PLAY PODCASTS

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 5 May 2026

This privacy policy explains what information Play Podcasts ("Play Podcasts", "we", "us") collects when you use our website at playpodcasts.com, why we collect it, how we use it, and the rights you have over it.

Play Podcasts is operated by Digital Platforms Ltd, a company registered in England & Wales (company number 17087275), with its registered office at 3rd Floor, 86–90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom. Digital Platforms Ltd is the data controller for personal information processed through this site.

1. Information we collect

Information you give us directly

The only personal information you actively give us is what you submit through the contact form — your name, email address, and the content of your message. We use it solely to reply to you and to keep a record of correspondence.

Information collected automatically

When you visit the site, our servers and our analytics provider record standard technical information that any web service would receive, including:

  • your IP address (truncated by our analytics provider before storage);
  • your browser type, version, operating system, and language;
  • the pages you visit and the time you spend on them;
  • the page that referred you to us, if any;
  • non-identifying device characteristics such as screen size and timezone.

Information from podcast feeds

Play Podcasts indexes publicly available podcast RSS feeds. Those feeds contain show metadata published by the podcast owner themselves, which can include the show's title, description, artwork, and the publisher's name and email address as they chose to publish them. This information is the podcast owner's own publication; it is not provided to us by listeners. If you are a podcast owner and want your feed removed or your contact details suppressed from our directory, please see copyright & takedown or use the contact form.

2. Cookies and similar technologies

We and our partners use cookies and similar technologies for:

  • Strictly necessary functions — for example, the session token that keeps you signed in to the administrator area, or anti-bot tokens issued by Cloudflare Turnstile when you submit the contact form. These cookies are required for the site to function and cannot be turned off.
  • Analytics — Google Analytics 4 sets cookies that measure aggregate usage so we can understand which pages are useful and where the site is broken. Analytics cookies are only set with your consent where required.
  • Advertising — third-party advertising partners may set cookies to measure ad delivery and to limit how often you see the same ad. Where we are required to obtain consent for advertising cookies, we will do so before they are set.

You can clear or block cookies in your browser settings at any time; some site features (such as the contact form's anti-bot verification) will not work without their associated cookies.

3. Third-party services we use

We rely on a small number of third-party providers to run the site. Each one only receives the information necessary for the function it provides:

  • Google Analytics (Google Ireland Limited) — site analytics. IP addresses are truncated before storage.
  • Cloudflare Turnstile (Cloudflare, Inc.) — bot detection on the contact form.
  • Resend (Resend, Inc.) — delivery of transactional emails (e.g. responses to contact-form submissions, magic-link sign-in for administrators).
  • Advertising partners — we run ads through our own in-house network and may, from time to time, work with additional advertising partners. These partners receive standard ad-serving information (page URL, IP address, user agent) and may set cookies as described above.
  • Hosting — the site runs on a dedicated server operated on our behalf. Our host receives request logs in the ordinary course of providing the service.

These providers act as data processors on our instructions. Some of them are based outside the United Kingdom; where personal data is transferred internationally, we rely on adequacy decisions or standard contractual clauses as required by UK GDPR.

4. Why we use your information

We process personal information for the following purposes:

  • To run the site — serving pages, preventing abuse, and keeping the directory online. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.
  • To reply to you when you contact us. Lawful basis: legitimate interests; contract where applicable.
  • To understand site usage through aggregate analytics. Lawful basis: consent where required, otherwise legitimate interests.
  • To display advertising that funds the service. Lawful basis: consent for non-essential cookies; legitimate interests for the underlying ad delivery.
  • To meet legal obligations— for example, responding to a valid copyright complaint or a regulator's enquiry. Lawful basis: legal obligation.

5. How long we keep your information

  • Contact form messages — kept for up to 24 months in our email system, then deleted.
  • Server access logs — kept for up to 30 days for debugging and security, then rotated.
  • Analytics data — retained for up to 14 months by Google Analytics under our configuration.
  • Administrator sign-in tokens — magic-link tokens expire shortly after issue; resulting session tokens are valid for the duration of the session.

6. Your rights

If you are in the UK, the EU, or another jurisdiction with similar data-protection laws, you have the right to:

  • access the personal information we hold about you;
  • request that inaccurate information is corrected;
  • request deletion of your information (subject to legal exceptions);
  • object to or restrict certain processing;
  • withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent;
  • lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us via the contact form. We will respond within one month.

7. Children

Play Podcasts is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has submitted information to us, please contact us and we will delete it.

8. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect personal information, including HTTPS for all traffic, parameterised database queries, and access controls on administrator endpoints. No system is perfectly secure; if you believe an issue exists with the site's security, please report it to us through the contact form.

9. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the site changes or as the law requires. When we do, we'll update the "last updated" date at the top. Material changes will be flagged on the site for a reasonable period.

10. Contact

For privacy questions or to exercise any of the rights above, please use the contact form and mark your message as a privacy enquiry. Postal correspondence can be sent to: Digital Platforms Ltd, 3rd Floor, 86–90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom.