Privacy policy
Reading about water on this site asks almost nothing of you. This page explains the little information we do handle, and what you can ask us to do with it.
Who looks after your information
Water Data Prize is run by its editor, Tobias Hutchins, who decides how the information below is used. Write to him at editor@waterdataprize.com about anything on this page. We have no postal address for correspondence; email is the way to reach us.
What we hold, and why
- Visit statistics, only if you say yes. When you press Accept on the cookie banner, Google Analytics records which pages were opened, roughly where from, on what kind of device, and how the reader arrived. We use these totals to see which water topics readers follow, and for nothing else. If you press Reject, or never choose, the analytics code does not load at all.
- Your emails to the editor. When you write to us with a story, a correction or a question, we keep your message, your name and your address so we can reply and follow it up.
That is the full list. There are no reader accounts, no comment threads and no advertising networks here, and we never sell or swap anyone's details.
The legal footing
For the visit statistics we rely on your consent, which you can take back at any time on the cookie policy page. For mail, we rely on our legitimate interest in answering the people who contact the editor.
How long we keep it
Google Analytics holds the statistics for 2 months before deleting them. An email exchange is kept for up to two years after the last message, then deleted, unless a correction or a story it concerns is still open.
Who handles it for us
- Google Analytics (Google) measures visits, after consent only.
- Vercel serves these pages. Like any web host it records technical request logs, such as an IP address and the page asked for, and keeps them briefly to run and protect the service.
- Google Workspace, set up for us through Zapmail, carries and stores the editor's mailbox.
Google and Vercel may handle this information in the United States. Both use the safeguards UK data protection law accepts for sending personal data abroad. The search box on this site hands your search words to Google Search, under Google's own privacy policy.
What you can ask for
You may ask to see the information we hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, limit or object to how we use it, or receive a copy to take elsewhere. Write to editor@waterdataprize.com and we will answer within one month.
If you are unhappy with how we have dealt with your information, you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. We would be glad of the chance to put things right first.
Changes
When this policy changes, the new version replaces this page. Last updated 11 October 2026.