Privacy
No accounts. No cookies. No trackers.
Wayback Walk is a static web app that runs in your browser. It has no login, sets no cookies, and loads no advertising or third-party analytics scripts. This page explains the little it does keep, and the map and data services your browser talks to while you use it.
Last updated: 21 July 2026
Who runs it
Wayback Walk is operated by an individual as a sole trader in the United Kingdom, acting as the data controller for the little personal data involved. There is no registered company. To contact us — including any data-protection request — use the enquiry form.
What we store on your device
A few settings are saved in your browser's own storage. They stay on your device, are not sent to us, and clear when you clear this site's data:
- Your own Maps key (
tn_key) — only if you supply a personal Google Maps key. The public site is pre-provisioned, so most visitors never set this. - Daily-edition play log (
tn_editions) — remembers which day's puzzle you've played, so it isn't re-shown. - Panel state (
tn_context_open) — remembers, for the current tab only, whether the context drawer is open.
The only thing we count
To judge whether the project is worth continuing, the site keeps four running totals per day: opens, daily-edition loads, plays, and shares. These are plain integers with no identifiers — no cookies, no accounts, and no retention of your IP address or browser details. We cannot tell who did what, only that (for example) the app was opened n times on a given day.
Services your browser calls
Comparing a street means fetching maps and open data live. As with any website, each request your browser makes necessarily reveals your IP address to the service it calls, along with the location or postcode you're looking at. We don't control those third parties' own processing — their notices apply:
- Google Maps & Street View — the imagery and the historical capture dates (Google privacy).
- postcodes.io — turns a postcode into constituency, council and ward.
- OpenStreetMap (Overpass) — the live count of what's on the street now.
- UK Parliament & Scottish Parliament APIs — your current MP / MSP.
- Wikimedia Commons — nearby geotagged photographs.
The site is hosted on Netlify, which processes requests (and, transiently, IP addresses) to serve the pages, per Netlify's privacy policy.
If you contact us
The press enquiry form is handled by Netlify Forms. What you type — your name, outlet, email and brief — is stored so we can reply to you, and for no other purpose. The lawful basis is our legitimate interest in responding to your enquiry. We don't add you to any mailing list.
Your rights
Under UK data-protection law you can ask for a copy of any personal data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, or object to our handling of it. Because we hold almost nothing beyond an enquiry you've sent us, most requests are quick. Use the enquiry form to make one. You may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
Changes
If this notice changes, the date at the top will change with it. This page is a plain-English summary, not legal advice.