Last updated: 7 September 2026
PollCast is a live polling tool for use in training sessions and classrooms. A presenter displays questions on screen and participants respond on their own devices by entering a short join code. By default, participants choose from pre-defined multiple-choice options or tap a star rating — there is no free-text input. For CPD sessions attended solely by adults, a presenter can optionally switch on moderated free-text questions; see “Use with children” below.
| Data | Collected? |
|---|---|
| Names or emails | No |
| IP addresses | No |
| Device information | No |
| Cookies | No |
| Free-text input | Refused by the server in any session involving children; off by default |
| Poll & rating responses | Yes — your selected option or star rating only |
| Anything you upload | No — participants cannot upload anything |
Each participant is assigned a random temporary ID generated in the browser. It exists only while the tab is open, is not linked to any person, and is used solely to avoid counting duplicate answers.
Your device’s IP address is processed transiently, in memory only, to apply rate limiting against scripted abuse. It is never logged, never written to disk or a database, and is discarded automatically within about a minute.
A presenter may attach a picture to a question — a diagram, a screenshot, something to discuss. It appears on the screen at the front of the room and on your own device, where you can tap it to enlarge it.
Pictures are supplied by the presenter, never by participants, and are stored on the same server in the Netherlands and loaded only from pollcast.uk. Viewing one involves no other company.
None. PollCast makes zero requests to external services from any of its pages. All fonts, scripts, and stylesheets are self-hosted. No analytics, tracking pixels, or advertising are present. The server itself is hosted by Railway in the Netherlands; they provide infrastructure only.
PollCast is designed to be safe for use in schools with children of all ages. Every question deck — and therefore every session run from it — defaults to a children-safe mode in which the server itself refuses to create or accept any free-text question — this is a technical control, not something a presenter can leave switched on by mistake. No personal data is collected, no accounts are required, and parental consent is not required.
For CPD sessions attended solely by adults, a presenter can explicitly mark a question deck as adults-only to allow optional free-text questions. Typed responses are held back until the presenter approves each one, are deleted the same day, and only a count (never the typed content) survives that deletion. Full details are in the Data Protection Statement.
In the default children mode, no personal data (as defined by UK GDPR) is collected from participants. The minimal anonymous data collected is processed under legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR) to facilitate live audience participation. A voluntary DPIA screening covering the small additional risk in optional adult-mode free text has been completed; a full Data Protection Impact Assessment is not required.
PollCast is hosted entirely within the European Economic Area (Amsterdam, Netherlands). No data is transferred outside the EEA.
A detailed technical Data Protection Statement is available on request from the data controller. In summary: no personal data is processed in the default children mode, no data leaves the EEA, no third parties receive data from any PollCast page, and all response data is deleted automatically the same day.
The data controller for PollCast is Justin Heath.
Email: