Privacy Policy for FSA Food Hygiene Ratings
Last updated: August 18, 2026
Toby Jones T/A The Caffeine Media Company ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how our mobile application collects, uses, and handles your information in compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
1. Information We Collect
We design our app with privacy in mind. We do not require you to create an account, nor do we collect personal identifiers such as your name, email address, or phone number.
Location Data: If you grant permission, the app accesses your device’s precise or approximate geolocation strictly to show hygiene ratings for food businesses near you.
App Usage & Diagnostics: We may collect anonymised crash logs, device model, operating system version, and general interaction data to monitor stability and improve app performance.
Locally Stored Data: Preferences such as saved/favourited venues or recent searches are stored locally on your device and are not uploaded to our servers.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the minimal data collected strictly to:
Provide location-based search results for nearby food hygiene ratings.
Maintain, troubleshoot, and improve the app's performance.
Ensure compliance with applicable platform guidelines and technical standards.
3. Legal Basis for Processing (UK GDPR)
Under the UK GDPR, our lawful bases for processing your data are:
Consent: For accessing your device’s location data. You can enable or revoke this permission at any time via your device settings.
Legitimate Interests: For processing anonymised diagnostic data to fix bugs, optimize performance, and maintain app stability.
4. Third-Party Services & Data Sources
Food Standards Agency (FSA) API: The app retrieves publicly available hygiene data via the official Food Standards Agency API. Search queries containing postcodes or geographic coordinates may be transmitted to retrieve relevant venue data, but they are not linked to your personal identity.
Analytics/Crash Reporting (e.g., Apple Crashlytics / Google Play Services): We may use standard platform developer tools to monitor app stability. These third parties handle diagnostic data in accordance with their respective privacy policies.
External Links: The app may link to external websites (such as local council reports or the FSA website). We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party websites.
5. Data Retention & Security
Location Data: Processed ephemerally in real-time to return nearby results; we do not store your location history on external servers.
Security: We apply standard security measures to protect communications between the app and external APIs.
6. Your Legal Rights
Under UK data protection law, you have rights including:
The right to withdraw consent for location tracking at any time via your device settings.
The right to access, rectify, or erase any personal data held about you (where applicable).
The right to lodge a complaint with the UK data protection supervisory authority:
⚬ Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ico.org.uk
7. Children’s Privacy
FSA Food Hygiene Ratings is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.
8. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. Any updates will be posted directly within the app or on its App Store listing page, with an updated "Last updated" date.
9. Contact Us
If you have any questions or requests regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:
Email: hello@thecaffeinemediacompany.com