Small Boat Watch Privacy Notice

Last updated: 20 August 2026
Version: 1.0
Data Controller: Reform UK Party Ltd
Company Number: 16260766
Electoral Commission Registration: PP7931
ICO Registration: ZB934331

1. Who we are

Small Boat Watch is provided by Reform UK Party Ltd (“Reform UK”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

Reform UK is the Data Controller for the personal information collected through the Small Boat Watch mobile application.

Our address is:

Reform UK Party Ltd
Millbank Tower
21–24 Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

If you have questions about how your personal information is used, or wish to exercise your data protection rights, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at:

Email: [email protected]

This notice applies specifically to Small Boat Watch and should be read alongside Reform UK’s General Privacy Notice where appropriate.

2. About Small Boat Watch

Small Boat Watch is a mobile application for iOS and Android providing information about small-boat crossings of the English Channel using published UK Government data.

The app also includes the Stop the Boats game and associated leaderboard.

An account is required to use the app.

3. Information we collect

When you create and use a Small Boat Watch account, we may collect:

Account and contact information

email address;
UK postcode;
telephone number, if you choose to provide it;
display name, if you choose one;
account creation date; and
last login information.

We use your email address to verify your account by sending a temporary login code.

Game and leaderboard information

When you play Stop the Boats, we record:

your game score;
the date and time of completed games; and
your leaderboard position where applicable.

Scores are associated with your account.

If you participate in the leaderboard, your chosen display name may be shown publicly. If you have not selected a display name, the app may display a shortened label derived from your account details.

Your email address, telephone number and postcode are not displayed on the public leaderboard.

Device and technical information

Depending upon the features you use, we may process:

IP address;
an app-generated device identifier;
device type;
device model;
operating system and version;
authentication and security information; and
push-notification token.

IP addresses may also be processed for security, system logging and rate-limiting purposes.

We do not currently use advertising identifiers or collect your precise location, contacts, photographs, camera or microphone information.

4. Push notifications

You may choose to receive push notifications from Small Boat Watch.

These may include:

updates about published small-boat crossing figures; and
occasional service-related or other Small Boat Watch notifications.

Push notifications are optional. You can switch them off at any time through the app or your device settings.

To provide notifications, device and push-token information is processed through our notification service providers and the relevant Apple or Google notification infrastructure.

5. Sharing from the app

Small Boat Watch allows you to share an image containing published crossing information using your device’s normal sharing function.

The image is generated on your device and passed to your device’s native sharing facility.

We do not record whether you share an image, which service you use to share it, who you share it with or what you subsequently do with it.

6. Why we use your information

We process personal information where necessary to:

create and administer your Small Boat Watch account;
authenticate you securely;
provide the app and its features;
operate the Stop the Boats game and leaderboard;
record and verify game scores;
communicate with you about the service;
provide push notifications where you have chosen to receive them;
maintain the security and integrity of the service;
prevent misuse, fraud or unauthorised access;
diagnose and resolve technical problems;
administer competitions or prizes where separately notified; and
comply with legal and regulatory obligations.

Our lawful bases under Article 6 UK GDPR will depend upon the particular processing and may include:

contract – where processing is necessary to provide the app and services you have requested;
legitimate interests – including operating, securing and protecting the service, preventing misuse and administering its functionality;
consent – where we specifically ask for your agreement, including where required for optional technologies or communications; and
legal obligation – where processing is required by law.

Where we rely upon legitimate interests, we consider the necessity and proportionality of the processing and its potential impact upon individuals.

7. Political opinions and use for campaigning

Small Boat Watch is provided by a registered political party and relates to matters of public and political debate.

However, creating or using a Small Boat Watch account does not, by itself, mean that Reform UK will record you as a member or supporter of Reform UK.

At launch, your Small Boat Watch account information and gameplay are not used to infer your political opinions, create a political profile about you or target you with political campaigning based upon your gameplay.

Small Boat Watch account information is maintained separately from Reform UK’s membership, electoral and campaigning records.

If Reform UK proposes in future to use Small Boat Watch information for additional political campaigning, supporter engagement or profiling purposes, we will assess the applicable data protection requirements and provide appropriate information and choices before commencing that processing.

8. Analytics, advertising and tracking

At the date of this Privacy Notice, Small Boat Watch does not use third-party advertising, behavioural tracking or analytics technologies such as Meta Pixel or Google Analytics.

If this changes, we will update this Privacy Notice and implement any consent or preference controls required by law before non-essential tracking technologies are activated.

The app does use essential technologies necessary to provide authentication, secure storage, software updates and other core app functionality.

9. Who we share information with

We use carefully selected service providers to operate Small Boat Watch.

These include providers supporting:

application development and technical support;
cloud hosting and infrastructure;
authentication and transactional email;
application distribution;
software updates; and
push notifications.

Our principal technical provider is Softvize, which provides development and technical services supporting the application.

The service is hosted primarily within Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure in London, United Kingdom.

Other relevant service providers include Expo, Postmark, Apple and Google, depending upon your device and the functionality you use.

Service providers are permitted to process personal information only for authorised purposes and subject to appropriate contractual and security arrangements where required.

We may also disclose information where required by law, a court, regulator or law-enforcement authority, or where reasonably necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal rights.

We do not sell your personal information.

10. International transfers

The principal Small Boat Watch database is hosted in the United Kingdom.

Some suppliers supporting particular functions may process limited information outside the United Kingdom.

For example:

push-notification tokens and notification information may be processed through Expo and the Apple or Google notification infrastructure; and
your email address is processed by our transactional email provider when delivering authentication codes.

Where personal information is transferred outside the United Kingdom, we use appropriate safeguards as required by UK data protection legislation. These may include applicable adequacy arrangements, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, the UK Addendum to approved Standard Contractual Clauses, or another lawful transfer mechanism.

You may contact our Data Protection Officer if you require further information about international transfers.

11. How long we keep your information

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

Our intended Small Boat Watch retention periods are:

Account information: while your account remains active and normally for up to 12 months after account closure, unless a shorter or longer period is necessary for legal, security or dispute-resolution purposes.
Device registrations/push tokens: until no longer required, notifications are disabled, the device registration becomes invalid or the account is deleted.
Game scores and gameplay records: for the relevant leaderboard/competition period and normally for up to 12 months afterwards where required for administration, verification, dispute resolution or audit.
Security and server logs: normally up to 12 months, unless required for longer to investigate a security incident or protect legal rights.
Competition/prize records: for as long as reasonably necessary to administer the competition and meet applicable legal, financial, audit or regulatory requirements.

Anonymous statistical information which no longer identifies an individual may be retained for longer.

The underlying Home Office crossing statistics do not identify Small Boat Watch users and are not personal data.

12. Security

We use technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information.

These include, where appropriate:

encryption in transit;
encryption at rest;
restricted administrative access;
token-based authentication;
short-lived, single-use login codes;
authentication rate limiting;
encrypted storage of authentication tokens on devices;
system logging and monitoring; and
backup and recovery controls.

No online service can guarantee absolute security, but we regularly review the measures used to protect personal information.

13. Deleting your account

You may ask us to delete your Small Boat Watch account.

Where available, this can be done using the account deletion function within the app. You may also contact us using the details in this Privacy Notice, or follow the instructions on our account deletion page.

Deleting your account will normally result in deletion or anonymisation of the associated account information, device registrations and gameplay records, subject to information we are required or permitted to retain for legal, regulatory, security, competition or dispute-resolution purposes.

14. Your data protection rights

Depending upon the circumstances, UK data protection law gives you rights including the right to:

request access to your personal information;
ask us to correct inaccurate information;
ask us to erase your information;
request restriction of processing;
object to certain processing;
receive certain information in a portable format;
withdraw consent where processing relies upon consent; and
complain about the way your personal information has been processed.

Not every right applies in every circumstance.

To exercise your rights, contact our Data Protection Officer at:

[email protected]

We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.

15. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact our Data Protection Officer in the first instance.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent data protection regulator.

Further information is available from the ICO.

16. Age restriction

Small Boat Watch is intended for people aged 18 or over.

If we become aware that an account has been created by somebody below the permitted age, we may take steps to restrict or delete that account in accordance with applicable law and our Terms & Conditions.

17. Changes to this Privacy Notice

We may update this Privacy Notice where the app, our processing activities, our suppliers or applicable law changes.

Where a change materially affects how we use your personal information, we will take reasonable steps to bring the change to your attention and obtain consent where this is required by law.

The current version will always be available through Small Boat Watch.

18. Contact us

For privacy enquiries or to exercise your rights:

Data Protection Officer
Reform UK Party Ltd
Millbank Tower
21–24 Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP