Privacy, licensing & attribution
Short version: we hold only what we need to run the service, we set no tracking cookies, and the maps are built from open data that must be credited.
Last reviewed 17 September 2026. The service is currently a pilot, with one organisation signed up and no income.
Who is responsible for your data
BusMaps.uk is run by Peter Cooper, who is the data controller for everything described on this page. There is no other organisation involved and nobody else holds a copy. To ask anything about your data, or to exercise any of the rights below, use the contact form — it reaches him directly.
What we hold, and why
If you apply to join
Your organisation’s name and type, your name, email, and optionally phone and website, plus what you told us you would like. We use it to decide on and set up your account, and to contact you about it.
If you send us a message
Your message, and your name and email if you give them. Feedback sent from a map’s page also records which map it was about, so we can pass it on.
If you have an account
Your email, your name if given, your role, and which organisation you belong to. We sign you in with a one-time link rather than a password, so we never hold a password for you.
While you use the service
An essential sign-in cookie (no tracking, no advertising, no third-party analytics), server logs of which pages were asked for, a count of the places people search for that we have no map of, and a record of governance actions — who approved, published or updated a map, and when. We do not keep a log of what you search for. What we keep is a plain count: for each place name somebody searched for and we had no map of, how many times it has been asked for and the first and last date it was — so we can show a council or a funder that people are looking. There is no address in it, no time of day and nothing that puts two searches in order, and anything you type that is not a bare place name is counted without its text being kept at all. Your IP address is masked before it reaches a log — the last part is replaced with zeroes, so what is kept says which internet provider you are on and roughly where, not who you are or which household. The full address is used only for the moment it takes to decide whether a form is being submitted too often, and is never written down. Logs are kept for 30 days and then deleted automatically.
What we don’t do
- No advertising, profiling or tracking cookies, and no analytics that identify you.
- No selling or sharing of your details. Feedback about a map is passed to the organisation that publishes it, and nothing more.
- No payment details: the service is currently free, and we take no card data.
- No personal data on the public pages. A published map shows the publishing organisation, not any individual.
- No log of what you search for — only the plain count described above.
Keeping and removing it
Applications and messages are deleted after 24 months. That happens automatically, whether or not anyone remembers — the one exception is an application from an organisation that went on to become a customer, which we keep for as long as that account exists, because it is the record of how the account came about and of the checks we made before opening it. Once the account goes, the 24-month clock starts.
The count of searched-for places is kept for as long as the service runs, because its whole purpose is to show demand building up over years. It is not about you: there is nothing in it that could identify you, no way to ask it who searched for anything, and nothing to connect a place name to a person, a device or a visit.
Account and publishing records last longer, on purpose. Who approved or published a map is kept for as long as that map is published: it is how we can show that public transport information was properly checked before people relied on it.
Ask us at any time for a copy of what we hold about you, a correction, or deletion: use the contact form. If you ask us to delete something we will do it, and we will also tell you the date the last backup holding it rotates out — backups are kept for up to 90 days and cannot be edited after the fact, so that date is when the deletion is genuinely complete rather than when we press the button. If you have an account, deleting your form submissions does not close it; say so and we will do both.
You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ico.org.uk) if you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data.
Where the map data comes from
Bus services
Timetable and route data comes from the UK Bus Open Data Service (BODS), published under the Open Government Licence, and is cross-checked against operators’ own timetables.
Streets, rivers & landmarks
Geography comes from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under the Open Database Licence (ODbL). Every map we publish carries that credit.
Stop names & stand letters
Where a map shows which stand or bay to stand at, that letter comes from NaPTAN, the national stop register kept by the Department for Transport, published under the Open Government Licence — the same letter as the one on the physical flag.
The place search on the maps page works out which district and local transport authority a place is in using the Index of Place Names in Great Britain, published by the Office for National Statistics and used here under the Open Government Licence v3.0; the panel says which edition it is reading. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Using the maps
Published maps are meant to be used: print them, as many times as you like, at no extra cost — put them on a noticeboard, include them in a newsletter or a leaflet for your community. Two conditions come with that: don’t alter the map, and don’t remove or crop out the credits that appear on it — the geography and the bus data are both published under licences (OpenStreetMap ODbL, BODS OGL, and NaPTAN OGL where a boarding plan is shown) that require attribution, so the acknowledgement has to stay wherever the map is used. And don’t present a map as live departure information — always point people to the operator or bustimes.org for times on the day.
Every map is reviewed by a person before publication — a check that it looks right, not an independent verification against timetables — and bus services change regardless; if you spot something wrong, tell us from that map’s page and we’ll look into it — though we’re a pilot run by one person, so we can’t promise how quickly.
Ownership
© BusMaps.uk. This map is licensed, not sold: the commissioning organisation may reproduce and display it without limit for as long as it remains accurate. BusMaps.uk retains ownership and may reuse the underlying data and design elsewhere. Redistribution by third parties (other than the commissioning organisation) requires permission.
The software
The portal's source code is © BusMaps.uk, available under a source-available licence (Business Source License 1.1) rather than a public repository. No map data or customer information is held in it.