Privacy policy

Last updated 6 October 2026.

Who we are

World Shops UK is run by ASTARS SECURITY SERVICES LTD, a private limited company registered in England and Wales, company number 16350802. Registered office: Flat 5, 53 Raven Close, Gloucester, GL4 4BD, United Kingdom. The company is the data controller for this website, which means it decides how personal information here is used. Contact us about anything in this policy at info@worldshops.co.uk, or by post at the registered office above. We have applied to register with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), application reference C2052334. We'll show our registration number here once it's issued.

1. Shop listings, and the people who run the shops

Our listings show business details: shop name, address, phone, website and social links, opening hours, type of shop, brands stocked and whether it delivers. Most of this is about businesses, not people. But some shops are run by sole traders or partnerships, some are named after a person, and some publish a mobile number. In those cases a listing can include someone's name or phone number, which counts as personal information. This section is our notice to those people.

• Where it comes from: the shop's own website or the social pages it links to, the brand's own store finder for branches of a chain, the shop itself when it contacts us, and Companies House to check a business is still trading.
• Why we use it: to run a free directory that helps people find community shops, and helps those shops get found.
• Our lawful basis: legitimate interests. We've weighed our interest, and the public's, against the interests of the people involved. We only use details the business has already published so customers can contact it. We only show business contact details, never private ones. It's what a business would reasonably expect. Anyone named can have the listing corrected or removed at any time. If a listed address or number is also someone's home or personal phone, tell us and we'll take it down straight away.
• Telling you directly: where we can contact a listed business, we'll let it know about its listing and this policy within a month of adding it.

2. Emails and the Add your shop form

The form doesn't send anything from our website. It opens your own email app with your details filled in, and you choose whether to send it to us. If you send it, or email us, we receive your email address, your name if your email shows it, and whatever you write or attach. We use this only to check, add, correct or remove a listing, or to answer you. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: dealing with what you've asked us to do. Your own email provider also handles the message, under its own privacy policy.

The question about which community a shop serves is about its customers, not about you. Please don't send us sensitive information, such as anything about health, religion or ethnicity. We don't need it.

3. Logos and photos

We only show a shop's logo or photos if the shop ticks the permission box when it sends them. Our lawful basis for any photo that shows a person is consent. A shop can withdraw it at any time, and we'll remove the images. We keep a record of who gave permission, when and how.

4. Visiting the website

We don't use cookies, analytics, advertising, social media plugins or any other tracking. See our cookie policy.

• Technical logs. Cloudflare delivers this site. Like any web host, it processes technical details such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you request, so it can show you the site and protect it from attacks. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests in keeping the site working and secure. We don't use these logs to identify visitors.
• Search. The search box and filters work in your browser. Words you search for appear in the page address, so they can end up in Cloudflare's technical logs, but we don't collect or analyse them.
• Search engine tools. We use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to see, in total, how often our pages appear in search results. These use Google's and Microsoft's own search data and put nothing on your device when you visit us.
• Links to other sites. Shop websites, Instagram, Facebook and Google Maps (for directions) have their own privacy policies. We don't share anything with them. They only receive information if you click through to them.

5. Who we share it with

• Cloudflare, Inc. (USA), which hosts and delivers the website.
• Zoho Corporation (India and USA), which provides our email.
• The public, for the business details shown on listings.
• Professional advisers, or the police, courts or regulators if the law requires it.

Cloudflare and Zoho act on our instructions as our processors. We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it with anyone for their marketing.

6. Information sent outside the UK

Cloudflare and Zoho may handle information outside the UK, including in the USA and India. Where they do, the transfer is protected by safeguards recognised under UK law: the UK-US data bridge where the provider is certified under it, or otherwise the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses in the provider's data processing terms. Email us if you'd like more details.

7. How long we keep it

• Listing details: while the shop is listed. When a listing is removed we delete its details within 30 days. We keep only the shop's name, address and the date of the request, so we don't list it again by mistake.
• Emails about listings, and other enquiries: up to 2 years after our last message with you, then deleted.
• Photo and logo permission records: while the images are shown, and for 2 years after they're removed, in case of any dispute.
• Technical logs: kept by Cloudflare for a short time, under its own retention rules.

8. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask us to:

• give you a copy of the personal information we hold about you (access);
• correct it if it's wrong;
• delete it (erasure);
• limit how we use it while a concern is looked into (restriction);
• stop using it (objection). Where we rely on legitimate interests, we'll stop unless we have a strong, legitimate reason to continue. We'll always remove a listing when the shop, or the person named on it, asks;
• withdraw your consent for photos at any time;
• give you the information you provided in a portable format, where the law gives that right.

We don't make decisions about anyone by purely automated means, and we don't profile visitors. Email info@worldshops.co.uk to use any of these rights. It's free, and we'll reply within one month. We may ask you to confirm who you are, or your link to the shop.

9. Marketing emails

We don't send marketing emails or texts to individuals, sole traders or ordinary partnerships unless they've asked us to. We may email limited companies about their listing or our directory, and every such email gives an easy way to opt out. We don't buy contact lists.

10. Children

This site isn't aimed at children, and we don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.

11. Complaints

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first at info@worldshops.co.uk. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. Find out more at ico.org.uk.

12. Changes to this policy

If we change how we use personal information, we'll update this page and the date at the top.