Privacy notice
Your information, plainly put
PublicArtMap collects very little personal information, and this page explains all of it — what we hold, why we hold it, and what you can ask us to do with it.
Who we are
PublicArtMap is run by Cultural Commons, a Community Interest Company limited by guarantee, registered in Scotland (SC837397), registered office 1 Hope Park Crescent, Edinburgh EH8 9NA. Cultural Commons is the data controller for any personal information handled through this site. You can reach us at hello@publicartmap.co.uk.
If you're just browsing
You can explore the whole map without an account, and we don't ask you for anything to do so. The site sets no tracking or advertising cookies and shows no adverts. If we measure visits at all, we use cookieless, privacy-respecting analytics that record aggregate page views only — no personal data, no profiles, nothing that follows you to other sites.
If you use the locate button
Maps include a find-my-location control, and the home page offers a "near me now" view — both useful on foot. Your position is read only when you ask for it, is used only on your device to place the dot and sort works by distance, and is never sent to us or stored.
If you offer to contribute
The form on the contribute page asks for your name, email address and which part of Edinburgh you know, and optionally what draws you to it, anything you already know about, how you would like to be credited, and where you heard about us. We use it to reply to you and to work out which invitations to send.
If you don't end up contributing, we delete it within twelve months. We won't add you to a mailing list — we don't have one — and answering the optional questions is genuinely optional.
If you're a contributor
Contributing is currently by invitation. When we set up your account we hold your email address, which is used to sign you in by magic link (no passwords) and to contact you about your contributions. Signing in sets an essential session cookie — the kind needed simply to keep you signed in.
Your contributions — suggested edits, photo reviews and similar — are recorded against your account and may be shown with a display name you choose. Your email address is never published on the site.
If you email us
If you express interest in contributing, send feedback or request a correction, we'll hold your message and email address for as long as needed to deal with it and keep a record of the outcome. We won't add you to any mailing list you didn't ask for.
If you appear in a photograph
Photographs of public artworks sometimes include passers-by. We don't set out to photograph people, we ask contributors to avoid it where they reasonably can, and we don't tag, name or attempt to identify anyone.
Where someone is identifiable, our lawful basis is legitimate interests — keeping a public record of art in public places. We've written that assessment down rather than merely asserting it, and weighed it against the interests of people who happen to be in shot.
You can object, and we will act. If you're identifiable in an image here and would rather not be, email rights@publicartmap.co.uk with a link. We'll remove or replace the photograph within 48 hours. You don't have to explain why, and we won't ask you to prove anything — this is a different right from copyright and it belongs to you regardless of who owns the artwork or took the picture.
Our lawful bases, plainly
- Contributor accounts and sign-in — necessary to provide a service you asked for.
- Recording who contributed what — legal obligation in substance: the open licences we publish under require us to credit contributors, so we can't discard it while the work is public.
- Identifiable people in photographs — legitimate interests, assessed and balanced as above.
- Expressions of interest in contributing — legitimate interests: we cannot invite someone to help without holding enough to reply to them.
- Correspondence — legitimate interests in answering you and keeping a record of the outcome.
How long we keep things
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Contributor email address and account | While the account is open, then 12 months |
| Display name shown beside contributions | Removed on request; we pseudonymise rather than break the credit chain |
| Record of which works you added or checked | Kept while those works are published — the licences require the credit |
| An offer to contribute that doesn't become an account | 12 months from our last contact, then deleted |
| Emails to us | 24 months after the matter is closed |
| Takedown and objection requests | 6 years, so we can show what we did and when |
| Photographs you asked us to remove | Deleted, not archived |
| Server and access logs | As retained by our providers, around 30 days |
Where the data lives
Three providers, each doing one job, all acting as our data processors:
- Netlify hosts the site.
- Supabase holds contributor accounts and the artwork catalogue. The database itself is in Stockholm, in the EU.
- Resend sends the sign-in emails, so it handles your email address at the moment you ask for a magic link. It is not used for newsletters, because we don't have one.
We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it with anyone except these three, as needed to run the service. If that changes, this list changes with it.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Email hello@publicartmap.co.uk and we'll respond within a month. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
Changes to this notice
PublicArtMap is a project in progress and this notice will grow with it — for instance if open sign-up ever replaces the current invitation system. Significant changes will be flagged on this page. Last updated: August 2026.
PublicArtMap is a project of Cultural Commons CIC, supporting open cultural infrastructure.