Privacy Notice
In this privacy notice, ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ refer to Geoscience Analytics.
You can contact us by emailing [email protected], or by post: Geoscience Analytics, First Floor, Swan Buildings, 20 Swan Street, Manchester M4 5JW. Geoscience Analytics is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
We take privacy, including security, seriously. This notice explains what personal information we collect through the Geoscience Analytics Toolkit (its sign-in page and the apps in it, such as QC Analytical Results) and our websites, and how and why we use it. Please read it carefully.
We do not have a Data Protection Officer. Geoscience Analytics is directly responsible for the data protection matters covered by this notice, and you can contact us using the details above.
We may update this notice from time to time. This version was last updated on 13 October 2026.
SUMMARY
This notice covers the Toolkit’s accounts, which are new. We hold the details you give when you register, and the settings you choose to save with your account, in a database in the European Union. We do not store the data you upload to an app for analysis: it is processed for your session only. We use no analytics or advertising cookies; the only cookie we set keeps you signed in.
1. KEY DEFINITIONS
The key terms used in this notice:
Data Controller: under UK data protection law, this is the person or organisation responsible for deciding how personal information is collected, stored and used. For the Toolkit, that is Geoscience Analytics.
Data Processor: a person or organisation that processes personal information on a Data Controller’s behalf and instructions, for example our hosting provider.
Personal Information: any information from which a living individual can be identified. It does not include anonymised information.
2. WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
2.1 Your account. When you register we collect your name, email address, organisation, and whether you are in industry, an academic or a student. We also record when your email was confirmed, when the account was approved, when you last signed in, and a count of recent wrong passwords (to pause sign-in after too many). Your password is never stored: we keep only a one-way hash of it, from which it cannot be recovered. The codes we email you to confirm your address or reset your password are kept the same way, and expire after 30 minutes.
2.2 Settings saved with your account. An app may let you save its settings (for example the rules and stage limits in QC Analytical Results, column choices, or a print template with your company name and logo). When you are signed in these are stored with your account, so they follow you between computers. When you are not signed in, an app keeps them in your own browser (its local storage) instead, and they are never sent to us.
2.3 Data you upload to an app for analysis. The apps let you upload your own data files (for example laboratory QC results) to produce charts, statistics, logs and reports. This data is processed in memory on the hosting server, for your session only. It is never written to a database, never stored by us, and never leaves the session. As soon as you close your browser tab or your session ends, it is gone, and we have no way to access, recover or view it afterwards. Such files rarely hold personal information, but they may, for example the names of samplers or laboratory staff.
2.4 Correspondence and the Feedback tab. If you email us, or send a message from an app’s Feedback tab, we hold your name, email address, the content of your message and any file you choose to attach, for as long as needed to deal with your query. Messages from the Feedback tab, and the emails the Toolkit sends you (confirmation codes, “your account is approved”), go through Resend (servers in the European Union).
2.5 Hosting/technical data. The Toolkit is hosted on Posit Connect Cloud, a service operated by Posit Software, PBC on Amazon Web Services infrastructure located in the United States. Posit, as our hosting provider, may automatically log basic technical data (such as IP address and browser type) as part of running the service. We do not receive, access or use this data ourselves; it is covered by Posit’s own privacy policy, not this notice.
2.6 Cookies and your browser’s storage. When you sign in, the Toolkit sets one cookie that identifies your signed-in session to every app in the Toolkit. It is strictly necessary for the service to work, so no cookie consent is needed. It lasts until you close your browser, or for 30 days if you chose “Keep me signed in”; signing out removes it. The hosting service may also set cookies that are strictly necessary to keep your session connected. We use no analytics or advertising cookies. An app may also keep settings, and a record of which tours and release notes you have seen, in your browser’s local storage, as described in 2.2.
2.7 We do not collect payment information. The Toolkit does not currently charge for access, and no payment processor is connected to it.
3. HOW AND WHY WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION
3.1 Your account details are used to run your account: to confirm your email address, to decide whether to approve the account, to sign you in, to let you reset your password, and to tell you about the account itself. This is necessary to provide the service you asked for by registering.
3.2 The settings you save are used only to restore them when you sign in, which is in your legitimate interests and ours.
3.3 Data you upload for analysis is used only to produce the charts, statistics and reports you request during your own session, which is in your legitimate interests and ours. We do not see, use or retain it ourselves.
3.4 If you contact us by email or through the Feedback tab, we use your message and contact details only to respond to you, which is in your legitimate interests and ours.
3.5 Where we ever rely on your consent for a specific purpose, you can withdraw that consent at any time by contacting us using the details above.
4. HOW WE COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION
We collect personal information when you register for an account, when you save settings with it, and when you contact us directly, by email or through the Feedback tab. We do not collect personal information through your use of an app’s analysis itself, because nothing you upload for analysis is retained.
6. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
Your account details and saved settings are stored in the European Union (section 5.1), and the Toolkit’s emails pass through Resend’s servers in the European Union; the UK recognises the EU as giving personal information adequate protection. The apps are hosted on infrastructure located in the United States (section 2.5), so technical/hosting data may be processed there rather than in the UK. Posit maintains a Data Processing Addendum with AWS covering this. We do not otherwise transfer personal information outside the UK.
7. HOW LONG WE KEEP PERSONAL INFORMATION
We keep your account details and saved settings for as long as you have an account. Closing your account, from the Account page, removes them at once; we may also close accounts that have not been used for a long time, after emailing you first. A registration whose email is never confirmed is removed after 30 days. Email correspondence and Feedback tab messages, including any attached file, are kept only for as long as needed to deal with your query, then deleted. Data you upload for analysis is never stored, so there is nothing to retain.
8. YOUR RIGHTS UNDER DATA PROTECTION LAW
8.1 Under data protection law you have the following rights in relation to any personal information we hold about you:
Right to request access (this is often called ‘subject access’). This is the right to obtain from us a copy of the personal information which we hold about you. We must also provide you with certain other information in response to these requests to help you understand how your personal information is being used.
Right to correction: this is the right to request that any incorrect personal data is corrected and that any incomplete personal data is completed. You can change your name, organisation and role yourself on the Account page.
Right to erasure (this is often called the “right to be forgotten”). This right only applies in certain circumstances. Where it does apply, you have the right to ask us to erase all of your personal information. Closing your account does this for everything held with it.
Right to restrict processing: this right only applies in certain circumstances. Where it does apply, you have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information.
Right to data portability: this right allows you to ask us to transfer your personal information to someone else.
Right to object: you have the right to object to our processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes. You also have the right to object to our processing of your personal information where our legal reason for doing so is legitimate interests, and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object. In certain circumstances you have the right to object to processing where such processing consists of profiling (including profiling for direct marketing).
8.2 Where we rely on consent as the legal reason for using your personal information, you have the right to withdraw that consent.
8.3 If you want to exercise any of the above rights, please contact us using the details at the start of this notice. Please note:
we may need certain information from you so that we can verify your identity;
we do not charge a fee for exercising your rights unless your request is unfounded or excessive; and
if your request is unfounded or excessive then we may refuse to deal with your request.
9. MARKETING
We do not currently send marketing communications of any kind, and we do not pass your personal information to anyone else for marketing purposes. The only emails the Toolkit sends are about your account. If this changes in future, we will update this notice and give you the ability to opt out.
10. COMPLAINTS
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, you have the right to complain to the UK supervisory authority for data protection, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO): ico.org.uk, telephone 0303 123 1113. Please contact us in the first instance so we can try to resolve the position; you can find our details at the start of this notice.