Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Flyercat is a hyperlocal advertising service that tells people about offers from independent businesses near them. This notice explains what we do with your personal data, and applies to our website at flyercat.com, our waitlist, and the Flyercat apps for consumers and businesses.

The data controller is Flyercat Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17206980, registered office 128 City Road, London EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom.

We are the controller for the data described here, which means we decide why and how it is processed. You can reach us about anything in this notice at info@flyercat.com.

We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer and have not appointed one. Enquiries go to the address above and are handled by our team directly.

2. The data we collect, and why

We only collect what we need for a specific purpose. We do not buy personal data from third parties, and we do not build profiles from data collected elsewhere.

From your postcode we derive an approximate location (a latitude and longitude for the postcode, not your address) and the outward part of the postcode, such as GU1. We use these to match you to nearby businesses at launch. We do not know your street address, and we never ask your browser for your precise location.

We also record the date and time you gave consent, and which page you gave it on, because we are required to be able to demonstrate that consent was given.

3. Data we collect automatically

When you submit the waitlist form we briefly process your IP address to rate-limit submissions and to run an anti-bot check. The IP address is not stored in our database and is not used to identify or locate you.

With your consent, we use analytics to understand how people move through the site — which pages they see, which links they click, and whether they complete the form. If you decline analytics, none of it is collected and the site works exactly as before. Full detail is in our Cookie Policy.

Our hosting provider keeps standard server logs, including IP addresses, for a short period for security and troubleshooting.

4. Business accounts

Everything above applies to you too. Registering a business adds the following, which we process to provide the service you have signed up for.

We geocode your business postcode to an approximate location, in the same way and through the same provider as for consumers, so we can match your adverts to nearby people.

Some of this is meant to be seen. Your business name, sector, location and the adverts you publish are shown to consumers using Flyercat — that is the point of the service. Your email address, phone number, company and VAT numbers, and your account details are not shown to anyone.

If you are a sole trader, details such as your business name, address and registration number may also be personal data about you. We treat them that way, and all the rights in section 9 apply to them.

Where you upload photographs of identifiable people, you are responsible for having their permission. Please don't upload images of customers or staff without it.

5. Our legal bases

UK GDPR requires us to have a lawful basis for each thing we do with your data. Ours are:

• Consent — sending you marketing emails and the launch-day text, and setting analytics cookies. You can withdraw consent at any time, and doing so is as easy as giving it. Withdrawing does not affect processing carried out beforehand.
• Contract — providing the Flyercat service to registered businesses and, after launch, to consumer account holders.
• Legitimate interests — keeping the service secure and preventing abuse of our forms, and understanding aggregate demand by area so we can decide where to launch. We have considered your rights and interests, and this processing is limited to what is necessary. You can object at any time.
• Legal obligation — where we must keep or disclose records under UK law.

6. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with other companies for their own marketing.

We do use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf, under contract and only on our instructions. They are:

We may also disclose personal data if we are legally required to, or to establish or defend legal claims. If the business is ever sold or reorganised, data may transfer to the buyer, who would remain bound by this notice.

7. Sending data outside the UK

Most of your data stays in the UK or the European Economic Area. Where a provider processes data in the United States, that transfer is covered by the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, or by the provider's certification under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

You can ask us for details of the safeguards in place for any particular provider.

8. How long we keep it

We keep personal data only for as long as it is doing the job it was collected for, and we review what we hold periodically to delete what we no longer need.

• Waitlist entries — until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them. Both erase the record rather than just flagging it, so nothing of yours is left behind.
• Marketing contacts — until you unsubscribe. Every email carries an unsubscribe link, and using it removes you from the mailing list and deletes your waitlist entry in the same step.
• Account data — for as long as the account exists. Deleting your account deletes your business, your adverts and your profile straight away.
• Analytics data — kept for a limited period in our analytics tool and never linked to your name or email address.
• Records we must keep by law, such as for tax, are kept for the period the law requires.

If you would like to know what we hold about you at any point, or want it removed, just ask — see section 9.

9. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

• Be told what we hold about you, and get a copy of it.
• Have inaccurate data corrected.
• Have your data deleted — for the waitlist this is immediate and unconditional; just ask.
• Restrict or object to how we use it, including objecting to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• Receive the data you gave us in a portable, machine-readable format.
• Withdraw consent at any time, without giving a reason.

Email info@flyercat.com and we will respond within one month. We will not charge you, and we will not ask why. If we need to confirm who you are before releasing data, we will ask for the minimum necessary.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk, or by calling 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first, but you do not have to contact us before going to the ICO.

10. Automated decisions and profiling

We do not make decisions about you by automated means that produce legal effects or similarly significantly affect you.

We do decide which offers to show you based on your approximate location and the preferences you have set. That determines what appears in the app; it does not affect your rights, your access to the service, or any price you pay.

11. Children

Flyercat is not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us their data, email info@flyercat.com and we will delete it.

12. Keeping data secure

Data is encrypted in transit using TLS and encrypted at rest by our database provider. Access to personal data is restricted to those who need it, and our database is not directly reachable from the public internet.

No system is completely secure. If a breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights, we will report it to the ICO within 72 hours and tell you directly where the risk is high.

13. Changes to this notice

If we change how we use your data in a way that materially affects you, we will email you before the change takes effect, and update the date at the top of this page. Minor clarifications will simply be published here.