Polling Forecast

Privacy policy

Last updated 11 November 2026. This policy covers www.pollingforecast.com (“the Site”), run by Matt Bowden.

What we collect, and why

The Site has no accounts for readers, no comments and no sign-ups. We do not ask for your name, email address or any other personal details, and nothing can be bought here.

Data is collected in three ways:

• Cookies and local storage we set ourselves, to remember your choices: the colour theme and light or dark mode, whether you have closed a notice, and similar settings. They stay in your browser and are not used to identify you.
• Google Analytics, to count visits and see which pages and tools are used, so we know what to improve. Google Analytics sets cookies and receives your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you open and roughly where you are. We see only totals, not individual people. Google's own use of this data is described at How Google uses information from sites that use its services; you can opt out with the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.
• Advertising, which pays for the Site (below).

Advertising

This Site is affiliated with Publisher First, Inc. dba Freestar (“Freestar”) for the purposes of placing advertising on the Site, and Freestar will collect and use specific data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Freestar’s data usage, click here.

Freestar and its advertising partners may use cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to collect data such as your IP address, device and browser identifiers, the pages you visit and roughly where you are, in order to show adverts, limit how often you see the same one, measure them and prevent fraud. Where the law requires it, this happens only with your consent.

You can opt out of interest-based advertising from many companies at the NAI Consumer Opt-Out page and, in Europe, at Your Online Choices. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser’s settings.

Your choices and consent

Visitors from the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland are asked for consent before advertising cookies are set, through a consent banner that follows the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework. You can change your choice at any time with the Privacy settings link at the foot of every page.

Your rights

UK and EU (UK GDPR and GDPR). You have the right to access the personal data held about you, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to its use, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time. The legal basis for analytics and advertising cookies is your consent; for the cookies that remember your settings, our legitimate interest in the Site working as you chose. You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk) or your local data protection authority.

California and other US states (CCPA/CPRA and similar laws). You have the right to know what personal information is collected, to ask for it to be deleted, and to opt out of its sale or sharing for targeted advertising. Use the Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information link at the foot of every page (shown to visitors in the US), or your browser’s Global Privacy Control signal. We do not sell personal information for money; sharing with advertising partners as described above may count as a “sale” or “sharing” under these laws.

Who data is shared with

• Google (Analytics, and advertising through Google Ad Manager)
• Freestar and the advertising partners it works with, listed in our ads.txt file
• Our hosting provider, which keeps standard server logs (IP address, time and page requested) for security

Data is not shared with anyone else, except where the law requires it.

Children

The Site is not aimed at children under 13 (16 in the EU), and we do not knowingly collect their data.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data can be sent to the Site’s owner, Matt Bowden.