Privacy

Privacy in plain English.

Last updated: 10 September 2026

Who is responsible?

PadelBell is the name of this independent court-search service. For privacy questions, contact hi@padelbell.com. The repository and public service materials do not establish a separate registered company or named data-protection officer, so none is stated here.

What PadelBell receives

When you use the website, PadelBell receives the information needed to handle your request. This can include the search text you enter, location, date, time, duration, singles or doubles preference and venues you select. If you email us, we receive the details you choose to include.

Searches and location lookups

Venue names and locations already in the directory can be resolved locally. For some typed UK postcodes, postcode districts or place names, PadelBell sends the location text to Postcodes.io to help establish a search point. It does not send your date, time or court preference as part of that location lookup. PadelBell may keep short-lived process-local caches and conversation sessions to complete a request; these expire as part of normal service operation.

Technical and operational information

The service uses technical request information to provide the site, limit abusive traffic and diagnose reliability. The rate limiter keeps a salted hash of a connection address in process memory rather than the address itself. Hosting or operational systems may also receive ordinary request metadata, such as timestamps, response status and performance information. PadelBell’s operational monitoring records privacy-filtered search outcomes and booking-link clicks, including search timing, selected-venue counts, result categories and whether a provider handover was precise or generic. Detailed operational events expire after 45 days. Permanent daily totals contain counts only and do not retain an individual search identifier, raw search text, postcode, name, telephone number, email address, IP address or browser fingerprint. We do not claim that server or operational records contain no personal data.

Why information is used

Information is used to interpret searches, return nearby court options, perform a requested live availability check where enabled, protect the service from misuse, monitor reliability and respond to messages. PadelBell does not currently offer accounts or payments, and does not use court-alert numbers for marketing.

Court alerts test

If you explicitly create a court alert, PadelBell stores the resolved place, date, time window, duration, court format, court count, optional price limit and the live-capable venues selected by that search. It also stores your WhatsApp number encrypted at rest, with a separate one-way digest used to recognise the same number safely, and an immutable record of your consent. Before an alert can send, a short-lived, one-use confirmation must be returned from the same WhatsApp number. The confirmation link does not contain the number.

You can view, pause, resume or stop confirmed alerts from WhatsApp. Alert contact details and active requests are kept only while needed to provide, test or administer the alert and can be withdrawn or deleted on request. Privacy-safe terminal lifecycle hashes may be retained for up to 400 days to prove deletion, suppression and duplicate-prevention behaviour without retaining the telephone number itself. Alert numbers are not used for marketing.

Lawful bases

Where UK data-protection law applies, the possible lawful bases depend on the activity. They may include legitimate interests in operating and securing the service, taking steps at your request when you submit a search, and legal obligations where applicable. This is a cautious description, not a claim that one basis applies to every record.

Suppliers and recipients

The website is hosted using Railway. Location lookups may use Postcodes.io. PadelBell also links to venue or booking-provider websites, which receive information directly when you choose to follow a link. Operational suppliers may process technical or service information as needed to host and monitor the website. No additional analytics or advertising service is intentionally added by the public beta.

International processing

PadelBell has not verified a complete list of supplier locations or transfer arrangements for this notice, so it does not make a specific international-processing claim. The relevant supplier’s own information should be checked where appropriate.

How long information is kept

Detailed operational search and booking-click events are retained for 45 days. A short-lived one-way deduplication key expires after seven days. Daily numeric product totals are retained without a fixed expiry so PadelBell can understand long-term use. Those permanent totals contain no individual search identifier or contact, location or browser details. Other technical or email records may be kept for as long as reasonably needed to provide, secure, support and improve the service, or to meet legal obligations, and then deleted or anonymised when no longer needed.

Cookies and browser storage

The public beta does not intentionally set non-essential cookies or use browser local storage or session storage. It does use ordinary HTML, JavaScript and server requests to operate the search. Your browser or linked booking provider may have its own storage rules.

External booking websites

When you continue to a venue or booking provider, that website controls what it collects and its own privacy notice applies. PadelBell does not reserve a court or take payment on that destination site.

Security

PadelBell uses measures such as HTTPS at the public domain, security headers, input limits and rate limiting. No internet service can promise absolute security, so please avoid sending unnecessary personal information in a search or email.

Your rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict or object to processing, and to data portability. You may also withdraw consent where processing relies on consent. These rights have exceptions and are not absolute.

Requests and complaints

To ask for access, correction or deletion, email hi@padelbell.com with enough information for us to understand the request. You have the right to complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

Children and changes

The service does not ask for an account or age information. Please do not submit another person’s personal information without a good reason. PadelBell may update this notice when the service or its information practices change; the date above will show when it was last updated.