Privacy Policy

Ireland Spots operates from Ireland and this policy is written with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in mind. It describes what this website actually does today, not what it may do in the future.

Who operates Ireland Spots

Ireland Spots is an independent travel publication created and operated by Raúl Ayuso Olmeda, who is the data controller for the personal data described in this policy. The contact point for any privacy question is helloirelandspots@gmail.com, or our Contact page.

What this website currently does

• Does not require sign-up or an account to read any content.
• Does not use any on-site form to collect your email address — the “Explore Ireland” section in the footer links to other pages and does not submit or store anything.
• Uses Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors use the site — but only once you've given analytics consent through our cookie consent tool. See “Analytics” below.
• May use Google AdSense to display advertising. Whether ads are actually shown can vary over time — for example, ads aren't shown while Google hasn't approved the site for AdSense — and this doesn't affect how destinations are researched or covered. See “Advertising (Google AdSense)” below for how this works whenever it's active.
• Does not sell products, services, or paid subscriptions.

If AdSense is approved and ads are switched on for real visitors, this policy will be updated first to describe exactly what's involved, and the same kind of consent flow already used for analytics (accept, reject, or manage each category separately) will apply to advertising too before any advertising cookie is set.

Analytics (Google Analytics 4)

We use Google Analytics 4 (“GA4”), a web analytics service provided by Google, to help us understand general website traffic and how visitors use Ireland Spots — for example, which pages are visited, roughly how people arrive at the site, and general device and browser information. We use this only in aggregate, to understand what's useful and improve the site; we don't use it to identify you personally.

GA4 only activates after you give analytics consent through the cookie consent tool (CookieYes) that appears when you first visit. If you reject analytics consent, or haven't made a choice yet, GA4 does not load or initialise, and no Google Analytics cookies (_ga, _ga_TQNCEHNLFV) are created. See our Cookie Policy for exactly which cookies are involved.

You can withdraw or change your analytics consent at any time using the cookie preferences control CookieYes provides on this website. Withdrawing consent stops further data collection going forward, but doesn't retroactively delete data Google may already have processed.

Because Google is a separate company processing this data on its own infrastructure, Google's own privacy practices apply to how it handles that information. See Google's Privacy Policy and how Google uses information from sites that use its services for details.

Advertising (Google AdSense)

Ireland Spots may use Google AdSense, an advertising service provided by Google, to display advertising as a way to help fund this website. A Google-issued script that lets Google verify ownership of this site is present on pages of irelandspots.com at all times, regardless of whether ads are currently active. Whether ads are actually shown can vary over time — for example, while Google has not approved the site for AdSense, or if advertising is paused for any other reason — and no advertising revenue is generated during any period when ads aren't shown. The rest of this section describes how AdSense works whenever it is active.

If and when AdSense advertising is switched on for real visitors, Google may use cookies or similar technology to serve ads and, for visitors who consent, personalise them based on browsing activity. Any such advertising-related storage will be subject to the same consent tool (CookieYes) already used for analytics on this site: for visitors in the UK/EEA/Switzerland, advertising cookies will not be set until you affirmatively grant advertising consent, and you'll be able to withdraw that consent at any time using the same cookie preferences control described elsewhere in this policy. See our Cookie Policy for the specific advertising cookies involved once ads are active.

As with analytics, Google is a separate company that would process this data on its own infrastructure under its own privacy practices — see Google's Privacy Policy and how Google uses information from sites that use its advertising services for details.

Emails and messages you send us

If you email us — for a correction, a suggestion, a partnership enquiry, or anything else — we'll have your email address and whatever else you choose to include in your message. We use this only to read and respond to what you've sent, on the basis that it's necessary for that purpose (and, where relevant, our legitimate interest in running this publication). We don't add you to a mailing list, sell your details, or use your message for any other purpose. We keep emails for as long as reasonably needed to handle your enquiry and for a limited period afterwards for our own records, then delete them.

Technical data our hosting infrastructure processes

Like effectively any website, the infrastructure that serves these pages to your browser necessarily processes some technical information to do so — things like your IP address, browser type, and basic request logs. This is standard, automatic web-server behaviour rather than something we actively collect or analyse ourselves, and it's used only for keeping the site running securely (for example, detecting abuse). We don't combine it with any other information to identify individual visitors.

Data minimisation and retention

We only ever hold the information you actually give us for the reason you gave it to us — mainly, the contents of emails sent to our contact address. Where analytics data exists (only once you've given consent — see “Analytics” above), it's processed and retained by Google under Google's own settings for our GA4 property, not directly by us. Because this site currently has no accounts, subscriptions, or stored visitor profiles beyond that, there is no other personal data of yours for us to retain or describe here.

Service providers

This website is served by a third-party web hosting provider, which necessarily processes the technical data described above as part of delivering the site to you. Once you've given analytics consent, Google also processes analytics data as described in “Analytics” above, and CookieYes processes your cookie consent choice. Google is also involved whenever Google AdSense advertising is active, as described above. We don't currently use any email-marketing or other data-processing service beyond hosting, consent management, (consent-based) analytics, and advertising whenever Google AdSense is active.

International data transfers

Because websites are commonly served through infrastructure and content-delivery networks located in more than one country, some technical data described above may be processed outside Ireland or the European Economic Area. The same can apply to Google Analytics data once you've given consent, since Google operates infrastructure in multiple countries. Where that happens, the relevant provider — our hosting provider, CookieYes, or Google — is responsible for ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place.

Security

We take reasonable care to keep this website and any messages sent to us secure, but no method of transmission or storage over the internet is completely secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

Cookies

See our Cookie Policy for details on cookies and similar technologies.

Children

Ireland Spots is a general-audience travel information publication. It isn't directed at children, and we don't knowingly collect personal data from children.

External links

Articles on this site link to official third-party websites — attractions, transport operators, event organisers, and tourism bodies — for your convenience. Those sites have their own privacy practices, which we don't control. Visiting a linked site is subject to that site's own privacy policy, not this one.

Your rights

Under GDPR, if this website holds personal data about you (for example, an email you've sent us), you have the right to, subject to the usual legal conditions and exceptions: access it; request that inaccurate data be corrected; request erasure; restrict or object to certain processing; receive a copy of your data in a portable format; and, where processing relies on your consent, withdraw that consent at any time. To exercise any of these rights, contact us via our Contact page. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with Ireland's supervisory authority, the Data Protection Commission.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the site or its services change — most importantly, before any advertising service is ever switched on for real visitors. The “last updated” date above reflects the most recent change.

Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent via our Contact page.