Privacy notice: Client Onboarding Portal

Last updated: 28 October 2026

Who this notice is for

This notice explains how Urban Intelligence uses your personal data when your council is setting up PlaceMaker with us. It covers the Client Onboarding Portal, the emails we send about set-up, and how we understand who uses PlaceMaker once your council is live. It adds to our main privacy policy, which still applies.

It is for council officers we contact about set-up, and colleagues your council asks us to give portal access.

Who we are

Urban Intelligence Ltd (company number 09294616), 17-19 Clare Street, Bristol BS1 1XA. We are the controller of the personal data described here. Our data protection officer can be reached at privacy@urbanintelligence.co.uk.

Details your council gives us for set-up

Single sign-on settings, GOV.UK Notify keys and files such as logos and boundaries are handled on your council's instructions, under the data protection terms of its contract with us. They are not normally personal data.

What we collect

We hold work details only. We do not collect special category data, and we never ask for a password.

• Your name, work email address, the council you work for, and whether you are the lead contact. These come from your council's contract with us, your council, or our account manager.
• Sign-in records: when you asked for a code, signed in and signed out. Codes, sessions and IP addresses are stored only in scrambled form (a keyed hash).
• What you enter on the secure details page: notes, which may name people, and an optional test user's email address for checking single sign-on.
• A record that you sent each set-up item and when, never the value you sent.
• Feedback you choose to send through Userback. If you use the screenshot tool, it also captures the page as you see it, the page address, browser details, errors shown in the browser, the page's network requests, and your IP address and approximate location.
• How you use the portal, recorded without your name or email address.
• How you use PlaceMaker once your council is live, from our product analytics.
• Your first name in support statements, which report support time used against your council's contract.

Why we use it

We rely on legitimate interests: delivering the set-up your council has contracted for, and running and improving our service. You act for your council in a professional role, and we use only what each purpose needs. We do not use any of this for marketing.

We use it to:

• invite your council's lead contact and give named colleagues access to the portal;
• sign you in securely and keep each council's information separate;
• collect set-up details without them being sent by email, and keep a record of who sent each one;
• keep an audit trail of who did what, at your council and at Urban Intelligence, as service contracts commonly require;
• report support time used against your council's contract;
• understand who uses PlaceMaker and how often, so we can support your council. Most of this is counts. The names of the most frequent users are shown only to named Urban Intelligence staff based in the UK, when they ask, and each time they look is recorded;
• fix problems you report and improve the portal.

Cookies

The portal sets two cookies, both strictly necessary for signing in, so we do not ask for consent. It sets no analytics or advertising cookies; usage is recorded by our server, not in your browser.

• __Host-cop-pending remembers which email address your sign-in code was sent to, for 15 minutes.
• __Host-cop keeps you signed in. It ends after 60 minutes without activity, after 12 hours at most, or when you sign out.

If you choose to use the screenshot tool, Userback's script loads in your browser for that report and may store its own data there. It does not load unless you press the button, and never on the sign-in or secure details pages.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your data. These providers process it for us under contract, and only on our instructions.

• Google Cloud hosts the portal and stores set-up details, in London.
• Neon provides the database for portal accounts and records, in London.
• Twilio SendGrid sends invitations, sign-in codes and support statements, from the United States. Twilio is certified under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum as a fallback.
• PostHog provides product analytics for the portal and PlaceMaker, in the European Union. The UK treats the European Union as giving adequate protection.
• Userback receives feedback and screenshots you choose to send, in the United States, under the UK Addendum to the standard contractual clauses.
• ClickUp, our work management system, holds the lead contact's name on your council's set-up task, in the United States, under the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

How long we keep it

Most of it goes when your council's contract ends. Deletion runs automatically, except where we say otherwise.

• Sign-in codes: 30 days.
• Sign-in sessions: 90 days after they end.
• Your contact details, portal access, notes and test user email: until your council's contract ends, then 30 days.
• Audit trail of who did what: 24 months.
• Server logs, which include IP addresses: 30 days.
• Portal and PlaceMaker usage records: up to 7 years, the period PostHog sets for our plan, which cannot be shortened. Portal records carry no name or email. We delete a person's records when they ask, and delete your council's users' records when its contract ends.
• Feedback and screenshots: 90 days after set-up is handed over. Anything you send later is deleted 90 days after you send it, and anything left when your council's contract ends is deleted with your contact details.
• Set-up details your council gave us (settings, keys, files): until your council's contract ends, then deleted as part of our exit process.
• Names of PlaceMaker's most frequent users: not stored; shown only when asked for.

Your rights

To use any of these rights, email privacy@urbanintelligence.co.uk. We reply within one month.

• See your data: ask for a copy of what we hold about you.
• Correct it: your account manager can update your details straight away.
• Have it deleted: we remove your access and contact details. The audit trail is kept for its 24 months, because it is the security record of who did what.
• Restrict or object: we can remove your access, or exclude you from usage analytics.
• Take it with you: ask for your records in a common format.

We make no automated decisions about you.

You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. We would appreciate the chance to resolve your concern first.

Changes

We will update this notice when the portal changes, and show the date at the top of this page.