Privacy policy
How A&E Wait Time handles personal data. Compliant with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Read alongside our terms of service and medical disclaimer.
In short
A&E Wait Time is built to be readable on a phone in seconds. We do not require an account. We display advertising through Ezoic to keep the site free — where that advertising uses cookies or similar identifiers we ask for your consent first, through the consent banner that appears on your first visit. We never sell your personal data.
Apart from the advertising described in §06 and §08, the only personal data we process is what you actively choose to send us: a postcode you type into the search box, a one-time approximate location you grant via your browser, or an email you send to our editorial inbox.
Who is the data controller
The data controller for personal data processed via aewaittime.co.uk is the founder of A&E Wait Time, operating as an independent UK individual. You can reach the controller at hello@aewaittime.co.uk.
We are not currently required to register with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office because we do not process personal data on a scale, or in a way, that triggers the registration fee. We will register if and when that changes.
What we collect
We process the minimum personal data needed to run the site and answer your enquiries.
Email content you send us. If you email our editorial inbox, we process the email address you sent it from and the content of your message so we can reply, log a correction and keep an audit trail.
Approximate location, only if you grant it. If you tap ‘Use my location’ on the home page or /near-me, your browser asks for permission. If you grant it, we use the latitude/longitude one time to rank the nearest A&E departments. We do not store it on our servers.
Postcodes you type. If you type a UK postcode into a search box, we send it to the public postcodes.io API to convert it into an approximate centroid. We do not log the postcode against you.
Standard server logs. Our hosting provider (Vercel) keeps short-lived request logs containing IP address, user-agent, requested URL and timestamp, used solely for security, abuse prevention and operational debugging. Retention is short (see §09).
Anonymous analytics events. We measure aggregate page-view counts and Core Web Vitals to keep the site fast. The analytics product we use does not set persistent cookies and does not build a profile of you (see §06).
Advertising data. Our advertising provider Ezoic and its approved partners may process your IP address, device and browser information, approximate location and cookie or similar identifiers to deliver, cap, secure and measure ads — and, where you consent, to personalise them. In the UK and EEA this only happens after you agree via the consent banner (see §06 and §08).
What we never collect
No accounts. There is no sign-up. We do not collect names, passwords or profile information.
We never sell your data. We do not sell, rent or licence your personal data. Advertising is handled by Ezoic under a processor/partner agreement (see §08) — it is not a sale of your data to us.
No social-media tracking pixels. We do not embed Facebook Pixel, X/Twitter pixel, LinkedIn Insight Tag or any equivalent.
No health information about you. We do not ask you to tell us about a condition, symptom, hospital visit or anything else clinical — and we discard anything sensitive that arrives by email after dealing with the enquiry.
Lawful basis
Under the UK GDPR we rely on the following lawful bases for processing.
Consent (Article 6(1)(a)). When you grant browser geolocation, or agree to non-essential advertising and analytics cookies via our consent banner, you are giving consent — which you can withdraw at any time (see §06).
Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)). Server logs and aggregate analytics are processed to keep the site secure, fast and online. We have weighed our interest against your privacy rights and consider the impact minimal.
Performance of editorial duty (Article 6(1)(f)). If you email us, we process your message to reply, investigate corrections and keep an audit trail of what was changed and why.
Location & postcode lookups
When you tap ‘Use my location’, your browser pops up its own permission dialog. If you allow it, your device gives the page an approximate latitude/longitude (typically rounded to the nearest few hundred metres). We use that one location, in your browser, to compute which A&E departments are closest and request the relevant data. We do not transmit the raw coordinates to a third-party advertiser, broker or tracker.
When you type a UK postcode, we send it to the public postcodes.io service operated by Ideal Postcodes / IDDQD Limited (UK), to translate the postcode into an approximate centroid. Their privacy policy applies to that lookup. We do not log the postcode against you.
Third-party services
We rely on a small number of carefully chosen processors, each of which is under a written processor agreement.
Hosting — Vercel Inc. (USA). Serves the website and stores short-lived request logs. Vercel is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the UK extension.
Advertising & consent — Ezoic Inc. (USA). Provides our advertising and the consent management platform (CMP). Ezoic and its approved advertising partners may process your IP address, device and browser data, approximate location and cookie identifiers to deliver and measure ads, subject to your consent. See Ezoic’s privacy policy at ezoic.com/privacy-policy; the full list of advertising vendors is available in the consent banner.
Postcode lookup — postcodes.io. Used to translate UK postcodes into approximate coordinates. Data stays in the UK.
NHS publications & trust dashboards. We fetch wait-time data from public NHS publications and named trust dashboards. Those endpoints do not see any of your data — only ours.
Email — the editor’s inbox provider. Emails you send to us are processed by the editor’s mail provider for delivery and storage of replies. UK GDPR rights still apply to those messages.
The full, automatically maintained list of Ezoic’s advertising partners and the cookies they may set on this site is shown below:
How long we keep data
Server request logs. Retained for up to 30 days, then automatically deleted.
Aggregate analytics. Stored indefinitely in fully anonymised, aggregate form (no individual identifier).
Email correspondence. Kept for as long as needed to action the enquiry and for an additional 24 months as an audit trail of corrections, then deleted.
Approximate geolocation & postcode lookups. Used in-browser only and not stored on our servers.
Your rights (UK GDPR)
You have the right to:
Be informed. About what data we process and why — that is what this page is for.
Access. Request a copy of any personal data we hold about you.
Rectify. Correct inaccurate personal data.
Erase. Ask us to delete personal data, where we have no overriding lawful reason to keep it.
Restrict processing. Limit how we use personal data while a query is being resolved.
Object. Object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
Data portability. Receive personal data in a structured, machine-readable format.
Withdraw consent. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.
To exercise any of these rights, email hello@aewaittime.co.uk. We aim to respond within one calendar month, in line with UK GDPR.
International transfers
Some of our processors (notably our hosting provider) are based outside the UK. Where personal data is transferred outside the UK, we rely on either an adequacy regulation (e.g. the EU-US Data Privacy Framework with the UK extension) or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement / UK Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, plus appropriate safeguards.
Children
A&E Wait Time is a general-audience information site. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We re-review this page every 90 days and whenever we materially change how we process personal data. The “Last reviewed” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent review. Material changes are summarised at the bottom of the page when they happen.
Contact & complaints
For any privacy question, email hello@aewaittime.co.uk or write to the editorial team.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.
Effective date
In force from .
Re-reviewed at minimum every 90 days. Material changes are noted at the bottom of this page.