Privacy notice
Source: gov.uk (2025-05-31)

What data is collected when you use GOV.UK - how it's used, where it's stored, your rights.

GOV.UK (or www.gov.uk) is provided by the Government Digital Service (GDS), part of the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT).

DSIT and other government departments, agencies and organisations are joint controllers for pages that start ‘www.gov.uk’.

If you have a GOV.UK One Login, read the full GOV.UK One Login privacy notice (https://signin.account.gov.uk/privacy-notice) to find out how it stores, processes and shares your personal information.

If you follow a link to a service provided by another government department, agency or local authority, that organisation will:
- be the data controller
- be responsible for processing any data you share with them
- publish and manage their own privacy notice with details of how to contact them
Example

If you make a claim for Universal Credit www.universal-credit.service.gov.uk (https://www.universal-credit.service.gov.uk/postcode-checker), the Department for Work and Pensions will be the responsible controller. The service’s own privacy notice (https://www.universal-credit.service.gov.uk/privacypolicy) will apply.

A data controller determines how and why personal data is processed.

What data we collect

The personal data we collect from you includes:
- questions, queries or feedback you leave, including your email address if you contact GOV.UK
- your postcode and address if you use a GOV.UK service that includes a postcode or address lookup function (such as the school term and holiday dates service (/school-term-holiday-dates))
- your email address and subscription preferences when you sign up to our email alerts
- how you use our emails - for example whether you open them and which links you click on
- your Internet Protocol (IP) address, and details of which version of web browser (/support/browsers) you used
- information on how you use the site, using cookies (/support/cookies) and page tagging techniques
Where you provide your consent, we use Google Analytics (https://support.google.com/analytics/topic/2919631) cookies and a Real User Monitoring (RUM) cookie from SpeedCurve (https://www.speedcurve.com/features/performance-monitoring/) to collect information about how you use GOV.UK.

Google Analytics processes information about:
- the pages you visit on GOV.UK
- how long you spend on each GOV.UK page
- how you got to the site
- what you click on while you’re visiting the site
We also receive the same information from other government digital services.

If you have a Google account and have turned on ‘ad personalisation’, anonymised data about your age, gender and interests may be included in aggregated reports we see in Google Analytics. This helps us understand the general types of people visiting GOV.UK. You can view or change your Google ad personalisation settings (https://myadcenter.google.com/home).

We make sure you cannot be directly identified from Google Analytics data. We do this by:
- taking all reasonable steps to remove or reduce personal information in analytics data, for example from page titles or URLs
- not storing or logging IP addresses in Google Analytics
- not combining analytics information with other data sets in a way that that would directly identify you
We will not combine analytics information with other data sets in a way that would directly identify who you are.

SpeedCurve RUM software processes anonymised information about:
- how well the pages performed on your device
- performance bottlenecks your device experienced
- JavaScript errors your device encountered
Find out more about how we use Google Analytics and other cookies on GOV.UK (/help/cookie-details).

Why we need your data

We collect your personal data in order to:
- gather feedback to improve our services, for example our email alerts
- respond to any feedback you send us, if you’ve asked us to
- send email alerts to users who request them
- allow you to access government services and make transactions
- provide you with information about local services
- monitor use of the site to identify security threats
- monitor the performance of the site to identify inefficiencies and JavaScript errors
We use the information we collect through Google Analytics and SpeedCurve RUM to see how you use GOV.UK and to see how well the site performs on your device.

We do this to help:
- make sure GOV.UK is meeting the needs of its users
- make improvements, for example improving site search (https://insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/2015/03/26/new-tool-to-see-trending-searches/)
- make performance improvements, for example improving page load time and data usage
We combine Google Analytics information with similar data from other government digital services to help understand and improve user journeys within GOV.UK and other government digital services.

Our legal basis for processing your data

The legal basis for processing personal data in relation to site security is our legitimate interests, and the legitimate interests of our users, in ensuring the security and integrity of GOV.UK.

The legal basis for processing data collected with Google Analytics and SpeedCurve RUM on GOV.UK and other government digital services is your consent.

The legal basis for processing all other personal data is that it’s necessary:
- to perform a task in the public interest
- in the exercise of our functions as a government department
What we do with your data

The data we collect may be shared with other government departments, agencies and organisations. It may also be shared with our technology suppliers, for example our hosting provider.

We will share your data if we are required to do so by law - for example, by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crime.

The data we collect with Google Analytics cookies is transferred and stored with Google where we analyse it with Google Analytics software (GA4). We do not allow Google to use or share this data for their own purposes.

We will not:
- sell or rent your data to third parties
- share your data with third parties for marketing purposes
How long we keep your data

We will only retain your personal data for as long as it is needed for the purposes set out in this document or for as long as the law requires us to.

We will:
- keep your email data until you unsubscribe
- keep your feedback data for 2 years
- delete access log data which contain your IP address after 120 days
Children’s privacy protection

Our services are not designed for, or intentionally targeted at, children 13 years of age or younger. We do not intentionally collect or maintain data about anyone under the age of 13.

Where your data is processed and stored

We design, build and run our systems to make sure that your data is as safe as possible at all stages, both while it’s processed and when it’s stored.

All personal data is stored in the European Economic Area (/eu-eea) (EEA). Data collected by Google Analytics and SpeedCurve RUM may be transferred outside the EEA for processing.

Where data processing happens in the US, suppliers need to meet the certification standards set out in the UK-US data bridge (/government/publications/uk-us-data-bridge-supporting-documents/uk-us-data-bridge-explainer) agreement. This facilitates flows of personal data to certified US companies that have opted in to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

How we protect your data and keep it secure

We are committed to doing all that we can to keep your data secure. We have set up systems and processes to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure of your data - for example, we protect your data using varying levels of encryption.

We also make sure that any third parties that we deal with keep all personal data they process on our behalf secure.

Your rights

You have the right to request:
- information about how your personal data is processed
- a copy of that personal data
- that anything inaccurate in your personal data is corrected immediately
You can also:
- raise an objection about how your personal data is processed
- request that your personal data is erased if there is no longer a justification for it
- ask that the processing of your personal data is restricted in certain circumstances
If you have any of these requests, get in contact with our Privacy Team.

Links to other websites

GOV.UK contains links to other websites.

This privacy notice only applies to GOV.UK, and does not cover other government services and transactions that we link to. These services, such as Universal Credit (https://www.universal-credit.service.gov.uk/postcode-checker), have their own terms and conditions and privacy policies.

Following a link to another website

If you go to another website from this one, read the privacy policy on that website to find out what it does with your information.

Following a link to GOV.UK from another website

If you come to GOV.UK from another website, we may receive personal information from the other website. You should read the privacy policy of the website you came from to find out more about this.

Contact us or make a complaint

GDS, as part of DSIT, acts as a joint controller for personal data published on GOV.UK with other government departments, agencies and public bodies.

If you follow a link to a service provided by another government department, agency or local authority, that organisation will be the data controller.

If you have an enquiry about your data within another service, you need to contact the organisation that holds that data. GDS does not have access to that data. The organisation’s privacy notice will say how to contact them.

Contact the GDS Privacy Team if you:
- have a question about anything in this privacy notice
- think that your personal data on GOV.UK has been misused or mishandled
Privacy Team xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx)

You can also contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO):

DSIT Data Protection Officer Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 22-26 Whitehall London SW1A 2EG xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx)

If you are unhappy with the way GDS has handled your personal data, please write to the DSIT DPO in the first instance.

The DPO provides independent advice and monitoring of our use of personal information.

You can also make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator.

Information Commissioner xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx) Telephone: xx-xxxx-xxxx Textphone: xx-xxxx-xxxx Monday to Friday, 9am to 4:30pm Find out about call charges (/call-charges)

Information Commissioner’s OfficeWycliffe HouseWater LaneWilmslowCheshire SK9 5AF

Changes to this policy

We may change this privacy policy. In that case, the ‘last updated’ date at the bottom of this page will also change. Any changes to this privacy policy will apply to you and your data immediately.

If these changes affect how your personal data is processed, GDS will take reasonable steps to let you know.