Bitfest 2026 — The UK's Largest Bitcoin Festival

The short version

• We only collect what we need to answer you, run the event and send you updates you asked for.
• Our forms ask for your name, email and your message. Each submission is also stored with your IP address and browser details so we can filter out spam.
• We use no advertising trackers, and we don’t sell your data to anyone.
• Our analytics run on our own server, set no cookies and don’t identify you.
• You can ask us to show, correct or delete what we hold about you at any time: info@bitfest.uk.

Who we are

BitFest (“we”, “us”) runs bitfest.uk. We are the data controller for the information described here, which means we decide why and how it is used. You can contact us at info@bitfest.uk. Our postal address is available on request.

This policy covers bitfest.uk and any forms, mailing lists or pages we run on it.

What we collect and why

Forms — contact, 2026 interest, hackathon applications

Whatever you type: usually your name, email address and your message or application details. We use it to reply to you and to assess and administer applications. Each submission is stored with your IP address, browser/device type and the page you arrived from; we use that technical data only for security and spam filtering.

Mailing list

If you join the list, your email address (and your name, if you gave it) is added to our mailing list, which is run on our behalf by MailerLite. We use it to send you festival and ticket news. Every email we send has a one-click unsubscribe link.

Analytics

We count visits with Umami, which we host ourselves on our own server. It doesn’t use cookies, doesn’t collect personal information and doesn’t share anything with third parties — the data never leaves our infrastructure. We removed Google Analytics from our sites.

Security and anti-spam

To keep the forms usable we run our own spam filter (checking submissions for junk patterns) and, on some forms, Cloudflare Turnstile — see the Cloudflare entry under “Who we share it with” for what it receives. If Turnstile can’t be reached, our own spam filter makes the decision instead. Blocked attempts are logged with the IP address and browser details for up to 30 days, and we keep short-lived 24-hour counters per IP address to stop floods. We use these logs only to investigate and prevent abuse.

Tickets and payments

Tickets are sold through our own ticket service, which we run ourselves on our own server (it is built on LNbits, an open-source payments system). A name and an email address are both optional: you can buy anonymously, and the ticket is then held against its ticket reference only. If you give them we keep them against the ticket, so we can send it to you and find you at the door. Either way we store the payment record: what you paid, when, and whether the payment has settled.

You can pay in bitcoin over the Lightning Network, or by card. Paying by card is not anonymous: Stripe needs your card and billing details and collects them directly — we never receive or store your full card number. We receive confirmation that a payment succeeded, along with any name and email given on the order, so that we can issue your ticket.

Who we share it with

Only the providers that make the site work. We never sell your data or share it for advertising.

• MailerLite — our mailing list. MailerLite is a third-party provider which may process your data using industry-standard technologies to help us monitor and improve our newsletter. Their privacy policy is at mailerlite.com/legal/privacy-policy.
• Cloudflare Turnstile — bot protection on our forms. For that check Cloudflare receives your IP address, a TLS fingerprint, your browser’s user-agent string and the site key and origin of the page; it never sees what you type into the form. Cloudflare acts as our processor for this protection and also processes those signals as a controller to improve its own bot detection. The detail is in Cloudflare’s Turnstile Privacy Addendum.
• Our email provider (Private Email, by Namecheap) — to receive and store the messages our forms send us.
• Our hosting provider (LNVPS, Ireland) — the server the sites and their databases run on, inside the EU.
• Stripe — card payments at ticket check-out. Stripe collects your card and payment details directly, and processes your name, email and technical data (such as IP address and device information) to take the payment and prevent fraud. It acts as an independent controller for that fraud-prevention processing as well as our payment processor. Stripe’s privacy policy is at stripe.com/privacy.
• Professional advisers or authorities, where we are legally required to share something.

Where your data goes

Our server, databases and analytics are in the EU (Ireland) — that includes our ticket service and the payment records it holds — and MailerLite is based in the EU (Lithuania). Where information reaches the US — Cloudflare’s bot protection and our email provider — those transfers are covered by standard contractual clauses and the providers’ Data Privacy Framework certifications.

How long we keep it

The periods below apply to enquiries, form submissions and the technical records our anti-spam tools keep. They do not apply to our mailing list: we only add you to it when you choose to join, and we keep you there until you unsubscribe or ask us to be removed.

• Form submissions: up to 24 months after the event, or after our last contact with you, then deleted.
• Anti-spam logs: up to 30 days. Per-IP counters: 24 hours.
• Mailing list: until you unsubscribe or ask us to remove you — your subscription is based on your consent and is never removed by the routine retention periods above.
• Emails you send us directly: while your enquiry is live, and for a reasonable period afterwards for our records.

Cookies

We set no cookies for ordinary visitors. Our analytics are cookie-free, and there is nothing here to consent to — which is why you won’t see a cookie banner. Functional login cookies are used only if you sign in to one of our admin dashboards, and those are staff accounts, not visitors.

Your rights

You can ask for a copy of what we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to our use of it, or withdraw your consent to our emails at any time — just email info@bitfest.uk. If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information you can complain to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.

Children

Our sites and mailing list are not aimed at children. If you are under 16, please use our forms only with a parent or guardian’s permission.

Changes to this policy

Last updated 29 September 2026. If we change how we handle your information, we will update this page.