Privacy & Cookie Policy
Plain English, no legal fog: what we collect, why, and what you can do about it.
Who is responsible for your data
Best eBikes UK (bestebikes.uk) is operated by GK Tools Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 16434833). Registered office: 483 Green Lanes, London, N13 4BS, United Kingdom. GK Tools Ltd is the data controller for this site and is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office under registration number ZB899192.
For anything privacy-related — questions, requests, complaints — email support@bestebikes.uk.
What we collect and why
This site has no user accounts and no checkout. The personal data we handle is limited to:
- New-bike email alerts — your email address, if you join the list. We email you one confirmation link first, and nothing further is sent unless you click it (double opt-in), so an address can't be signed up by anyone but its owner. Once confirmed, used only to email you when new eBikes are added. Lawful basis: consent. Every email includes an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing stops the emails immediately.
- Price alerts — your email address and the bike you chose. Same confirmation-link opt-in as new-bike alerts. Once confirmed, used only to tell you when that bike's price drops. Lawful basis: consent, with the same one-click unsubscribe.
- Contribute and feedback forms — the name and email you choose to give (email is optional on both; a name is optional on contributions but, if given on a feedback suggestion, is shown publicly alongside it). Used to moderate submissions, credit you if you want, and reply if needed. Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in running an accurate, moderated catalogue.
- Anti-abuse measures — to keep voting and feedback fair we combine a random first-party cookie with your IP address and browser type into a one-way (SHA-256) hash, used to recognise repeat votes and comments from the same visitor. This is a pseudonymous repeat-visitor identifier, not literally anonymous — the inputs could in principle be correlated back to you — but the raw cookie value, IP address and browser string are not themselves stored in the feedback tables, only the resulting hash. Lawful basis: legitimate interest in preventing spam and vote manipulation.
- Usage analytics — see Cookies below. We also record which outbound buttons are clicked, tied to a random identifier stored in your browser, so we can see which catalogue, comparison, gear and coupon links are useful. This is not linked to your name or email.
- Server logs — like almost every website, our hosting keeps short-lived technical logs (IP address, pages requested) for security and troubleshooting. Lawful basis: legitimate interest.
We do not sell or rent personal data, and we do not use it for advertising profiles.
Cookies and similar technologies
What this site actually stores in your browser:
| Name | Type | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics cookies | Anonymous visitor statistics (IP addresses are anonymised) | Up to 2 years |
PHPSESSID | First-party session cookie | Session state (including CSRF protection) for the feedback and contribute forms | Session — cleared when you close your browser or the session expires |
beb_feedback_fp | First-party cookie | Prevents duplicate votes and spam on the feedback board | 1 year |
theme | localStorage | Remembers your light/dark theme choice | Until you clear it |
bb_sid | localStorage | Random ID so outbound-click statistics can group one visit together | Until you clear it |
bb_geo | First-party cookie | Remembers a coarse region (UK/EU/US/other) so we can show the right regional store link. Only set the first time you follow an outbound retailer link — not on ordinary page views. At that point your IP address is sent to our own geo-lookup service (core.gk.tools, run by GK Tools Ltd, the same company that runs this site — not an outside third party) to classify the country/region; the IP itself is never stored, only the resulting region code. | 30 days |
bb_cookie_consent | First-party cookie | Remembers your Accept/Reject choice on the cookie banner, so we don't ask again | 1 year |
mtm_consent_removed | Essential Matomo opt-out cookie | Remembers that you asked Matomo not to track this browser; it contains no visitor identifier | Up to 30 years, although browsers may remove it sooner |
Google Analytics only loads after you accept our cookie banner — on first visit it does not run at all. You can change your mind any time by clearing the bb_cookie_consent cookie, or you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings; the site keeps working (your theme choice and vote protection reset). To opt out of Google Analytics everywhere, Google provides a browser add-on.
Matomo (self-hosted)
We also run Matomo, a self-hosted, privacy-focused analytics tool. It never leaves our own server, is configured to be cookieless, and never shares data with any third party. It records page visits and fixed, non-personal interaction labels such as scroll milestones, visible bike or article cards and their opens, filter types and aggregate counts, comparison-selector use and similar-bike recommendations, video or gallery opens, shares, outbound-button and coupon-link opens, and whether a feedback, contribution or alert form was started, submitted, successful or met a broad validation or service error. We never send Matomo an email address, coupon code, contribution, comment, search text, validation message or other value typed into a form. Short heartbeat pings improve active-visit timing without creating extra page views. You can also opt out below.
Opt out of Matomo:
Who else sees data
We use a small number of service providers to run the site: Google (analytics) and content-delivery networks that serve shared stylesheets and scripts (jsDelivr, Cloudflare cdnjs). We do not use Google Fonts or any other third-party font host — text on this site is rendered in your device's own system fonts. When your browser loads a Google Analytics or CDN resource, that provider receives your IP address as part of the normal working of the web. Analytics data may be processed on servers outside the UK; where that happens, transfers rely on recognised safeguards such as the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework or the UK's international data transfer agreement/addendum.
We also run our own regional-lookup service, core.gk.tools (built and operated by GK Tools Ltd — the same company that runs this site, not an outside third party). It receives your IP address only when you follow an outbound retailer link for the first time, classifies it into a coarse country/region, and returns that region code; the IP address itself is never stored. Beyond that, we share personal data only if the law requires it.
How long we keep things
- Alert subscriptions: confirmed subscriptions are kept until you unsubscribe. We do not currently run an automatic deletion job for unsubscribed addresses, or for signups that were emailed a confirmation link but never confirmed — both stop receiving emails immediately, but the rows themselves are not yet purged on a schedule.
- Contribution and feedback details: for as long as the submission is live on the site, so we can credit, correct or remove it.
- Anti-abuse hashes (feedback voting) and click-tracking identifiers: we do not currently run an automatic deletion job for these either, so they are retained unless removed manually. They are not linked to your name or email and cannot on their own be used to look up who you are.
- Server logs: short rotation set by our hosting platform.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR you can ask us to: tell you what data we hold about you (access), correct it (rectification), delete it (erasure), give it to you in a portable format, restrict how we use it, or stop using it where we rely on legitimate interests (objection). Where we rely on consent — the email alerts — you can withdraw it at any time via the unsubscribe link or by emailing us.
To exercise any right, email support@bestebikes.uk. We respond within one month. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
If we change what we collect or how we use it, we will update this page and the date below.
Last updated: