Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 April 2026

NearNow is a local venue directory for Kendal, operated by Ayrton Boyd ("we", "us", "our"). This policy explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, and your rights under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

This policy applies to everyone who interacts with NearNow — including consumers using the directory, business owners submitting or managing listings, and anyone using our AEO Score or AEO Audit services.

1. Who we are

NearNow is operated by Ayrton Boyd, based in Kendal, UK. If you have any questions about this policy or your data, contact us at ayrton@nearnow.uk.

2. What data we collect and why

Venue submissions (business owners)

When a business submits a venue listing, we collect the business name, address, postcode, phone number, website, email address, opening hours, pricing information, and any other details provided in the submission form. This data is used to create and maintain the venue listing in our public directory.

Important: Approved venue listings are published publicly on NearNow and included in structured data markup that is readable by search engines and AI tools. By submitting a venue, you confirm you have the authority to submit that business's information and consent to it being published publicly.

The lawful basis for processing submission data is legitimate interest in operating the directory and, where applicable, performance of a contract to provide the listing service.

Business owner communications

We may contact business owners by email for the following purposes:

• Operational emails — confirmation that your submission was received, notification that your listing is live, edit link delivery, and any communications relating to your listing. These are sent on the basis of legitimate interest and do not require a separate opt-in.
• Marketing and updates — occasional emails about new NearNow features, AEO tips, and relevant product updates. Where you have indicated your preference to receive these at the point of submission, we will send them on the basis of consent. You can withdraw consent at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email.

We will never send unsolicited marketing emails to business owners who have not indicated an interest in receiving them.

NearNow Score

When you use the NearNow Score tool, we process the URL you provide to generate an AEO health check report. If you choose to receive a PDF report by email, we collect your email address, the URL scored, your score result, and the date of the scan. We use this to send your report and, with your explicit consent via the checkbox on the score form, to send occasional updates about NearNow. The lawful basis for the report email is performance of a service you have requested. The lawful basis for marketing emails is consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

NearNow AEO Audit

When you purchase a NearNow AEO Audit, payment is processed by Stripe. We do not store your payment card details — these are handled entirely by Stripe and subject to their privacy policy. Following payment, we collect your name, business name, email address, and website URL in order to conduct and deliver the audit. This data is used solely to fulfil the audit service and to follow up with your report and debrief call. The lawful basis is performance of a contract. We retain audit records for 12 months after delivery.

Contact form

When you submit the contact form, we collect your name, email address, and message. We use this to respond to your enquiry. The lawful basis is legitimate interest in responding to communications. Contact form messages are kept for 12 months.

Website usage

We do not use tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or third-party analytics. Our hosting providers (Vercel and Render) may log basic technical information such as IP addresses and request times for security and performance purposes.

3. How long we keep your data

• Venue listing data is kept for as long as the listing is active, plus 12 months after archiving or removal.
• Business owner email addresses are kept for as long as the listing is active. If a listing is removed, we retain the email address for 12 months for legitimate operational purposes, then delete it unless you have separately consented to marketing communications.
• NearNow Score email captures are kept for 12 months, or until you unsubscribe or request deletion.
• AEO Audit records are kept for 12 months after delivery.
• Contact form messages are kept for 12 months.

4. Who we share your data with

We do not sell your personal data. We share data only with the following service providers who help us operate NearNow:

• Resend — email delivery service, used to send confirmation, report, and listing emails.
• Stripe — payment processing for the AEO Audit service. Stripe processes payment data independently and is subject to their own privacy policy.
• Vercel — frontend hosting provider.
• Render — backend hosting and database provider.

All providers are contractually required to handle your data in accordance with UK GDPR. Vercel and Render may process data outside the UK. Where this occurs, appropriate safeguards are in place.

5. Publicly listed data

Approved venue listings are published publicly on NearNow. This includes the venue name, address, phone number, website, opening hours, description, and tags. This information is also included in structured schema markup on each venue page, which is readable by Google and AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini. If you would like your listing removed or specific details updated, contact us at ayrton@nearnow.uk.

6. Your rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction — ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Deletion — ask us to delete your personal data, including your venue listing. We will action this within 30 days.
• Withdrawal of consent — where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
• Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interest.
• Portability — request your data in a machine-readable format.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at ayrton@nearnow.uk or use our contact form. We will respond within 30 days.

7. Unsubscribing from emails

Every marketing email we send includes an unsubscribe link. Clicking it will immediately remove your email from our mailing list. You can also request removal at any time by emailing ayrton@nearnow.uk directly. Unsubscribing from marketing emails does not affect operational emails related to your listing.

8. Cookies

NearNow does not use tracking or advertising cookies. We use only essential functional cookies required for the site to operate, including a session cookie used for the admin portal. No cookie consent banner is required for essential cookies under UK GDPR.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time to reflect changes in how we operate or in applicable law. When we make material changes — that is, changes that meaningfully affect how we use your data — we will notify affected users by email before the changes take effect. The date at the top of this page always shows when the policy was last updated. Continued use of NearNow after notification of material changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

10. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk. We would always appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns first — please contact us at ayrton@nearnow.uk and we will respond within 5 working days.