Last updated: 1 November 2026
Who we are
PathNous is a guide to walking the Norfolk Coast Path and the Suffolk coast path. Under UK data protection law, PathNous is the controller of the personal information described on this page.
To contact us, write to us with the Report a problem form.
When you visit
You can use PathNous without signing up or telling us who you are. Nothing on the site asks for your name.
Your browser sends your IP address and basic details about your device and browser, as it does with any website.
- Laravel Forge runs our server, which keeps short-term technical logs to keep the site secure and running.
- The site sits behind Cloudflare, which handles every request on its way to our server to keep the site fast and protect it from attacks. Cloudflare sees your IP address when it does this.
- The site keeps a short session record for each visitor, holding your IP address and the type of browser you use. It is deleted about two hours after your last page.
- If a page goes wrong, an error report may go to Sentry so we can fix it.
We use this information to run the site and keep it secure. Our lawful basis is legitimate interests.
Analytics, if you accept
The first time you visit, a banner asks whether you accept analytics cookies for Google Analytics. Until you accept, Google Analytics doesn't load, so it receives nothing from you and sets no cookie.
If you accept, Google Analytics tells us which pages are visited, which site sent you, roughly where people visit from and what devices they use. We use this to see which pages help you and where they could work better.
Advertising features are switched off, and PathNous shows no adverts. Our lawful basis for Google Analytics is your consent.
Reporting a problem
The Report a problem form asks which stage, what's wrong, where exactly and what you saw. Your email address is optional, and we only use it if we need to ask you a follow-up question. We don't add you to any list.
When you send a report, we keep:
- what you wrote in the form, and your email address if you gave one
- the date and time you sent it
- your IP address, kept only in a scrambled form (a hash) that we use to limit how many reports one address can send in a day
Before a report is accepted, Cloudflare Turnstile checks that it was sent by a person. To do this your browser connects to Cloudflare, and our server sends Cloudflare your IP address along with the check. The form also counts how often each IP address sends it, for up to a minute, so it can't be flooded.
A report never changes the site by itself. An automated assistant we run, the PathNous Moderator, reads the text of each report to link it to a change for us to check. It runs on Grok, from xAI. It never receives your email address or your IP address. Only the admin can see email addresses.
Our lawful basis is legitimate interests: keeping the facts on the site accurate.
Cookies
| Cookie | Set by | What it does | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| pathnous-session | PathNous, on every visit | Keeps the site working securely from one page to the next. Scripts on the page can't read it. | 2 hours |
| XSRF-TOKEN | PathNous, on every visit | Stops other websites sending forms in your name | 2 hours |
| pn-analytics | PathNous, when you choose | Remembers whether you accepted or rejected analytics, and nothing else | 1 year |
| _ga | Google Analytics, if you accept | Tells one browser from another | 2 years |
| ga and a code for our site | Google Analytics, if you accept | Keeps track of your visits | 2 years |
The first three are strictly necessary for the site to work or to remember your choice, so we don't ask for your consent to them. If you sign in to manage the site, an appearance cookie also remembers your display setting. Visitors don't get it.
Changing your choice
You can change your mind at any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of every page. If you reject after accepting, we tell Google Analytics to stop, delete its cookies on this site and reload the page without it. Information already collected is kept until it is deleted as set out below.
Who else handles your information
- Laravel Forge manages the server that stores the site and its data.
- Cloudflare delivers and protects the site, and runs the Turnstile check on reports.
- Google runs Google Analytics for us, if you accept.
- Sentry receives error reports.
- xAI runs Grok, which our Moderator assistant uses to read the text of reports.
Cloudflare, Google, Sentry and xAI are US companies and may handle information outside the UK. Those transfers are protected by safeguards UK law recognises, such as the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement.
How long we keep it
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Server and Cloudflare logs | A short time, to keep the site secure |
| Session record | About two hours after your last page |
| Form counts by IP address | Up to a minute |
| Reports, and any email address you gave | As part of the history behind each fact, until you ask us to delete your email address |
| Google Analytics data | 14 months, then deleted |
| Your cookie choice | 1 year, in your browser |
| Emails you send us | As long as we need to answer you |
Your rights
Under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you
- ask us to correct it or delete it
- ask us to limit how we use it
- object to how we use it, where we rely on legitimate interests
- withdraw your consent to analytics at any time, with Cookie settings
To use any of these rights, write to us with the Report a problem form. We don't ask for names, so tell us enough to find your information: for a report, the stage and the date you sent it.
You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. We'd ask you to contact us first so we can try to put things right.
Links to other websites
When you follow a link to BeachNous, ParkNous, a timetable, the official tide times or any other site, that site's own privacy policy and cookies apply.
Changes to this page
When this page changes, we change the date at the top.