Privacy notice

OfflineAlert is an independent visa-appointment alert service. We are the controller of your personal data. Contact us at hello@offlinealert.com.

Your alert request. When you ask for alerts we collect the countries and visa type you chose, the number of applicants, your travel month, your name and email address (asked on every request, so we can reach you about it — alerts only come by email if you choose email), and the WhatsApp number, Telegram username, email address or phone number (for alerts by phone call or SMS) you want alerts on. We use it only to send the alerts you asked for. Our lawful basis is your consent, which you give by ticking the box on the form and can withdraw at any time.

Booking help. If you ask us to book an appointment for you, we will ask for the details the official portal needs for each applicant (such as full name, date of birth, nationality and passport number). We use them only to make that booking, on the official portal, and delete them within 30 days of the booking being made or cancelled. Our lawful basis is the contract with you.

Payments. Card payments are taken by Stripe; we never see or store your card number. We keep a record of what you paid and when, as the law requires for our accounts.

Forms you start but do not send. The form saves what you type as you go, so you do not lose it. If you do not send it, we keep that partial entry for 30 days and then delete it. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (helping you finish what you started). You can object, or ask us to delete it sooner.

How you use the site — only if you accept. If you accept analytics on the cookie banner we record the pages you view, how far you scroll, which buttons and links you use, and how you move through the alert form: which field, for how long, whether you changed it and whether it showed an error — never what you typed. We also record your device type, browser, screen size, language, time zone and the country of your IP address; the address itself is kept only as a one-way keyed hash. If you then send the alert form, your visits are linked to your request so we can see how you found us. Our lawful basis is your consent; see the cookie policy.

Anonymous page counts. Whether or not you accept, we count page views per day by page and by kind of source (for example “direct”). These counts contain no personal data.

Security. To stop abuse of the form we limit how often it can be used from one connection, using a one-way hash of your IP address that we do not store with your request. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests (keeping the service safe).

Alert requests: for as long as you want alerts. When you ask us to stop, we stop the alerts and delete your details within 30 days, keeping only a note of your request where we need to show we acted on it.

Unsent forms: 30 days. Analytics: 13 months, then deleted. Anonymous page counts: 25 months.

Google Cloud hosts our server. To send your alerts we use the service you chose — WhatsApp (Meta), Telegram or email — and only the message and your contact detail for that channel go to it. Stripe processes card payments as our payment provider. For booking help, the applicant details you give us go to the official visa portal, and only there. Alerts by phone call or SMS are made and sent from our own phone; the number is used for nothing else. We do not sell your details.

We do not share your details with advertisers or analytics companies.

Our server is in Google Cloud's Delhi region, India. Transfers from the UK are protected by the safeguards in Google Cloud's data processing terms: the standard contractual clauses, with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum. You can ask us for a copy of the relevant clauses.

You can ask to see the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, and to have it in a portable form. You can withdraw consent at any time — stop alerts by replying STOP, telling us on an alert call, or emailing us, and change your cookie choice with “Cookie settings” at the bottom of any page. Email hello@offlinealert.com; we reply within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we handle your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.

If we change this notice in a way that matters, we will say so on this page and, where we hold your contact details for alerts, tell you.