Privacy notice requirements: findable under UK GDPR

The rule

Two things about the text are worth knowing. First, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 has changed it: the legislation.gov.uk versions of Articles 12 and 13 show amendments that took effect on 5 February 2026, and Article 13 shows further changes on 19 June and 30 September 2026, mainly about complaints and the name of the regulator. A policy drafted before those dates may need its complaints paragraph looked at again. Second, the UK GDPR does not use the words “privacy policy” or say where a notice goes on a website. This check is about whether the information can be found, and leaves its content to UK-07.

The ICO’s advice for small organisations is more concrete. A company that holds personal data, “which is generally any small business, charity or group that has information about people such as their names and email addresses”, needs a privacy notice, and needs one on its website “if that’s mainly how your clients and customers find you”. Its example is a cake maker whose notice link is “immediately visible on the contact form page”.

Penalties follow the rights provisions. Article 83(5)(b) of the UK GDPR places “the data subjects’ rights pursuant to Articles 12 to 21” in the upper tier, a list the legislation.gov.uk text shows extended on 5 February 2026 for the Act’s automated decision-making provisions. Section 157 of the Data Protection Act 2018 sets the higher maximum at 17.5 million pounds or 4% of worldwide annual turnover for an undertaking, whichever is higher, against 8.7 million pounds or 2% for the standard maximum.

The ICO decisions listed for this article concern clarity and timing more than reachability. TikTok, covered below, is about clarity. In the Bounty penalty, people who signed up on paper could not see the privacy policy when they gave their details, and in the Experian and Clearview cases the information was never given to many of the people concerned. The Italian and French decisions in EU-09 show how the same wording has been applied to missing and scattered notices elsewhere, though they do not bind the UK.

What PeekWell checks and how

UK-10 asks one question: can a visitor reach a privacy notice from any page without hunting? The scan answers it from the pages it opened, not from what the site says about itself.

The scan is automated and looks at the same things as EU-09. It looks through the footer and menus of your public pages for a link to a privacy notice, checks that the link opens, and notes how far the notice sits from each page and which language it’s in. It flags a missing link, a link that doesn’t open, a notice buried too deep, and a notice in a different language from the site. Neither the UK GDPR nor the ICO says how many clicks is too many.

The scan has limits, and the report says so. It sees the public pages it visited, and the members area when you give it a sign-in. It doesn’t port-scan, try to get in where it isn’t allowed, run any security test or open addresses nobody linked to. It checks that a notice can be found and opens, and doesn’t judge whether it’s complete or accurate. That’s UK-07 and UK-06. A Passed means the expected behaviour was observed on the pages scanned. It doesn’t say the site complies.

Why it matters for a company

A missing or hidden notice is easy for a regulator to see, because it can be checked from a browser. The ICO’s guidance makes the standard plain: being on the website is not enough if people are unlikely to notice it, and the information is due when the details are collected.

The TikTok decision shows what happens when information exists but is not clear. The ICO’s own summary says the company “failed to provide users with clear information about how their data was being collected, used and shared meaning users (especially children) were unlikely to be able to make informed decisions.” That sat alongside findings about children’s data and age checks, so the 12.7 million pound penalty is not for transparency alone, and the page does not say which articles each finding rested on. TikTok appealed and then withdrew, which makes the 2023 notice final.

For a company the practical consequences are of three kinds. The information is due at the time of collection, so a notice added later does not cover the period before. A complaint about something else can lead a regulator to look at the website as a whole. And with the Data (Use and Access) Act in force, the text and the ICO’s guidance are both moving, so an old notice is more likely to be out of step.

Smaller companies and larger companies

The rule has no size threshold, and the ICO’s small-organisation pages are written for sole traders as much as for groups. What differs is how the gap appears.

In a small company the site is usually a template or a hosted builder. The notice was produced once, perhaps with the ICO’s own generator, and linked from the home page footer. Then the site changes: a campaign landing page, a booking form added by a freelancer, a shop plug-in with its own checkout. Each collects names and emails, and none links the notice. Nobody’s job is to check. The ICO’s advice asks for a link on the contact form page itself, which is an easy step to miss.

In a larger company the pieces multiply: brands, regional sites, microsites, apps and sign-up flows built by different teams. A group notice may be long and general, with key points far down the page, which is where the TikTok finding about clarity becomes relevant. Scale also changes the stakes, since the higher maximum is tied to turnover.

How to fix it

1. List every public page type and form. Home, product pages, blog, booking and checkout, landing pages and any microsite. Anything with its own template needs its own check.
2. Put one link in the shared footer. Add a link labelled “Privacy notice” or “Privacy policy” to the footer template so every page type inherits it. Keep it at normal size and contrast, and do not hide it in a menu that opens only on small screens.
3. Add a link beside every form. Next to each contact form, newsletter box or booking form, add a short line with a link to the notice, so people see it before they start typing. That is the ICO’s own example.
4. Match the language. If a page is in Welsh, French or Polish, link a notice in that language. Where you run several language versions, give each a link to the right one.
5. Check that the link opens. Open it in a private window, on a phone and on a computer. A notice that returns an error, redirects to the home page or needs a sign-in does not count.
6. Review the complaints paragraph. The amendments from 19 June and 30 September 2026 touch the complaints wording in Article 13. Ask whoever maintains the notice to check it against the current text.
7. Re-scan. Run a scan again. The finding should disappear once each page type shows a working link close at hand, in the site’s language.

<footer>
  <a href="/privacy/">Privacy notice</a>
</footer>

What goes inside the notice is a separate question, and UK-07 covers the Article 13 list. Whether a setup meets the ICO’s view is for your legal adviser, and Peeky reports only what it sees.