Privacy and cookies
Last updated 5 October 2026
Who we are
Excuse Me is run by Fold Digital Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 09898457). Fold Digital Ltd is responsible for the personal data described here and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office. Questions, corrections or requests: [email protected]. Post: Fold Digital Ltd, 31 Cattle Market Street, Norwich, NR1 3DY.
You don't need an account to use the site, and none of the forms ask for your name or email address.
What we collect and why
- Reports and nominations. When you file a report we store the pub name, postcode (if you give one) and the date. When you nominate a saint we store the pub name, postcode (if given) and your optional reason, up to 280 characters. These are public: they appear on the pub's page, in search and in the Hall of Saints. Don't put anything about yourself or anyone else in a nomination reason.
- Confirmations and flags. If you press “I had this here too” or flag a report, we record that against the report. Confirmation counts are shown publicly. Flags, and any reason you type with one, are not published; three flags take a report off the register for review.
- A hashed token instead of your IP address. Each of the above is stored with a one-way keyed hash (HMAC-SHA256, cut to 24 characters) of the IP address your request came from. We never store the IP address itself, and the token isn't published. It exists so one person can't confirm or flag the same report twice, and so we can spot and remove spam.
- Analytics, only if you accept. If you click “Accept” on the cookie banner, Google Analytics records which pages are viewed, roughly where from, and on what kind of device. It doesn't see anything you type into a form.
Our lawful basis for reports, nominations, confirmations, flags and the hashed token is legitimate interests: running a public register of pub pricing and keeping it free of spam and duplicate entries. For Google Analytics it is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
How long we keep it
We keep reports, nominations, confirmations and flags indefinitely, with their hashed tokens. Excuse Me is a public record of how pubs charge over time, and that record is only useful if it stays complete. Moderation hides an entry from the site; it doesn't delete it. If you want something you submitted removed, email us and we'll consider it against the public interest in keeping the record.
Google keeps Analytics data for 2 months, Google's default.
Cookies
Nothing is set until you make a choice, and rejecting is as easy as accepting.
- Your cookie choice: saved in your browser's local storage (
excuse-me.analytics-consent) so we don't ask on every page. It never leaves your device. - Google Analytics (
_gaand_ga_*cookies): set only after you click “Accept”. Until then the Google tag isn't loaded at all.
To change your mind, use “Cookie settings” in the footer. If you withdraw consent we delete the Google Analytics cookies and reload the page. The “Buy us a beer” button is a plain link to Buy Me a Coffee; it loads nothing from them and sets no cookies until you click it, at which point their own privacy policy applies.
Who else handles it
We don't sell or share your data. These services process it on our behalf:
- Vercel hosts the site. Like any web host it handles your IP address and browser details to serve each page.
- Turso hosts the database that holds the register.
- Google provides Google Analytics, only if you accept it.
Some of these providers are US companies and may process data outside the UK. Those transfers rely on the UK–US data bridge (the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework) where the company is certified under it, and otherwise on the UK’s International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of personal data we hold about you, and ask us to correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, or stop using it (you can object to anything we do on the basis of legitimate interests). You can withdraw analytics consent at any time with “Cookie settings”.
Email [email protected]. Because we only hold a hashed token, not your name or IP address, tell us which reports or nominations are yours so we can find them. We'll reply within one month.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We'd appreciate the chance to sort it out first.