Privacy Policy

Who we are

Oriental Store Directory UK (“we”, “us”) is run from the United Kingdom and is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy, except where we say a partner acts as a controller in its own right. You can contact us about anything in this policy at listings@orientalstoredirectory.co.uk.

Information we collect

• Store listings. We compile business details from publicly available sources such as Google Maps listings, store websites, social media profiles and community submissions. Listings describe businesses, but where a shop is run by a sole trader its name, address or phone number may also identify a person.
• Store submissions. The “suggest a store” form collects the shop details you type in (name, county, town, website, specialities, services and notes). We do not ask for your name or email address, so please avoid including personal details in the notes.
• Issue reports. When you report a problem with a listing we collect the issues you select, your message and, only if you choose to give it, your email address so we can follow up.
• Emails to us. If you email listings@orientalstoredirectory.co.uk we receive your email address, your message and any attachments.
• Spam and abuse protection. Our forms use Cloudflare Turnstile, which checks technical signals such as your IP address and browser characteristics to tell people apart from bots. Our server also holds your IP address in memory for up to one hour to rate-limit repeated reports.
• Your location (optional). If you tap “Find stores near me” or “Use my location” your browser asks for permission first. Your coordinates are used inside your browser to show nearby stores and are saved on your device for 24 hours. They are not sent to us or to anyone else.
• Postcode and place search. When you search by postcode, postcode district or town, the text you typed is sent from your browser to postcodes.io, a free postcode lookup service run by Ideal Postcodes, to find its location. It receives that search text and your IP address. We keep the result only in the open page; nothing is saved on your device.
• Maps. Map images are loaded from OpenStreetMap’s servers, which receive your IP address and the map area you are viewing in order to deliver the images.
• Server logs. Like any website, our hosting provider, Vercel, records standard request data (IP address, browser type, page requested and time) to deliver the site and protect it from attacks.
• Analytics (only with your consent). If you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics collects information such as the pages you visit, how you arrived at the site, your approximate location (derived from your IP address) and your device and browser type. We use it to see which counties and stores people look for. Google Analytics’ advertising features are switched off. In the UK and EU, Google Analytics only runs if you agree in the consent popup to storing information on your device, measuring content performance and understanding audiences through statistics; elsewhere we ask with our own short banner.
• Advertising. Our advertising partner Mediavine and its partners collect information through cookies and similar technologies when adverts are shown. See the next section for details.
• Affiliate links. Some links to online shops are affiliate links. We don’t set affiliate cookies here; if you follow one, the shop or affiliate network may set its own cookies on its site to record the referral. See our affiliate disclosure.

Advertising

Adverts on this site are managed by Mediavine, Inc. through its Journey by Mediavine programme. Advertising revenue helps keep the directory free. When you visit, Mediavine and its advertising partners may use cookies, pixels, tags and similar technologies to collect information such as your IP address, device and browser details, advertising and cookie identifiers, approximate location, the pages you view and how you interact with adverts.

This information is used to show adverts, including adverts based on your interests where you have agreed to that, to limit how often you see the same advert, to measure advert performance, and to detect fraud and keep adverts brand-safe. Mediavine and its partners may combine it with information they hold from other websites and devices.

If you are in the UK or EU, Mediavine’s consent tool asks for your permission before personalised advertising cookies are used, and lets you accept, reject or customise each purpose and partner. You can reopen it later to change your choices. If you decline, you may still see non-personalised adverts based on the page you are reading.

Mediavine’s script also loads Grow, Mediavine’s reader tool. If you choose to use one of its features, for example saving a page or signing up for updates, Grow processes the details you give it under Mediavine’s privacy policy.

Mediavine and many of its partners process this data as independent controllers under their own privacy notices. You can read how Mediavine and its ad partners collect and use data, including the full list of partners with links to their privacy policies, in Mediavine’s Legal & Privacy Centre. You can also opt out of interest-based advertising through Your Online Choices, by enabling Global Privacy Control in your browser, or by blocking third-party cookies.

How we use information and our lawful basis

• Publishing and maintaining listings — our legitimate interest in running an accurate, useful public directory of businesses.
• Reviewing submissions and reports, and replying to emails — our legitimate interest in keeping the directory accurate and responding to the people who contact us.
• Protecting forms from spam and abuse — our legitimate interest in keeping the site secure.
• Analytics cookies — your consent, which you can withdraw at any time from Cookie settings.
• Personalised advertising cookies — your consent, collected through Mediavine’s consent tool.
• Showing non-personalised adverts, measuring them and preventing ad fraud — the legitimate interests of us and our advertising partners in funding the site. You can object to this through Mediavine’s consent tool.
• Complying with the law — where we must keep or disclose information to meet a legal obligation.

Who we share information with

We use a small number of service providers to run the site:

• Vercel, our hosting provider, which serves the site and keeps server logs;
• Resend, which delivers form submissions and issue reports to our inbox;
• Cloudflare, which provides the Turnstile spam check on our forms;
• Google, which provides Google Analytics when you have consented to it;
• Mediavine and its advertising partners, as described in the Advertising section;
• Ideal Postcodes, which runs postcodes.io for postcode and place searches;
• the OpenStreetMap Foundation, which serves the map images;
• affiliate shops and networks, only when you follow an affiliate link to their site; and
• our email provider, which stores messages you send us.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it or to protect our legal rights. We do not sell the information you give us through our forms or by email.

International transfers

Some of these providers, including Vercel, Google, Mediavine, Resend and Cloudflare, process data in the United States or other countries outside the UK. When that happens, the transfer is protected by UK adequacy regulations (such as the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework) or by the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or Addendum, as required by UK law.

How long we keep it

• Store listings stay published until they are out of date or the business asks us to change or remove them.
• Submission emails, issue reports and correspondence are normally deleted within 12 months, unless we need them for a legal reason.
• IP addresses used for rate limiting are discarded within one hour.
• Your cookie choice is kept on your device for six months, after which we ask again.
• A location you share is kept on your device for 24 hours.
• Google Analytics data is kept for no longer than 14 months, and its cookies expire after up to two years.
• Advertising data is kept by Mediavine and its partners in line with their own privacy notices.

Your choices and rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to access the personal data we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to how we use it (including objecting to processing based on legitimate interests), and to receive a copy of data you gave us. Where we rely on your consent you can withdraw it at any time; this does not affect anything we did before you withdrew it. We respond to requests within one month.

To change your analytics or advertising choices, use Cookie settings in the footer, which reopens the consent popup. The cookie policy explains each cookie in more detail.

If you own or run a listed store and want your details corrected or removed, email us and we will update the listing.

Children

The directory is intended for adults and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you think a child has sent us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS only, and access to our inbox, analytics and deployment systems is restricted and protected with strong authentication. No online service can be completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold.

Changes to this policy

We will update this page when our practices change and revise the “last updated” date above. If a change affects what you have consented to, we will ask for your consent again.

Contact and complaints

Email us at listings@orientalstoredirectory.co.uk with any privacy question or to exercise your rights. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, although we would appreciate the chance to put things right first.