Privacy policy

Who we are

BestIn is run by Donal O’Connor, who is the “controller” of your personal data. For anything about your data, contact hello@askbestin.com.

What we collect

When you browse

You can read BestIn without an account. Like any website, the services that host it record technical logs (such as your IP address, browser and the pages requested) to keep it running and secure. These aren’t used to build a profile of you.

We also count visits with Vercel Web Analytics, to see which pages people use. It doesn’t use cookies or follow you to other sites. It records the page you visited (without anything you searched for), the site you came from, and your browser, type of device and country, and it can’t tell who you are.

When you sign in

You sign in with a code we email you, or with Google. With a code, we only get your email address. With Google, Google tells us your email address, name and profile picture. Our sign-in provider stores these with your account. We use your email address to run your account and to send your sign-in codes; your Google name and photo are never shown on BestIn. When you ask for a code, Cloudflare Turnstile checks you’re a person, using information about your browser and device.

Your profile and what you post

• Public: your username, and a display name and bio if you add them; the questions, answers and comments you post; when you joined; and the total votes your answers and comments have received. If you say where you live and BestIn has a city there, a “Local” tag beside your name on posts in that city, and on your profile.
• Private: your home town (only the Local tag it earns is public), which answers and comments you voted on and how, the towns and cities you voted for and whether you said you live there, your notifications, and any reports you send (seen only by moderators). Vote totals are public; who voted isn’t.

City requests

When you vote for a city you can tick “I’d help get it started”. If you do, moderators can see your email address alongside that vote and may email you about launching that city. Untick it (or remove your vote) at any time and they won’t.

On your device

We use cookies only to keep you signed in; they’re essential and can’t be switched off while you’re signed in. Your browser also stores your light/dark mode choice, which maps app to open, and the last few cities you visited, so the home page can take you back; these never leave your device. We don’t use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies.

Why we use it (legal bases)

• To provide BestIn (your account, posting, voting, notifications): necessary to provide the service you asked for.
• To keep it safe and fair (rate limits, moderation, reports, security logs): our legitimate interest in a trustworthy site.
• To see how BestIn is used (counting page visits, without cookies): our legitimate interest in improving it.
• To contact you about a city launch, only if you ticked “I’d help”: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

We don’t sell your data, and we don’t use it for advertising.

Who we share it with

• Everyone: what’s public on your profile and what you post.
• Service providers who run BestIn for us under contract: Supabase (our database and sign-in), our email provider (sends sign-in codes), Cloudflare (the check that you’re a person) and Vercel (our website host, which also counts visits). They process data only on our instructions.
• Google, when you sign in with it (Google’s own privacy policy applies).
• Authorities, if the law requires it.

Some of these providers may process data outside the UK and the European Economic Area. Where they do, the transfer is covered by safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.

Links to Google Maps, Apple Maps and Reddit take you to those sites, where their own privacy policies apply. We don’t send them anything about you.

How long we keep it

We keep your account until you delete it. When an account is deleted, your profile, votes (on answers and comments), your home town, city votes, notifications and reports are deleted. Questions, answers and comments you posted stay up, because others have answered and voted on them, but they no longer show your name. Hosting providers keep technical logs for a short period.

You can delete your account yourself at any time, under Settings → Delete account.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• give you a copy of your data;
• correct it (you can edit your profile yourself in Settings);
• delete it;
• restrict or object to how we use it; or
• send it to you or another service in a portable format.

Contact hello@askbestin.com. We’ll reply within a month. If you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your data, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live: in Ireland, the Data Protection Commission (www.dataprotection.ie (opens in a new tab)); in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk (opens in a new tab)).

Age

You must be at least 16 to create an account.

Changes

If we change this policy we’ll update the date at the top, and tell signed-in users about significant changes. See also our terms.