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Privacy policy

Last updated

Who we are

Club Camping is run by VW Owners Club trading as Club Camping (“we”). We are the data controller for the personal information described here.

Address: Club Camping, Unit 162240, PO Box 7169, Poole, BH15 9EL
Email: [email protected]

ICO registration number: to be added.

The short version

  • Google Analytics 4 loads only after you press Accept. Until you choose, and if you reject, Google’s code doesn’t load.
  • We set one cookie of our own for visitors, cc_consent, when you press Accept or Reject. It holds your choice (“granted” or “denied”) for 6 months. If you reject, that cookie in your browser is the only record of your choice: we keep no copy on our servers.
  • Our servers keep standard logs, including your IP address, for 8 weeks, for security.
  • We only send the newsletter if you sign up and confirm by email, and you can unsubscribe from any email.
  • We don’t sell personal information.

What we collect now

When you visit the site

Our web server records each request: your IP address, the date and time, the page you asked for, the page you came from, and your browser type. We don’t record what you type into our search box: searches are logged without your search words. We use them to keep the site secure and working, and to block attacks. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: running a secure website. We keep these logs for 8 weeks, then delete them.

Our website runs on servers we rent from Hetzner Online GmbH in Helsinki, Finland.

We use Cloudflare to protect and speed up the site. Cloudflare handles your request on its way to us, so it processes your IP address and request details on our behalf. Cloudflare, Inc. is based in the United States and may process this information there.

Maps

Campsite and place pages show a map image from Mapbox (Mapbox, Inc., based in the United States). Your browser fetches the image straight from Mapbox, so Mapbox receives your IP address, your browser type and the location the map shows. If you tap “Show map”, the interactive map loads more map data from Mapbox in the same way, and Mapbox may collect usage data about the map. We don’t send Mapbox anything else. See Mapbox’s privacy policy.

When you follow a link to a shop

Some pages link to products on Amazon and to TentBox. These links go through our own address first (it starts with /go/), where we count the click and then send you on. For each click we record the time, which link it was and the page it was on, the kind of device (for example phone or desktop), whether the click looks automated, and a short code made from your IP address (your IPv4 address, or your IPv6 network). The code is made with a secret key that changes every day, so it can’t be turned back into your address and can’t link your clicks from one day to the next. We use it only to spot automated clicking. We don’t store your IP address and we don’t set cookies. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: counting clicks fairly and stopping click fraud.

Amazon links then take you to Amazon.co.uk, where Amazon’s privacy notice applies. TentBox links take you through Impact (Impact Tech, Inc., based in the United States), the network that runs TentBox’s affiliate programme, and then to TentBox’s website. Impact and TentBox record the visit and may set cookies on their own websites so that a purchase can be credited to us; their privacy policies apply there. We pass them only a label saying which part of our site the link was on, never anything about you.

If you email us

We keep your email and our reply so we can deal with what you asked. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: answering you. We keep correspondence for up to 2 years after our last contact, unless we need it longer for a legal reason.

Our automatic emails (password resets, alerts and sign-up confirmations) are sent through Brevo (Sendinblue SAS), which stores this information in the EU. Brevo logs when an email is opened and which links in it are clicked, in anonymised form, without linking them to the recipient’s email address.

If you help run the site

For the few people who run Club Camping, we keep a name, email address, password (stored scrambled, never in plain text) and login sessions.

Information about campsites

Our campsite pages describe businesses. The information comes from OpenStreetMap, from campsites’ own websites and from campsite owners, and may include a business phone number or website. Some campsites are run by individuals, so this can count as personal information. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: giving campers accurate information about where they can stay. If you run a campsite and want something corrected or removed, contact us.

To read campsite websites, we use an AI service from Anthropic, which is based in the United States. We remove email addresses and phone numbers from the page text before it’s sent. We don’t store the page text, only the facts we find, a short quote as evidence, and the page address.

Backups

We keep encrypted backups of our database and site files for up to 6 months, with Backblaze, in its EU data centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Server logs aren’t included in backups.

If you use our contact form

We store what you send (your name, email address, topic, any campsite you name and your message), the time, your browser’s description (its “user agent”) and a scrambled code made from the first part of your network address, which changes every day and can’t be turned back into your address. We use the code only to stop one network sending too many messages. We send ourselves a copy of each message through Brevo. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: answering you. We delete messages after 2 years, and anything we mark as spam after 30 days.

Spam protection

Our contact form, owner updates and newsletter sign-up use Cloudflare Turnstile to check that a person, not a program, is sending them. Turnstile runs in your browser when the form is shown and sends Cloudflare information about your browser and device, and your IP address. On the newsletter, this happens on the second step, not in the form at the bottom of each page. Cloudflare uses it only to tell people from programs, not to track you or for advertising. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: keeping our forms free of spam. See Cloudflare’s Turnstile privacy addendum.

Analytics

If you accept analytics cookies, we use Google Analytics 4 from Google Ireland Limited to see which pages are used, how visitors arrive and roughly where they are (country and region). Google receives your IP address, details of your browser and device and the pages you visit, and sets cookies to recognise your browser on later visits. Google Analytics 4 doesn’t store your IP address. Google may process this information in the United States. We don’t send Google your name or email address, and we turn off Google’s advertising features (Google signals and ad personalisation). Our legal basis is your consent.

Until you choose, and if you reject, Google’s code doesn’t load at all. You can change your choice at any time from “Cookie settings” at the bottom of every page. See our cookie policy for the cookies and how long they last.

If you update a campsite listing

We keep your name, your role at the campsite, your email address, your phone number if you give one, the changes you send and anything you write in the “anything else” box. We also keep the time, your confirmation that you own, manage or work at the campsite, your browser’s description (its “user agent”) and a scrambled code made from the first part of your network address, which changes every day and can’t be turned back into your address.

We email you a link through Brevo to confirm your address. If you don’t confirm within 24 hours the link stops working, and we delete your update after 7 days. We send ourselves a copy of each confirmed update through Brevo. We check every update before anything changes, and we may ask for something that shows you’re connected to the campsite.

We never publish your name, email address, your own phone number or the “anything else” box. The facts we accept are published and shown as coming from the owner, with the date, including any campsite phone number or website you send. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: keeping listings accurate and stopping false changes.

We keep your details for 2 years after we decide on your update, whether we accept it or not. We then delete your name, role, email address, phone number, what you wrote in the “anything else” box, your browser’s description and the scrambled code. We keep the record of what we decided, and the facts we accepted stay on the listing.

If you sign up to our newsletter

The form at the bottom of our pages asks for your email address and a tick to say you agree. On the next page you can choose your area and the type of camping you tell us you do. Both are optional. We hold your address and tick for up to 30 minutes between those two steps.

We keep your email address, your area and the type of camping you tell us you do (if you give them), the page you signed up on, and a record of your consent: the wording you agreed to, when you ticked the box, when you confirmed, and the first part of your IP address. You confirm by clicking a link in an email (double opt-in). If you don’t confirm, the link stops working after 24 hours and we delete your details after 7 days. Our legal basis is your consent.

We send the newsletter with Brevo (Sendinblue SAS), our email provider, which handles your information for us as our processor and stores it in the EU. Brevo carries the confirmation email. You join our mailing list there only once you confirm: we then give Brevo your email address, your area, the type of camping you tell us you do, the page you signed up on and the date you confirmed. Our emails link only to Club Camping pages.

You can unsubscribe at any time from any email. If you unsubscribe, report one of our emails as spam, or your address stops working, we stop emailing you. We delete your details, including Brevo’s copy, 2 years later, or sooner if you ask. Encrypted backups can hold a copy for up to 6 months after that.

After that we keep one thing permanently: a scrambled code made from your address, with the reason we stopped. It isn’t your address, and we can’t read your address from it. We use it only to check that we don’t add you again by mistake. Our legal basis is legitimate interests: respecting your choice. You can sign up again yourself at any time with a new confirmation. If you reported us as spam, contact us first.

Who we share it with

Only the service providers named above (Hetzner, Cloudflare, Mapbox, Anthropic, Backblaze and Brevo, our email provider, which also sends the newsletter; Google only if you accept analytics cookies), and only so they can provide their service to us. We don’t sell personal information. We’ll share it with authorities only if the law requires us to.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

  • give you a copy of your personal information
  • correct it
  • delete it
  • limit how we use it
  • stop using it, where we rely on legitimate interests
  • send it to you or someone else in a common format, where that applies

Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Email [email protected]. It’s free, and we’ll reply within one month.

Complaints

If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your information, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or call 0303 123 1113.

Children

Club Camping isn’t aimed at children, and we don’t knowingly collect information from them.

Changes

If we change this policy, we’ll update it here and change the date at the top.