Protecting your privacy – what you need to know about Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide
We don’t collect very much information about users of Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide automatically, but sometimes those who email the website or leave comments on one of our reviews will be submitting personal information to us. We felt that some people expect to see a privacy policy, and we hate to disappoint anyone. So this page explains in tedious detail what happens to any personal information we hold. This policy applies to all web pages within the mattandcat.co.uk domain.
• What information does Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide collect and why?
• How does Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide use personal information?
• What is Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide’s policy on publishing comments made by other people?
• How else might someone learn about my personal details on Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide?
• How does Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide identify me?
• What about other organisations?
• Can I access my personal information?
• What if I am under 16?
• What is a cookie?
• How can I control my cookies and IP address?
If you want to know more, or have any queries about this information, contact Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide using the link at the bottom of the page.
Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide is published by Pinkeye Graphics Ltd. All content is the copyright of the publisher unless another attribution is shown.
Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide has no login requirement. Unless you’re a site admin (and you will know if you are one of those) you should never be required to enter personal information to access Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide web pages. By collecting server statistics we (anonymously) monitor visitors to the site so that we can see which sections are being viewed, how long for and which website the visitors came from, all of which is invaluable information for us in terms of developing the site and monitoring our performance. Those who send emails to the website or comment on reviews may have their email address, IP address, and any information they include in their message retained by Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide. Your browser may also be set up to automatically share certain information to websites, such as your location or the type of browser you are using.
We do not share your email address or any personally identifiable information with third parties without your consent except in the following instances:
- when required by applicable law or pursuant to a court or similar order.
- as deemed necessary, in our discretion, to protect the legal rights or the property of Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide or its publishers and contributors, or to prevent personal injury.
If you send an email to Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide, we may retain the information you send, including your email address. This will be for our own use only, for example, to answer your message, or when designing new pages and sections we usually assess the requests for information we receive.
If you provide us with your email address we may use it to contact you, but only in connection with the original reason you submitted it. So for example, if you include your email address on a comment we might email you to clarify something in the comment or answer a question you have asked. But we won’t use it for something unconnected, for example to try to sell you something. And we certainly will not pass it on to anyone else (except as above).
Information about visitors to Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide is collected by our server and other software to provide statistics, for example to see which browser is most popular, or what search terms are being used. These statistics and IP addresses are also recorded on a database. None of this statistical information is linked to any personally identifiable information, unless you have deliberately submitted it, e.g. by emailing us or by making a blog posting in which you volunteer personal information. It is from time to time automatically deleted as, frankly, we haven’t got the disk space to keep it forever.
Questions and comments submitted by email or social media to Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide may be republished on the website. Personal email addresses are never published. Even so, if you prefer this not to occur, you have the option of saying so at the time you ask your question. If you indicate that you would like your question to remain private, it will never be published.
How else might someone learn about my personal information while visiting Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide?
It is not possible for any third party to read your personal information stored by Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide through using the website, unless you have submitted it yourself in a blog posting or comment.
What about other organisations?
We do use services provided by other organisations on our website, and these services may affect your privacy. No such services are essential for using the website and if you choose not to share any personal information, you will still be able to use the website.
Services embedded in this website include the following. Privacy policies for each one are linked below.
We use third-party advertising companies and services to serve ads and other information when you visit our website. These companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide information they want you to see. You can opt out of this. If you would like more information about this practice and would like to know your options in relation to not having this information used by these companies, see these links:
Parts of the website use Google Maps to display location-based information. This means that if you choose to share it, your location will be used by Google to show you that information. The website will work as normal if you do not share your location, and even if you do the information is not retained by Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide.
You may request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you with regards to the website. You can also request that any incorrect personal information about you be updated. However, given the strictly limited records that we keep, unless you have sent us email or made a blog comment in the past this will almost certainly result in a nil return, and even if you have, the most that will normally be held is your contact details.
You may request that personal information about you is deleted. We will remove any such information. However this does not extend to deleting or editing comments – your name can be removed from any comment you have made; but the anonymised content will not necessarily be removed.
Comments by other readers that identify you are strongly discouraged, and even if you are not mentioned by name we will normally remove or edit such comments.
If you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent/teacher/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide personal information to Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide. If you do not have this consent you should not provide us with your personal information, but you are welcome to look at all the information on Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide, all of which is suitable for viewing by readers of all ages.
Most parts of the Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide website do not identify users in any way. Users who simply wish to read information and not submit it will not need to be identified at any time. If we do need to anonymously identify you, such as for monitoring web site statistics, we sometimes use a ‘cookie‘. We also in some circumstances record IP addresses, which normally are also anonymous.
When you enter many websites your computer will automatically be issued with a cookie. Cookies are text files that identify your computer to a server. The cookie itself will not identify the individual person, just the computer to which the cookie was issued.
Cookies themselves only record those areas of the site that have been visited by the computer in question, and for how long. Users have the opportunity to set their computers to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time. The last of these, of course, means that certain personalised services cannot then be provided to that user. Almost all of Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide will work fine with cookies disabled.
Depending on what internet browser you are using there are different ways to control your cookies. Most browsers have very simple cookie controls and if you turn off cookies entirely your experience reading Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide will be unaffected. If you wish to do this, look at your browser’s ‘Help’ menu to see how to do it.
If you do not wish to be identified by IP address you can configure your computer to avoid this, although it may be a little complicated. The easiest way is to use an online anonymising proxy service. However be aware that there are security risks associated with using such a service. Matt and Cat’s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide will be fully functional to you whether or not you use a proxy server.