Privacy and Cookie Policy
Who we are
politics.co.uk is published by Pixelwire Media Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, company number 16231554, registered office 75 Westow Hill, c/o Chandler & Georges, London SE19 1TX.
We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office under registration reference ZB959401.
For anything to do with your personal information, contact editor@politics.co.uk
What this policy covers
This policy covers the politics.co.uk website, including reading articles, creating an account, playing Politicle, building a Fantasy Cabinet, saving flashcards, searching the MP database, finding your MP by postcode, and subscribing to our newsletter.
It does not cover other websites we link to. When you follow a link to a third-party site, that site’s own privacy policy applies.
Information we collect
When you create an account
Your email address, the username or display name you choose, and an encrypted version of your password. We never store your password in a form anyone can read.
We record when you registered and when you last signed in, and we send a verification email to confirm the address is yours.
When you use the site’s tools
If you are signed in, we save what you do in our games and study tools so you can pick up where you left off:
- Politicle — which puzzles you have played, whether you solved them, how many guesses you took, and your current and longest streak.
- Fantasy Cabinet — the cabinets you build and save, including the name you give each one.
- Flashcards — the cards and decks you save for later.
If you are not signed in, these are kept in your browser only and never reach us.
When you look up your MP
You can enter a postcode to find the MP for that constituency. We send the postcode to postcodes.io, a free open-data lookup service maintained by Ideal Postcodes (IDDQD Limited), to resolve it to a constituency. We do not store the postcode against your account and we do not keep a record of individual lookups.
When you contact us or write to us
If you email us, submit a form, or send a letter, we keep the message and your contact details so we can reply and keep a record of the correspondence.
When you subscribe to our newsletter
Your email address, the date you subscribed, and whether you open or click our emails. This is handled by Mailchimp on our behalf.
Automatically, as you browse
Our host records standard server log information — IP address, browser and device type, the pages requested, and the date and time. This is used to keep the site running and secure.
If you consent to analytics cookies, Google Analytics also collects information about how you use the site: pages viewed, roughly how long you spend, the site you arrived from, and approximate location derived from your IP address. Google Analytics does not record your full IP address.
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
UK GDPR requires us to have a lawful basis for everything we do with your information. Here is ours, purpose by purpose.
| What we do | Information used | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Run your account and sign you in | Email, username, password hash | Contract — you asked us to provide an account |
| Verify your email address | Email, verification code | Contract |
| Save your Politicle record, cabinets and flashcards | Game and study data, account ID | Contract — these features are the service you signed up for |
| Show a leaderboard or shared cabinet | Username, score or cabinet | Contract, and consent where you choose to publish |
| Send the newsletter | Email, engagement data | Consent — you can withdraw it at any time |
| Reply to your messages | Contact details, message content | Legitimate interests — answering people who write to us |
| Keep the site secure and working | Server logs, IP address | Legitimate interests — protecting the site from abuse and fault |
| Understand how the site is used | Analytics data | Consent — analytics cookies only run if you agree |
| Look up an MP from a postcode | Postcode, sent once to our lookup provider | Legitimate interests — providing the feature you asked for |
| Meet legal and regulatory obligations | Whatever the obligation requires | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered whether our interest is outweighed by your rights, and concluded it is not. You can ask us for that assessment, and you can object — see Your rights.
Cookies and similar technologies
A cookie is a small file stored on your device. Some are necessary for the site to work; the rest only run if you agree.
When you first visit, you will see a banner asking whether you accept non-essential cookies. Accepting and rejecting are equally easy, and nothing non-essential runs until you choose. You can change your mind at any time from the pop up on page.
Strictly necessary
These keep you signed in, remember your cookie choice, and protect forms against abuse. They do not need your consent because the site cannot work without them.
Name | Set by | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| politics.co.uk | Remembers whether you accepted or rejected non-essential cookies | 1 year |
| politics.co.uk | Keeps you signed in and confirms the session is genuine | Session, or 14 days if you tick “remember me” |
| politics.co.uk | Remembers display preferences for signed-in users | 1 year |
| politics.co.uk | Checks your browser accepts cookies before sign-in | Session |
| politics.co.uk | Links form submissions to your session | Session |
| WP Engine | Serving cached pages and blocking malicious traffic | 2 weeks |
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and understand which articles and tools people use. These cookies only run if you accept them. We use Google’s consent mode, which means the analytics tag loads in a state where it stores nothing until you agree.
Name | Set by | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tells one visitor’s browser apart from another | 2 years | |
| Keeps track of a single visit to the site | 2 years |
Analytics tells us how the site is used in aggregate. We do not use it to identify you or to build a profile for advertising.
Embedded content
Articles sometimes include content hosted elsewhere — for example video or social media posts. These providers can set their own cookies once the content loads. We do not load embedded content until you have accepted the relevant cookies.
[Confirm this is actually true of the build before publishing. If embeds load regardless of consent, either change the site or change this paragraph.]
Things we store in your browser
Some features remember things on your device without using cookies. This information never reaches our servers unless you are signed in, and you can clear it at any time through your browser settings.
Stored as | What it remembers | Kept until |
|---|---|---|
| Today’s Politicle progress, so refreshing does not lose your guesses | You clear it |
| That you have already seen the how-to-play panel | You clear it |
| A Fantasy Cabinet in progress, before you save it | You clear it |
| Whether study mode is switched on | You clear it |
| Where you had scrolled a navigation bar | End of your browsing session |
These are strictly necessary for the features to work as you asked, so they do not require consent.
Strictly necessary
These keep you signed in, remember your cookie choice, and protect forms against abuse. They do not need your consent because the site cannot work without them.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4 to count visits and understand which articles and tools people use. These cookies only run if you accept them. We use Google’s consent mode, which means the analytics tag loads in a state where it stores nothing until you agree.
Analytics tells us how the site is used in aggregate. We do not use it to identify you or to build a profile for advertising.
Embedded content
Articles sometimes include content hosted elsewhere — for example video or social media posts. These providers can set their own cookies once the content loads.
Who we share information with
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers.
We use these suppliers, who process information on our instructions and under contract:
| Supplier | What for | Where |
|---|---|---|
| WP Engine | Website hosting and server logs | UK |
| Google (Analytics) | Website analytics, if you consent | US and other countries |
| Mailchimp (Intuit) | Sending the newsletter | US |
| postcodes.io (Ideal Postcodes / IDDQD Limited) | Resolving a postcode to a constituency | UK |
Account and verification emails are sent by the website itself, through our hosting provider. We do not use a separate email delivery service for them.
We may also disclose information where the law requires it, where we need to establish or defend a legal claim, or to a buyer if the business is sold.
Sponsored content. Some articles are press releases or comment published on behalf of organisations that pay for the placement. These are labelled. The organisation supplies the content; it does not receive your personal information from us.
Sending information outside the UK
Some of our suppliers are based in the United States or store data there. When information leaves the UK we rely on the UK’s adequacy regulations where they apply, or on the International Data Transfer Addendum to the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses, together with additional safeguards where needed.
You can ask us for details of the safeguards in place for a particular transfer.
How long we keep things
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account details | While your account is open, then deleted when you close it |
| Politicle record, cabinets, saved flashcards | While your account is open; deleted with it |
| Newsletter subscription | Until you unsubscribe, then 14 months for suppression |
| Correspondence | 2 years after the matter is closed |
| Server logs | 90 days |
| Analytics data | 14 months |
If you close your account, everything we hold about you in the account is deleted, including your game record, saved cabinets and flashcards. Some information may remain in backups for a short period before those are overwritten.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to:
- ask what we hold about you, and get a copy
- have inaccurate information corrected
- have information deleted
- restrict how we use it, or object to our using it
- receive information you gave us in a portable format
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent
Exercising these rights is free, and we will respond within one month.
Doing it yourself. You can delete your account from your account settings. We email you a code to confirm it is really you, and once confirmed the deletion is immediate and permanent. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter using the link at the foot of every email, and change your cookie choices at any time.
Asking us. For anything else, email editor@politics.co.uk.
If you are unhappy. Tell us first and we will try to put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, or call 0303 123 1113.
Children and young people
Parts of this site are built for students — the flashcards, education resources and history material are designed with A-level and GCSE politics in mind.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS, passwords are stored hashed, and access to the systems holding personal information is limited to people who need it. No website can promise perfect security, but we take it seriously and we will tell you and the ICO about a breach where the law requires it.
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when the site changes or the law does. The date at the top shows when it last changed. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we will tell account holders by email.
