Privacy
Privacy policy
How we collect, use and protect your personal data — in plain English, and in the detail UK data protection law requires.
Last updated 22 October 2026.
Ampl is a trading name of DOUBTFYRE TECHNOLOGIES LTD, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17083221) with its registered office at Flat 9 Shortcroft Mead Court, 55 Cooper Road, London, NW10 1BF. We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. Our entry on the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) register is ZC114123.
The short version
- Ampl is free. We collect only what we need to check eligibility, run your account, show relevant deals and keep the service safe.
- We never sell your personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers.
- Retailers see anonymous counts, not people. Councils see aggregate numbers, with small groups suppressed so nobody can be identified.
- We use Cloudflare (hosting and storage), Postmark (email) and PureSMS (security texts, where enabled) as our main data processors. They act on our instructions.
- We only send marketing emails if you have opted in, and we do not currently send marketing texts. Security codes and account messages are service messages, not marketing.
- You can ask for a copy of your data, correct it, export it or delete it. Email us and we will help.
The rest of this policy explains the detail: what we collect, where it comes from, why we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and the rights you have. It is our formal UK GDPR privacy notice as well as a practical guide.
What we collect
| Category | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Account and contact details | Your name, email address, mobile number, date of birth, password (stored as a hash, never in plain text), and whether you sign in by email link, password or SMS. |
| Eligibility and household | Your postcode, the local authority and constituency we derive from it, the number of adults and children in your household, the benefits you tell us you receive, your council referral status and the outcome of any eligibility check. |
| Verification evidence | If you use the legacy self sign-up route, a proof-of-benefit document you upload. We delete it within 24 hours of the check being completed and keep only the date and outcome of the check. |
| Membership activity | Deals you view, save, reveal or redeem, single-use codes, your savings history, council offers you view, and your membership card details, including an optional photo. |
| Waitlist | If Ampl is not live with your council, the name, email, postcode, local authority and constituency you give us to join the waiting list. |
| Council referral invitations | If a council sends you an Ampl invitation, the email address or mobile number it provides, the delivery status, a keyed hash of that address, the consent confirmation and any opt-out or suppression status. This is separate from an Ampl account. |
| Benefit signposting | Which benefit or support links you click, so we can report aggregate interest to councils without identifying you. |
| Consent records | When you give or withdraw consent to use health-related benefit information: the date, version, source and action. We keep this to demonstrate compliance. |
| Benefits check | The answers you give the benefits checker and the estimate it produces. If you are signed in and choose to save the check, we store the result and a short history so you can see how it changes. |
| Communications | Service emails, security texts where SMS is enabled, delivery status, notification preferences, unsubscribe and suppression records, and messages you send to our team. |
| Technical and security | IP address, browser and device information, session records, sign-in and one-time-code attempts, rate-limit records, fraud-prevention logs and audit logs. |
| Council, retailer and staff accounts | Business contact details, role, council or retailer affiliation, authentication records and an audit trail of actions taken in the dashboard. |
Some benefits we ask about — for example Personal Independence Payment, Employment and Support Allowance, or Attendance Allowance — can reveal information about your health. We treat that information as special category data. We only collect it with your explicit consent, and only to check eligibility and show relevant support. We do not ask for medical records.
Where we get it
- From you. When you create an account, enter a council code, use the benefits checker, upload a verification document, contact us or change your details.
- From your device. We automatically receive technical information such as your IP address, browser type and session details when you use the service.
- From your council. If you join through a council referral, the council confirms that you are eligible and may see whether its referral was used. It does not send us your benefits evidence.
- From retailers. If you redeem a deal online or in store, we may receive a confirmation or a count of redemptions. Retailers do not send us your identity.
We do not buy personal data, and we do not use data from data brokers or advertising networks.
Why we use it and our lawful bases
| What we do | Why we are allowed to do it |
|---|---|
| Create and run your account, verify your eligibility, provide your membership card, deals and savings history. | Performance of a contract with you (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b)). For health-related benefit data, we rely on your explicit consent (Article 9(2)(a)). |
| Confirm that you are eligible and prevent fraud, misuse and duplicate accounts. | Legitimate interests in protecting Ampl and its members (Article 6(1)(f)), plus explicit consent for special category data. |
| Send service emails and, where SMS is enabled, one-time security texts including sign-in links, verification codes and account changes. | Performance of a contract with you, and our legitimate interests in keeping accounts secure. |
| Send council or service notifications you have asked for, such as updates about your council or account. | Consent, or legitimate interests where the message is necessary to administer the service. Every notification email includes an unsubscribe link. |
| Send marketing about deals, offers or new features. | Consent under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). We do not use pre-ticked boxes, and you can withdraw at any time. |
| Provide benefits checker results and save them to your account if you ask us to. | Your consent when you save a check. If you use the checker without saving, we process your answers to produce the result you requested. |
| Produce aggregate reports for councils and retailers, such as how many members joined or how many offers were viewed. | Legitimate interests in reporting the impact of the service. Reports use aggregate numbers, not individual records, and small groups are suppressed. |
| Meet legal, tax, accounting, safeguarding and regulatory obligations, and handle complaints or legal claims. | Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c)) or legitimate interests in establishing, exercising or defending legal claims. |
| Improve the service, fix problems and understand how features are used. | Legitimate interests in running and improving a safe, effective service, using aggregated or de-identified information wherever possible. |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, we have weighed our interests against yours and put safeguards in place. You can object to that processing at any time — see Your rights. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting anything we did before you withdrew.
We do not make automated decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you. Council referrals are verified automatically when you redeem a valid council code, but the eligibility decision is made by your council, not by an automated decision by us. Legacy self sign-ups are reviewed by a person. You can contact us if you think a decision about your account is wrong. We use your postcode, household information and the benefits you select to choose which deals and support to show you. That is personalisation, but it does not make automated decisions about you.
Do you have to give us your data?
To create an Ampl membership we need your name, contact details, date of birth, postcode and eligibility information. Without it we cannot verify you or provide the service. You can browse public deals and use the benefits checker without an account; saving a check, claiming a deal or using member features needs one. You choose whether to add a photo to your card, save a benefits check, or opt into notifications. You can ask us to close your account at any time by emailing hello@getampl.app.
Council referral invitations
If your council sends you an Ampl invitation by email or text, the council confirms that you have agreed to be contacted. We use the email address or mobile number only to deliver that invitation and any related service message. Every invitation includes a privacy link and an opt-out (an unsubscribe instruction in email, or STOP in a text). We record the council’s confirmation, a keyed hash of the recipient address, the delivery result and any unsubscribe or suppression request. We do not add referral recipients to marketing.
For the referral itself, your council decides whether you are eligible and is responsible for the contact details it provides. Ampl is the controller for the account you create and for the outreach record we keep about that invitation.
Who we share it with
We use a small number of service providers. They act on our instructions under contracts that include data processing terms, and they cannot use your data for their own marketing.
| Provider | What they do | Where they process data |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare, Inc. | Hosting, D1 database, R2 file storage, security and content delivery | Global, including the UK, EU and US |
| Postmark (ActiveCampaign) | Transactional email delivery | United States |
| PureSMS (divergent Connect) | One-time SMS security codes and, where enabled, council referral texts | United Kingdom |
We also send the postcode you enter to postcodes.io, a public postcode lookup service, to identify your local authority. It receives the postcode and returns local-authority data; we do not send your name, email, benefit information or account details. It is used only for that lookup.
Professional advisers such as lawyers, accountants, auditors and IT support may access data only where necessary, under confidentiality obligations. They are not part of routine service delivery.
Council partners. If you join through a council referral, the council confirms that you are eligible and may see whether its referral was used. Council dashboards show aggregate numbers — for example, how many residents joined or how many offers were viewed — with small groups suppressed so individuals cannot be identified. We do not give councils your benefits evidence, contact details or savings history.
Retailers. Retailers see counts, not people. When you redeem a deal, the retailer validates the code and may record the redemption; it does not receive your name, email or address from us. If you choose to show your membership card in store, the retailer will see the name and photo on it.
Legal and safety. We may share data with regulators, law enforcement, courts or professional advisers where required by law, to investigate fraud or misuse, to protect someone’s safety, or to establish or defend legal claims. We may also share data if we merge, sell or restructure our business, under the same protections, and we will tell you before your data becomes subject to a different policy.
We do not sell your personal data. We do not share it with advertisers, data brokers or social media platforms for their own purposes.
International transfers
Some of our providers process data outside the UK. Where that happens, we put an appropriate safeguard in place — for example, the ICO’s International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, the UK–US Data Bridge where the provider is certified under the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, or reliance on UK adequacy regulations for the destination country. We also require providers to apply appropriate security and confidentiality measures. Contact us if you would like more information about the safeguards we use.
How long we keep it
| What | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Account and profile | While your account is open. If you ask us to close it, we delete or anonymise it within 30 days, except where we need to keep something for legal or fraud-prevention reasons. |
| Verification documents | Deleted within 24 hours of the eligibility check being completed. We keep only the date and outcome of the check. |
| Savings and redemption history | While your account is open. Deleted within 30 days of your account closing. |
| Saved benefits checks and history | While your account is open. You can delete a saved check from your account at any time. |
| SMS delivery logs | 90 days. The log stores a hashed phone number and delivery status, not the code or message body. |
| Pending phone verification | Deleted one day after the code expires. |
| Notification delivery logs | 730 days. |
| Unsubscribe and suppression records | 3 years, so we can honour your choice. |
| Offer and referral analytics | 730 days, in aggregate. |
| Demographic snapshots | 7 years, for council reporting and equalities analysis; these are aggregate when reported. |
| Referral uses | 730 days, in aggregate. |
| Consent records | 7 years to demonstrate compliance with consent. |
| Referral outreach records | 7 years for consent, delivery and suppression evidence. |
| Waitlist entries | 365 days if you do not join. |
| Benefit link clicks | 730 days, in aggregate. |
| Verification upload metadata | 30 days; the document itself is deleted when the check is completed. |
| Security and audit logs | For as long as needed to investigate fraud, secure the service, handle a legal claim or meet a legal obligation. We normally review retention at 7 years, but some audit records may be kept longer where an investigation requires it. |
| Anonymised statistics | Indefinitely, because they no longer identify you. |
We may keep data longer if a legal claim, investigation or regulatory requirement needs it. We run retention on a scheduled basis, and some records may remain until the next run. When we no longer need it, we delete or anonymise it.
How we keep it safe
- Data is encrypted in transit using HTTPS. Access to production systems is restricted and reviewed.
- Passwords are stored as hashes. Session tokens and one-time codes are stored as hashes, so a database copy does not reveal them.
- Staff accounts use two-factor authentication, and sensitive admin actions require a fresh password step-up.
- We use rate limits, audit logs, monitoring and backups to detect and respond to abuse or failures.
- If a personal data breach affects your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the ICO where the law requires it.
- No system is completely secure. If you think your account or data has been compromised, contact us immediately.
Your rights
| Right | What it means |
|---|---|
| Access | You can ask for a copy of the personal data we hold about you and information about how we use it. |
| Correction | You can ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete. You can update most details from your account. |
| Deletion | You can ask us to delete your account and personal data. We may keep limited records where the law requires it or to prevent fraud. |
| Restriction | You can ask us to pause some processing while a question about your data is resolved. |
| Objection | You can object to processing based on legitimate interests. We will stop unless we have compelling grounds that override your rights. |
| Portability | You can ask for a copy of data you gave us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. |
| Withdraw consent | Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time. This does not affect processing that already happened. |
| Complain | You can complain to us, and you also have the right to complain to the ICO. |
To exercise any of these rights, email hello@getampl.app. We will respond within one month. We may need to confirm your identity to protect your account. There is normally no charge. If we cannot do what you ask, we will explain why and tell you about your right to complain.
Complaining to the ICO. You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk, on 0303 123 1113, or by post at ICO, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Our registration is ZC114123. We would welcome the chance to resolve your concern first.
Cookies and similar technologies
- Essential cookies. We use
lc_sessionto keep you signed in, and short-lived cookies for sign-in, one-time codes and password reset (lc_otp,lc_sms_otp,lc_pw_reset).lc_deviceremembers a trusted device for up to 30 days;referral_token_datacarries a council referral into sign-up;lc_phone_signupholds a pending phone verification; andampl_admin_step_up,ampl_sso_stateandampl_sso_id_tokensupport staff and council SSO security. These cookies are necessary for the service to work. - No advertising or analytics cookies. We do not use tracking pixels, advertising cookies, social media pixels or third-party analytics. We do not sell data to anyone.
- Your choices. You can block or delete cookies in your browser, but sign-in and member features will not work without the essential cookies.
If we introduce analytics or other non-essential cookies in future, we will ask for your consent first and update this policy.
Email and text messages
Service emails. We send transactional emails such as verification links, sign-in links, security alerts, account changes, deal codes you request and council notifications you have opted into. These are sent through Postmark. They are not marketing.
Security texts (where enabled). Where SMS is enabled for your account, we send one-time codes by SMS for sign-in, phone verification and password reset, through PureSMS. We only send a code when you ask for one (including when you ask us to resend it). We do not send marketing texts. Standard message and data rates from your mobile network may apply. Reply STOP to any text to opt out, or HELP for help. If you opt out, we will stop texting that number, including security codes, so use an email link or password instead. Contact us to turn texts back on. We never share your mobile number with retailers or councils for marketing.
Marketing. We do not currently send marketing texts. We only send marketing emails if you have opted in. Every marketing message includes an unsubscribe route, and you can change your preferences at any time. If we add marketing texts in future, every message will include a STOP route. We do not use pre-ticked boxes or bundle marketing consent into account creation.
Benefits checker and guidance
The benefits checker produces an estimate based on public rules and benefit rates at the time you use it. It is not a decision by the Department for Work and Pensions, HMRC, your council or any other authority, and it is not financial, legal or benefits advice. You should confirm your position with the relevant authority or a free advice service before relying on a result. If you save a check, we store your answers and the result as described above.
Ask Ampl and our signposting provide general information. They are not regulated financial, debt, legal or benefits advice. Where a question needs regulated advice, we point you to free specialist services.
Children
Ampl is for people aged 16 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy to reflect changes to the service or the law. The current version is always on this page, with the date it was last updated. If a change materially affects how we use your data, we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Questions about your data, a request to exercise your rights, a concern about this policy, or general help: hello@getampl.app. You can also write to us at DOUBTFYRE TECHNOLOGIES LTD, Flat 9 Shortcroft Mead Court, 55 Cooper Road, London, NW10 1BF.
We reply to every message. If you are not happy with our response, you can complain to the ICO using the details above. Our terms and conditions explain the rules for using Ampl.
Photography
Some images are used under Creative Commons licences: “Family cooking activity…” by Shixart1985 (CC BY 2.0); “Shopping freak” by freestocks.org (CC0). Full details are in our public photo credits file at public/photos/CREDITS.txt.