Privacy policy

Privacy policy

Last updated: 8 July 2026.

1.Who this policy covers

1.1.This policy explains how personal data is collected and used on factsarefriends.com, specifically through the petition at petition.html and the email updates sign-up at keep-in-touch.html and elsewhere on the site.

1.2.The data controller is L5 Executive Services Ltd (trading as "Facts Are Friends"), company number 08876449, registered office Blackdown Farm, Sandy Lane, Blackdown, Leamington Spa, England, CV32 6QS. Contact: quentin@factsarefriends.com.

2.What is collected, and why

2.1.Petition signatures. Full name, email address, and town or city if given. Used to verify the signature is genuine, to keep a record of support for the petition, to contact signers about the petition and what comes of it, and - only where a signer has separately ticked the box to allow it - to show their first name and town publicly on the petition page.

2.2.Email updates. Email address, and name if given. Used only to send occasional updates about #FactsAreFriends - new writing, book news, events. Signing up for updates is entirely separate from signing the petition, and each requires its own tick-box consent.

2.3.Nothing beyond what is described above is collected through these forms. No payment details, no phone number, no home address.

3.The legal basis for using this data

3.1.Consent, under UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a). Each form requires an affirmative tick-box before submission - nothing is pre-ticked, and each purpose (petition, or updates) has its own separate consent.

3.2.Consent can be withdrawn at any time by emailing quentin@factsarefriends.com. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything done with the data before that point.

4.Who this data is shared with

4.1.Form submissions are processed and stored by Netlify, Inc., the hosting provider for this website, acting as a data processor. Netlify's own privacy policy is at netlify.com/privacy. Netlify may process data outside the UK; where it does, it relies on its own published safeguards, including standard contractual clauses.

4.2.Where the petition form's spam-prevention challenge is used, Google reCAPTCHA also processes some technical data (such as IP address and browser information) to distinguish genuine signers from automated submissions. See Google's privacy policy.

4.3.This data is not sold, and is not shared with any other third party, except where the law requires it or where aggregated, anonymised petition totals are shared publicly (for example, "1,204 people have signed") without any individual's name or contact details attached.

4.4.Fonts on this site are loaded from Google Fonts, which may receive the visitor's IP address as a normal part of serving a web font - no personal data from the forms on this page is sent to Google Fonts.

5.How long this data is kept

5.1.Petition data is kept for as long as the petition and its follow-up remain active, and is reviewed for deletion once that concludes.

5.2.Email updates data is kept until the recipient unsubscribes or asks for it to be removed.

6.Rights

6.1.Under UK GDPR, anyone whose data is held has the right to ask for a copy of it, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, to object to or restrict how it is used, and to withdraw consent at any time. To exercise any of these, email quentin@factsarefriends.com.

6.2.There is also a right to complain to the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk, though it would be appreciated if any concern were raised directly first, so it can be put right.

7.Changes to this policy

7.1.This policy may be updated from time to time as the site develops. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last changed.