Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Nursery Finder ("we", "us", or "our") operates an online directory helping parents and carers discover nurseries and early years providers (the "Service"). We are the data controller for personal data processed in connection with the Service.

If you have questions or requests about this policy, please contact us at hi@nurseryfinder.co.uk.

2. Scope

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect personal data when you use the Service, contact us, submit or manage a Nursery listing, submit reviews, subscribe to communications, or otherwise interact with us.

We use cookies on our website. Insofar as those cookies are not strictly necessary for the provision of our website and services, we will ask you to consent to our use of cookies when you first visit our website.

3. Personal data we collect

• Information you provide: contact details (such as name, email address and telephone number) when you contact us, submit enquiries, or submit reviews; details provided by Nursery providers for listings (for example, descriptions, photos, staff names/roles where applicable); and preferences if you subscribe to communications.
• Usage and device data: information about how you access and use the Service, including IP address, browser type and version, device identifiers, operating system, pages viewed, referral source, length of visit, page views, website navigation paths, referring/exit pages, and timestamps. We may also derive approximate geographical location from your IP address.
• Cookies and similar technologies: we use necessary cookies to operate the Service and may use analytics cookies to understand usage and improve performance. See the Cookies section below for more details.
• Saved items: features like "Saved Nurseries" may store information locally on your device (for example, using your browser's local storage). This information is controlled on your device and is not transmitted to us unless you explicitly share it.
• Account data: if you create an account, we collect your name, email address, and any other information you provide during registration or account management.

4. How and why we use personal data

We may process your personal data for the following purposes:

• to provide, maintain, and improve the Service, including hosting and presenting listings;
• to respond to enquiries and provide customer support;
• to enable Nursery providers to submit and manage listings and related content;
• to process, moderate, and publish reviews submitted by users;
• to verify the authenticity of reviews and prevent fraudulent submissions;
• to contact reviewers for verification purposes;
• to pass enquiries and reviews to relevant nurseries so they can respond;
• to monitor usage, analyse trends, and improve the website and services;
• to prevent fraud or abuse and keep the Service secure;
• to send service communications and, where permitted, marketing about our Service;
• to comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms.

5. Legal bases (UK GDPR)

We rely on the following legal bases, depending on the activity:

• Consent: for optional analytics cookies, for sending marketing communications, and for processing any special category data (such as health-related information) you may include in enquiries.
• Performance of a contract: to process provider submissions, respond to your requests, and manage your account.
• Legitimate interests: to operate and improve the Service, process and publish reviews, prevent fraud and abuse, verify review authenticity, provide website users with valid and legitimate reviews to make informed decisions about selecting care providers, enable parents and carers to leave feedback to nurseries, enable nurseries to receive feedback and respond to enquiries, and communicate with you about similar services where lawful. We balance our interests against your rights and expectations.
• Legal obligation: to comply with applicable laws and regulatory requests.

7. Enquiries data

When you send enquiries or request information through nursery profile pages, we collect "enquiries data" which may include your name, email address, telephone number, and postal address.

This data may be processed for the purposes of:

• Sending your enquiry to the relevant nursery so they can respond to you
• Sending you a copy of your enquiry
• Contacting you to help you find a nursery
• Asking if you have found a nursery
• Inviting you to submit a review
• Sending you surveys
• Signing you up to receive our email newsletter (with your consent)

The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests: to provide website users with the ability to send enquiries to nurseries, to enable nurseries to receive and respond to these enquiries, to help website users find a nursery, and to enable website users to give feedback to nurseries.

Enquiries data is retained for a maximum period of 3 years from the date of submission.

8. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small text files placed on your device. We use the following categories of cookies:

• Essential cookies: required for the website to function properly. They enable core functionalities like security, performance optimisation, and basic site operation. We do not seek your consent before we place these cookies and you cannot disable them.
• Analytics cookies: help us understand how visitors interact with our website. They help us track which pages are visited, how long users stay on the site, how they interact with the site and where they come from. We use this data to improve our service.
• Marketing cookies: used to make our website and any advertising displayed on it more relevant to you and your interests.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Blocking all cookies may affect site functionality.

9. Sharing your information

We may share your personal data in the following circumstances:

• With nurseries: we pass enquiries, review content, and (where applicable) reviewer names to nurseries so they can respond and address feedback. Where we disclose your personal data to a nursery, this may include any of their connected head office, subsidiary, franchisor, or franchisee. If a nursery is acquired by a third party, your personal data may be disclosed to that third party.
• Service providers: we may share personal data with trusted vendors who perform services on our behalf, such as hosting, analytics, email delivery, data storage, backup, and IT support. They may only process personal data per our instructions.
• Public content: information provided by Nurseries for listings and approved reviews may be published on the Service and visible to visitors.
• Social media: reviews and other content may be reposted or promoted on our social media platforms.
• Legal and compliance: we may disclose information if required by law, in response to valid legal requests, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
• Business transfers: if we undergo a reorganisation, merger, or sale, personal data may be transferred as part of that transaction.
• Professional advisers: we may disclose personal data to our insurers and/or professional advisers for obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, or obtaining professional advice.

10. International transfers

Where personal data is transferred outside the UK/EEA, we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, transfers to countries that have been identified as providing adequate protection for personal data, or other mechanisms approved by regulators.

You acknowledge that personal data that you submit for publication through our website or services may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such personal data by others.

11. Data retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including to provide the Service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Specific retention periods are:

• Usage data: retained for a maximum of 50 months
• Transaction data: retained for a maximum of 6 years
• Nursery listings data: retained while published and for up to 6 years following deletion from the website
• Enquiries data: retained for a maximum of 3 years from date of submission
• Reviews data (published): retained for as long as the review is published
• Reviews data (unpublished): retained for a maximum of 6 years from date of submission
• Account data: retained for a maximum of 3 years from date of last login unless connected to a listing
• Email newsletter data: retained as long as the subscriber wishes to continue receiving the newsletter

Notwithstanding the above, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

12. Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the following principal rights:

• The right to access: you have the right to confirmation as to whether we process your personal data and, where we do, access to the personal data together with certain additional information.
• The right to rectification: you have the right to have any inaccurate personal data about you rectified and, taking into account the purposes of the processing, to have any incomplete personal data completed.
• The right to erasure: in some circumstances you have the right to the erasure of your personal data without undue delay.
• The right to restrict processing: in some circumstances you have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data.
• The right to object to processing: you have the right to object to our processing of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation, but only to the extent that the legal basis for the processing is legitimate interests.
• The right to data portability: to the extent that the legal basis for processing is consent or performance of a contract, and such processing is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
• The right to withdraw consent: to the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.
• The right to complain to a supervisory authority: if you consider that our processing of your personal information infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office.

To exercise your rights, please contact us at hi@nurseryfinder.co.uk. We may ask for information to verify your identity. We aim to respond within one month.

13. Children

The Service is intended for use by adults. Do not provide personal data about children unless you are legally authorised to do so and it is necessary (for example, as a Nursery provider describing services, or as a parent describing your child's experience in a review). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16.

If we have reason to believe that we hold personal data of a person under the age of 16 in our databases, we will delete that personal data.

14. Security

We will take appropriate technical and organisational precautions to secure your personal data and to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal data.

We will store all your personal data on secure servers. The following personal data will be stored by us in encrypted form: password(s).

Data relating to your enquiries that is sent from your web browser to our web server, or from our web server to your web browser, will be protected using encryption technology.

You acknowledge that the transmission of unencrypted (or inadequately encrypted) data over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

You should ensure that your password is not susceptible to being guessed, whether by a person or a computer program. You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing our website confidential and we will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to our website).

15. Complaints

If you have concerns about our use of your personal data, please contact us first at hi@nurseryfinder.co.uk.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). You can contact the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/ or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.

16. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page indicates when the latest changes were made.

You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy. We may notify you of significant changes to this policy by email or through displaying a message in your account.

Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect indicates your acceptance of the updated policy.

17. Contact

For any questions about this policy or your personal data, please contact us at hi@nurseryfinder.co.uk.