Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Welcome to Cake Shed. This Privacy Policy explains how Betete Lise Limited ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, and protects your personal data when you use the Cake Shed website and the Cake Shed iOS and Android apps (together, the "Service").

For the purposes of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the data controller is Betete Lise Limited, company number 13168303, registered in England and Wales.

2. The Data We Collect

a) Account holders (Bakers)

When you register and run a shed, we collect:

• Account information: your email address and name. You can sign in with a one-time 6-digit code we email to you (codes are stored only as a cryptographic hash and expire after 10 minutes) or via Google, Facebook, or Sign in with Apple — in which case we receive your name and email address from that provider and store a provider identifier to link your account.
• Shed information: shed name, description, baker bio, shed type, postcode (which we convert to map coordinates using a geocoding service), and photos you upload.
• Notices: the photos and messages you broadcast to your subscribers when you open your shed. Notice photos are automatically deleted every night.
• Payment information: subscriptions are processed by RevenueCat (with Stripe for web purchases, the Apple App Store on iOS, and Google Play on Android). Your payment details go directly to those processors; we never see or store your card number. We receive and store only your subscription status, entitlement, expiry date, and transaction/customer identifiers so we can unlock Premium features.

b) Subscribers (no account needed)

• Push subscription data: when you subscribe to a shed's alerts, we store the subscription endpoint and encryption keys generated by your browser (web push), or a device token issued by Firebase Cloud Messaging (Android) or Apple Push Notification service (iOS). This is all we need, and all we store, to deliver alerts to your device.
• Interest indications: when you tap to express interest in a shed, we store your IP address alongside the shed (one interest per IP per shed) so we can show and email the baker an aggregate count. We do not collect your email address for this.

c) Data collected automatically

• Your IP address, browser or app type and version, and basic request data, used for security, rate limiting, and abuse prevention.
• Location: only if you explicitly use the "locate me" feature on the map, and only within your browser or app session. We do not store your precise location on our servers.
• App integrity tokens (Android only): a Firebase App Check token is used to verify that device-token registrations come from our genuine app.
• Usage statistics — only if you chose "Accept all" in the cookie banner: which pages and sheds are viewed and which alert subscriptions are made, recorded anonymously (see the Cookies section below).

Our analytics are privacy-respecting and consent-gated — see the Cookies section below.

3. How We Use Your Data and Our Legal Basis

• To provide the Service (performance of a contract): displaying your shed, managing your account, processing subscriptions, and sending essential service emails such as sign-in codes, shed verification reminders, Premium expiry reminders, and subscription updates.
• To send push alerts (consent): delivering the shed-open and notice alerts you subscribed to. You can withdraw consent at any time by unsubscribing from the My Device Alerts page or your device settings.
• To keep bakers informed (legitimate interests): emailing shed owners a daily digest of how many people expressed interest in their shed.
• For security and abuse prevention (legitimate interests): rate limiting, fraud prevention, and protecting the Service and its users.
• To meet legal obligations: retaining limited financial records where required for tax and accounting purposes.

4. Who We Share Your Data With

We do not sell your personal data. We share it only with the service providers needed to run Cake Shed:

• RevenueCat — subscription management across web and mobile.
• Stripe — payment processing for web subscriptions (via RevenueCat Web Billing).
• Apple — Sign in with Apple, in-app purchases, and push delivery via the Apple Push Notification service.
• Google — Google Sign-In, Google Play billing, Firebase Cloud Messaging, and Firebase App Check (Android).
• Meta (Facebook) — Facebook Login, where you choose to use it.
• Cloudflare — storage of uploaded photos (R2 object storage).
• Hetzner — server hosting (data centres in Germany, EU).
• Our email delivery provider — sending sign-in codes and service emails.
• OpenStreetMap's Nominatim — converting shed postcodes and, for consenting visitors, masked IP addresses to approximate map coordinates (never account data).

We may also disclose information where required by law or in response to valid requests from public authorities.

5. Data Storage, Security, and International Transfers

All data transmitted to and from the Service is encrypted using TLS (HTTPS). Passwords and sign-in codes are stored only as cryptographic hashes. Uploaded photos are stored on Cloudflare R2 and automatically converted to an optimised format.

Our servers are located in the European Union. Some of our processors (RevenueCat, Stripe, Apple, Google, Meta, Cloudflare) are based in the United States or process data globally; where personal data is transferred internationally, we rely on adequacy regulations (including the UK–US data bridge) or appropriate contractual safeguards.

6. Data Retention

• Account and shed data: kept while your account is active. You can delete your account at any time from the Delete Account page in the app or website — this removes your personal data, cancels any active subscription, and asks RevenueCat to delete your customer record.
• Sign-in codes: expire after 10 minutes and are stored only as hashes.
• Notice photos: deleted automatically every night.
• Push subscriptions and device tokens: kept until you unsubscribe or the token becomes invalid and is cleaned up.
• Interest indications: kept while the shed is listed; they are deleted with the shed.
• Financial records: limited records may be retained for up to 6 years where required for legal and tax purposes.

7. Your Data Protection Rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

• Access — ask us for copies of your personal information.
• Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Erasure — ask us to delete your personal information in certain circumstances (you can do this yourself via the Delete Account page).
• Restriction — ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.
• Object — object to processing we carry out on the basis of legitimate interests.
• Data portability — ask that we transfer the information you gave us to you or another organisation in certain circumstances.
• Withdraw consent — at any time, for example by unsubscribing from push alerts.

To exercise these rights, please contact us via the contact form.

8. Cookies and Similar Technologies

a) Essential cookies (always on)

These are required for the Service to function and cannot be switched off:

• Session and authentication cookies that keep you signed in.
• Security cookies used for request forgery protection and rate limiting.
• On the staging site only, a cookie recording that you have entered the staging access password.

b) Analytics (only with your consent)

If you choose "Accept all" in the cookie banner, we record anonymous usage statistics using Ahoy, a privacy-respecting analytics tool that runs entirely on our own servers — no data is sent to third-party analytics providers, and no advertising cookies are used. These statistics are:

• Cookieless: no analytics or tracking cookies are ever set; the only cookie involved is the one storing your consent choice itself.
• Anonymous: statistics are not linked to your account or any sign-in identity.
• IP-masked: your IP address is truncated (the last octet removed) before it is stored, and approximate location is derived only from the masked address.
• Aggregate: we record events such as page and shed views and alert subscriptions, used only to understand overall usage of the Service.

Nothing is recorded for visitors who choose "Essential only" or who do not interact with the banner. Your choice is stored for one year in the cake_shed_cookie_consent cookie.

c) Managing your preferences

You can change your cookie preference at any time by deleting the cake_shed_cookie_consent cookie and refreshing the page — the banner will appear again. You can also manage or delete cookies through your browser settings; disabling essential cookies may prevent sign-in from working.

d) Mobile apps

The iOS and Android apps do not use advertising trackers. They store only the data needed to operate: your session, your push token, and your cookie preference.

9. Children

The Service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal data. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us so we can delete it.

10. Contact Us & Complaints

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please contact us via the contact form.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK's data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): www.ico.org.uk.