Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

ColonyBook is operated by Adjona Technology Limited ("we", "us", "our"), registered in England and Wales. Our website is adjona.com and ColonyBook is available at colonybook.co.uk.

For data protection enquiries, contact us at: hello@colonybook.co.uk

2. What data we collect

Account data

• Your name and email address — provided when you register
• A hashed password — we never store your password in plain text
• Account verification and password reset tokens — temporary, deleted on use or expiry

Beekeeping records

• Apiary details — name, location, OS grid reference, BeeBase reference
• Hive records — hive type, status, notes
• Inspection records — date, weather, queen status, brood, stores, varroa, temper, health observations and notes
• Veterinary medicine records — product name, batch number, quantities, treatment dates, withdrawal periods, supplier and administrator details
• Queen lineage records — colour code, year marked, origin, breeder and notes
• Colony events — splits, merges, swarms, losses, incidents and notes

Technical data

• Session tokens — stored as secure, HTTP-only cookies for authentication
• IP addresses — processed briefly by Cloudflare's infrastructure for security purposes; we do not store IP addresses ourselves

Waitlist data

If you signed up to our waitlist before creating an account, we hold your email address for the purpose of notifying you at launch.

3. Why we collect it — legal basis

• Contract performance — account data is necessary to provide the service you have registered for
• Legitimate interests — technical security data helps us protect accounts and prevent fraud
• Legal obligation — veterinary medicine records are subject to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2011 (SI 2159), which requires beekeepers to maintain records for a minimum of five years

4. How we use your data

• To create and manage your account
• To store and display your beekeeping records
• To send account-related emails — verification, password reset, and service announcements
• To notify waitlist subscribers when the service launches or updates

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling or automated decision-making. We do not sell your data to third parties.

5. Who we share data with

We use the following sub-processors to operate ColonyBook:

• Cloudflare, Inc. — infrastructure, hosting (Cloudflare Pages, Workers, D1 database). Data is processed within the EU/UK.
• Resend, Inc. — transactional email delivery (account verification, password reset, notifications)

We do not share your beekeeping records with any third party, including the BBKA, NBU, or any beekeeping association, unless you explicitly export and share them yourself.

6. Data retention

Active accounts

We retain your account data and beekeeping records for as long as your account is active.

Inactive accounts

If your account has not been accessed for 24 consecutive months, we will send a warning email. If no response is received within 30 days, the account and associated data will be deleted — except veterinary medicine records (see below).

Veterinary medicine records

Waitlist data

Waitlist email addresses are retained until you create an account or request removal. To be removed from the waitlist, email hello@colonybook.co.uk.

Verification and reset tokens

Email verification tokens expire after 24 hours. Password reset tokens expire after 1 hour. Both are deleted immediately on use.

7. Your rights under UK GDPR

As a data subject under the UK General Data Protection Regulation, you have the following rights:

• Right of access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Right to rectification — request correction of inaccurate data
• Right to erasure — request deletion of your account and data, subject to the legal retention requirement for vet medicine records
• Right to data portability — export your inspection and vet records as CSV at any time from within the app
• Right to object — object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Right to restrict processing — request that we limit how we use your data

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@colonybook.co.uk. We will respond within 30 days.

If you are unsatisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

8. Cookies

ColonyBook uses cookies solely for authentication. When you sign in, a secure HTTP-only cookie named cb_token is set. This cookie is strictly necessary for the service to function and does not require your consent under UK GDPR.

We do not use advertising cookies, tracking pixels, or analytics cookies. Cloudflare's security infrastructure may set its own cookies as part of bot protection (Turnstile). These are functional security cookies and do not track you across websites.

9. Security

Passwords are hashed using PBKDF2 with SHA-256 and a unique salt — they are never stored in plain text. All data in transit is encrypted using TLS. Our database is hosted on Cloudflare D1 within secure infrastructure.

10. Children

ColonyBook is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has registered, please contact us and we will delete the account promptly.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify registered users by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect. The current version will always be available at colonybook.co.uk/privacy.