Privacy Policy

1. Information Collected on This Site

This website collects a limited amount of information, depending on how you interact with it:

• Contact enquiries: If you send a message through the contact page, your name, email address, the subject you select and your message are collected and stored in the website's database. This information is used only to respond to your enquiry.
• Newsletter interest list: If you register your interest in future updates, your email address, the date you registered and the version of the signup wording you saw are stored. Signing up is voluntary. We have not yet started sending a newsletter, we do not currently send confirmation emails, and we have not set an email schedule. Any email we send in future will include an unsubscribe link that works without logging in; until then you can ask us to remove your address through our contact page. We do not sell or share subscription email addresses. When you unsubscribe, we keep the address marked as unsubscribed so it is not added again by mistake.
• Recipe reviews: If you leave a review on a recipe, your name, star rating and comment are collected. Your name and comment are displayed publicly on the recipe page only after we have approved them; new reviews are held for checking first. Providing an email address is optional and, if supplied, is kept private and never published or shared; it is used only to spot duplicate or abusive submissions. To limit abuse, a one-way keyed fingerprint of your connection address (not the address itself) is stored briefly to count submissions and is kept with the review.
• Technical website data: When you visit the website, certain technical information may be processed automatically by our hosting and infrastructure providers. This may include your IP address, browser type, device information, requested pages, referral sources and security or error logs. This is used to operate, secure and maintain the website. To limit abuse of the contact, review and newsletter forms, a one-way keyed hash of your connection address (not the address itself) is used in short-lived counters that expire automatically.
• Analytics data: This website uses Google Analytics (GA4) to understand how visitors use the site — for example, which pages are visited, how long visitors stay and where they came from. Analytics uses cookies and device identifiers. See Section 5 for more detail. Analytics is subject to your consent where required.
• Advertising data (when enabled): We may use Google AdSense and other advertising services to display advertisements on Our British Kitchen. When advertising is enabled, advertising providers such as Google may use cookies, IP addresses, browser and device identifiers, and similar technologies to serve, personalise and measure ads in accordance with applicable consent requirements and privacy policies. The site advertising loader is paused pending verified consent-provider setup.

2. How We Use Your Information

• Responding to contact enquiries and recipe questions.
• Managing voluntary newsletter subscriptions.
• Displaying approved recipe reviews on the relevant recipe pages.
• Operating, securing and improving the website.
• Understanding how the website is used through analytics.
• Displaying advertisements through Google AdSense if and when advertising is enabled on the website.

3. Legal Bases for Processing

Under UK data protection law, we rely on the following bases to process your information:

• Contact enquiries: Legitimate interests — communicating with website visitors and responding to requests.
• Newsletter interest list: Consent — you voluntarily register and can ask us to remove you at any time.
• Recipe reviews: Legitimate interests — operating an interactive recipe community feature.
• Website operation and security: Legitimate interests — maintaining and securing the website.
• Non-essential analytics and advertising: Consent — where required by applicable law, these technologies are only used in accordance with your choices.

4. Service Providers and Data Sharing

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We use trusted third-party services to help operate and deliver this website. Each handles information only as reasonably necessary to provide their service.

Services currently used on this website include:

• Vercel — website hosting and infrastructure. Processes request logs including IP addresses as part of serving the site. Vercel privacy policy.
• MongoDB — database service used to store contact messages, newsletter subscriptions and recipe reviews. MongoDB privacy policy.
• Cloudinary — image and video content delivery network. Recipe images and videos are hosted and delivered from Cloudinary servers. Cloudinary privacy policy.
• Google Analytics (GA4) — website analytics. Processes usage and device data subject to your consent choices. Google privacy policy.
• Google AdSense (when enabled) — advertising service that may be used to display advertisements on the website, subject to your consent choices. See Section 5.
• YouTube, TikTok and Instagram (optional video embeds): Some recipe pages include optional video tutorials embedded from YouTube, TikTok or Instagram. Choosing Load external video connects to the named provider, which may set cookies or collect data before playback. Unload external video removes the player but does not erase previously received data or third-party storage. Direct video files are delivered separately from their hosting service.
• Website fonts — fonts are built and self-hosted with the website. Displaying them does not request Google's font servers from your browser.

5. Advertising

Our British Kitchen may use Google AdSense and other advertising services to display advertisements. The site advertising loader is paused pending verified consent-provider setup; when enabled, advertising helps keep the recipes and interactive kitchen tools free to access.

If advertising is enabled, Google and its advertising partners may use advertising cookies based on prior visits to this website or other websites, IP addresses, device and browser identifiers, and similar technologies to serve ads, measure ad performance, and — where you have given consent — personalise ads based on your interests and activity across websites.

Declining optional consent does not authorize this site to load advertising. Non-personalised advertising can still involve cookies and identifiers; it is not automatically exempt from consent requirements. Advertising will remain paused until the consent provider and account configuration are verified.

You can manage your Google personalised advertising preferences via Google's Ad Settings, or opt out more broadly through networks such as AboutAds. For more information on how Google uses information from partner sites, visit Google's Privacy & Terms.

6. Cookies and Similar Technologies

This website uses cookies and similar technologies in a limited way. A cookie is a small text file placed on your device by a website.

• Strictly necessary: A session cookie is used for the protected administration area of the site. This is only set for authorised administrators and is not used for advertising. Public visitors do not receive this cookie.
• Preference storage: Your cookie consent choice is saved under obk_consent_v1 in browser local storage, with a version and timestamp. Choices are valid for 180 days; expiry or a changed consent version prompts renewal before optional analytics loads.
• Analytics cookies: Google Analytics uses cookies and similar identifiers to measure how the site is used. These are only set where you have consented.
• Advertising cookies (when enabled): If advertising is enabled, Google AdSense and its partners may use cookies and identifiers to serve and measure ads. These technologies are not actively used while advertising is disabled, and will only be used in accordance with your consent choices.

You can review and update your choices at any time using the Cookie Policy page, or via Cookie Settings in the footer. Reject All withdraws optional consent. If analytics was running, the page reloads to stop its scripts and known first-party Google Analytics cookies are removed where accessible. This does not erase information previously received by Google.

7. Data Retention

Personal information is kept only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, including to respond to enquiries, maintain subscription preferences, meet legal obligations, resolve disputes and protect the website from abuse.

• Contact enquiries: Retained while reasonably needed for communication purposes.
• Newsletter subscriptions: Retained while you remain subscribed, plus any suppression records required to honour an unsubscribe request.
• Recipe reviews: Retained indefinitely while the associated recipe is published, as they form part of the public recipe content.
• Technical and security logs: Retained according to the operational requirements of the relevant hosting and security provider.

8. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights in relation to your personal information, including the right to access, correct, or request deletion of your data, restrict certain processing, or withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, or to withdraw a consent, please contact us at hello@ourbritishkitchen.co.uk.

9. Complaints (UK Users)

If you have concerns about how your personal information is handled, please contact us first so we can try to resolve the issue. If you are based in the UK and remain dissatisfied, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

10. Children's Privacy

Our British Kitchen is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that such information has been submitted, we will take appropriate steps to remove it.

11. International Data Transfers

Some of the service providers listed in Section 4 may process information in countries outside the UK. Each provider's own privacy information, linked above, explains how it handles international transfers.