PassRates.uk
Legal

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-05-27

The short version

PassRates.uk is a free, independent reference for UK driving test pass rate data. The site has no sign-up, no user accounts, no newsletter, no comment system, and no form that asks you for personal information. We do not directly collect personal data from visitors.

The site does load a small number of third-party services for analytics and advertising. A first-party banner lets you accept all, choose essentials only, or pick which analytics tools to allow (Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity separately) on your first visit. If you choose essentials only, or before you choose, Google Analytics 4 falls back to cookieless pings (no _gacookie, no client ID), and Microsoft Clarity records in cookieless mode (no _clck, no _clsk, noMUID, with text and form inputs masked by default). If you accept, each provider collects on its own terms (linked below). You can change your choice at any time from the "Cookie settings" link in the footer, which re-opens this banner.

The site shows contextual ads via Google AdSense in non-personalised mode (NPA). Ads are chosen based on the page content (which test centre, which guide topic) rather than your browsing history. NPA mode sets a small number of frequency-capping cookies but does NOT build a profile of you for advertiser targeting. For EEA/UK/Swiss visitors, AdSense refuses to serve any creative until the Google consent banner has been accepted. If you reject, no ad creatives load at all. Google's AdSense privacy disclosures have the full cookie list.

Some links on the site may be affiliate links to third-party services (for example, driving schools, learner insurance, theory test products). When an affiliate link is used we earn a commission if you click through and buy. Affiliate links never change which centres are ranked, how the data is calculated, or what the editorial position is. See the dedicated advertising and affiliate disclosure for the current list of partners and how we label them.

Who runs this site

PassRates.uk is operated by Vikas, a London-based independent software engineer (see the about page for the named-author byline and verifiable profiles). For privacy or data-related questions, contact privacy@passrates.uk.

What we never collect directly

PassRates.uk itself does not run any first-party data collection. Specifically, we never ask you for or store on our own systems:

  • An account, email address, name, or phone number. There is no sign-up.
  • Payment information. The site is free to use.
  • Any free-text submission, comment, or form post. The site has no contact form, no comment box, and no user-generated content.
  • A newsletter list, mailing list, or remarketing audience.
  • Profiles, fingerprints, or behavioural histories built by us.

We are also a publisher of third-party services that may collect data themselves (Google Analytics 4, Microsoft Clarity, Google AdSense). For EEA/UK/Swiss visitors, those services are gated on the Google consent banner. What they collect is governed by each provider's own privacy policy (linked in "Third-party services we use" below). Even when accepted, we do not receive a copy of personally identifying data from those providers, only aggregate dashboards.

What data we do collect

Standard server access logs. Like any website, our web server records the basic HTTP request information needed to serve the page and protect against abuse: the requesting IP address, the requested URL, the user agent string (browser type), the referer header, the response status code, and the timestamp. These logs are retained for up to 30 days for security and debugging purposes (rate-limiting, attack detection, error triage), then rotated and discarded.

Local storage on your device. The interactive map sets a single boolean flag (pr-stats-introduced-v1) on your device the first time you visit, so that the brief sidebar tutorial does not repeat on return visits. This flag never leaves your device and is not associated with any identifier. You can clear it at any time via your browser's site-data settings.

Service worker (PWA). If you choose to install PassRates.uk as a Progressive Web App, your browser caches a small set of static assets locally (icons, manifest) so the app works offline and loads faster on subsequent visits. This is handled by your browser; no information is sent to us.

Cookies and consent

PassRates.uk does not set any first-party tracking cookies of its own. The site does not have user accounts, sessions, or payments, so there are no authentication cookies or session cookies.

Analytics consent (Google Analytics 4 and Microsoft Clarity) is handled by a first-party banner shown on your first visit, with an Accept all button and an equally clear Essentials only option, plus a Customise panel for per-tool control. Your choice is stored on your device and applies until you change it from the footer link. Before you choose, or if you choose essentials only, our Consent Mode v2 default of "denied" for analytics storage stays in place and only anonymous cookieless pings are sent.

Advertising consent for visitors from the EEA, the UK, and Switzerland is handled separately by Google's Consent Management Platform (Funding Choices), the IAB TCF v2.2 certified CMP bundled with Google AdSense, once it is active on the site. Until then no ad creatives are served. When it is live it also takes over the footer "Cookie settings" link.

If you accept, the following providers begin collecting under their own privacy policies:

  • Google Analytics 4 (Google Ireland Ltd / Google LLC) sets _ga + _ga_* cookies to count unique visitors and measure page-level interactions. IP anonymisation is on (anonymize_ip: true). Google Signals is turned off, so visits are not joined with data Google holds from your signed-in Google account and no cross-device profile is built.
  • Microsoft Clarity (Microsoft Corporation) records anonymised session heatmaps and replays for product- improvement diagnostics. Clarity masks text and form inputs by default, so the replays show layout and interaction patterns rather than any content you type. Clarity loads on every page in cookieless mode by default (clarity('consent', false)), so no _clck, _clsk, or MUID cookies are set. If you grant TCF Purpose 1 (storage) and Purpose 9 (audience statistics) via the Google CMP, our implementation upgrades the session to standard-cookie mode (clarity('consent', true)) so Clarity can stitch sessions across visits. Either way, Clarity's default text + input masking remains active.
  • Google AdSense serves contextual ads in non-personalised mode after consent. AdSense sets __gads and __gpi cookies for frequency-capping but does not build a personalisation profile in NPA mode.

If you reject, AdSense creatives are not served. Microsoft Clarity continues to load in cookieless mode (no cookies set, text + form inputs masked) for product-improvement diagnostics. Google Analytics uses Consent Mode v2 with cookieless pings: the gtag.js script loads, but with all storage categories marked "denied", so Google receives an anonymous page-load signal (no _ga cookie, no client ID, no profile, no cross-page linking). This lets us see aggregate traffic numbers to make product decisions, without putting an identifier on your terminal equipment. Google's Consent Mode v2 documentation has the full specification of what cookieless pings contain.

You can change your mind at any time via the "Cookie settings" link in the footer, which re-opens Google's CMP dialog. Visitors outside EEA/UK/Switzerland (where Google does not show the CMP) can manage cookies via their browser settings.

Third-party services we use

A small number of third-party assets are loaded directly by your browser when you view the site. Their providers may, in line with their own privacy policies, log standard request metadata (your IP, user agent, referer):

  • OpenStreetMap / CARTO basemap tiles, supply the map background. Their terms apply when you load tiles. See OpenStreetMap copyright and CARTO legal.
  • Google Analytics 4 (only if you accept analytics cookies). Run by Google Ireland Limited under the UK GDPR + DPF framework. See Google Privacy Policy and GA4 data practices.
  • Microsoft Clarity (only if you accept analytics cookies). Run by Microsoft Corporation. See Microsoft Privacy Statement and Clarity cookie list.
  • Google AdSense (only if you accept analytics cookies). Run by Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC. Operated on PassRates.uk under publisher account ca-pub-3814847756285692. AdSense serves contextual ads in non-personalised mode and sets a small number of frequency-capping cookies (such as __gads, __gpi) on accepted-consent users. See Google Privacy Policy, AdSense + privacy, and Google cookie list.
  • Sentry (Functional Software Inc, dba Sentry). Error tracking only, classified as "strictly necessary" under UK PECR because it captures bugs in the service you just used. No cookies, no session replay, no PII. Init is deferred to requestIdleCallback so it has no effect on initial page performance.
  • Hosting provider, the site runs on a UK-region cloud server (DigitalOcean) which sees the same standard server logs described above.

We do not embed any social media widgets, comment systems, chat widgets, or video players. Advertising is limited to Google AdSense (in non-personalised mode, gated on consent); we do not add additional ad networks, header bidders, or third-party trackers beyond what is listed above.

Affiliate links and commercial relationships

Some links on PassRates.uk may be affiliate links. An affiliate link sends a tagged URL to a third-party service (a driving school, learner-insurance provider, theory test product, or similar). If you click it and buy from that provider, we receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

We follow the UK Advertising Standards Authority CAP Code and the Competition and Markets Authority guidance on transparent monetised content. In practice that means:

  • If we add affiliate links in future, each will be labelled inline (for example, with a small "Ad", "affiliate", or "partner" tag near the link). No affiliate partners are active at the time of writing.
  • Commission rates and recommendation order are decided independently of any commercial relationship. Affiliate status does not move a centre up a ranking or change a guide's editorial conclusion.
  • We do not collect personal data via affiliate links. The third-party site you click through to has its own privacy policy, which applies once you leave PassRates.uk.
  • The current list of affiliate partners (where any are active) is published on the disclosure page.

Sponsored content, paid placements, and pay-for-ranking deals are not accepted. If that ever changes, this section will be updated first and the relevant pages will be labelled "Sponsored" in line with ASA rules.

Data sources

All driving test pass rate data is sourced from the public DVSA quarterly statistical release on gov.uk, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. None of that data is personal: it is aggregate test-centre statistics, not records about individual candidates.

Your rights (UK GDPR / EU GDPR / CCPA)

PassRates.uk does not directly collect or store personal information about visitors, so there is no first-party account, email list, or customer record to access, correct, port, or erase on our side. If you believe we hold any personal data about you (for example, you think your IP address has been retained beyond our 30-day server log window), you can contact privacy@passrates.uk and we will investigate and respond promptly.

For data collected by the third-party services we use (Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Google AdSense), the right of access, rectification, and erasure should be exercised directly with the provider. Each provider's privacy policy linked above describes how to submit such a request. You can also block or revoke their use at source by withdrawing consent on the cookie banner (footer link "Cookie settings").

UK and EU residents have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) or their local supervisory authority.

California residents have additional rights under the CCPA. We confirm that we do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising.

Children

PassRates.uk is intended for a general adult audience (UK driving test candidates are typically 17+). The site does not knowingly collect any data from children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If this policy ever changes (for example, if we add a feature that introduces a new third-party dependency), the new version will be published here with an updated "Last updated" date. Material changes will also be flagged at the top of this page for at least 30 days.

Contact

Privacy or data-protection questions: privacy@passrates.uk.

General questions about the site: hello@passrates.uk.

See also our terms of service.