FAQs

No. Never. On both tiers, visitor data — names, photos, everything — is stored as plain CSV files and JPEGs, not in a database. On the Cloud tier, the only things that touch a database are site configuration (which sites exist, their login details and any IP restrictions) and your account details (your organisation, sites, contacts and billing). Your visitors' personal information never goes near it.

Local runs entirely on one device you own, writing straight to a folder on that device — we never see the data at all. It only works in Chrome or Edge on Windows or Mac. Cloud works on any device, including iPads and Android tablets, because it's a normal website; we host it for you and, by default, delete photos the same day and email you each day's log before deleting that too. You can choose to keep either for longer.

No, and we won't tell you it does. The Local tier relies on a browser feature (the File System Access API) that only exists in desktop Chrome and Edge. Safari and every mobile browser don't support it. If you need tablets, choose Cloud.

Take the optional SharePoint add-on. A small sync script on the same device backs up each completed day's CSV and photos to your own Microsoft 365 SharePoint, using an app registration in your tenant that you own and can revoke. We're never in that path. A file is only moved aside locally once its upload is confirmed, so a failed upload is simply retried on the next run. The backup lags by up to a day, because today's file is still in use by the sign-in page.

Yes, if you want it to. You set how many days to keep photos and how many to keep logs, separately, and older files are cleared each time the page loads. Today's file is never touched. It's off by default, and if you use the SharePoint add-on, only files already confirmed as backed up are ever cleared.

No, and be wary of anyone who tells you a piece of software does. The Home Office has been explicit that no specialist product is required for compliance — the duties under the Act are about your own procedures, not record-keeping tools. What Visitor Book gives you is an accurate, live picture of who's on your premises at any moment, which is a genuinely useful input into your own evacuation and accounting plans — not a compliance certificate.

Visitor Book is built to make your GDPR position as simple as possible: minimal data collected, a clear privacy notice that each visitor acknowledges — recorded with a timestamp and the version of the notice they were shown — and (on Cloud) short, defined retention. The lawful basis is never consent: it's usually legitimate interests (site security and safeguarding), or public task if you're a public authority such as a council or state school, and your notice says which. On the Cloud tier we act as a data processor on your behalf, which is why we put a proper Data Processing Agreement in place with every customer rather than relying on boilerplate terms. On the Local tier, we're not a processor at all — your data never reaches us.

Exactly as long as you tell us to. By default, photographs are deleted the same day they're processed, and each day's sign-in log (without photos) is deleted as soon as we've confirmed that day's email to you has sent. Some sites genuinely need longer — a venue may have to hand a visitor list to police days after the fact — so photo and log retention can each be set per site. Whatever you choose is written into your Data Processing Agreement, and a log that has never been successfully sent to you is never deleted.

No annual contract. Month to month, cancel with a month's notice.

On Local, visitor details are written straight to a folder on the device, never sent to us, so a sign-in page that's already open keeps working through a dropped connection. If the sign-in pages are installed on the device itself, they don't need the internet at all. On Cloud, sign-in needs a connection, same as any web form.

Yes — it's your data, in an open CSV format, the whole time. If you want reporting, we build it by reading those CSVs directly; we don't hold onto visitor data anywhere longer just to make reporting easier.

No. Sign-in and sign-out pages are working kiosk software, not marketing pages — there's nothing to track and nothing tracking your visitors.

Yes. Your logo and colours, configured on your own site.