 (operated by Google LLC) to collect anonymised information about how visitors use our website — for example, which pages are visited and roughly where in the world visitors are based. This helps us improve the site.

• Legal basis: Consent (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a))
• Data transferred outside the UK: Yes — Google processes data in the USA under Google’s Standard Contractual Clauses.
• Retention: Up to 14 months within Google Analytics (our default setting).
• You can withdraw consent at any time by clearing your browser cookies. Your analytics preference is stored in a cookie called ws_cookie_consent.

We do not collect analytics data until you have accepted cookies.

Comments

When you leave a comment on a page, we collect your name, email address, and comment text.

• Legal basis: Legitimate interests (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f)) — to enable community discussion, respond to questions about our content, and prevent spam and abuse.
• Your name and comment may be displayed publicly on the page, once approved.
• Your email address is never shown publicly. We use it only to notify you of replies and to help identify spam or misuse. Every reply-notification email includes a link to opt out of further notifications for that specific comment.
• Automated screening: Before a human moderator sees it, your name, email address and comment text are sent to TypeSafe AI, an automated screening service, to help identify obvious spam or abusive submissions (including signals like a name or email address that looks fake or bot-generated). TypeSafe AI processes this data in the USA under a Data Processing Agreement that incorporates the UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Clearly spam or abusive comments, and clearly genuine ones, may be approved or rejected automatically on this basis; anything in between is reviewed by a human moderator, as every comment was before this screening existed. If you believe a decision about your comment was wrong, you can ask us to have it reviewed by a person by emailing comments@wildsmiths.co.uk.
• Retention: Approved comments and associated data are kept for as long as the relevant page is published. Comments awaiting moderation, and any that are rejected, are automatically deleted after 30 days. You may request deletion at any time by contacting us.

Bird Bingo

Our Bird Bingo game saves your progress on your own device. It needs no account and doesn’t use cookies or analytics, and we can’t see your progress.

If you choose to share your results, the game opens your own email app with a message addressed to bird-bingo@wildsmiths.co.uk. You can check the message first, and we receive nothing unless you send it. It contains the birds you spotted and anything you chose to add: your name, email address, trip dates and comments. We also receive the address you send it from.

• Legal basis: Legitimate interests (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(f)) — to read about your trip and reply to you.
• Retention: We keep these emails only for as long as we need them for that purpose. You may request deletion at any time by contacting us.

Cookies and local storage

You can delete or block cookies at any time via your browser settings. Doing so will not affect your ability to browse the site.

Bird Bingo uses your browser’s local storage instead of cookies, and keeps a copy of the game on your device so it works offline. This stays on your device until you clear it:

To remove it, clear this site’s data in your browser settings. You will lose your Bird Bingo progress.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate data
• Erase your data (“right to be forgotten”)
• Object to how we process your data
• Withdraw consent at any time (where we rely on consent)
• Lodge a complaint with the UK supervisory authority — the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113

To exercise any of these rights, email us at info@wildsmiths.co.uk. We will respond within one month.

Third-party services

We use the following third-party services which may process personal data on our behalf:

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last revised. Continued use of the site after changes have been made constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Last updated: 1 November 2026