Privacy policy

Last updated: 20 September 2026

Who is responsible for your data

Peter Chaloner, trading as PotholeMap, is the data controller for the information described here. You can reach us at privacy@potholemap.co.uk, or by post at:

What we collect and why

• Pothole reports: the photo you upload, the location coordinates, the time of capture, postcode, road name and council area, the severity you choose, any description you write and, if you give one, your rating of the road’s overall condition. We use these to build the public map and to provide pothole data to councils and other organisations. Legal basis: legitimate interests in road safety, public information and running the service.
• Your contact details when reporting: first name, last name and email address. We use these to confirm your report, to ask later whether the pothole has been repaired and to tell you when a council marks it as fixed. Legal basis: legitimate interests in keeping the map accurate. These details are never published.
• Vote to Fix: when you vote for a pothole we record the vote against a random ID stored in a cookie on your device, or against your account if you are signed in, so each person can vote once per pothole and remove their vote later. The random ID is stored by us only in scrambled, one-way form and does not identify you. Legal basis: legitimate interests in showing which potholes matter most to local people.
• Spam protection: when you submit a report or vote we keep a scrambled, one-way version of your IP address for up to 24 hours, so we can limit repeated submissions. It cannot be turned back into your IP address and is deleted automatically. Legal basis: legitimate interests in protecting the service from abuse.
• Account details, if you create an account: your name and email address, so you can sign in and see your own reports. Legal basis: performance of our service to you.
• Council and general enquiries: the name, organisation, email address and message you send through our forms, so we can reply. Legal basis: legitimate interests in responding to correspondence.

What is public and what is not

A published report shows the photo, location, road name, postcode area, council, severity, your description, the road condition rating you gave, the number of Vote to Fix votes it has received and the repair status. It never shows your name, your email address or your account details. Reporter contact details are held separately, are not readable by other users, and are only available to the systems that send you updates.

Please do not include faces, vehicle number plates, house numbers or anything identifying a private individual in your photo. If a photo does include something like that, ask us to take it down using the removal request form.

Who we share it with

• Our hosting and database provider, which stores the site and its data.
• Our email delivery provider, which sends the messages we describe above.
• Our email forwarding and mailbox providers, which handle messages you send to our @potholemap.co.uk addresses.
• Councils and other organisations we work with, which may pay for it, can receive pothole data: the location, photo, severity, description, road condition rating, the total number of Vote to Fix votes, dates and repair status. It never includes who voted, and never your name, email address or account details. If a photo or report is removed at someone’s request, we stop including it from then on.
• Anyone, where the law requires us to disclose information.

We never sell your personal information. We do not share your name, email address or account details with anyone for advertising.

If you turn advertising cookies on, Meta Platforms (Facebook and Instagram) receives your IP address, browser and the pages you visit here, and is told when a report is completed along with the local authority area and which campaign brought you. It is never told who you are, where the pothole is, or what you uploaded. Nothing goes to Meta unless you have said yes, and you can withdraw that at any time from the cookie notice.

Where your data is stored

Our database, which holds pothole reports, photos and reporter contact details, is hosted in Ireland, in the European Union. The UK recognises the EU as giving adequate protection to personal data. Some of the providers listed above, such as our email providers, may also handle data in other countries, including the United States. Where they do, we rely on the safeguards those providers put in place under UK data protection law.

How long we keep it

• Pothole reports: shown on the public map until there has been no activity on them for 5 months, then taken off the map. We keep the pothole data (location, photo, severity, description, dates and repair status) after that as a record of road conditions.
• Road condition ratings: kept with the pothole data, without your name or email address.
• Votes: kept with the pothole’s record, including after the report comes off the map, because the vote total is part of that record. You can remove your vote at any time from the pothole’s page, on the device you voted from. If you voted while signed in, your votes are deleted along with your account.
• Reporter contact details: deleted when the report is taken off the map, or sooner if you ask us.
• Account details: for as long as you keep the account, then deleted on request.
• Enquiries: up to 24 months after we have finished dealing with them.

Cookies

The cookies needed to keep you signed in, to count your Vote to Fix votes and to remember your cookie choice are always on. Advertising cookies, which load the Meta Pixel, only run if you turn them on, and analytics is switched off and unused. Saying no costs you nothing on the site, and you can change your mind whenever you like. See the cookie notice for details.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• correct anything that is wrong
• delete your data, where we do not have to keep it
• restrict or object to how we use it, including our legitimate interests grounds
• provide your data in a portable format

Signed-in users can download a copy of their data straight away on the your data page. Anyone else can use the privacy request form or email privacy@potholemap.co.uk. We answer within one month.

One limit worth knowing: votes cast without signing in are stored against a random ID, not against you, so we have no way to find them or prove they are yours. That means they can’t be included in a copy of your data or a deletion request — but you can remove any of them yourself from the pothole’s page, on the device you voted from. Votes you cast while signed in are linked to your account, appear on the your data page and are deleted with your account.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first so we can put it right. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Children

PotholeMap is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will remove it.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we use personal data, we will update this page and change the date at the top.