Privacy notice
Spiked Ltd is the data controller responsible for your personal information and strongly committed to protecting your privacy.
This Privacy Notice tells you how we collect, use and store personal information when you visit spiked on all digital platforms and use our services.
We collect personal information from:
- visitors to our websites;
- people who subscribe to our e-newsletters;
- people who contact us via social media;
- people who share our content via social media;
- people who donate;
- people who become a spiked supporter;
- spiked supporter who use our app;
- people who buy spiked’s merchandise;
- people who attend our events;
- people who email;
- people who write for spiked;
- current and former staff.
Collection of information
We use personal information where needed to provide our services, meet legal obligations, pursue our legitimate business interests, or where you have given consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
The information we gather falls into two categories:
1. Information anonymously and automatically tracked that is gathered as visitors navigate through our site and/or use our e-newsletters, share our content on social media and donate to spiked. This information is collected by third-party service providers on our behalf. Third parties featured on or linked to by our Website are Google Analytics, MailChimp, Stripe, GoCardless and PayPal. These third parties may be gathering information through processes we don’t control and their Privacy Policies are linked to below.
2. Information voluntarily supplied by visitors to our Website when they register, sign up to receive our e-newsletters, post comments on our public posting areas on our site, respond to user surveys, participate in interactive activities such as polls, get tickets for our events, subscribe or donate to spiked.
We have third-party agents, subsidiaries, affiliates and partners that perform functions on our behalf, including, but not limited to, hosting, content syndication, content-management tools, social-media integration, marketing, analytics, billing and customer service. These entities may have access to personally identifiable information if needed to perform their functions. If such access is required, the third parties will be obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of that personally identifiable information. They are restricted from using, selling, distributing or altering this data in any way other than to provide the requested services to our Website.
We use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not allow Google to find out the identities of visitors to our Website. Read Google’s privacy policy.
How long we keep information
We keep account information while your account remains active and delete it when your account is deleted, except where we must retain limited records for legal or financial reasons. Crash reports are normally kept for around 90 days. Information stored by the app on your device is removed when you sign out.
We also use cookies on our Website
A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. We use cookies in a limited way to make interactive parts of the site (such as forms) more convenient to use, to identify unique browsers that visit us, and to track usage throughout our site.
To find out more about cookies, including how to manage and delete them, visit here or here.
Advertising on spiked
We partner with third-party ad-serving companies and other unaffiliated advertisers to display advertisements on our site. These third-party advertisers and ad-serving companies may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect information about you when you use our Website. As part of their service, they may place a separate cookie on your computer, device, or browser, or utilise other data-collection and tracking technologies, to collect information such as your IP address, browser type, the server your computer, device or browser is logged on to, the area code and zip code associated with your server, and whether you responded to a particular advertisement. They may collect information about your online activities over time, across different computers, devices and browsers, and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide interest-based advertising or other targeted content.
We will not provide these online-advertising partners or ad-serving companies with access to your name, address, email address, telephone number or other personally identifiable information, without your consent. They may, however, use persistent identifiers to anonymously track your Internet usage across other websites in their networks beyond our Website. While we restrict any attempts to re-identify this information, such third parties may, with sufficient data from other sources, be able to personally identify you, unknown to us. Third-party advertisers may also already possess personally identifiable information about you, obtained from other sources, and may combine such information with information they collect about you when you use our Website.
Programmatic Advertising
This website uses Adnimation to manage its programmatic ad sales, which may include the use of first and third-party cookies to collect non-sensitive, anonymized data for ad targeting purposes. Users can opt-out of personalized advertising by adjusting browser settings. You can review Adnimation’s cookie and privacy policy here.
Many of our visitors use Adblock to stop any adverts online.
If we want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will tell you directly, explain what we intend to do with it and you will have a clear way of opting in or out.
E-newsletters
We use a third-party provider, MailChimp, to deliver newsletters where you have chosen to receive them. spiked can access the name you provide, your email and your geolocations as well as statistics around email opening and clicks using industry-standard technologies. Mailchimp may record email opens and link clicks to help us understand how newsletters are used. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in every email.For more information, please see MailChimp’s privacy notice.
Social media
spiked uses Facebook and Twitter. For more information, please see Twitter’s privacy policy and Facebook’s privacy policy.
spiked supporters and donations
Spiked Ltd uses WooCommerce, PayPal, Stripe and GoCardless to process subscriptions and one-off donations.
For more information about these third parties, please see WooCommerce’s, PayPal’s, Stripe’s and GoCardless’s privacy policies.
Spiked Ltd can view each donator’s name, email address, and the amount/s in donations he or she has given. In some cases, we will also be able to view a donator’s location and address, but only if the donator agrees to provide that information via the third parties.
Spiked Ltd stores the name, email address, subscription status and account information needed to manage supporter access, payments and customer service. We do not store complete payment-card details.
Using the supporters app
When you use the app, we may collect account details, comments, saved items, reading and listening activity, device information, crash reports and push-notification preferences. We use this information to provide and improve the app, manage subscriber access and deliver notifications you have chosen to receive.
Where app information is stored
Most app information is stored in the EU. Firebase processes crash reports and push-notification information in the US using data-protection safeguards. Crash reports are normally kept for around 90 days.
Information stored on your device
The app stores cached articles, images and downloaded content on your device so that it works efficiently and content can be used offline. This information is cleared when you sign out; downloaded content can also be deleted by you at any time.
Push notifications
If you choose to receive notifications, we may send editorial alerts and information about spiked events. You can turn notifications off at any time in your device settings.
Advertising in the app
The app does not carry third-party advertising. It may occasionally show information about spiked events, books and other spiked activities. Website advertising is covered separately above.
Deleting your account
You can request deletion of your account in the My Spiked section. We will delete the account information we no longer need, although we may retain limited records where required for legal or financial reasons.
Shop
Spiked Ltd uses Amazon to process payments, print and ship our books. For more information about our third parties, please see Amazon’s Privacy Policy.
Occasionally, Spiked Ltd ships books and other products and can view each shoppers name, email address, and the amount/s he or she has paid and the shopper’s address. We keep your personal information to ship and manage your orders. We will store shoppers’ names, email addresses, amounts paid and addresses internally for our financial records and to communicate with those shoppers who opt in to receive information and offers.
We will not share your information with anyone else.
Contact [email protected] if you want copies of your personal information, or want it your information to be deleted.
Attending events
We use Ticket Tailor to manage event bookings and tickets. When you book, spiked and Ticket Tailor process information such as your name, email address and ticket details so that we can administer the booking and event.
Emailing the team directly
We use Googlemail, which uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt and protect email traffic by default. If your email service does not support TLS, you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit.
We also receive unsolicited emails from readers with questions or submissions, which we try our best to respond to. We do not export names and emails, but we may keep these emails in our inbox.
We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.
Writers
We keep writers emails and contact details and any other information writers provide in our inboxes and internal databases.
Current and former staff
For staff, we store name, email, address, and financial information for payment purposes.
Children
Our services are not directed at children under 16, and you must be 18 or over to purchase a spiked subscription. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us.
Your rights
You may ask to correct or delete your personal information, restrict or object to its use, or withdraw your consent. To do so, contact [email protected].
Complaints
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact Viv Regan – [email protected]
Changes to this Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice was last updated on September 2026. We review it regularly and will update it when our services or use of personal information changes.
How to contact us
If you want to request information about our Privacy Notice, you can contact Viv Regan, managing editor, on [email protected].
