Privacy Policy — Balcony Solar Guide

Last updated: March 2026

Who We Are

This privacy policy applies to Balcony Solar Guide, accessible at balconysolarguide.co.uk (the "Site"). The Site provides information, guides, and tools related to plug-in balcony solar panels in the United Kingdom.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, the data controller is the operator of Balcony Solar Guide. If you have any data protection queries, please contact us using the details in the "Contact Us" section below.

The Data We Collect

Analytics Data

We use privacy-focused web analytics to understand how visitors use the Site. Analytics data may include:

Pages visited and time spent on each page
Referring website or search engine
Device type, browser, and operating system (in aggregate)
Approximate geographic location (country or region level — not precise location)
Whether a visit resulted in a click on an affiliate link

We aim to use analytics tools that minimise data collection to what is necessary for understanding site performance. We do not use analytics data to build individual user profiles, and we do not sell analytics data to third parties.

Calculator Tool Data

The balcony solar savings calculator on this Site operates entirely client-side in your browser. The inputs you enter (region, orientation, wattage, tariff) are not transmitted to our servers, stored, or logged in any way.

Contact Enquiries

If you contact us by email or through any contact form on the Site, we will collect your name, email address, and the content of your message. We use this information solely to respond to your enquiry. We do not add contact enquirers to any mailing list without explicit consent.

Data We Do Not Collect

We do not collect:

Payment information (we do not process any transactions on this Site)
Social media login data
Precise location data
Sensitive personal data (health, financial, political, or religious data)

Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored in your browser. We use the following categories of cookies:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are essential for the Site to function. They do not collect any personal data and cannot be switched off. Examples include session cookies that remember your preferences during a single visit.

Analytics Cookies

We use analytics cookies to understand how visitors interact with the Site. These cookies collect aggregate, anonymised information about page views, session duration, and traffic sources. They do not identify individual users.

If our analytics provider is Google Analytics, it operates under Google's data processing terms. We configure Google Analytics with IP anonymisation enabled. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

Affiliate Tracking Cookies

When you click an affiliate link on this Site (for example, a link to Amazon or EcoFlow), the destination retailer's affiliate programme places a tracking cookie in your browser. This cookie records that you arrived via our affiliate link, enabling the retailer to attribute any subsequent purchase to us.

These cookies are set by third parties (Amazon, EcoFlow, Anker) — not by us — and are governed by those companies' own privacy policies:

How We Use Your Data

We use data collected through this Site for the following purposes:

Site improvement: Understanding which content is most useful, which pages perform poorly, and how to improve the user experience.
Responding to enquiries: Answering questions submitted via email or contact form.
Affiliate accounting: We use aggregate click-through data to understand which affiliate links generate revenue, informing decisions about which products to feature.

Legal Basis for Processing (UK GDPR)

Under UK GDPR, we rely on the following legal bases for processing personal data:

Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)): For analytics, to understand and improve the Site. Our legitimate interest is in operating an effective, useful publication.
Consent (Article 6(1)(a)): Where we seek your consent for non-essential cookies (e.g., analytics cookies) via a cookie consent mechanism, we will only process data for those purposes if you have consented.
Contract performance / pre-contractual steps (Article 6(1)(b)): For contact enquiries, to respond to your message.

Data Retention

We retain analytics data for up to 26 months, after which it is automatically deleted or anonymised by our analytics provider. Contact enquiry data is retained for up to 12 months from the date of last correspondence, unless you ask us to delete it sooner.

Third Parties

We do not sell your personal data to any third party. We may share data with:

Our analytics provider (e.g., Google Analytics), solely for the purpose of analysing Site usage.
Affiliate networks and retailers (via affiliate tracking cookies set by those parties when you click their links — see above).
Our hosting provider, who processes data as part of providing our web infrastructure. Our hosting provider acts as a data processor and is required to process data only in accordance with our instructions.

International Transfers

Some of our third-party service providers (such as Google) may transfer data outside the UK and EEA. Where this occurs, we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or the UK adequacy regulations to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

Your Rights Under UK GDPR

If we hold personal data about you, you have the following rights under UK GDPR. You can exercise these rights by contacting us (see "Contact Us" below):

Right of access: You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to rectification: You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"): You can ask us to delete personal data we hold about you, subject to certain legal exceptions.
Right to restrict processing: You can ask us to pause processing of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to data portability: Where processing is based on consent or contract and carried out automatically, you can request your data in a machine-readable format.
Right to object: You can object to processing based on our legitimate interests. We will stop processing unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds.
Rights related to automated decision-making: We do not carry out automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk if you believe your data protection rights have been infringed.

Children

This Site is not directed at children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Continued use of the Site after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, wish to exercise any of your data rights, or have a concern about how we handle your data, please contact us at:

Balcony Solar Guide
Email: privacy@balconysolarguide.co.uk

We will respond to all data rights requests within one calendar month, as required by UK GDPR.