Privacy Policy
Last Updated: 30 September 2026
Who we are
This policy explains how the Government of Links Land ("we", "us", "our") handles your personal information when you use https://govll.org/ and its services (such as petitions.govll.org, vote.govll.org and careers.govll.org), or when you get in touch with us. We have tried to keep it plain and honest. Some services give you an extra notice when they collect information for a specific reason, such as the citizenship application.
We are the "controller" of your personal information under UK and EU data protection law, which just means we decide how and why it is used. The website is run by Sam on behalf of the Government.
You can contact us at info@govll.org. Some government inboxes, including this one, are monitored by more than one authorised person. They act for the Government and only use your information for the Government's purposes, never their own.
What information we collect
We only collect what we need. Here is the full list:
- Technical data: your IP address, the date and time, the website and page you asked for, your browser and device type, the page you came from, and any error or security events. Our web server logs this automatically to keep the site running and secure. We can work out your rough country from your IP address, but never your exact location.
- Things you send us: your name, email, phone number if you give one, and whatever you write in forms, applications or emails.
- Petitions: your name, email address, postcode, country or area, and the IP address you signed from.
- Voting: for elections run on vote.govll.org, the details on the approved electoral roll (such as your name, email address and voter ID), your encrypted ballot and your ballot tracker.
- Account details: your name, username, email address, role and account status. Passwords are stored scrambled (hashed), never as plain text. We also keep security and editorial records of what accounts do.
- Sensitive information: only if a service really needs it, and we will tell you why at the point we ask.
Why we use it and why we are allowed to
The law says we need a reason for using your information. Ours are:
- To run the website and keep it safe. That means serving pages, fixing faults, stopping abuse and producing aggregate statistics. Our reason is legitimate interests (running a secure public website).
- To answer your messages or give you a service you asked for, such as a petition or an application. Our reason is taking steps at your request, or legitimate interests in running government services.
- To run elections. Our reason is performing a task in the public interest and meeting our duties under the Electoral Integrity and Democracy Act 2025.
- To create and run your account. Our reason is performing our contract with you, or legitimate interests for staff and public records.
- To follow the law, for example answering a lawful request. Our reason is legal obligation.
- Anything optional. We will ask for your consent first, and you can take it back any time without affecting what we did before.
If a form has to be filled in by law or to get a service, it will say so and explain what happens if you leave it blank.
Cookies and browser storage
We only use strictly necessary cookies. We do not use advertising cookies, tracking cookies or analytics cookies, and we do not need to ask for your consent for the ones we do use. Our statistics come from ordinary server logs instead (see the next section).
Here is every cookie our own servers set for visitors:
| Cookie | Where | What it does | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| pw495s | govll.org and www.govll.org | Makes the site work, including forms such as the citizenship application | Until you close your browser |
| sessionid | vote.govll.org | Keeps you signed in as you move between pages | 14 days |
| csrftoken | Pages with forms on some services, such as police.govll.org and transport.govll.org | Stops other websites submitting forms as you | 1 year |
| _epets_session | petitions.govll.org | Keeps track of your petition or signature as you move between pages | Until you close your browser |
| CATS | careers.govll.org | Makes the site work and remembers your choices | Until you close your browser |
Staff who sign in to our content management systems, or to the statistics dashboard at stats.govll.org, get extra sign-in cookies (for example authelia_session). Ordinary visitors never get these.
Content from other companies
A few of our services load content from other companies. When that happens, your browser connects to them directly, so they receive your IP address and browser details:
- Google Fonts (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com) on police.govll.org, transport.govll.org and kingsmail.govll.org, to load typefaces.
- YouTube (youtube-nocookie.com) on petitions.govll.org, if a petition page includes a video. The video is only loaded when the page includes one.
- Cloudflare may ask your browser to report network errors when a page fails to load, to help keep the service reliable.
Those companies' own privacy notices apply to what they collect.
Website statistics
Requests to govll.org and most of our services are recorded in our web server's access logs. The Royal Office of Digital Infrastructure (RODI) runs those logs through a tool called GoAccess and shows the results on a private dashboard at stats.govll.org. It helps us see which pages are popular, spot errors and catch security problems.
What that means for you:
- It is aggregate, not profiles. The dashboard only shows aggregate totals. IP addresses are anonymised and the list of individual visitors is switched off, so it does not build a profile of you and cannot be used to look up one person's browsing.
- Rough location only. We use a local database to estimate your country from your IP address. The dashboard shows countries only.
- Bots are filtered where we can spot them, though no filter is perfect.
- The raw logs are locked down. Only authorised RODI staff or system admins can see them, and only when really necessary for security, fixing a fault or a legal duty. They are normally deleted after 14 days. A daily automated check makes sure nothing older is left.
- The dashboard is private. You need an authorised account, a password and a second sign-in step to get in. Sign-in records for the dashboard are kept for 90 days.
- The dashboard only covers the last 14 days. Older aggregate data is not kept.
- No ad pixels, no cross-site tracking IDs and no automated decisions about visitors.
Who sees your information
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
Access is limited to authorised government staff (including RODI) and the suppliers who need it to run the service. Right now those are:
- Oxide for server hosting,
- Cloudflare for delivery and security on most of our services,
- Livemail for email, including the emails our websites send,
- Google and YouTube, only in the limited way described under "Content from other companies".
We may also hand information over if the law requires it, for example to a court, regulator or law enforcement, or to protect our rights.
Some information is public by design. For example, the name of the person who starts a petition is shown on the petition. Signatures are counted in public, but signers' names and email addresses are not published.
How we use AI
OpenAI services and Anthropic's Claude can be given access to information in Government databases, but only for an approved task. They do not have standing or unrestricted access. Each time, an authorised Government official has to approve it first, and it happens in a controlled setup that limits access to the minimum needed. Approved use is supervised, and time-limited where possible, and stopped when the task ends. The information cannot be used for anything unrelated.
Other countries
Our hosting, security and email providers may handle information in more than one country. Where the law requires safeguards for that, we use an adequacy decision, contract terms or another lawful method. Email us if you want details about a particular service.
How long we keep it
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Raw web server logs | 14 days, then deleted |
| Website statistics (aggregate only) | The last 14 days |
| Statistics dashboard sign-in records | 90 days |
| Kings Mail enquiry forms | 12 months, then deleted automatically |
| Emails to our inboxes | Until they are no longer needed |
| Petition signatures | While the petition is on the site. There is no automatic deletion date yet, but you can ask us to remove your signature |
| Election records | Kept as the audit record of the election, as required by electoral law |
| Citizenship applications | See "Citizenship applications" below |
| Account records | While the account is active. They are deleted when the account is closed |
| Security and editorial audit records | Until they are no longer needed. There is no automatic deletion date yet |
| Applications and other service records | Whatever that service says, or whatever the law requires |
Election database backups are kept for 30 days. Before maintenance we sometimes make one-off backup copies. These are stored on the same protected server with restricted access, and we delete them once they are no longer needed. We may keep things longer if we need them for an investigation, a legal case, a legal duty or public-interest archiving. When we no longer need information, we delete it or anonymise it.
Your rights
Depending on where you live and our legal reason for using your information, you can:
- ask what we hold about you and get a copy
- get wrong or incomplete information fixed
- ask us to delete it or limit how we use it
- object to us using it, including for direct marketing
- get your information in a portable format where that applies
- take back your consent at any time (this does not affect what we did before)
- not be hit with decisions made only by a computer that seriously affect you (we do not make those)
To use any of these, email info@govll.org. We may need to check it is really you, and we aim to reply within one month. Some of these rights have legal exceptions. For example, we cannot delete a ballot from a completed election's audit record.
If you live in California or another US state
You may have the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use and share it, to ask us to delete or correct it, to opt out of the sale or sharing of your information for targeted advertising, and to not be treated worse for using any of these rights.
We do not sell or share personal information for advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of. To make a request, email info@govll.org. We may need to verify your identity first.
Children
This website is not for anyone under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. The citizenship application asks for your real date of birth, and officials check it when they review the application.
If we find out someone under 13 has sent us information, we will not process it, we will not contact them again, and we will delete the information as soon as we reasonably can. If you are a parent or guardian and think your child has sent us something, email info@govll.org and we will look into it and delete it quickly.
Citizenship applications
The citizenship application collects your Links Land legal name, real date of birth, email, optional Discord and Roblox usernames, country, country of residence, any previous micronational involvement, your answers, your declarations and a drawn signature. To help us stop abuse and work out what went wrong if a submission fails, we also keep:
- a protected hash made from your IP address (not the address itself), and
- your browser's user-agent string, which is the text your browser sends to say which browser and device it is.
Why we use it. Only to receive, assess and keep a record of applications, talk to applicants, block duplicate or abusive submissions, and keep the citizenship record if you are accepted. Our legal reasons are steps taken at your request, legitimate interests in running a fair and secure process, and record-keeping duties. Your declaration and signature are not consent for anything else.
Emails about your application. You do not get an automatic email when you submit. You get a reference number on screen instead, so please note it down. After that, officials may email you from applicant@mia.govll.org, for example to confirm your application was received, to ask for more information, to invite you to an interview, or to tell you the decision. These are admin emails, not marketing. We keep a record of the emails sent to you.
Your signature. It only shows that you meant to make the declaration on the form. We store it separately from your answers, with restricted access. We do not analyse your handwriting, make a biometric template, compare it to other samples, or use it to confirm who you are. If that ever changes, we will do a proper legal and risk check and tell you before it starts.
Applicants aged 13 to 17. You must be at least 13. It is a good idea to go through the application with a parent, guardian or trusted adult before you send it. Everyone gets the same protective treatment whatever their age. We never use application data for advertising or profiling, and we never publish your answers. A parent or guardian can contact us about a younger applicant's rights where that is legally appropriate.
Who sees it. Applications and signatures are not public. Only authorised officials can see them, plus the hosting and email providers named above when they need to run the service. Decisions are never made only by automated processing.
How long we keep it. Answers and signatures from unsuccessful or withdrawn applications are normally kept for up to 12 months after the decision, so we can run the process, review it and defend against mistakes or abuse. Officials delete them by hand; it does not happen automatically. If you are accepted, we may keep the minimum core citizenship record while you remain a citizen and where official records need it. We review supporting answers and signatures after the decision and delete them once they are no longer needed. Deleting an application also deletes its signature. To fix something or withdraw an undecided application, email info@govll.org and quote your submission reference. Withdrawing does not always mean deletion if a legal exception or a necessary security record applies.
Keeping your information safe
We use encrypted connections (HTTPS), access controls, limited admin access, two-step sign-in for the statistics dashboard, security monitoring and backups. No internet service is perfectly secure, so we cannot promise absolute protection. Please do not send passwords or unneeded sensitive information by normal email.
Links to other sites
If you click through to another website, that site's own privacy notice applies. Our external-link warning tells you whether a link goes to another govll.org service or to a site we do not manage.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we handle your information, please contact us first at info@govll.org. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. If you are in the EU or EEA, you can complain to your local data protection authority.
Changes to this policy
We will update this page when how we handle information changes. The date at the top shows when it last changed, and for big changes we will add a separate notice where it makes sense.
Contact
Questions about this policy? Email info@govll.org.