Privacy notice
Last updated 29 October 2026
The short version
- We collect as little as we can. You can read everything on The Plumbline without giving us anything.
- If you sign up to The Plumbline Daily, we keep your email address to send it to you, and nothing else.
- Because signing up to a publication like ours could suggest what you believe, we treat your sign-up as sensitive. We keep it private, never sell or share it, and delete it when you unsubscribe.
- The Find your MP tool uses your postcode once to look up your MP and then forgets it. Letters to your MP are written in your browser and sent from your own email, so we never see them.
- Petitions and messages of support take you to other organisations’ websites. What you give there goes to them, not to us.
- We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.
Who we are
The Plumbline is run by Chris Joyce, who is the “controller” of your personal data under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018). For anything about your data, email chris@joyce.digital.
What we collect, why, and for how long
The Plumbline Daily (email sign-up)
We keep your email address, the date and time you signed up, the page you signed up on, and the wording you agreed to, so that we can send you the newsletter and campaign updates and show that you asked for them.
Our lawful basis is your consent. Because our reporting covers faith, life and family issues, your sign-up could be taken to reveal your religious or political views, which the law calls “special category” data. We therefore rely on your explicit consent, which you give when you tick the box and sign up. You can withdraw it at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any email or by emailing us.
When you unsubscribe we delete your details within 30 days. We may keep your email address on a short “do not email” list so that we never email you again by mistake.
At the moment sign-ups are stored privately in our website database. When we start sending the newsletter we will use an email delivery service acting on our instructions, and we will name it here before we move any data to it.
Find your MP and How your MP voted
When you enter your postcode, our website sends it to the UK Parliament Members API (run by the House of Commons) and, if needed, to postcodes.io (run by Ideal Postcodes Ltd) to find your constituency and MP. We do not store your postcode or link it to you (we may remember for a few days which MP a postcode belongs to, to answer faster). The letter to your MP is created in your own browser: if you choose “Open in my email app”, it is sent from your own email account and we never see it.
Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in providing the tool you asked to use.
“I’ve prayed” button, Most read, and protecting the site from abuse
To count each press and each story view only once a day, and to stop automated abuse of the MP lookup, our server keeps a scrambled code made from your internet (IP) address. The code is made with a secret key that changes every day, so it cannot be turned back into your IP address or linked to you, and it is deleted within 24 hours. We do not record who pressed the button. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (accurate counts and a secure site).
Petitions and messages of support
Some stories link to petitions or messages of support hosted by other organisations, such as CitizenGO or the UK Parliament petitions site. When you follow those links, the organisation running that page decides what it collects and is responsible for it. Please read its privacy notice. We do not receive what you enter there.
When you email us
If you email us with a story, a correction or a question, we keep your message and contact details to reply and, where relevant, to report the story. Lawful basis: legitimate interests. We protect our sources: we will not reveal who gave us information without their agreement unless the law requires it. We keep correspondence for up to 2 years, or longer if it relates to something we published.
Running the website
Like every website, our hosting keeps short technical logs (such as IP address, browser type and the page requested) to keep the site working and secure. Our host is Elementor Cloud, provided by Elementor Ltd, which uses Google Cloud and Cloudflare. Lawful basis: legitimate interests. Logs are kept for the short period our host sets.
Our fonts and pictures are served from our own website, so reading the site does not send your details to font or image services.
Cookies
We do not use advertising, tracking or analytics cookies, so we do not ask you to accept any. The only cookies the site sets are these, which are strictly necessary:
| Name | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|
__cf_bm |
Set by Cloudflare, which protects the site, to tell people from automated attacks. | 30 minutes |
wordpress_logged_in_*, wordpress_sec_*, wordpress_test_cookie, wp-settings-* |
Only for editors who log in to WordPress. Keeps them signed in. | Session, or up to 14 days if "Remember me" is ticked |
To count which stories are most read, our server counts one view per visitor per story per day using the same daily-changing code described above; nothing is stored in your browser. Our host also measures how fast pages load (Cloudflare Web Analytics and Elementor’s site monitoring). These measurements use no cookies and do not identify you.
If we ever add analytics or other optional cookies, we will ask for your permission first and update this list.
Who we share your data with
We never sell your data and never share our sign-up list with anyone, including campaign partners. We share data only with services that work for us under contract (our host, and in future our email delivery service), with the services named above when you use a tool that needs them, and with authorities when the law requires it.
Some of these services may process data outside the UK. Where they do, the transfer is covered by UK adequacy regulations or by the safeguards in the UK’s international data transfer agreement or addendum.
Your rights
You have the right to ask for a copy of your data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to how we use it, to receive it in a portable format, and to withdraw consent at any time. Email chris@joyce.digital. We will reply within one month. It is free.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
Children
The Plumbline is written for adults. If you are under 13, please do not sign up or send us your details.
Changes to this notice
We will update this page when anything changes and show the new date at the top. If a change affects how we use your sign-up, we will tell you by email.