Privacy Policy

Your Story Matters is an independent initiative founded by Barry McKenzie, an adoptive father committed to helping UK families document their experiences with public services — including SEND, CAMHS, social care, and health systems.

We provide a free tool that helps you turn lived experiences into structured, evidence-based documentation for use in complaints, tribunals, and advocacy.

We are not a law firm, a government body, or a regulated legal service. We are a documentation tool.

Account data: When you create an account, we store your email address and any name you provide. Your password is handled by our authentication provider and is never visible to us.

Receipt data: When you generate a receipt, we store the information you enter — decision type, dates, local authority, family circumstances, affected domains, financial details, and any notes you write. You can optionally upload documents and voice notes, which are stored as file links.

Community stories: If you share a story on the story map, we store the title, content, approximate location (latitude/longitude from where you place the pin), and local authority. Stories are displayed anonymously — your name and email are never shown.

Messages: If you contact Barry through the in-app messaging feature, we store your name (optional), email (optional), subject, and message content.

Usage data: We collect basic analytics about how the site is used (page views, button clicks) to improve the tool. This is anonymised and not linked to your identity.

We use your data to:

• Provide and maintain your receipts and account
• Display anonymous stories on the community story map
• Respond to messages you send through the contact feature
• Notify the site owner when a new story is shared (so it can be reviewed)
• Aggregate anonymous data for the Impact Dashboard (e.g. average waiting times by authority)
• Improve the tool's features and usability

We never sell your data, share it with third parties for marketing, or use it for advertising.

Under the UK GDPR, we process your data on the following legal bases:

• Consent: When you voluntarily create a receipt, share a story, or send a message, you consent to us storing that information for the purposes described above.
• Contract: When you create an account, we process your account data to provide the service you've requested.
• Legitimate interests: We use anonymised analytics to improve the tool, which is in our legitimate interest as the service provider.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting your account or contacting us.

We do not share your personal data with third parties except in the following limited circumstances:

• When you choose to share: If you generate a shareable receipt link or export a PDF, that data is shared at your discretion with whoever you choose to send it to.
• Service providers: We use trusted infrastructure providers (hosting, database, email delivery) who process data on our behalf under strict data processing agreements. They are not permitted to use your data for their own purposes.
• Legal obligation: If we are legally required to disclose data (e.g. by court order or law enforcement request), we will comply with valid legal processes.

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. You can delete your account and all associated data at any time using the "Delete account" option in the menu — this permanently removes your receipts, stories, messages, and account details.

Your data is yours forever. You can export all of your receipts at any time from the "My Receipts" page using the "Export my data" button — a complete, machine-readable copy downloads instantly. We will never lock you out of your own records, and you can keep that copy even if you later delete your account.

Anonymous community stories remain on the story map even after account deletion, as they are not linked to your identity. If you want a specific story removed, contact us and we will delete it.

Aggregated, anonymised statistics in the National Impact Dashboard are retained indefinitely as they cannot be traced back to individuals.

Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data
• Erasure — ask us to delete your personal data ("right to be forgotten")
• Restriction — ask us to limit how we use your data
• Portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Objection — object to our processing of your data
• Withdraw consent — at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal

To exercise any of these rights, contact us using the details below. We will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

We use two types of cookies:

• Essential cookies — these keep you logged in and remember your settings (e.g. which stories you've liked). The site cannot function without them.
• Analytics cookies — these help us understand how the site is used so we can improve it. They are non-essential and only set if you accept them via the cookie banner.

You can change your cookie preferences at any time by clearing your browser storage for this site, which will re-show the consent banner.

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, including encrypted data transmission (HTTPS), secure authentication, and access controls that ensure only you can see your own receipts.

However, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we are committed to protecting your data and will notify you and the ICO if a data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please send a message to Barry. This is a private line — nothing you send is public.

We are the data controller for the purposes of UK data protection law.