Privacy Policy & Terms of Use

1. Overview

Channel Crossings ("we", "us", "our") is a website that shows daily figures for people arriving in the UK by small boat across the English Channel, together with current weather conditions in the Channel. This policy explains what information is involved when you visit the site and what choices you have.

The short version: we do not collect or store any personal information about you when you visit. There is no advertising and no tracking. The only exceptions are if you send us a report, or choose to email us.

2. Information We Collect

We do not collect personal information when you visit the site. In particular, the site does not use:

• accounts or logins;
• contact forms;
• analytics or visitor-tracking tools;
• advertising or advertising networks;
• tracking cookies of any kind.

We do not ask for your location. The weather shown on the site is for the Channel itself: the Dover Strait, and any spot on the map you tap or point at. It is never for where you are.

If you report a crossing. The Report Channel Crossing form sends us what you write and the time you sent it. We use it only to look into the sighting. It is passed on to us privately by Web3Forms, is never shown on this site and is not stored here. Please don't name or describe anyone in a report.

If you email us. If you choose to contact us at x.chancrossings@gmail.com, we receive your email address and whatever you include in your message. We use this only to read and reply to you. We do not add you to any mailing list or share your details with anyone. Emails are kept only as long as needed to deal with your message, and you can ask us to delete them at any time. Our email is provided by Google (Gmail), which processes messages under Google's Privacy Policy.

3. Information Stored on Your Device

To make the site work better, your browser keeps a few things on your own device:

• Closed notices: if you close the "New figures incoming" notice, your browser remembers that for the rest of the day so it does not keep reappearing.
• Your appearance choice: if you pick Day or Night instead of Auto.
• Closed breaking news: the last news story you closed, so it stays closed until a newer one arrives.
• Your last visit: the date of the latest figures you saw, so the site can mark figures that are new since then.
• An offline copy: a saved copy of the site's pages and figures, so it opens quickly and still works without a signal.

All of this stays on your device and is never sent to us or anyone else. You can remove it at any time by clearing your browser's data for this site.

4. Third-Party Services

Like every website, Channel Crossings relies on a few outside services to work. When your browser connects to them, they receive the technical details that any web request carries, such as your IP address and browser type. Each handles that information under its own privacy policy:

• Cloudflare hosts the website. Cloudflare may log visitors' IP addresses for security and to keep the service running. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.
• Open-Meteo provides the weather forecasts. Your browser requests the forecast directly from Open-Meteo each time the page loads and every 30 minutes while it is open. See Open-Meteo's terms and privacy information.
• Esri provides the map itself. Your browser downloads the map images from Esri's servers as the map is shown. See Esri's privacy statement.
• Web3Forms (web3forms.com) passes on the Report Channel Crossing form. Your browser only contacts it if you send a report, and it forwards the report to us by email. See Web3Forms' Privacy Policy.
• Our domain name provider directs visitors from our web address to the site. It does not see what you do on the site.

The crossing figures themselves are collected from GOV.UK by an automated process on GitHub's servers. Your browser never contacts GOV.UK.

Share buttons. The X, Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram buttons are plain links. Nothing is loaded from those services and nothing is shared with them unless you tap a button, which opens their site or app with a ready-made post under their own privacy policy.

5. Cookies

Channel Crossings does not set any cookies. The items described in Section 3 use your browser's own storage, which is not shared with anyone.

6. Links to Other Websites

The site links to other websites, including GOV.UK and Open-Meteo. We are not responsible for how those sites handle your information. Please read their privacy policies.

7. Children

Channel Crossings is a general-audience information site, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13.

8. Your Rights

Under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018) you have rights over personal data held about you, including the right to access it and to ask for it to be deleted. Because we do not hold personal data about visitors, there is normally nothing for us to provide or delete, apart from any emails you have sent us (see Section 2), which we will provide or delete on request. For information held by the services in Section 4, contact them directly. If you have concerns, you can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

9. Changes to This Policy

If the site changes in a way that affects your privacy, for example by adding a contact form or analytics, we will update this policy first and change the date at the top of this page.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to x.chancrossings@gmail.com.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By using Channel Crossings (the "Site") you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree, please do not use the Site.

2. What the Site Does

The Site is a free information service. It shows the number of people detected arriving in the UK by small boat each day, running totals, and a general indication of weather conditions in the Channel.

3. Where the Figures Come From

Arrival figures are taken from the Home Office's published data, Small boat activity in the English Channel, on GOV.UK. The Home Office describes these figures as provisional. They can be revised, including downwards, and final figures are published later in the quarterly Immigration System Statistics.

Channel Crossings is an independent site. It is not run by, affiliated with or endorsed by the Home Office, Border Force or any part of the UK Government.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

4. Accuracy

We update the figures automatically each day and try to show them accurately, but we cannot guarantee that the Site is always complete, current or error-free. Figures may be delayed, missing or later revised by the Home Office. For official figures, always check GOV.UK directly. Year-to-date totals and comparisons with earlier years are calculated by the Site from the published figures.

5. Channel Conditions

The Channel conditions notice uses forecast data from Open-Meteo, licensed under CC BY 4.0. The "calm", "moderate" and "rough" ratings are a simple guide based on wind speed and wave height at one point in the Dover Strait, used to give context to the arrival figures.

This is not a marine forecast. Do not use it for navigation or to decide whether it is safe to go to sea. Conditions in the Channel change quickly and it is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. For sea-safety information, use the Met Office Shipping Forecast and official maritime sources.

6. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• use the Site for any unlawful purpose;
• try to disrupt, damage or gain unauthorised access to the Site or the services it relies on;
• present the Site's content as official government data, or edit figures and pass them off as coming from the Site.

You are welcome to share and quote the figures, as long as you credit the Home Office as the source.

7. Intellectual Property

The Channel Crossings name, logo and site design belong to us. The underlying arrival figures belong to the Crown and are available under the Open Government Licence, and the weather data belongs to Open-Meteo under CC BY 4.0. These Terms do not give you any right to use our name or logo in a way that suggests we endorse you.

8. No Warranty

The Site is provided "as is" and "as available", without any promise that it will be accurate, uninterrupted or suitable for any particular purpose.

9. Limitation of Liability

As far as the law allows, we are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of the Site or reliance on anything shown on it. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under the law of England and Wales.

10. Links to Other Websites

The Site links to websites run by others. We do not control them and are not responsible for their content.

11. Changes and Availability

We may change the Site, or these Terms, at any time. We may also pause or close the Site without notice. The date at the top of this page shows when these Terms last changed.

12. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute.

13. Contact

Questions about these Terms can be sent to x.chancrossings@gmail.com.