Your data in the Bake-off
Short version: you can look and score without telling us anything. Only when you press send do we store your name, email and scores — to count them, and to put you on the mailing list so we can tell you when the website changes.
What is stored
- Your name and email, as you typed them.
- Your scores (1 to 5) and Star Bake for each brief, by design letter.
- When you sent them, and that you ticked the consent box.
- A one-way keyed hash of your IP address, used only to limit abuse (it cannot be turned back into the address). Your IP address itself is not stored.
- Your email address on the LanceTek mailing list, with the date you joined it. Nothing else goes on the list.
Nothing is stored while you browse and score: your draft scores live in your own browser until you send them.
Why
To count each person's scores once, to show everyone the totals, and to contact you about the Bake-off if something needs it (for example, a vote that looks wrong). Results only ever show totals, never names.
And to put you on the LanceTek mailing list: that is the reason we ask for your name and email. It is one list, about what changes on lancetek.com — new pages, new articles, Bake-off results. We have not started sending mail yet, so nothing will arrive until we do, and we will ask you to confirm your address before the first one goes out. Your email is never sold and never shared with anyone else.
Where, and for how long
Your scores, your name and your email sit on LanceTek's own web hosting in the UK and EU (Hostinger), in a database that only this site's code can use. Names and emails are deleted when a round's results are final; the totals are kept.
Your address on the mailing list is kept on LanceTek's own server, not on the hosting above, until you leave the list. The sign-up form posts it to our sign-up service, which holds it until our own server collects it (usually within the hour); anything still there after 30 days is dropped.
Leaving the list, and deleting it
Every mail we send will carry a one-click way to leave the list. You can also ask us to take you off it at any time, and we will, usually within a few days.
Use the contact form or email [email protected] with the email address you voted with, and we delete everything stored under it: your scores and your place on the list.
The data controller is LanceTek (Lance Keay), UK. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.