Your data rights

VouchRate Ltd operates under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. These rights apply whether or not you hold an account.

1. Access

You may ask for confirmation that we process your data and for a copy of it, together with the purposes, the recipients, the retention period and the source where we did not obtain it from you. We provide this as machine-readable JSON within one month, free of charge.

2. Rectification

You may correct inaccurate data. You can edit your own reviews directly; edits are kept as versions rather than silently replacing the text, so the record stays honest about having changed.

3. Erasure

You may delete your account and your reviews. This right belongs to the person who wrote the review and to nobody else — a business cannot invoke it on your behalf, and no payment causes it to be exercised.

We may retain a minimal record where we must: hashed suppression entries so we keep honouring an unsubscribe, and moderation decisions in the audit log for six years to defend legal claims. Those records do not include the text of your review.

4. Restriction

You may ask us to stop processing while a dispute about accuracy or our legitimate interests is resolved. In practice this means the review is unpublished pending resolution rather than deleted.

5. Portability

Where we process on the basis of contract or consent by automated means, you may receive that data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or ask us to transmit it directly to another controller where technically feasible.

6. Objection

You may object to processing based on legitimate interests, including our fraud detection and verification. We will stop unless we can show compelling grounds that override your interests, or we need the data to establish or defend legal claims. You may object to direct marketing at any time and we will stop immediately.

7. Automated decisions

Reviews are scored for authenticity automatically, but no review is removed by an automated process alone. A low score routes it to a human, who records a written rationale that you receive verbatim, and you may appeal within 90 days. You may request human intervention, express your point of view and contest the decision at any stage.

The categories of signal are published; the weights are not, because disclosing them would tell those manipulating the system exactly what to avoid. We consider this a proportionate restriction, and it does not prevent you contesting any outcome.

8. Withdrawing consent

Where we rely on consent — currently only for marketing email — you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.

9. How to exercise these rights

Signed-in users can export or delete their data from account settings. Otherwise write to privacy@vouchrate.co.uk stating which right you are exercising. We may ask for information to confirm your identity. We respond within one month; for complex or numerous requests we may extend by up to two further months and will tell you within the first month if we do.

There is no charge unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, in which case we will explain why.

10. Complaints

If you are dissatisfied, contact privacy@vouchrate.co.uk first so we can put it right. You may also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. Complaining to us first is not a precondition.