1. Who is the data controller?
This Way Up Distribution Ltd, a company registered in England & Wales, is the data controller for personal data collected through this site. Contact us at privacy@thiswayup.com.
2. What we collect and why
Browsing
When you visit thiswayup.com without an account we collect anonymised request logs (IP address, user agent, referrer, path) for security, abuse prevention, and error monitoring. We keep these for 30 days.
We also compute a rotating anonymous fingerprint (a salted hash of your IP and user agent) so we can rate-limit map interactions without setting a cookie. The salt rotates and we do not store the raw IP alongside the hash.
Accounts
Sign-in is handled by Clerk. Clerk stores your email, sign-in provider identifier (Google/Apple/etc.), display name, and profile image if you provide one. We receive a Clerk user ID and cache the email against it.
Property pins and postcards
When you drop a pin or send a postcard we store:
- the postal address you selected (postcode, UPRN, and full address);
- the message you wrote on the postcard;
- the outward postcode of any anonymous sender fingerprint that helped us throttle abuse;
- a claim code that lets the recipient reply through the platform.
Recipients receive only the message and a way to reply. The sender remains anonymous unless they choose to reveal themselves.
Payments
Payment for postcards and subscriptions is processed by Stripe. We never see your full card number. Stripe returns a customer ID, a subscription status, and a payment intent identifier, which we store against your account.
Fulfilment
Postcards are printed and posted by Stannp. When we dispatch a postcard we share the recipient’s postal address, the sender’s message, and a reference so we can reconcile printing reports. We do not share your identity with Stannp.
Analytics
We use privacy-preserving product analytics (Vercel Analytics + Sentry for errors). These see aggregate page views and error traces, not individual personal data. We do not run advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
3. Legal bases
Under UK GDPR we rely on the following lawful bases:
- Contract — to run your account, dispatch the postcards you order, and provide replies.
- Legitimate interests — to prevent abuse, secure the service, and improve the product. We have documented the balancing test and are happy to share it on request.
- Legal obligation — to keep transactional records for the period required by HMRC and the Companies Act.
4. Who we share data with
The subprocessors we currently use are:
- Clerk — authentication (US & EU).
- Stripe — payment processing (UK/EEA).
- Neon — managed PostgreSQL database (EU-central).
- Vercel — hosting and edge network (global).
- Cloudflare — DNS, CDN, and R2 object storage (global).
- Sentry — error monitoring (EU region).
- Stannp — postcard printing and dispatch (UK).
We do not sell personal data. Where a subprocessor is outside the UK we rely on the UK addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or an equivalent transfer mechanism.
5. How long we keep it
- Request logs: 30 days.
- Pins and postcard messages: until you delete your account, then a further 30 days for backup rotation.
- Transactional records (invoices, payment records): 6 years, as required for tax purposes.
- Property opt-outs: retained indefinitely against the postal address, so a property that opted out stays opted out.
6. Your rights
You have the right to:
- ask what personal data we hold about you (subject access);
- correct anything that is wrong;
- ask us to delete your data, subject to the retention rules above and our legal obligations;
- ask us to export your data in a machine-readable format;
- object to processing based on legitimate interests;
- withdraw any consent you have given.
To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@thiswayup.com. We respond within 30 days as required under UK GDPR.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe we have mishandled your data.
7. Cookies
We use only strictly necessary cookies: a session cookie set by Clerk when you sign in, and a small preferences cookie for map settings. We do not set marketing or third-party tracking cookies. Because we set only strictly necessary cookies, no consent banner is required under PECR.
8. Security
All traffic is served over HTTPS. Passwords are handled by Clerk and never reach our servers. The database sits behind Neon’s VPC with row-level access controls. Backups are encrypted at rest. Access to production systems is limited to a small number of employees and audited.
9. Changes
If we change this policy in a way that materially affects your rights we will notify signed-in users by email and post the previous version’s date at the top of the document.
10. Contact
Privacy questions or requests: privacy@thiswayup.com.