Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 2026

This policy covers the website you're currently on — the NCI Worms Head Lookout Station site. NCI Worms Head is a station of the National Coastwatch (NCI), a registered UK charity. This page explains what happens to any personal information you share with us here.

The short version

This website does not run its own database and does not store personal data you submit, with one small exception: a wildlife sighting you choose to send in, explained below. It uses no advertising or tracking cookies, and no analytics software that identifies you individually. Most enquiry forms on this site simply open your own email application and send your message directly to the station. The Volunteers – Expression of Interest form on the Join page works slightly differently: it's sent through the website's own server to a transactional email service, which delivers it straight to the Station Manager's inbox. The message passes through briefly in order to be delivered — nothing is stored or kept on any database by the website itself.

What information we collect, and how

The only personal data collected through this website comes from forms you choose to fill in yourself. The newsletter sign-up on the Donate page works by opening your device's own email application with your message pre-filled; when you press send, it goes as a normal email directly to the station's inbox, and the website itself never receives or sees it. The Volunteers – Expression of Interest form on the Join page is different: when you submit it, the website's own server automatically forwards your details, via a transactional email provider, straight to the Station Manager's email inbox. This happens immediately and without anyone seeing it in transit; the information you give is used only for that initial contact and, in line with GDPR, is then destroyed unless you go on to apply to join, at which point it would be held on NCI's own database as any member's details would be.

Other than the transactional email service used solely to deliver the Join page's form (see above), we don't use any third-party form-processing or marketing service, and this website has no server-side database of visitors, enquiries, or supporters — nothing submitted through our enquiry or volunteering forms is stored anywhere by the website itself. The one exception is the wildlife sightings form, explained in the next section.

Wildlife sightings form

The “Tell us what you saw” form on the Nature & Wildlife page is the one place where this website does keep what you send. Your sighting (what you saw, when, where, any notes, and a name or initials only if you choose to give one) is saved to a private spreadsheet that only the station's committee can open. Nothing appears on the website until a watchkeeper has checked it, and if you gave a name it is shown with your sighting. We don't ask for, and please don't include, any contact details. If you'd like a sighting you sent removed, just contact us and we'll delete it.

How we use it

Any information sent to us this way is used only for the purpose you sent it — responding to your enquiry, processing a volunteering application, or keeping you updated if you've asked to be. We do not sell, rent, or share your information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Cookies and tracking

This website does not use tracking or advertising cookies, and does not run analytics software that identifies individual visitors. Standard technical logs (such as IP addresses) may be recorded automatically by our hosting provider as part of normal, secure operation of any website — this is routine infrastructure logging, not something used to track or profile visitors.

External links and third-party services

This site links out to a number of external services — including live weather data (Open-Meteo), what3words, JustGiving, Farewill, the NCI merchandise shop (Teemill), and the National Coastwatch Lottery (Unity). These are independent services with their own privacy policies, which we'd encourage you to review separately. We don't control, and aren't responsible for, how those third parties handle your data once you're on their site.

The live weather and tide information on this site is fetched from a public weather API using only this station's fixed location — no personal or visitor-specific information is sent as part of that request.

The Sea & Shipping page shows sea conditions from Open-Meteo's marine forecast, again using only the station's fixed location. Its live ship map comes from MarineTraffic, an independent service that may set its own cookies, so it only loads if you press the “Show the live ship map” button.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, to have it corrected if it's wrong, or to have it deleted. Since this website doesn't store any personal data itself, any information we hold would only be in emails you've sent us directly — contact us using the details below and we'll be glad to help.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this policy or how your information is handled, you can reach the station on 07392 327216, or via the enquiry form on our Join page.

Changes to this policy

We may update this page from time to time, for example if the website gains new features that change how information is handled. Any changes will be posted here.