Whereabites ("we", "us") runs whereabites.co.uk, a directory that connects food van owners, the venues that host them, and customers looking for both. This page explains what personal data we collect, why, and what control you have over it.
We're a small, UK-based service, so this is written in plain English rather than dense legal language. If anything here is unclear, or you want to exercise any of the rights below, just get in touch.
If you register a Food Van or Venue account, we collect your name, email address, phone number and a password (stored as a secure hash, never in plain text) so you can sign in and manage your listing. We use this to run your account and to contact you about it - for example to verify your email, confirm a venue listing, or respond if you get in touch.
Food van accounts can add a van name, food type, an optional menu (PDF or image), and the locations, dates and times they plan to trade. This is shown publicly so customers can find you - that's the whole point of the listing, so treat anything you enter here as public.
Venue accounts (or venues we add on their behalf, always with their agreement) provide a venue name and address, plus optional contact name, email, phone, hire price and notes. Venue address and coordinates are looked up via Google Maps so we can place the venue on the map. Venue listings go through a manual verification step before they're shown publicly, so we can confirm the venue is genuine and the person listing it actually represents it.
If you follow a food van as a customer, we store the email address you gave us so we can send you an update when that van adds new stops. Every email we send includes a one-click link to stop following - no account or sign-in required.
Messages sent through our Contact Us form (your name, phone, email and message) are emailed directly to our team to answer your query. We don't keep a separate copy in our database beyond that email.
Food van subscriptions are billed through Stripe. We never see or store your card details - Stripe handles that directly. We do store a reference to your Stripe customer and subscription record, and its status (e.g. trialling, active, cancelled), so we know whether your account has access to paid features.
We use essential cookies only: to keep you signed in, remember your session, and protect forms against cross-site request forgery. Google reCAPTCHA (used on registration to block automated sign-ups) and Google Maps may also set their own cookies - see Google's own privacy policy for how they handle that. We don't use advertising or analytics tracking cookies.
We don't sell your data. We use a small number of trusted service providers to run Whereabites, who process data on our behalf:
We keep account and listing data for as long as your account is active. Food van and venue accounts can edit their own details at any time from My Profile. Venue owners can remove their listing from the directory themselves whenever they like, and relist it later if they change their mind.
If you'd like your data corrected, exported, or fully deleted - including closing an account entirely - contact us and we'll handle it directly; as a small team, this isn't yet a self-service feature.
Under UK GDPR, you have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to or restrict how we use it, and request a copy in a portable format. To exercise any of these, get in touch and we'll respond as quickly as we can.
We may update this page as the service changes. If we make a significant change to how we use your data, we'll aim to let registered users know directly rather than relying on this page alone.
Questions about any of this? Contact us - we're happy to help.