Privacy

Last updated 3 October 2026

LadFinder is built so you can use it without telling us much. You can browse without a profile. We don't sell your details, we don't show ads, and we don't use tracking cookies.

Who we are

LadFinder (ladfinder.com) is an independent website run from the UK. We decide how your information is used, which makes us the “controller” under UK data protection law. Contact us about anything on this page at ladfinder@protonmail.com or message us on Facebook.

Something to know first: your sexuality

LadFinder is a guide for gay and bi men, so having a profile here, saving places or writing reviews could suggest your sexuality. The law treats that as sensitive information. We only hold it with your clear permission, which you give with a separate tick when you create a profile. You can withdraw it at any time by deleting your profile, which removes everything linked to you.

What we keep, and why

• Your profile. Your email, a scrambled copy of your password (we can't read it), the display name you choose, whether you're a lad or a business, and when you confirmed you're 18 or over and gave the permission above. We need these to run your profile.
• Saved places and alerts. The places you save and, if you turn alerts on, the town or postcode district you choose (never an exact address) and how far around it. Alerts only start once you've confirmed your email, and every alert email has a link to stop them.
• Reviews. What you write, your scores and the date. Reviews show your display name and are checked by a person before they appear.
• Busy or quiet taps. Which place you tapped and when. The link between you and the tap is wiped after 24 hours; only the totals for the place are kept.
• Business profiles. If you claim a listing or send in a new one, we keep what you send us, the email address you confirmed it with, and a record of every change you make to the listing, so changes can be checked and undone.
• Reports and map corrections. If you report a problem with a listing, we keep the report without your name. If you show us where a place really is, we keep the pin and any note and, if you were signed in, that it came from a member.
• Nights sent in by promoters. The details on the form, and your email if you give it, which we only use to ask about the night or to tell you it's live.
• Businesses and organisations we list or contact. We may email the contact address a venue, shop, clinic, promoter, charity or publication publishes, to ask them to check their listing or to tell them about LadFinder. We keep only the name, that address and when we wrote. Tell us and we won't contact you again.
• Emails we send you. Sign-in links, confirmations, alerts and replies about your listing or review go through Resend, our email service.

The legal reasons we rely on are: providing the profile you asked for; your permission, for the sensitive information above and for alerts; and our legitimate interest in running a safe, accurate guide, for checking reviews and listings, stopping abuse, and counting visits.

Your location

We never store your location. When you press Near me, your device uses it to sort listings by distance. We're sent only a rough position, to about 1 km. Our server asks postcodes.io, a free public postcode service, which postcode district that is, for example M1, and adds one to that district's count for the day. postcodes.io sees only the rough position, not who you are, and the position isn't kept. Town and postcode searches are looked up by our server too, so your device doesn't contact anyone else for them.

Counting visits

We keep plain daily totals: how many times each page is viewed, how many times each listing's directions, website, tickets or phone number are tapped, which towns and postcode districts are searched for, and how many times Quick exit is pressed. The totals have no cookies, no IP addresses and nothing that identifies you. If you search for something that matches no town, postcode or listing, we keep the search words so we know what to add, with full postcodes cut down to the area part, such as M1.

We also use Umami, a visitor counter that runs on our own server, so no outside company sees your visit. It sets no cookies. To tell one visit from another it makes a scrambled code from your browser and part of your IP address: we blank the last part of the address before Umami sees it, and the address isn't stored. The code changes every month. Umami records the page, the time, the site that linked you here, your country and rough area, your type of device and browser, your screen size and language, and which buttons you press on a listing, such as Directions. Pages you see while signed in, such as your profile or managing a listing, are never sent to it.

Cookies and storage on your device

We only use what the site needs to work:

• a sign-in cookie, so you stay signed in, which lasts 30 days unless you sign out;
• a note that you've confirmed you're 18 or over, so you aren't asked every time;
• where you last left the map, so it opens there next time;
• a short-lived note after you press Quick exit, so the Back button can't bring this site back up;
• copies of the last pages you viewed, so they still open on poor signal.

Clearing your browser data removes all of these. Map pictures are loaded from OpenFreeMap, our map provider, which sees your device's IP address in the normal way when your browser fetches them.

Who else handles your information

• UpCloud, who host our server in Frankfurt, Germany. UK law treats data held in the EU as properly protected.
• Resend, who send our emails from the United States. They're signed up to the UK–US data arrangement and use the UK's standard contract terms for data leaving the UK.
• postcodes.io, for the place lookups described above.

We never sell your information or give it to advertisers. We'd only share it if the law required us to, for example a valid request from the police.

How long we keep it

Your profile, saved places, alerts and reviews stay until you delete them or your profile. Sign-in links last 20 minutes and confirmation links up to 48 hours. Business requests and the record of changes to a listing are kept while they matter for that listing. Daily totals and visit counts are kept to show how the site is used over time; they don't identify you.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct it or delete it, ask us to stop or limit how we use it, and take it elsewhere. You can delete your profile yourself at any time from your profile page; that removes your email, password, saved places, alerts and reviews for good. For anything else, email ladfinder@protonmail.com or message us on Facebook and we'll reply within a month.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We'd appreciate the chance to put it right first.

Adults only

LadFinder is for people aged 18 or over. If we learn that a profile belongs to someone under 18, we delete it.

Changes

If we change how we use your information, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change matters to you, we'll tell you by email before it happens.