SmartShopper UK ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and your rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
1. Who We Are
SmartShopper UK is a price-comparison website operated from the United Kingdom. You can contact our data controller at hello@smartshopper.uk.
2. Information We Collect
2.1 Information You Provide
- Account data — if you create an account (via Clerk), we store your email address and a hashed identifier. We never store your password directly.
- Price alerts — if you set a price alert, we store the product ID and your target price, linked to your account.
- Contact form — if you contact us, we receive your name, email, and message content.
2.2 Information Collected Automatically
- Log data — your IP address, browser type, pages visited, and timestamps when you use the site.
- Cookies — see Section 5 below for full details.
- Affiliate click data — when you click a "Buy Now" link, we record which product and merchant you clicked on (no personal data is stored against these clicks unless you are signed in).
3. How We Use Your Information
- To show you accurate, up-to-date price comparisons
- To send price-drop alerts you have explicitly requested
- To respond to contact form enquiries
- To detect and prevent fraud or abuse
- To improve site performance and user experience
- To serve relevant advertisements via Google AdSense (see Section 5)
Our legal basis for processing is legitimate interests for analytics and site operation, and consent for advertising cookies. Where you create an account or set an alert, the legal basis is contract performance.
4. Sharing Your Data
We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with:
- Clerk (clerk.com) — authentication provider, processes account and session data.
- Supabase (supabase.com) — our database host, stores product, price, and alert data.
- Google LLC — via Google AdSense and Google Analytics. Google may use cookies to serve personalised ads. See Google's privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy.
- Vercel Inc. — our hosting provider, processes server logs.
- Affiliate networks — Amazon Associates, Awin. When you click a retailer link, that retailer may set their own cookies.
5. Cookies & Google AdSense
We use cookies to make the site work and to serve advertising. Below is a summary of the cookies we set:
| Cookie | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| __session (Clerk) | Keeps you signed in | Session |
| _ga, _gid (Google Analytics) | Page-view analytics | Up to 2 years |
| IDE, DSID (Google Ads / AdSense) | Personalised advertising by Google | Up to 13 months |
| ss_consent | Stores your cookie preferences | 1 year |
Google AdSense: SmartShopper UK uses Google AdSense to display advertisements. Google AdSense uses cookies (including the DoubleClick cookie) to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. You can opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings. You can also opt out via the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.
You can manage or withdraw your cookie consent at any time using the cookie banner at the bottom of this page.
6. Data Retention
- Account data — retained while your account is active and for 30 days after deletion.
- Price history — retained indefinitely (it is non-personal aggregate data).
- Contact form messages — retained for 12 months, then deleted.
- Server logs — retained for 30 days.
7. Your Rights Under UK GDPR
You have the right to:
- Access the personal data we hold about you
- Correct inaccurate data
- Erase your data ("right to be forgotten")
- Restrict or object to certain processing
- Data portability — receive your data in a structured format
- Withdraw consent at any time (this does not affect past lawful processing)
To exercise any right, email us at hello@smartshopper.uk. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
8. International Transfers
Some of our service providers (Clerk, Supabase, Vercel, Google) process data outside the UK. Where this occurs, we rely on UK adequacy decisions or Standard Contractual Clauses to ensure adequate protection.
9. Children
SmartShopper UK is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be flagged via a notice on the site. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.
11. Contact
For any privacy-related questions, please email hello@smartshopper.uk or use our contact form.