Last updated: 7 September 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Veriarch collects, uses, stores and protects personal information when you visit veriarch.com, contact us, subscribe to updates, submit information or otherwise interact with the website.
Veriarch is operated in the United Kingdom and handles personal information in accordance with applicable UK data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Who we are
Veriarch is an independent research and publishing website operated by Rob Hutchison, a sole trader based in the United Kingdom.
For personal information processed through veriarch.com, Rob Hutchison is the data controller. This means he is responsible for deciding why and how that information is used.
Veriarch’s investigations are normally published under a collective editorial identity. That editorial approach does not change who is responsible for personal information collected through the website.
If you have a question about your personal information or this Privacy Policy, you can contact Veriarch through the Contact page.
Information we collect
The information we collect depends on how you use Veriarch.
Information you provide directly
You may provide personal information when you:
- contact Veriarch through the contact form;
- send a correction, lead, document, photograph, source or other material;
- subscribe to Archive Updates or another Veriarch mailing list;
- leave a comment, where comments are enabled;
- make a voluntary donation through a third-party payment provider; or
- otherwise communicate with us.
This information may include:
- your name;
- your email address;
- the contents of your message or correspondence;
- information contained in documents or other material you submit;
- newsletter subscription preferences; and
- any other personal information you choose to provide.
Sensitive or confidential material
Veriarch sometimes receives information relating to research, corrections or potential investigations.
Please do not send highly sensitive, confidential or security-sensitive material through the ordinary contact form unless you are comfortable doing so.
If your identity needs protection, or the material could create a risk to you or another person, contact us first and explain that you need a more suitable way to communicate.
Submitting information to Veriarch does not mean that it will automatically be published.
Technical information
When you visit Veriarch, the website and the services used to operate and protect it may automatically process limited technical information.
This may include:
- your IP address;
- browser type and version;
- device and operating system information;
- the date and time of a request;
- pages and resources requested;
- referring website information;
- cookie preferences; and
- technical logs relating to errors, security or attempted misuse.
This information may be used to operate the website, diagnose technical problems, maintain security and prevent abuse.
How and why we use personal information
UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for processing personal information.
The lawful basis depends on why the information is being used.
Contact messages and enquiries
If you contact Veriarch, we use the information you provide to:
- read and assess your message;
- respond where appropriate;
- manage any subsequent correspondence; and
- maintain a record where reasonably necessary.
Our lawful basis is normally legitimate interests. Veriarch has a legitimate interest in receiving and responding to enquiries relating to its research, publications and website.
Where you specifically ask us to take steps connected with an agreement or service, processing may instead be necessary to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.
Evidence, corrections and research submissions
If you submit a document, correction, lead, source or other information, we may use it to:
- assess the material;
- check or investigate a claim;
- correspond with you about it;
- verify published or proposed material;
- maintain an editorial record;
- decide whether a correction or update is required; and
- support future research or publication.
Our lawful basis will normally be legitimate interests, namely Veriarch’s legitimate interest in researching, verifying, correcting and publishing its work.
Where submitted material contains personal information about other people, we will consider the nature of the material, its relevance, the purpose for which it was supplied and the potential impact of using or publishing it.
Archive Updates and email subscriptions
If you subscribe to Archive Updates or another Veriarch mailing list, we use your email address to send the updates you requested.
Our lawful basis for this processing is consent.
You can unsubscribe at any time using the unsubscribe link provided in our emails.
You may also contact us if you want your subscription removed.
Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.
We may retain limited information necessary to record that you unsubscribed and prevent you from being added back to the mailing list unintentionally.
Donations and payment processing
Veriarch may accept voluntary financial contributions through a third-party payment provider, including Stripe.
When you follow a donation link and make a payment, the payment transaction is handled by the payment provider rather than directly by Veriarch.
The provider may collect information such as:
- your name;
- payment-card or bank information;
- billing details;
- IP address; and
- information required to process and secure the transaction.
Payment providers process that information under their own privacy terms.
Veriarch does not receive or store your full payment-card details.
We may receive limited transaction information confirming that a payment has been made where required for administration, accounting, fraud prevention or legal compliance.
Our lawful basis may include:
- contract, where processing is necessary to complete or administer a transaction;
- legal obligation, where records must be kept for tax or accounting purposes; and
- legitimate interests, where necessary to administer donations or prevent misuse.
Cookies and similar technologies
Veriarch uses cookies and similar technologies to operate the website and manage visitor preferences.
We use CookieYes | GDPR Cookie Consent to manage cookie choices.
When a new visitor arrives at Veriarch, CookieYes displays a consent banner allowing them to manage non-essential cookies.
Strictly necessary cookies may be used without consent where they are required for purposes such as:
- basic website operation;
- security;
- fraud or abuse prevention; and
- remembering your privacy choices.
Other cookies or similar technologies that are not strictly necessary should only be used where the appropriate consent has been obtained.
You can change or withdraw your cookie choices through the cookie settings controls available on the website.
You can also control or delete cookies using your browser settings, although blocking strictly necessary cookies may affect the way parts of Veriarch work.
Analytics and website performance
Veriarch may process website usage information to understand how the site is performing and how visitors use it.
Depending on the technologies in use, this may include information such as:
- pages viewed;
- approximate traffic sources;
- device and browser categories;
- session information; and
- general interactions with the website.
Where an analytics technology requires consent under UK law, it should only be activated after that consent has been obtained.
Technical logging required for website operation, security or fault diagnosis may instead be processed on the basis of legitimate interests.
Our legitimate interests include maintaining the reliability, security and performance of Veriarch.
Comments
Where comments are enabled, the information entered into the comment form may be collected together with technical information such as the visitor’s IP address and browser user-agent string.
This information may be used for:
- comment moderation;
- spam detection;
- website security; and
- administration.
If Gravatar functionality is enabled, an anonymised value derived from an email address may be provided to Gravatar to determine whether the commenter uses that service.
If a comment is published, information deliberately included in that public comment should be treated as publicly available.
Our lawful basis for processing comment information is normally legitimate interests, including maintaining discussions, preventing spam and protecting the website.
Embedded content and external websites
Veriarch articles may contain links to or embedded material from third-party websites.
This can include:
- videos;
- images;
- documents;
- archive material;
- research databases;
- external articles;
- social-media material; and
- other online services.
Embedded content may behave in much the same way as if you had visited the third-party website directly.
A third party may collect information about you, use cookies or similar technologies, or record your interaction with its content, particularly if you are already signed into an account with that provider.
Veriarch does not control how independent third-party websites process personal information.
You should review their privacy information if you want to understand their practices.
External and affiliate links
Veriarch may link to external websites, services, retailers or other organisations.
Following an external link may allow that organisation to receive technical information associated with your visit, such as the page that referred you to them.
Some Veriarch pages may contain affiliate links. If a reader follows an affiliate link and later makes a qualifying purchase, Veriarch may receive a commission.
The external provider is responsible for the personal information it collects when you visit or transact with it.
Veriarch does not sell or rent personal information to advertisers or other third parties.
Who we share personal information with
Veriarch does not sell personal information.
Information may, however, be processed by organisations that provide services needed to operate the website.
Depending on how you use Veriarch, these may include providers of:
- web hosting and infrastructure;
- website security;
- spam prevention;
- email or newsletter delivery;
- contact-form processing;
- cloud storage and backups;
- analytics or performance measurement;
- cookie-consent management; and
- payment processing.
These organisations may act as processors on behalf of Veriarch or, in some circumstances, as separate data controllers for their own purposes.
We may also disclose personal information where reasonably necessary:
- to comply with a legal obligation;
- to respond to a lawful request from a court, regulator or public authority;
- to establish, exercise or defend legal rights;
- to investigate fraud, abuse or security incidents; or
- to protect the safety, rights or security of Veriarch, its readers or other people.
A request for information about a confidential editorial source would be assessed according to the circumstances and applicable law.
International transfers
Some organisations providing website, email, payment, security or other online services may process information outside the United Kingdom.
Where personal information is transferred internationally, appropriate protections must be used where required by UK data protection law.
These may include:
- transfers to countries recognised as providing an adequate level of protection; or
- approved contractual safeguards.
Some third-party service providers may also make international transfers under their own privacy arrangements.
How long we keep personal information
We do not keep personal information for longer than reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, subject to legal, accounting, security or editorial requirements.
Different types of information may therefore be kept for different periods.
Contact correspondence
Routine messages may be deleted when the enquiry has been resolved and the correspondence is no longer reasonably required.
Information may be retained for longer where it relates to:
- an ongoing investigation;
- an editorial correction;
- a complaint;
- a legal issue;
- a security incident; or
- another matter requiring a continuing record.
Research and evidence submissions
Evidence or research material may need to be retained for considerably longer than ordinary correspondence.
This may be necessary to:
- preserve the provenance of material;
- reconstruct an editorial decision;
- verify a published claim;
- assess later evidence;
- respond to a correction; or
- defend the accuracy of published work.
Retention will depend on the nature and continuing relevance of the material.
Newsletter information
Subscription information is normally retained while you remain subscribed.
After you unsubscribe, limited information may be retained where necessary to make sure your request is respected.
Donation and accounting records
Information required for accounting, tax, fraud prevention or legal compliance may be retained for the period required by applicable law.
Technical and security logs
Technical information is retained only for as long as reasonably necessary for website operation, diagnosis, security, abuse prevention or fraud prevention.
Comments
Comments and associated metadata may be retained while the relevant discussion or article remains available, unless there is a reason to remove them earlier.
Security
Veriarch takes reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against:
- unauthorised access;
- accidental loss;
- alteration;
- misuse; and
- unauthorised disclosure.
No website, email system or form of electronic communication can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
For that reason, anyone wishing to provide confidential or particularly sensitive material should contact Veriarch before sending it through an ordinary website form.
Your data protection rights
Depending on the circumstances, UK data protection law may give you rights including:
Right of access
You can ask for a copy of personal information held about you.
Right to rectification
You can ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
Right to erasure
In certain circumstances, you can ask for personal information to be deleted.
Right to restriction of processing
In certain circumstances, you can ask us to limit how your information is used.
Right to object
You may have the right to object to processing carried out on the basis of legitimate interests.
Right to data portability
In certain circumstances, you can ask for information you supplied to be provided to you or transferred to another organisation.
Right to withdraw consent
Where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw that consent at any time.
These rights are not absolute and exceptions can apply.
For example, information may sometimes need to be retained because of legal obligations, legal claims, freedom of expression, journalism, research or other purposes recognised by law.
To exercise a data protection right, contact Veriarch through the Contact page and explain what you are requesting.
We may need to verify your identity before providing information or making changes.
Requests will be handled within the timescales required by applicable data protection law.
Editorial, research and published material
Veriarch publishes research and investigations concerning historical, scientific, institutional, political and other matters of public interest.
Data protection rights may sometimes need to be balanced against rights and interests relating to freedom of expression, journalism, research and publication.
A request concerning personal information contained in Veriarch’s editorial or research material will therefore be considered according to the circumstances and applicable law.
A request for erasure does not automatically require the removal of accurate published material.
Automated decision-making
Veriarch does not use personal information submitted through the website to make solely automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about individuals.
Automated systems may be used for ordinary technical purposes such as:
- spam filtering;
- cookie management;
- website security; and
- abuse detection.
Children’s information
Veriarch is a general-audience research and publishing website.
It is not designed specifically to collect personal information from children.
If you believe a child has provided personal information to Veriarch in circumstances where it should not have been collected or retained, please contact us.
How to complain
If you have concerns about how Veriarch has handled your personal information, please contact us first so that the matter can be investigated.
You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent data protection regulator.
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
United Kingdom
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Further information is available at ico.org.uk.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy if Veriarch’s website, services, technology or legal obligations change.
The date at the top of the page will be updated when material changes are made.
Where a change significantly affects how personal information is used, we will take reasonable steps to make that change clear.
Contact
For questions about this Privacy Policy, requests concerning your personal information, or concerns about how your information has been handled, please contact:
Rob Hutchison
Data Controller, Veriarch
United Kingdom
Use the Veriarch Contact page to get in touch.