Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

We wrote this document ourselves, in plain English, because privacy policies only work when people actually read them. It is organised in the order most visitors ask questions: what we collect, why, who sees it, and what you can do about it.

Julie Peel ("we", "us", "our") operates juliepeel.com, an independent editorial website that reviews and ranks game app development companies. This policy explains what personal data we collect when you visit the site, why we collect it, and the choices you have over it.

We act as the data controller for the information described here. If anything in this policy is unclear, you can contact us using the details in section 13 and we will be happy to explain it in plain language.

2. What data we collect

We deliberately collect very little. When you browse the site we receive standard technical information: your IP address, browser type, device class, the pages you view and the site that referred you. This arrives automatically with every web request and is needed simply to deliver the pages you ask for.

If you use the support chat, the messages you type are processed in your browser to generate replies and are not transmitted to our servers or stored after you close the page. We do not ask for your name, email address or any account registration anywhere on the site.

We also receive standard aggregate statistics from our hosting provider — total request counts, bandwidth used and error rates. These figures describe traffic as a whole and contain nothing about you as an individual visitor.

3. How we use your data

Technical data is used to keep the site fast, secure and available: detecting abuse, balancing server load and diagnosing errors. Aggregated, anonymised statistics — such as which sections of our rating are read most — help us decide what content to research and update next.

We do not use your data to build individual profiles, we do not send marketing emails (we never have your address), and we do not make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you.

4. Legal bases for processing

Where UK GDPR applies, we rely on legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) for the technical processing needed to operate and secure the website, having balanced those interests against your rights. For optional analytics cookies we rely on your consent (Article 6(1)(a)), which you give or refuse through the cookie banner.

You can withdraw consent at any time by clearing your browser's storage for this site — the banner will reappear and you can choose "Necessary only". Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that happened before the withdrawal.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

We use a small number of cookies and localStorage entries, described in full in our Cookie Policy. In short: necessary storage remembers your cookie choice itself, and optional analytics cookies help us understand aggregate visitor behaviour.

Your browser also lets you block or delete cookies entirely. The site remains fully usable with all optional cookies refused — no content or feature on juliepeel.com is gated behind consent.

6. Sharing with third parties

We do not sell, rent or trade personal data. Technical data may be processed on our behalf by infrastructure providers — hosting, content delivery and security services — bound by data processing agreements that limit their use of the data to providing those services to us.

When you click a "View more" button, you leave our site and arrive at a partner's website. From that moment the partner's own privacy policy governs the data they collect; we encourage you to read it, as we have no control over their practices.

We may also disclose technical data where the law compels us to — for example under a court order or a lawful request from a regulator. In that case we disclose the minimum required, and where legally permitted we will tell you that a request was made.

7. International transfers

Our infrastructure providers may store or process technical data in countries outside the United Kingdom. Where that happens, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place — such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or adequacy regulations — so your data receives an equivalent standard of protection.

A copy of the relevant safeguard documents can be requested through the contact route in section 13. We review our providers' transfer arrangements whenever we renew or change a supplier.

8. How long we keep data

Server logs containing IP addresses are retained for up to 90 days for security and diagnostics, then deleted or irreversibly anonymised. Aggregated statistics that cannot identify anyone may be kept indefinitely because they are no longer personal data.

Your cookie preference is stored in your own browser, not on our servers, and persists until you delete it or your browser clears it. We hold no other records tied to you as an individual.

9. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, to have inaccurate data corrected, to request erasure, to restrict or object to processing, and to data portability where processing is based on consent. None of these rights are conditional on a fee in normal circumstances.

To exercise any right, contact us via section 13. We will respond within one month. If you are dissatisfied with our answer, you may complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk), the UK supervisory authority — though we would appreciate the chance to resolve the matter first.

Because we hold so little data, some rights will often have a short answer: a subject access request, for instance, may legitimately return "we hold nothing that identifies you". We will still investigate every request properly rather than reply with a template.

10. Security

The site is served exclusively over HTTPS, and our hosting environment applies access controls, patching schedules and monitoring appropriate to the low volume of personal data we handle. Because we store so little, the practical risk to visitors is inherently small.

No internet transmission is ever completely secure, however. If we become aware of a breach affecting your rights and freedoms, we will notify the ICO and, where required, affected visitors without undue delay.

11. Children's privacy

juliepeel.com is a business-to-business editorial resource aimed at adults commissioning software development. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16.

If you believe a child has provided us with personal data — for example through the chat — please contact us and we will delete it promptly. As noted above, chat messages are not stored server-side, which limits this risk considerably.

12. Changes to this policy

We review this policy whenever our data practices, suppliers or the law change, and at least once a year. The "Last updated" date at the top of the page always reflects the current version.

Material changes — anything that expands what we collect or how we use it — will be highlighted with a notice on the home page for at least 30 days. Continued use of the site after that period constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact us

Questions, rights requests and complaints about privacy can be raised through the support chat on any page of this site, or by post to Julie Peel, Data Protection, 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom.

Please include enough detail for us to locate any data concerned and to verify that the request relates to you. We aim to acknowledge every message within five working days and to resolve it within one month.

For complex requests we may extend the response period by up to two further months, as UK GDPR allows, but we will always tell you within the first month if that is the case and explain why the extra time is needed.