Privacy Policy

Last updated: 26 October 2026

This privacy policy explains what personal data Forces Discount Offers collects, why we collect it, how long we keep it and what your rights are. It is written in plain English and applies to www.forcesdiscountoffers.co.uk and to the emails we send.

Who we are

Forces Discount Offers is owned and operated by SJ Marketing Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales.

Company registration number: 11381728
VAT number: GB359302690
Registered address: 422A Gower Road, Killay, Swansea, SA2 7BA
Privacy contact: support@forcesdiscountoffers.co.uk

SJ Marketing Ltd is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. We process personal data in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

The short version

We are a free discount site for the UK Armed Forces community. We earn commission from retailers when you buy through our links. We never charge you.
To unlock offers you give us your first name, email address and which part of the forces community you belong to. We use this to send you a confirmation link and, if you stay subscribed, our offer emails.
We never sell your personal data and we never pass your name or email address to retailers or affiliate networks.
You can unsubscribe from every email we send with one click, and you can ask us to delete your data at any time.

What personal data we collect

When you join to unlock offers

When you click an offer or a discount code for the first time you are shown a short sign-up form. To complete it we ask for:

Your first name, so our emails can address you properly.
Your email address, so we can send the confirmation link and our offer emails.
Your service affiliation (for example British Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, veteran, reservist, cadet volunteer, MOD civil servant or family member). This is a required field. We use it to show you the right way to verify your membership and offers that are relevant to you.
Your confirmation that you are part of the UK Armed Forces community.

When you submit the form we also record the date and time, the page you signed up from and your IP address. We keep the IP address as evidence of your sign-up and to protect the form from abuse. We then email you a confirmation link. Clicking it confirms that the email address is yours (double opt-in).

When you verify that you belong to the forces community

Forces Discount Offers is a closed community, so before offers unlock we ask you to show that you belong, in one of these ways:

Work email code. We send a 6-digit code to your MOD or cadet work email address. We use that address only to send the code. We do not keep it or add it to any mailing list. We store only a scrambled one-way fingerprint of it, so that the same work address cannot verify more than one membership.
Veteran Card. You upload a photo of your HM Armed Forces Veteran Card, or a screenshot of the digital card. It travels over an encrypted connection to a server we run ourselves in the UK, where text-recognition software reads the card to check your name, the expiry date, that you are 18 or over and, for the digital card, its live clock. The image is held in memory only and is deleted immediately after the check, usually within seconds. It is never saved, never seen by a person and never sent to any other company, including any artificial intelligence (AI) service. We keep only a note that you verified by ID card, the date, and a scrambled fingerprint of your service number, so that one card cannot verify more than one membership. We do not keep your service number, your date of birth or a copy of the card.
Family invitation. A verified member can invite up to two family members by giving us their first name and email address. We use these only to send the invitation, and delete them within 90 days if it is not accepted.
Checked by our team. If the automatic checks do not work for you, contact us and we will check your card or work email ourselves, then delete anything you sent us once the check is done.

We record how you verified and when. We also keep anonymous daily totals of verification results (for example, how many card checks passed), which contain no personal data.

When you contact us

If you email us or use the form on our contact page we keep your name, email address and the content of your message so that we can reply.

Collected automatically

Like most websites we collect some technical data automatically: the pages you visit, the links and offers you click, your approximate location (from your IP address), your browser and device type, and the website that referred you to us. Most of this depends on cookies, which are explained below. When you click through to a retailer we record that a click happened on that offer so that we can see which offers are useful and so that the affiliate network can attribute any commission to us. This click record does not contain your name or email address.

How we use your data and our lawful basis

Giving you access to offers and discount codes. Lawful basis: performance of a contract (providing the free service you have asked for).
Sending the confirmation email and account or service messages. Lawful basis: performance of a contract.
Sending our offer emails with new discounts, codes and forces-related savings. Lawful basis: your consent, given when you join. You can withdraw it at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email or by contacting us.
Keeping the site for the forces community, including verifying that members belong to it, and checking sign-ups are genuine. Lawful basis: our legitimate interest in running a members-only discount service that retailers can trust.
Understanding how the site is used so that we can improve it and remove offers nobody uses. Lawful basis: legitimate interest, or consent where cookies require it.
Advertising the site on social media and measuring whether those adverts work. Lawful basis: your consent, given through the cookie banner.
Preventing fraud and abuse, keeping the site secure and complying with the law. Lawful basis: legitimate interest and legal obligation.

We do not use your data for automated decisions that have a legal or similarly significant effect on you, and we do not use it to profile you beyond choosing which offers to show and email. Our membership checks are automatic, but you can always ask for a person to check instead.

Affiliate links and how we make money

Forces Discount Offers is free to use. We are paid by retailers and affiliate networks when you click one of our links and go on to buy something or take out a product. This does not change the price you pay.

When you click “Get Offer” or a discount code, the link passes through our own redirect and then on to the retailer, usually via an affiliate network. We add a short reference to the link that identifies Forces Discount Offers and the offer you clicked. The networks we work with include Awin, CJ (Commission Junction), Impact, Partnerize, Rakuten Advertising, Pepperjam (Ascend), FlexOffers, AvantLink and Amazon Associates. When you arrive on the retailer’s site, the network and the retailer may set their own cookies to track whether the click leads to a purchase. Those cookies are governed by the network’s and the retailer’s own privacy policies, not ours. We receive commission reports from the networks that show the offer, the date and the commission earned. They do not tell us who you are.

Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small files placed on your device by a website. We use the following types.

Strictly necessary cookies

These are needed for the site to work and do not require your consent.

fdo_verified: set once you have joined and verified your membership, so that offers stay unlocked on your device. It lasts for up to 90 days, after which you will be asked to enter your email again.
cookieyes-consent: remembers the choices you make in our cookie banner.
WordPress and security cookies: short-lived cookies used to keep the site secure and to process forms.

Analytics cookies

Where enabled, analytics tools help us count visits and see which pages and offers are popular. The data is aggregated and is not used to identify you. The current analytics tools, if any, are listed in the cookie banner.

Marketing cookies

We use the Meta Pixel (Facebook and Instagram) so that we can advertise Forces Discount Offers to people who are likely to be interested and measure whether those adverts work. The pixel tells Meta that your browser visited our site and may match that with your Meta account if you have one. It only runs if you accept marketing cookies in our cookie banner. You can read how Meta uses this data in the Meta Privacy Policy.

Managing cookies

When you first visit we show a cookie banner where you can accept or reject non-essential cookies. You can change your mind at any time: clearing this site’s cookies in your browser brings the banner back so you can choose again, and you can email us if you have any question about what has been set. Rejecting non-essential cookies does not stop you using the site or unlocking offers.

Who we share your data with

We do not sell, rent or trade your personal data. We share it only with the following.

Service providers who work for us under contract and only on our instructions: our web hosting provider, our email delivery services (MailPoet and Amazon SES), our cookie consent tool (CookieYes) and our spam filtering service (Akismet). Each may only use your data to provide its service to us.
Affiliate networks and retailers receive the click reference described above. They do not receive your name, email address or service affiliation from us.
Meta, if you have accepted marketing cookies, as described in the cookies section.
Authorities, regulators or professional advisers where the law requires it or where it is necessary to protect our rights, our members or the public.
A buyer of the business, if SJ Marketing Ltd or this website is sold. We would tell you before your data was transferred and the buyer would be bound by this policy.

International transfers

Our servers and our member database are in the United Kingdom. Some of our service providers and Meta process data in the United States or elsewhere outside the UK. Where that happens we rely on the UK’s adequacy regulations, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses so that your data has equivalent protection.

How long we keep your data

Unconfirmed or unverified sign-ups (where the email link was never clicked, or membership was never verified) are deleted within 90 days.
Veteran Card images are deleted immediately after the check and are never stored. Work email addresses used for a verification code are not stored at all.
Confirmed members are kept for as long as you remain subscribed. If you unsubscribe or ask us to delete your data, we remove your record within 30 days, keeping only your email address on a suppression list so that we do not email you again by mistake.
Inactive members are deleted after 24 months of inactivity. We count you as active if you have unlocked an offer on the site or opened one of our emails during that time.
Contact messages are kept for 12 months after the last reply.
Click and commission records are kept for 7 years because they form part of our accounting records. They do not identify you.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS, the member database is held on UK servers with restricted access, and only staff who need it to run the service can see member data. No website can promise perfect security, so if you believe your data has been compromised please contact us straight away.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

Access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy.
Correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete.
Delete your data (the “right to be forgotten”).
Restrict or object to how we use it, including objecting to direct marketing at any time.
Port your data to another service in a machine-readable format.
Withdraw consent at any time where consent is our lawful basis, for example by unsubscribing or changing your cookie settings.

To exercise any of these rights email support@forcesdiscountoffers.co.uk. We will respond within one month and will not charge a fee unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive. We may ask you to confirm your identity, usually by replying from the email address we hold for you.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first at support@forcesdiscountoffers.co.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and aim to resolve it as quickly as possible.

You also have the right to complain to the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by calling 0303 123 1113.

Children

Forces Discount Offers is intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has signed up, contact us and we will delete the record.

Links to other websites

Our site links to retailers, affiliate networks, charities and official bodies such as the Ministry of Defence. We are not responsible for their content or privacy practices, so please read their policies before giving them your details.

Changes to this policy

We review this policy at least once a year and whenever our practices or the law change. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. If a change significantly affects how we use your data we will email members before it takes effect.

Contact us

SJ Marketing Ltd, 422A Gower Road, Killay, Swansea, SA2 7BA
Email: support@forcesdiscountoffers.co.uk

Image credit: some photographs on this site come from the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Imagery library and are used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.