Who we are
Go Sussex (“we”, “us”, “our”) runs this website, a local business directory and jobs board for East and West Sussex. We are the data controller for the personal data described in this notice, which means we decide how and why it is used and we are responsible for looking after it.
If you have any questions about this notice or your data, email us at [email protected].
The short version
- We never sell your personal data, and we don’t use advertising cookies or tracking pixels.
- Business listings are public by design — that is the point of a directory.
- If you leave a review, only your name is shown. Your email address stays private.
- If you apply for a job, your application goes only to that employer.
- Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see your full card number.
- The visitor numbers we show businesses are anonymous counts — no names, email addresses or IP addresses.
- You can ask to see, correct or delete your data at any time.
What we collect and why
Business accounts
When you create a business account we collect your email address, your name and, if you give them, your phone number and company name. Your password is handled by our sign-in provider, Supabase Auth: it is stored in a scrambled (hashed) form and we can never see it. We use these details to run your account, to contact you about your listings, adverts, claims and payments, and to keep the service secure.
Business listings and photos
Listings include the information you enter — such as the business name, description, category, town, address, opening hours, prices, phone number, email address, website and social media links — and the photos and logo you upload. Listings are public. Once approved, they appear on our website and can be found through search engines such as Google. Please don’t add a personal phone number or email address to a listing unless you are happy for it to be public. You can choose not to show your address, in which case only your town is shown and we store only your postcode district and an approximate area — not your street address.
Claims for an existing listing
If you ask to take over a listing, we collect your contact details (name, email address and phone number), the business’s email address if you give it, and the information you provide so we can check that you run the business. We use this only to decide the claim and to contact you about it.
Reviews
When you review a business we collect your name, email address, rating and review. Your name, rating and review are published on the business’s page. Your email address is never shown to the public or to the business — we use it only to check reviews, to stop the same person reviewing a business twice, and to prevent fake or abusive reviews.
Job adverts and applications
Employers give us the details of their vacancy, which we publish. If you apply for a job through Go Sussex, we collect your name, email address, phone number (if you give it), your message and your CV (if you upload one). We share your application only with the employer who posted that job, so they can consider you for it. CVs are kept in private storage that only that employer — and our administrator, for support and to deal with abuse — can open.
Once an employer receives your application, they are responsible for how they use it, and their own privacy notice applies. Employers who use our jobs board agree to use applicants’ details only for recruitment.
Messages you send us
When you use our contact form or email us, we collect your name, email address, the topic, any business you mention and your message, so that we can reply and keep a record of what we agreed. If you tell us about a business you couldn’t find on Go Sussex, we keep what you typed and, if you give it, your email address so we can let you know.
Newsletter and job alerts
If you sign up for our newsletter or job alerts, we collect your email address and where you signed up, and use them only to send you what you asked for. This is based on your consent. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any of our emails or by emailing us.
Payments
Featured listings and job adverts are paid for through Stripe. Stripe collects your card details directly on its own secure page — we never see or store your card number. Stripe tells us whether a payment succeeded, and we keep a record of what was bought, when, how much it cost and the Stripe reference numbers, so we can provide what you paid for and keep the accounts we are required to keep by law.
Anonymous usage counts
To show businesses how their listing is doing, we count things like page views and taps on “call”, “email”, “website” and “directions”, and for the site as a whole we record which searches are made and how many results they return. These records include the listing or page concerned, the type of device (for example mobile or desktop) and the website you came from. They don’t contain your name, email address or IP address, and we don’t use cookies or any other identifier to link them to you. Businesses only ever see totals.
Technical information
Like any website, the servers that deliver our pages and data briefly process your IP address and basic browser information in order to work, and may keep short-lived logs to keep the service secure and to investigate faults or abuse.
Our lawful bases
UK data protection law says we must have a lawful basis for using personal data. Ours are:
| What we do | Lawful basis |
|---|---|
| Running business accounts, publishing listings and job adverts, and providing paid products | Contract — it’s the service you signed up for |
| Checking listings, claims and reviews; preventing spam, fraud and abuse; keeping the site secure | Legitimate interests — running a trustworthy directory |
| Publishing reviews and the replies to them | Legitimate interests — helping people choose local businesses |
| Passing your job application to the employer | Legitimate interests — doing what you asked us to do |
| Replying to messages and requests | Legitimate interests — answering the people who contact us |
| Newsletter and job alerts | Consent — you can withdraw it at any time |
| Keeping payment records | Legal obligation — tax and accounting rules |
| Anonymous usage counts | Legitimate interests — showing businesses how their listing is used and improving the site |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have considered your interests and rights and believe they are not overridden. You can object at any time — see your rights.
Who can see your information
- Everyone: approved business listings and photos, job adverts, reviewers’ names and reviews, and business owners’ replies.
- The employer you apply to: your job application and CV.
- Our administrator: the information needed to check listings, claims, reviews and adverts, answer messages and deal with problems.
- Our service providers: only as needed to provide their service to us (see below).
- Others, where the law requires it: for example if we receive a valid request from the police or a court, or to protect people from harm or fraud.
We never sell personal data or share it with advertisers.
Service providers we use
These companies process data on our behalf, under contracts that require them to keep it secure and use it only to provide their service to us:
- Supabase — our database, sign-in system and file storage (including photos and CVs). Our data is hosted in an EU region.
- Stripe — card payments. Stripe is also responsible for some payment data itself, for example to meet its own legal and fraud-prevention obligations; see Stripe’s privacy policy.
- Resend — sending emails, such as notifications about your listing or adverts.
- Netlify — hosting and delivering the pages of this website.
- wsrv.nl (run by weserv) — makes smaller copies of listing photos that are linked from a business’s own website, so pages load faster. Your browser fetches those photos from wsrv.nl, which receives your IP address as part of the request; it doesn’t set cookies. See the weserv privacy policy.
- OpenStreetMap — the map on business pages. When a page shows a map, your browser loads map images directly from OpenStreetMap’s servers, which receive your IP address as part of that request. See the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s privacy policy.
Our fonts are served from our own website, so loading a page doesn’t send your details to a font provider.
International transfers
Some of our service providers, or their support teams and sub-processors, are based outside the UK, including in the European Economic Area and the United States. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we make sure it is protected — either because the UK government has recognised the destination as providing adequate protection (including, for certified US companies, the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework), or by using contract terms approved for UK transfers, such as the International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses. You can ask us for more information about these safeguards.
How long we keep it
We keep personal data only as long as we need it:
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Business account details | While your account is open. When it is closed we delete them, except anything we must keep below (such as payment records). |
| Live listings and job adverts | While they are live, plus 12 months after they are removed or close |
| Rejected or withdrawn submissions | 6 months |
| Claims for a listing | 12 months after we decide the claim |
| Reviews (including the reviewer’s email address) | For as long as the listing exists, unless the review is removed sooner |
| Job applications and CVs | 6 months after you apply |
| Messages and requests you send us | 24 months |
| Newsletter and job alert sign-ups | Until you unsubscribe |
| Anonymous usage counts | 24 months |
| Payment records | 6 years, for tax and accounting purposes |
We may keep information for longer if we need it to deal with a complaint, a legal claim or a legal requirement.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to:
- access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy;
- correct data that is wrong or incomplete;
- delete your data, in some circumstances;
- restrict how we use your data, in some circumstances;
- object to us using your data where we rely on legitimate interests;
- data portability — receive data you gave us in a commonly used format, in some circumstances;
- withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent (for example, our newsletter).
Business account holders can update most of their details and delete their listings themselves by signing in. For anything else, email [email protected]. There is normally no charge. We may need to confirm your identity, and we will reply within one month (or tell you within that month if we need longer, as the law allows for complex requests).
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.
Keeping it safe
All connections to our website are encrypted. Access to private information is restricted by security rules in our database, so, for example, visitors can never read reviewers’ email addresses or other people’s job applications, and CVs can only be opened by the employer concerned and our administrator. No system is completely secure, but if we ever discover a breach that puts your data at risk, we will tell you and the ICO where the law requires it.
Children
Go Sussex is not aimed at children, and we don’t knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. Business accounts are for adults acting for a business. If you think a child has given us their information, please contact us and we will delete it.
Other websites
Listings and job adverts link to businesses’ own websites, booking pages and social media. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and we are not responsible for how they use your data.
Changes to this notice
We may update this notice when our services or the law change. The “last updated” date at the top always shows the current version. If we make a significant change that affects business account holders, we will also let them know by email.
Contact us
For any question about this notice or your personal data, email [email protected] or use our contact form.