Privacy notice

How Archenfield Community Environment Group uses personal information in this bird sightings website.

Who is responsible

Archenfield Community Environment Group (“the group”) decides how this information is used and is the data controller. To ask about your information, or to use any of your rights below, contact aceg.birders@gmail.com.

What we hold

• Your account: username, your name and email address if you or a coordinator entered them, and your password, which is stored only in a scrambled (hashed) form that nobody can read. Your email address, if you have one on file, is what you sign in with, and is also used to send you a link if you ask to reset a forgotten password.
• Your sightings: species, number, date and time, location on the map, place name and notes, with your name as the observer. Any photos you attach are stored too; we strip hidden location and camera data (EXIF, including GPS) from them before storing, and resize them, so the original file on your device is not what ends up on the site.
• Failed sign-ins: when a password is entered wrongly we briefly keep the username tried, the IP address and browser type, so that repeated guessing can be stopped. These records are deleted after 15 minutes. Successful sign-ins are not recorded.
• Cookies: two cookies that keep you signed in and protect forms from misuse. They are needed for the site to work. There are no advertising or tracking cookies and no analytics.
• Offline recording: the recording page can be opened with no signal, because your browser keeps a cached copy of it on your device. If you save a sighting while offline, it is held in your browser’s storage on that device until the site can send it, then removed from that storage.

“Use my location” on the recording form reads your device’s position only when you press it, and only to place the marker. It is saved only if you then save the sighting.

Why we use it

To run a shared record of birds seen in the group’s area, for members and for the group’s conservation work. The legal basis is the group’s legitimate interests in keeping that record and keeping the site secure. We do not sell your information or use it for marketing.

Who can see it

• Other members see your name alongside your sightings, and can download sightings as a spreadsheet.
• Protected species: other members see only an approximate area (roughly 7 by 11 km), with no place name, notes or photos. You and the coordinators see the exact details.
• Coordinators can see and change all records and accounts.
• The site is not public: only signed-in members can see sightings.

Services we use

• Fly.io hosts the website and its database on servers in London. Fly.io is a US company and acts only on the group’s instructions, under its data processing terms.
• OpenStreetMap: map images are loaded from OpenStreetMap’s servers, which see your IP address and the area of map you are viewing, as with any website you visit. They do not receive your sightings or account details.
• Gmail (Google): if you ask to reset your forgotten password, the email containing the reset link is sent via Google’s Gmail service, which sees your email address and name.

How long we keep it

Your account is kept while you are a member. Sightings are part of the group’s long-term record and are kept unless you ask for them to be removed. When you leave, a coordinator deletes your account and, as you prefer, either deletes your sightings or keeps them without your name. The hosting provider keeps backup copies of the database for a few days, and coordinators may keep occasional backups, so deleted information can take a short while to disappear completely.

Your rights

You can ask to see the information we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, or object to how we use it. You can correct or delete your own sightings yourself on this site at any time. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Last updated: 17 October 2026.