Privacy policy

It covers visitors, residents, people who contact a local organisation, people who submit news, events, map information or requests for community support, and authorised Community Ready portal users. It also covers information stored on a device so that selected map and emergency content remains available without an internet connection.

Community Ready is responsible for information used to operate the platform, manage accounts, answer general enquiries, secure the service and register app devices for notifications.

A community organisation or local body may separately be responsible for information submitted to it through its community website or app, including resident submissions, contact messages and offers or requests for help. In those cases, Community Ready provides the technology and may process information on that organisation's behalf.

Questions about this policy can be sent to adam@communityready.co.uk.

The information depends on how you use Community Ready and may include:

• Enquiries and contact forms: your name, email address or telephone number, community, role, selected recipient and message.
• Portal accounts: name, email address, authentication details, community membership, role, permissions and the local bodies an authorised user may represent.
• Resident submissions: submitted news, event or map details, images and documents, name and contact information, event dates, and a location selected on the map. Offers or requests for help may also include a house name, telephone number and the details provided by the resident.
• App and notification details: a random installation identifier, push-notification token, device platform and name, and the communities followed or selected as the home community.
• Location: a position you choose on a map and, only if you grant device permission, your approximate or precise device location when using a location feature.
• Technical and security information:routine service logs, IP address, browser or device information, authentication events, timestamps and diagnostic information needed to protect and operate the service.

Please do not submit medical records, financial details or other highly sensitive information through general forms. If an emergency presents an immediate risk to life, call 999 rather than relying on Community Ready.

We use personal information to:

• provide, administer and secure Community Ready accounts and services;
• route messages to the local body selected by the sender;
• allow community administrators to review, edit, approve or reject submissions;
• publish approved community content in the app and on a public community website;
• download selected emergency and map information for offline use;
• send opted-in alerts to devices that follow the relevant community;
• answer enquiries, provide support, prevent misuse and diagnose faults; and
• comply with legal obligations or protect people where this is strictly necessary.

Our legal bases may be performance of a contract, legitimate interests in operating and protecting a useful community service, consent for optional device permissions and push notifications, compliance with law, or—in a genuine emergency—protection of vital interests. You can withdraw consent for notifications or location access through your device settings.

We do not use personal information to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects.

Content approved by a community administrator may be published for anyone to see on the community's public website and in the app. This may include the content, image, publishing body and publication date. Contact details supplied only for moderation are not intended to be published unless the submitter has asked for them to form part of the public content.

Community administrators may edit, decline, hide, archive or remove content in line with their local responsibilities.

Information may be shared with:

• authorised community administrators and the local body selected by the user;
• suppliers that operate the service, including Supabase for authentication, database and file storage; Vercel for web hosting; Resend for email delivery; and Expo, Apple and Google for app distribution and notifications;
• mapping services and libraries, including MapLibre, OpenFreeMap and OpenStreetMap. When an online map loads, the map provider may receive routine connection information such as an IP address;
• professional advisers, regulators or public authorities where disclosure is lawful; and
• a successor organisation if the service is reorganised or transferred.

We do not sell personal information. Some suppliers may process information outside the UK. Where required, we rely on an adequacy decision or approved contractual safeguards and carry out the checks required by UK data-protection law.

We keep information only for as long as it is reasonably needed:

• portal account records are kept while access is active and for a reasonable period afterwards;
• contact messages are delivered to the relevant mailbox and are not ordinarily copied into the Community Ready database; the recipient controls the mailbox copy;
• submissions are held while they are reviewed. Approved material may remain as published or archived community content until an administrator removes it. Reviewed news and event submissions are removed from the pending-submissions queue;
• offers and requests for help are retained until they are resolved or removed by an authorised administrator;
• notification registrations remain until disabled, replaced, made inactive or deleted; and
• app preferences and downloaded offline data remain on the device until refreshed, cleared or the app is removed.

We may keep a limited record for longer where this is needed to resolve a complaint, establish legal rights, meet a legal requirement or maintain security.

The portal uses strictly necessary cookies to keep authorised users signed in and to protect their sessions. Community Ready does not currently use advertising or analytics cookies on its public website.

The app stores followed and home communities, accessibility choices, an installation identifier, offline map and emergency content, cached community information and an emergency-essentials checklist on the device. This allows the app to remember choices and provide selected information without a connection.

You can turn notifications and location permission on or off in iOS or Android settings. You can also unfollow a community in the app. Clearing the app's data or uninstalling it removes locally stored information from that device.

We use access controls, role-based permissions, encrypted connections, managed authentication, database security rules and restricted administration tools. No online service can guarantee absolute security, so please use a strong, unique password and tell us promptly if you think an account or submission has been compromised.

Depending on the circumstances, you may have the right to ask for access to your information, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, or to object to its use. Where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. These rights are not absolute and an exemption may apply.

Contact adam@communityready.co.uk and identify the community and service involved. If a local organisation controls the relevant information, we may direct the request to it. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Community Ready is a general community-information service and is not designed to create administrator accounts for children. If you are under 16, ask a parent, guardian or other trusted adult before sending personal information through a form.

We may update this policy when the service, suppliers or law changes. The latest version will always be published on this page with its updated date. We will use an appropriate additional notice if a change materially affects how personal information is used.