How we use assistant chats
The map assistant is optional. This explains what GBMaps records, who can see it and how it helps us improve the mapping tool.
Who looks after this information?
GBMaps operates the mapping tool and is responsible for these conversation and security records. You can contact us through Contact GBMaps in the assistant or the contact details in this site’s footer.
Questions help us make a better tool
We keep the questions you submit, validated replies, guide and tool names, helpfulness ratings, and browser reports of whether an assistant job was applied, failed or undone. Conversations are linked to a protected account or visitor reference. Authorised GBMaps staff can search these records to understand problems and improve features and help. We do not automatically copy your attached map settings, drawings, uploaded files or sales rows into these conversation records. Information you type yourself may appear in them. Common email, password and key patterns are masked, but masking cannot find every piece of private information. Please do not include passwords, verification codes or confidential customer details.
Question emails to our support team
During launch, a copy of each accepted question is emailed internally to the GBMaps support mailbox, including follow-up questions and tweaks. It includes the time, whether you are signed in and a protected reference, with the same masking as the chat record. If you are signed in, the email also includes your verified account email address so our support team can contact you about your question or let you know when a problem is fixed. Visitors are labelled as not signed in. Your attached map settings are not included. This account email is not automatically sent to OpenAI or added to the stored conversation text. This applies in the map and on standalone help pages, for signed-in accounts and recognised visitors. Rejected or rate-limited questions are not emailed. We may later reduce this to the first question only or pause these notifications. Mailbox copies are managed separately: automatic chat expiry does not delete emails. Contact GBMaps to include mailbox copies in an information or deletion request. Per-question delivery records contain no question text and follow the chat retention period. A separate protected reference is retained to prevent repeat first-question emails if we return to first-question-only notifications.
What is sent for an AI answer?
Your question, recent conversation and, if Use my map settings is ticked, limited map settings and item names are sent to OpenAI to produce the answer. The assistant does not automatically attach your account email, image contents, full artwork or uploaded spreadsheet rows. OpenAI operates the AI service under its own API data arrangements; its retention is separate from the GBMaps conversation record. Information may be processed outside the UK under the provider arrangements for this service. Handbook search works within GBMaps without an AI request.
Why we use it
We use these records for our legitimate interests in providing useful map assistance, understanding support problems, improving the tool and preventing abuse. They are not public, are not used for advertising, and GBMaps does not use them to train a public AI model. You can use the map and illustrated handbook without submitting an assistant question.
How long do we keep it?
GBMaps conversation text is kept for up to 90 days, with automatic expiry and a scheduled cleanup. Anonymous totals about topics, usage and outcomes may remain afterwards. Pseudonymous usage and cost records are kept separately for up to 120 days to enforce allowances and reconcile usage. Start again clears your chat on this page; it does not erase the private feedback record. Deleting conversation text does not reset a message allowance.
Assistant use and purchases
GBMaps automatically remembers successful AI assistant use to understand whether it is followed by a map purchase, subject to the site’s analytics settings. There is no separate assistant checkbox. A first-party MCSASSISTMEASURE cookie lasts for 90 days and contains a random reference, not your email, question, password or payment details. In the same browser we can link later checkouts to confirmed GBP unlocks or renewals within 90 days of the last AI answer before checkout. Staff see totals and invoice references; this shows an association, not proof the assistant caused a sale. The reference is not used to identify you across devices or by IP address and is not sent to OpenAI, Google or advertising services. The visitor-trial security cookie is separate. Site-wide analytics refusals are honoured when the assistant checks its settings or a question is submitted. Clearing cookies stops future links; contact us about deleting existing measurement records. Protected browser, request and checkout references and times are retained for at most 365 days for reporting. This is separate from chat-history storage and the 90-day conversation retention. It does not change your message allowance, purchases or map access. See the site cookie policy for its general settings and information.
Your choices and rights
Contact GBMaps if you want access to your information, want it corrected or deleted, or wish to object to this processing or ask for it to be restricted. Include an approximate date and the account you used; for a visitor conversation, a short description helps us locate it. We may need to verify that a request concerns your own information. Depending on the circumstances, data protection rights and limits apply. You can also raise a concern with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office. This notice supplements the main GBMaps privacy policy.