Privacy policy
Who we are
Barn Owl Cottage is run by Ken and Annie Stirk, Barn Owl Cottage, Brandsby, Stillington Road, York YO61 4RT. We are responsible for (the controller of) the personal information collected through this website. You can contact us using the form on our Contact page or by post at that address.
What we collect and why
- Contact form (your name, email address and message): to reply to your question. Your message is passed to our email inbox by Web3Forms, a form delivery service, which also checks it for spam: a hidden box on our form catches automated messages, and Web3Forms may send your IP address and email address to its spam-checking services, CleanTalk and Akismet. The form sets no cookies. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (answering your enquiry), or steps before a contract if you're asking about a stay.
- Visit statistics: we count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics. It sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device, and it doesn't use your IP address or browser details to identify or follow you. It records which pages are viewed, the site that referred you, your browser and device type and your country, and shows us these as totals. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (understanding how our site is used). You can object by contacting us.
Bookings
Bookings are made through holidaycottages.co.uk, not on this website. When you book, holidaycottages.co.uk collects and uses your details under its own privacy policy, and shares with us what we need to welcome you.
The map on our Contact page
The Google map only loads if you click to show it. When you do, your browser connects to Google, which receives your IP address and may set cookies, under Google's privacy policy. Google may process this data in the USA, under the UK-US data bridge.
Who we share it with
- ANR Design Ltd, which builds and looks after this website.
- Cloudflare, which hosts and delivers this website and provides our visit statistics. Cloudflare may process data outside the UK, protected by the UK-US data bridge and UK-approved contract terms.
- 20i, our UK email provider, which handles our email.
- Web3Forms (Web3Creative, based in India), which delivers form messages to our inbox and stores a copy on Amazon Web Services servers, which may be outside the UK. Web3Forms acts only on our instructions, and transfers from the UK are protected by contract terms in its data processing agreement. See Web3Forms' privacy policy.
We never sell your information.
How long we keep it
- Enquiries: 12 months after our last contact with you, then deleted from our inbox. Web3Forms keeps its own copy of form messages for up to 3 years, then deletes it automatically, unless we delete it sooner.
- Visit statistics: kept in our Cloudflare account only for the limited period Cloudflare shows them, then deleted by Cloudflare.
Your rights
You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to data portability. Contact us using the details above and we'll reply within one month.
Cookies
This website doesn't set any analytics or advertising cookies, and our visit statistics store nothing on your device. The Google map sets cookies only if you click to load it. Read our cookie policy for details.
How to complain
Please contact us first. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
Changes to this policy
We'll update this page if what we do changes.
Last updated: 1 November 2026