Privacy policy

• Survey answers: your answers about food, travel, flights, home energy, water, pets, banking and pensions. If you don't have an account, these stay on your device only, and we only count that a survey was finished and when, with nothing about you or your answers.
• Account details: your email address and a securely hashed password, if you create an account.
• Optional details: if you choose to, what best describes your work (for example, nurse or teacher), and whether you agree to share your answers for research.
• Groups: the groups you create or join on the Friends page. Other members of a group see your display name and yearly total, never your answers.
• Habits: the actions you tick yourself on the Habits page, so they're there on any device, and which of your 7 Acts we've verified.
• Invites: your invite code, and who joined CO2 Counter with it. You see how many of them have finished the survey and, once at least two have measured twice, how much they've cut between them. Never who they are or their answers.
• Asking the bill payer to switch: if someone else chooses your energy supplier, your message to them includes a private link. When they tap it to confirm the switch, we record only the date.
• Letters sent from the app: if you send a letter to your MP or a message to whoever pays your energy bills from CO2 Counter, it's sent through our email provider, Resend, from our address, with a copy to you and replies going to you. We keep only the date and the type of letter, not what you wrote or your address.
• Letters to your MP: if you email your MP from the Habits page, we're copied in (BCC) so we can verify it. We record only the date it arrived and delete the email, which will include your name and address.
• Notifications (app only): Sunday reminders are scheduled on your phone, and nothing about them is sent to us. If you turn on notifications about friends' activity, we store your phone's push token (an address Apple gives your phone for notifications) until you turn them off, sign out or delete your account.
• Reports and blocks: if you report someone or a group, we keep the report (the reason, anything you add, and the name at the time) so we can review it. If you block someone, we keep that so they can't contact you. The person you report or block isn't told.
• Partner link clicks: if you're signed in and open one of the partner sites we suggest (such as an energy supplier or bank), we record which link you opened and whether it was an affiliate link, once per link.
• Support details: if you choose to support CO2 Counter, the status and renewal date of your support and a reference to your customer record at Stripe. We never see or store your card details.
• Technical data: our web host and service providers log basic request data such as IP addresses to run and secure the service.

• To work out and show your footprint, save your answers to your account, and record any support you've chosen to give. The legal basis is performing our contract with you.
• To keep the service secure and working. The legal basis is our legitimate interests.
• If you opt in to research (Account page): to share your survey answers and footprint, without your name, email or username, with research and health partners studying how people can cut emissions. The legal basis is your consent, which you can withdraw at any time on the Account page.
• To produce overall statistics that help us improve CO2 Counter, such as average footprints and how many people open each partner link and later make that change. These only ever show totals and averages, never individuals. The legal basis is our legitimate interests.
• To keep payment records, as the law requires. The legal basis is legal obligation.

We don't sell your data, show adverts, or use tracking or analytics cookies.

When you create an account, you agree that we can use anonymised data from CO2 Counter. This is what it means:

• What it is: totals and averages worked out across many people, such as the average footprint in a group, a role or an area of life, or how many people made a switch. It never includes your name, email, username or answers on their own, and it can't be traced back to you.
• How we use it: to improve CO2 Counter, to show overall figures in the app, and to publish or share summaries, for example with charities, researchers or health organisations working on climate and health.
• The legal basis: our legitimate interests in improving the service and helping people cut emissions. Once data is truly anonymised it is no longer personal data. You can object at any time by emailing CO2counter@outlook.com.
• Research is separate: sharing your own survey answers (without your name, email or username) with research partners only happens if you tick the optional research box, at sign-up or on your Account page. You can untick it at any time.

We record which version of this policy you agreed to and when, so we can show what you were told.

Only the providers that run the service for us:

• Supabase: sign-in and database (your account, saved answers and support status).
• Stripe: payments and subscriptions. Stripe handles your card details under its own privacy policy.
• GitHub Pages: hosting the website.
• Apple Push Notification service: delivers app notifications about friends' activity, if you turn them on.
• postcodes.io: if you use Work it out from two postcodes for your commute, the two postcodes are looked up there to find the distance. We don't save them.
• DVSA MOT history service: if you look up your car's miles from its number plate, the plate is sent to the DVSA to read its MOT mileage. We don't save the plate, only the miles you keep.

Some of these providers may process data outside the UK. Where they do, they rely on safeguards recognised under UK data protection law, such as adequacy regulations or standard contractual clauses.

The site stores your survey answers, habits, check-ins and sign-in session in your browser's local storage so it can work. These aren't tracking cookies. Clearing your browser's site data removes them, and signing out or deleting your account clears them on that device.

We keep your account data until you delete your account. Deleting it removes your account, saved answers and support record straight away. Stripe keeps payment records for as long as the law requires.

Under UK data protection law you can ask to access, correct or delete your data, receive a copy of it, or object to or restrict how we use it. You can delete your account at any time from the Account page. For anything else, email CO2counter@outlook.com. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

CO2 Counter is intended for people aged 13 and over. You must be 13 or over to create an account.

If we change this policy, we'll update this page and the date above. Significant changes will be highlighted on the site.