Privacy notice
Public Ledger keeps as little about you as it can. This page says what we keep when you follow something, send something in or look up your MP, why, for how long, and how to have it deleted.
- Reading the site stores nothing about you: no tracking cookies, no analytics scripts, no ads.
- If you follow something, we keep your email address or Telegram chat, encrypted, and what you follow. Nothing else.
- We never show who follows what, and we never share or sell our lists.
- You can delete it all yourself, at any time, from any alert email or with /stop in Telegram.
Who we are
Public Ledger is run by Empatiq Limited, Pavel Guzhikov's company, independently of any party. Empatiq Limited is the controller of your personal data: it decides what is collected and why, and is responsible for it.
Empatiq Limited has no clients or contracts with government, political parties or any body this site tracks. If that ever changes, it will be declared here.
Write to privacy@ledgergov.uk about anything on this page.
Empatiq Limited is a private limited company registered in England, company number 13746700, registered office 66 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NA. Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (registration number to follow).
What we keep, and why
Alerts by email
Your email address, encrypted; what you follow; how often you want alerts; and when you agreed, to which version of the consent text. Nothing else.
We use it only to send the alerts you asked for. Nothing is followed until you press Confirm in the email we send, and adding more later is confirmed the same way. What you follow can reveal your political opinions, so we treat it as sensitive.
Alerts on Telegram
Your Telegram chat number, encrypted; what you follow; and when you agreed.
Telegram also sends us your first name and username with each message. We do not keep them.
Sending in a promise or evidence
What you send: the link, the words, who said them, the date and the time in a video. If you give them, your email address, encrypted, and a name to credit you by.
Editors use it to check the promise against its source. Your email gets a receipt and one update with their decision, then we delete it. Your credit name appears on the card if it is published. Our server saves a copy of the link at the Internet Archive and may ask Anthropic's Claude to suggest card details; neither gets your email or name.
Your MP
Nothing. We use your postcode once to find your constituency, then forget it.
Our server asks postcodes.io, so the postcode is never stored, logged or put in a web address. Names you type go to UK Parliament's data service the same way. We count only whether a search used a postcode or a name, and whether it found someone.
Using the site
Daily counts of what happens, such as how many follows started by email. They carry no IP address, no ids and nothing you typed.
Forms use a small puzzle your browser solves, which sets no cookies. To stop one connection flooding a form, we keep a scrambled code made from your IP address with a random key that changes every day. The key and the codes are deleted the next day, after which nobody can link them to you.
Applying to be an editor
What you write to editors@ledgergov.uk: your name, your email address, what you tell us about yourself, and any party membership or political role you declare.
We use it only to consider your application. We ask about party membership so that no editor ever approves a card about their own party; we do not publish it unless you agree. If you do not join, we delete it within 6 months.
The editors' area
Editors sign in with a shared password. They see submissions, never email addresses.
Failed sign-ins are counted with the same daily scrambled code, to slow down anyone guessing the password.
Our lawful basis
- Alerts: your explicit consent (UK GDPR Articles 6(1)(a) and 9(2)(a)), because what you follow can reveal political opinions. You can withdraw it at any time, as easily as you gave it.
- Your email and credit name with a submission: your consent (Article 6(1)(a)).
- An application to be an editor: our legitimate interest in choosing editors (Article 6(1)(f)); for any party membership or political role you declare, your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)), which you give by telling us.
- What you send in, Your MP searches, spam checks, usage counts and hosting logs: our legitimate interest in running a useful, secure site (Article 6(1)(f)). Each uses as little as it can, and none is used to profile you or decide anything about you.
Who else handles your data
These services run parts of Public Ledger for us. None may use your data for anything else.
- Vercel hosts the site.US company; our code runs in London. Every request, including your IP address, in its own logs.
- Neon runs our database.US company; the data is stored in London. Everything we keep. Addresses are encrypted before they reach it.
- Resend sends our emails.US company; sends from Ireland. Your email address and each email, which names what you follow.
- Telegram carries the bot's messages, if you choose Telegram.Its own servers, in several countries. Your chat and what you follow. Telegram runs your account under its own privacy policy.
- GitHub holds our code and runs the alerts job.US company, part of Microsoft. Addresses while alerts go out, and accepted submissions as draft changes, with your credit name if you asked for one.
Five more, for submissions, Your MP and email to us
- Anthropic its Claude model suggests card details to editors.US company. What you sent and the source's text. Never your email or credit name.
- Internet Archive saves a public copy of a link you send.US non-profit. The link only, sent from our server.
- postcodes.io finds the constituency for a postcode.UK service (to confirm). The postcode only, sent from our server, never with your IP address.
- UK Parliament provides the data about MPs.UK. A name you type into Your MP, sent from our server.
- Cloudflare runs our domain and forwards email sent to our addresses (such as privacy@ and editors@) to our mailbox.US company. Emails you send us, including applications to be an editor.
Where data leaves the UK, it goes to Ireland, which UK law treats as safe, or to US companies, under the UK–US data bridge or the UK's standard contract clauses. (to confirm)
How long we keep it
- Your alerts: your address and what you follow
- Until you stop your alerts or delete your data
- A sign-up or an addition nobody confirmed
- 7 days
- Which alert went to which subscriber
- 35 days
- Your email with a submission
- Until the editors decide, 90 days at most. Not kept at all if someone sent it first
- Your credit name
- On the card for good if it is published. Deleted if the editors turn it down
- What you sent in a submission
- Kept as the editors' record. We have not set an end date yet (to confirm)
- An application to be an editor
- Deleted within 6 months if you do not join. If you do, kept while you are an editor and deleted 6 months after you stop
- Scrambled codes made from your IP address, for rate limits
- Deleted at the next daily clean-up after the day ends: within about 28 hours
- Your postcode
- Not kept at all
- Daily usage counts
- Kept. They hold no personal data
- The testers' password cookie, if the site asks for one
- 30 days, in your browser
- Copies in database backups and our providers' logs
- A short time after you delete, until they expire (to confirm)
The database and the clean-up job delete for real: when you delete, your address and everything you follow go at once. Unconfirmed sign-ups go after 7 days and submitters' emails after 90 days at most, even if nobody acts.
Your rights
You can see, change and delete what we keep. Most of it you can do yourself, straight away:
- See or change what you follow
- Open the link in any alert email. On Telegram, send /list or /unfollow.
- Stop alerts, delete everything and withdraw consent
- Press “Stop all alerts and delete my data” on that page, use the unsubscribe link in any email, or send /stop on Telegram.
- Delete your email from a submission
- Open the link in your receipt and press the button.
- Anything else
- A copy of your data, a correction, or an objection to how we use it: write to privacy@ledgergov.uk. We reply within one month, and may ask you to show the address is yours.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, write to privacy@ledgergov.uk first and we will try to put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
Questions
Can anyone see what I follow?
No. We never show who follows what. A count of followers appears only once 50 or more people follow something, and nothing at all is shown below that.
Do you sell or share your lists?
No, never. There are no ads. The services named on this page handle data only to run Public Ledger for us.
Do you use cookies or tracking?
No tracking cookies, no analytics scripts and no tracking in emails. The spam check runs in your browser and sets no cookies. Your share keeps your choices in your own browser, and the salary you type never leaves it.
Last changed 8 Oct 2026. When the words you agree to before following change, we record which version each person agreed to.