Last updated: 8 October 2026
This policy explains what personal data TouringSmarter collects, why, and what your rights are. We have kept it short and in plain English. TouringSmarter is a small UK website publishing practical campervan and motorhome touring advice.
Who we are
TouringSmarter (touringsmarter.co.uk) is operated by Chris Baker trading as TouringSmarter. For the purposes of UK data protection law, Chris Baker is the data controller for personal data collected through this website.
Address: Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA, United Kingdom
Email: hello@touringsmarter.co.uk
This policy is written with reference to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
Information you send us by email
There are no contact forms or user accounts on this website. If you email us, we receive the information you choose to send, which will normally include your name, email address and the content of your message, plus anything else you include such as attachments.
We use this only to read and reply to your message, deal with any request you make, and keep a record of the correspondence. We do not add you to a mailing list or use your email for marketing.
Technical information and cookies
When you visit the website, some technical information is processed automatically so the site can be delivered and kept secure. This can include your IP address, browser and device type, the pages requested, the date and time of the request and the referring website. This is processed by our hosting provider in server logs and by security and caching tools used to protect and speed up the site.
We use a cookie consent tool (Complianz) to manage cookies. Cookies that are strictly necessary for the site to work, such as the cookie that remembers your consent choices, are set without consent as PECR allows. Any non-essential cookies, such as analytics cookies, are only set if you agree to them through the cookie banner. You can change or withdraw your choices at any time using the “Manage consent” option on the site.
For details of the cookies used, please see our Cookie Policy.
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4, provided by Google, to understand how many people visit the site, which pages they read and how they found us. This helps us decide what to write and improve. It is connected through the Google Site Kit plugin.
Google Analytics only runs if you accept statistics cookies in the cookie banner. Until you accept, the Google Analytics code is not loaded at all: no Analytics cookies (such as _ga and _ga_*) are set and no information is sent to Google. The same applies if you decline. If you accept, Google Analytics loads and sets its cookies.
We have set up Google Analytics to keep data use to a minimum: advertising features, Google signals and ads personalisation are switched off, Google Ads is not linked, we have not enabled optional data sharing with Google, and Google Analytics does not log or store IP addresses. Analytics data is not combined with any information you send us by email.
You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the “Manage consent” option on the site. For details of the cookies used and how long they last, see our Cookie Policy. You can read how Google uses this data at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
We also use Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights to monitor how the site appears in Google search and how quickly pages load. These tools report on the website as a whole and do not place cookies on your device.
Affiliate links and other websites
Some pages contain affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. See our Affiliate Disclosure for more detail.
When you click an affiliate link or any other link to a third-party website, you leave TouringSmarter. That website, and any affiliate network involved, may collect information about you and set its own cookies to track the referral. They are responsible for that processing under their own privacy policies, which we recommend you read. We do not receive your name, contact details or payment details from these purchases.
Legal bases for using your information
Under UK GDPR we must have a lawful basis for using personal data. We rely on:
- Legitimate interests for replying to your emails, keeping records of correspondence, and running, securing and improving the website. We only rely on this where it does not override your rights and interests.
- Consent for analytics cookies and any other non-essential cookies. You can withdraw consent at any time.
- Legal obligation where we need to keep or disclose information to comply with the law.
How long we keep information
We keep personal data only for as long as we need it for the purposes above.
- Emails: kept for as long as needed to deal with your message and any follow-up. As a reasonable operational period, we aim to delete general correspondence no later than two years after our last contact with you, unless we need it longer to deal with a dispute or legal requirement.
- Server and security logs: kept by our hosting provider and security tools for the limited periods set by those services, mainly to keep the site running and secure.
- Google Analytics data: Google Analytics keeps detailed event data for 2 months and user-level data for 14 months (Google’s standard settings). After that only aggregated, non-identifying reports remain.
- Cookies: stored on your device for the periods shown in our Cookie Policy.
Sharing your information
We do not sell your personal data. We only share it where necessary with service providers who help us run the website and email, for example our web hosting provider, email services and, where you have consented to analytics cookies, Google as our analytics provider. They may only use the data to provide their service to us.
We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect our legal rights.
International transfers
Our website is hosted in the United Kingdom. Some service providers we use, including Google, may process data outside the UK, including in the United States. Where this happens, we rely on the protections required by UK law, such as UK adequacy regulations or approved contractual safeguards like the International Data Transfer Agreement or UK Addendum.
Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you
- ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data
- ask us to delete your data
- ask us to restrict how we use your data
- object to us using your data on the basis of legitimate interests
- ask for your data in a portable format, where this applies
- withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent
These rights are not absolute and some only apply in certain circumstances. We will respond within one month, as required by law. There is normally no charge.
Contact us
For any question about this policy or to exercise your rights, email hello@touringsmarter.co.uk or write to Chris Baker, TouringSmarter, Lytchett House, 13 Freeland Park, Wareham Road, Poole, Dorset, BH16 6FA.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please contact us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, telephone 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when the way the website handles personal data changes, for example if we add new tools or services. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.