Privacy

Visits are counted with Cloudflare Web Analytics. It uses no cookies. It gives us totals, like which pages got visits, how people found us and what kind of device they used.

The site also counts taps, like Directions, Add to my night, a search or a newsletter sign-up. Each tap is saved with what it was about, like which house or event. It goes in our own log, in our own database, not to an analytics company.

• No cookies, and nothing that names you. No IP address, device ID, email or account is stored with a tap.
• A code that changes every day. To count people instead of just taps, our server makes a code from your connection and browser details plus a secret that’s replaced every day and deleted soon after. We keep the code, not the details. Yesterday’s code can’t be matched to today’s, so nobody is followed from one day to the next.
• Search words are kept. We want to see what people look for and can’t find. A search isn’t tied to you, but please don’t type personal details into the search box.
• Raw taps are kept for 90 days. Then they’re deleted and only daily totals stay, like how many people tapped Directions for a house that day, or how many searched for the same words.

A link we share on Facebook, in the newsletter or somewhere else may end in a label, like ?ref=newsletter. It tells us which post or email brought people to the site.

Your browser remembers the label until you close the tab, and we add it to the taps from that visit. It isn’t a cookie, it doesn’t change the page and it says nothing about you.

When you sign up, we store your email address, which sign-up box you used, the date and a note of what you agreed to. Signing up is always your own choice. Making an account doesn’t sign you up, and the box is never ticked for you.

If you join or leave from your account, we also keep a dated note of your yes and any later no, with a scrambled version of your network address, because the law asks us to. That note stays even if you delete your account.

The email counts opens. We turned that on. It works with a tiny image in the email: when your mail app loads it, Resend, the service that sends our email, records that the email was opened. If your mail app blocks images, the open isn’t counted. We use it to see how many people read the email, not to watch what any one person does.

Links in the email go through our own event pages, with a label like ?ref=newsletter on the end. That’s how we count clicks from the email. The event page then links on to the venue or the ticket seller.

To unsubscribe, tap Unsubscribe at the bottom of any email, untick the box on your account page or write to hello@londonlive.ca. Your address comes off the list.

There are no passwords. You type your email, we send you a link and tapping it signs you in. The link works once and runs out after 15 minutes.

Signing in puts two small cookies on your device. The only cookies London Live itself sets are these two. One keeps you signed in for up to 90 days, and web pages can’t read it. The other is just a hint that you’re probably signed in, so the site knows to check. It holds nothing about you. Signing out removes both.

With an account we also store the name you choose for reviews (first name and last initial), your saved events and Spooky London houses, and your night plan, so they follow you from your phone to your computer.

You can delete your account on the account page. That removes your reviews, the ratings and photos you sent while signed in, your saved lists, your sign-ins and your place on the newsletter. A house you suggested stays on the map, because a listing is about a display, not about you.

Spooky London lists people’s homes, so we’re careful with what you send in.

• Suggestions and corrections. The address and notes you send, and an email if you give one, are read by a person before anything changes on the map. Your email is only used to reply, unless you also tick the box to join the newsletter.
• Photos. A person looks at each photo before it shows. We strip the hidden location data from the file, and a photo doesn’t carry your name.
• Ratings. A rating is stars, and how scary it felt. Your browser makes a random code so you can rate a house once, and we store that code with your rating. It isn’t your name. If you’re signed in, the rating is also linked to your account, so deleting the account deletes the rating. A house only shows an average once three people have rated it.
• Reviews. You need to be signed in. A review shows your name (first name and last initial), the stars, your words and the date. A person reads your first review before it shows. Links in a review are taken out.
• Reporting a review. You don’t need an account. We keep a scrambled version of your network address with the report, so one person can’t report the same review again and again.
• Claiming a listing. You sign in, tell us how we’ll know it’s yours and add a phone number or email if you like. An admin reads every claim.
• Don’t want your home on the map? Open the house and tap “This is my home, take it off.” You don’t have to give a reason. A person reads it and takes the house down if it’s yours.

To stop one person flooding the forms, we limit how many sign-in links, suggestions, photos, ratings, reviews and reports can come from one place in a day. To do that we keep a scrambled version of your network address (a hash, made with a secret key) next to a daily count. It can’t be turned back into your address.

The “I’m going” buttons on event pages have a limit too. It uses a scrambled version of your connection that’s deleted within an hour.

The sign-in and suggestion forms also use Cloudflare Turnstile, a quick check that you’re a person.

Some things stay in your browser and don’t come to us: your light or dark choice, events and houses you save while signed out, your night plan, the map view you picked and whether you’ve already seen a sign-up box. If you sign in, your saved lists are kept in your account too.

If you tap a “near me” button, your browser asks first. Your location is used on your device to sort things by distance. It isn’t sent to us.

A few outside services help load and run the site. Each has its own privacy policy.

• Cloudflare hosts the site, its images and our database. It also counts visits (Web Analytics) and runs the Turnstile check.
• Google Fonts supplies the typefaces.
• OpenFreeMap supplies the map tiles, so it can see which part of the map you’re looking at.
• Resend sends our email: sign-in links and the newsletter.

When you tap Directions, a ticket link or a venue’s website, you leave London Live. Directions opens Google Maps. From there, that site’s own policy applies.

We don’t sell anything about you, and nothing is shared for advertising. There are no ad networks or ad trackers on the site.

London Live is made by the Our London desk. If you have a question, or want something we hold about you changed or deleted, write to hello@londonlive.ca.