Who is responsible
Showbiz Spy is operated by Incentively Limited, registered in England and Wales, company number 17121895. Registered office: 3rd Floor, 86–90 Paul Street, London, England, United Kingdom, EC2A 4NE. Incentively Limited is the controller of the personal information used to run Showbiz Spy, including its feed in Place Keys and its publishing administration.
Email an@incentively.co for privacy questions or requests, or write to the registered office. This notice concerns Showbiz Spy. The wider shared account also has the Place Keys privacy notice.
Information and purposes
| Information | Why we use it and our basis |
|---|---|
| Shared account identifier and display name; followed publishers, hidden stories and reactions | Provide the account features and preferences you request, under our service agreement with you. Guest choices can be stored on your device. |
| Recent story opens, publisher identifiers and times, when you enable learning | Personalise the order of your Showbiz feed with your consent. You can withdraw through Cookie & feed choices. |
| Newsletter email, confirmation and subscription status, timestamps and delivery records | Send the evening newsletter with your consent; maintain confirmation and opt-out records in our legitimate interests in respecting your choices and preventing unwanted email. |
| Push endpoint, technical subscription keys, alert mode and followed-publisher list | Send the news alerts you opt into, with your consent and device permission. |
| Publication details, work email, contact name, feed and brand links, and submission choices | Review publisher requests and communicate about inclusion, in our legitimate interests in running the service and responding to business enquiries. |
| Support correspondence, correction or rights reports | Investigate and respond, in our legitimate interests in a fair and accurate service; fulfil legal obligations where a request engages your rights. |
| Connection data, IP address, browser/request information and security records | Deliver and protect the service, prevent abuse and investigate faults, in our legitimate interests in keeping it reliable and secure. |
You can read the public feed without registering, subscribing or enabling learning. Without the relevant details we cannot provide the optional feature you request. Please do not send passwords, sign-in codes or unnecessary sensitive information.
Shared accounts and what is visible
Place Keys supplies a verified identifier and display name when you sign in; Showbiz Spy does not receive your password. Signed-in follows, hidden stories, learning preferences and reactions are connected to the same account in the website and Place Keys app. The app also remembers your Showbiz home-card display choice.
Reaction totals are public; the feed does not publish a named list of people who reacted, your reading history or your email. Publisher contact details are held for administration; approved publication names, descriptions and brand assets may be public. Registering does not by itself subscribe you to emails or allow notifications.
Optional website analytics
If you allow analytics cookies, we use Google Analytics 4 to understand visits and use of the Showbiz Spy website, improve the service and identify which public sections people use. Google processes cookie identifiers, page-view information and technical information about your browser, device and connection. We rely on your consent for this optional measurement. The Google tag stays blocked until you allow it; declining does not affect the feed.
Our page-view code omits search terms, URL query parameters, newsletter tokens, email addresses and Place Keys account identifiers. It does not send your followed publications, reactions or reading-history record. Google advertising signals and advertising personalisation are disabled in this integration. Analytics on this website is separate from the Place Keys app and from reading-based feed personalisation.
Change your analytics choice through Cookie & feed choices. Withdrawal stops future collection and clears the analytics cookies set by this integration; it does not automatically erase data already received by Google. Browser privacy signals such as Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track keep this analytics integration off. See Google’s privacy policy and how Google uses information from partner sites. Google may process data outside the UK; the applicable data-processing terms and transfer arrangements govern that processing. Contact us about retention or deletion of previously collected analytics data.
Pop Quest link counts
We count clicks on the Pop Quest quiz cards in the desktop feed, grouped by game and UK calendar date. These aggregate counts do not contain account identifiers, emails, reading histories or unique visitor IDs and are not linked to your profile. Totals are kept for 90 days. The website does not send these events when your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track.
No cookie or local-storage identifier is created for these counts. Technical connection information is processed to receive requests and limit abuse; short-lived rate limits are separate from the totals. Hosting services may keep ordinary security and access logs as described above.
Feed learning and automated decisions
Learning requires an explicit choice on the device you use. A saved account preference alone does not enable reading-based learning on a new device. When allowed, recent story opens help prioritise publishers in For you; the system also considers freshness and variety. We do not track what you do after you reach a publisher’s website, infer sensitive traits or use this ranking to make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.
Turn learning off in Cookie & feed choices to stop recording opens on this device and clear those opens from the current preferences. When signed in, saving this change also updates your account preferences. Reset reading history clears the stored open/hide history without removing follows. Withdrawal does not affect processing before withdrawal.
Public reporting and AI
We obtain story titles, summaries, source links, bylines and available images from publishers and authorised submissions. These may contain information about people discussed in the reporting. We use them to provide an attributed news-discovery service, in our legitimate interests in informing readers, subject to the rights of the people concerned.
OpenAI helps rewrite source headlines and short summaries. The rewrite process sends source-story information, not reader accounts, email lists, reactions or reading histories. Feed ranking is separate from that AI drafting. Contact us if a story contains inaccurate or inappropriate personal information.
Service providers and other websites
Hosting and technical providers, including Hostinger, process information needed to run the site. Resend processes recipient addresses and message/delivery information for newsletter email. Browser push services operated by Apple, Google or Mozilla deliver alerts depending on your device. OpenAI processes source text for headline and summary drafting. Authorised staff and technical support can access information where needed to operate, secure or support the service. We may disclose information where required by law or necessary for a legal claim.
These providers may process information outside the UK. Where restricted transfers are involved, an applicable adequacy decision or appropriate contractual safeguards must be in place. Contact us for information about the arrangements relevant to your data.
Following an article or advert opens another website. That website controls its own cookies, advertising, subscriptions and privacy practices. We do not pass your Showbiz account identifier or email in article links. Showbiz does not sell reader data or provide reading profiles to advertisers.
How long information stays
Recent open/hide events are limited to 30 days and up to 300 events in active preferences; older entries are discarded when preferences are processed. Browser preferences otherwise remain until reset or cleared. Account follows and reactions stay while needed for the account feature or until changed or removed through an applicable deletion request.
Newsletter confirmation links expire after 48 hours. Scheduled cleanup removes unconfirmed requests older than seven days and delivery-outbox records older than 35 days. Active email records remain while subscribed. Unsubscribing stops future editions but retains an opt-out record; it is not the same as erasing all records. Ask us about erasure.
Push subscriptions are removed when you turn them off through Showbiz, when the provider reports them expired, or during processing after 90 days without a subscription update. Removing browser permission or uninstalling alone may not immediately remove the server record.
Publisher submissions, support correspondence, security records and backups are kept only while needed for their purpose, follow-up, security, disputes or legal requirements. Retention depends on the record and provider; contact us for the period relevant to a particular request. Public news archives may remain available after a story leaves the current feed.
Your rights and choices
Depending on the circumstances, you can request access, correction, erasure, restriction or portability of your personal data; object to processing based on legitimate interests; and withdraw consent for optional processing. Email an@incentively.co with “Showbiz Spy privacy” in the subject. We may need proportionate information to verify your identity.
Use the unsubscribe link in any newsletter, turn off news alerts in their settings, and manage learning in Cookie & feed choices. Clearing browser data does not by itself erase account or newsletter records. Tell us whether you want to remove only Showbiz data or the wider shared account.
You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. We would also welcome the chance to address your concern directly.
Children and changes
Showbiz Spy is a general entertainment-news service, not designed for children. Shared Place Keys account eligibility follows its account terms. If you believe a child has supplied personal information inappropriately, contact us so we can review it.
We update this notice when features or processing change. The date at the top identifies this version. Material new uses will be explained, and additional consent obtained where needed.