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Privacy and cookies

This notice explains what happens to information about your visit when you use River Levels.

Who is responsible for this service

Nicholas Jones is the data controller for River Levels.

For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, email hello@riverlevels.ie.

Information we process

Vercel hosts this website. Like other web hosts, it receives technical request information needed to deliver and protect the site. This can include your IP address, the page requested, time of the request, browser, device and diagnostic information.

If you search for a place or station, River Levels uses the words you enter to return results. We do not retain the search words in application logs or send them to analytics. Logs record only that a search parameter was present.

If you email us feedback, we receive the name and email address you use, your message and any other information you choose to include.

If you use the feedback form, we save your answers, the submission time and any email address you choose to give. You do not need to give a name or email. We do not save your IP address with your feedback. To limit abuse, we use a daily keyed hash of the connection IP address in temporary counters; these expire by the next UTC midnight. Hosting providers still process technical request information as described above.

We use Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights to understand aggregate use and real-user performance so we can improve the service. They receive the page path without its query or fragment. Web Analytics also receives the time, referrer, broad location, browser, operating system and device type. Speed Insights receives browser performance measurements such as loading, responsiveness and layout stability. These reports do not show us a person's IP address or let us reconstruct an individual's browsing history.

Why we process this information

We process limited technical information to provide, secure, diagnose and improve River Levels. We use feedback emails to understand problems, reply when needed and improve the service. The intended legal basis is our legitimate interests in operating a safe and useful public information service. This basis and the balancing assessment must be reviewed before the service's full public launch.

Cookies and storage on your device

River Levels does not set application cookies. If you use My Rivers, the service stores your saved places and minimal recent observation checkpoints in this browser so it can compare a gauge with the exact reading previously shown. Alert preferences, RiverLevels+ research interest, an analytics last-visit time and a marker that prevents a first save being counted again may also be stored locally. These choices, checkpoints and markers stay on this device, can be removed through the relevant My Rivers control or the browser's site-data controls, and are not sent to an account or used to deliver alerts.

Vercel documents Web Analytics and Speed Insights as working without third-party cookies. We therefore do not show a cookie-consent banner. If this changes, we will update this notice and ask for consent before using any cookie or similar technology that requires it.

Links to other websites open services with their own privacy and cookie policies.

Who receives the information

Vercel processes hosting, security, log and analytics information to provide the website. Vercel Inc. is based in the United States and uses subprocessors. Its data-processing terms include safeguards for transfers from the European Economic Area.

The provider that operates the hello@riverlevels.ie mailbox processes email information for that purpose. Its privacy and international-transfer terms apply to those emails. We do not sell information about visitors or people who give feedback.

Supabase stores web-form feedback in a private database accessible to the service owner. Resend sends the owner a notification containing a submission reference and private inbox link. These notifications do not include your answers or optional email. We use optional email only to contact you about your feedback; it does not subscribe you or permit marketing. These providers' data-processing and international-transfer terms apply.

How long information is kept

  • Vercel's standard Pro runtime logs are available for 1 day.
  • The temporary Web Analytics visitor hash is discarded after 24 hours. Aggregate Web Analytics reports are available for 12 months on the Pro plan; Vercel says it may retain analytics data for longer to support plan upgrades. Speed Insights reports remain available according to the project's Vercel plan; River Levels does not copy them into a separate store.
  • We delete identifiable feedback emails within 12 months unless they are still needed to resolve an issue or meet a legal obligation. We may keep anonymous summaries that cannot be linked back to you.
  • Web-form submissions and their notification records are deleted after 12 months, or earlier when an erasure request applies. Temporary abuse counters expire within 24 hours. Deleted data may remain in provider backups until the backup retention period ends; provider erasure and recovery procedures are managed separately.
  • We keep other operational evidence only for as long as needed to secure, diagnose and improve the service or meet a legal obligation.

Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have rights to access, correct or erase personal data, restrict or object to its use, and receive portable data. There is no automated decision-making or profiling about individual visitors.

Contact hello@riverlevels.ie first. You can also complain to the Data Protection Commission.

Changes to this notice

We will update this page if the service or its use of information changes. Last reviewed: 3 October 2026.