Privacy policy

Last updated 14 September 2026

PreparedBritain ("we", "us") is an independent UK publisher at preparedbritain.co.uk. This policy explains what personal data we collect, why, and the rights you have over it under UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).

Who we are

PreparedBritain is operated by Tom Calder. We are the data controller for the personal data described below. Contact: hello@preparedbritain.co.uk.

What we collect, and why

Email address — only when you sign up for our briefing, checklists or price/availability alerts. Alongside it we record which page and form you signed up from, the referring site, and any campaign tags on the link you arrived by. We use this to send you what you asked for and to understand which of our pages people find useful.
Kit-builder inputs — if you use our kit builder and ask for your checklist by email, we store the household numbers you entered (adults, children, pets, days) so the checklist we send is sized to them. Nothing else.
Tracker alerts — only if you press "Alert me when this changes" on one of our trackers and allow notifications. Your browser then creates a push subscription: a web address at your browser's push service (for Chrome, Google's; for Firefox, Mozilla's) and keys that let us send alerts to that browser. It contains no name or email address. We store it and use it only to send tracker alerts. Every alert goes to everyone who has turned alerts on, whichever tracker they started from. We also count each new subscription, with the tracker's name, in Vercel Web Analytics. To stop the alerts, block notifications for this site in your browser settings.
Usage analytics — we use Vercel Web Analytics, from our hosting provider Vercel, to count which pages people read and how they find them. It doesn't use cookies: Vercel tells visits apart using a hash (a scrambled code) made from your browser's request, and each visitor session is discarded after 24 hours. Each page view, and each click we count, may be stored with the time, the page's address (Vercel filters its query parameters), the address of the site that sent you, your approximate location (country, region and city), your device type, your operating system and browser with their versions, and the version of Vercel's script. Vercel records these counts anonymously, and we only see them added up. See our cookie notice for more.
Where a retailer click came from — when you click a link to a retailer or installer, we count the click with Vercel Web Analytics, along with the product and whether the link goes through Amazon, the Awin network or straight to the shop. We also count a one-word label for how you reached the page you clicked on, such as google, bing, chatgpt, social, email or none, so we can see which kinds of visit lead people to the products we recommend, and improve the pages and topics that help most. Your browser works the label out from the site that sent you and any campaign tag in the address you arrived at (ChatGPT, for example, adds utm_source=chatgpt.com), and keeps it only in the open page, never in a cookie or browser storage. If you've moved between pages on our site first, the label is usually internal, because your browser then reports our own page as where you came from. The label is never a web address. Like every Vercel count, it is stored with the details listed above, including the address of the site that sent you. We don't add it to the retailer's link, and we don't pass it to retailers or affiliate networks.
To turn the label off, press the button below. We then save one setting in your browser so we remember your choice, and nothing else. We also leave the label off if your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track. Turning it off doesn't stop the Vercel counts described above.
Server logs — our hosting provider (Vercel) records standard technical logs (IP address, request time, user agent) for security and reliability. These are retained briefly and automatically.

We do not run user accounts, we do not collect payment details, and we never buy, sell or rent personal data.

Lawful basis

Email signups are processed on the basis of consent — you can withdraw it at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email, or by writing to us. Tracker alerts are also sent on the basis of consent: you turn them on, and your browser asks your permission first. Block notifications for this site in your browser to withdraw it. Analytics and server logs are processed on the basis of our legitimate interest in running a secure, working website and improving it.

Where your data goes

Signup data and tracker-alert subscriptions are stored in our own lead-management system. Signup data is processed by the email delivery service we use to send you the briefing, and each tracker alert reaches you through your browser's push service. The website is hosted by Vercel Inc., which also provides our analytics and may process technical data outside the UK under standard contractual safeguards. We share personal data with no one else, other than where the law requires it.

Affiliate links

When you click a retailer or installer link on our site (Amazon, or merchants on the Awin network), those companies may set cookies and process your data under their own privacy policies. We only learn that a purchase or quote request happened — never who made it. See our affiliate disclosure.

How long we keep it

We keep your email address until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it, after which it is removed from our list. Vercel keeps our analytics for at least our plan's 12-month reporting window, and says it may keep them for longer.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, restrict or object to processing, and take your data elsewhere. Email hello@preparedbritain.co.uk and we will respond within one month. If you're unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Changes

If we change how we handle personal data, we'll update this page and the date at the top.