Privacy Policy

Last updated: 16 July 2026

Streets & Taps is a personal travel blog written by Olesia and Ian at streetsandtaps.com. We take your privacy seriously and we collect as little as we can get away with. This page explains what we do collect, why we have it, how long we keep it, and how to make us delete it.

For the purposes of UK data protection law we are the data controller for this site. You can reach us at streetsandtaps@gmail.com about anything on this page.

1. What we collect, and why

Comments

When you leave a comment we collect the name and email address you type into the form, along with your IP address and browser user-agent string. The IP address and user agent are collected automatically and are used to help detect spam.

Your name and comment are published on the site. Your email address is not published. An anonymised string created from your email address (a hash) may be sent to the Gravatar service to check whether you have a profile picture — Gravatar’s own privacy policy applies to that check.

The mailing list

If you sign up for emails from us, we collect your email address and whatever name you choose to give. The list is managed with MailPoet. We use it to send you the thing you signed up for and occasional posts from the blog. We do not sell it, rent it, or pass it to anyone else for their marketing.

Every email we send has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. One click and you are off the list. You can also email us and we will do it for you.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to count visitors and see which posts people read. It tells us things like how many people visited, which pages they looked at, roughly which country they came from, and whether they were on a phone or a computer. It does not tell us who you are.

Emails you send us

If you email us, we keep the email so we can reply and so we have a record of the conversation. Nothing more happens to it.

Photographs

Photographs uploaded to this site may contain embedded location data. Where images include that data, visitors can in principle extract it. Our photographs are of public streets, pubs and landmarks — but it is worth knowing, and worth avoiding in any image you upload to a website yourself.

2. Our lawful basis for using it

  • Consent — for the mailing list, and for any non-essential cookies including analytics. You give it by signing up or by agreeing to cookies, and you can withdraw it at any time.
  • Legitimate interests — for running the comment section, keeping spam off the site, and keeping the site secure and working. We think you would expect a blog to do these things, and none of them affect your rights in any significant way.

3. Cookies

Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. This site uses:

  • Essential cookies — needed for the site to work at all. If you leave a comment you can opt in to saving your name, email and website in a cookie so you do not have to type them again next time. Those last for one year.
  • Analytics cookies — set by Google Analytics, to count visits and page views. These are not essential and are only set if you agree.

You can clear or block cookies in your own browser settings at any time. Blocking the analytics ones will not stop the site working.

4. Who else sees your data

We do not sell your data. We do not share it for anyone else’s marketing. A small number of companies process data on our behalf in order for the site to function:

  • Our web hosting provider — stores the site and its database, which includes comments.
  • MailPoet — the mailing list is held with the website and MailPoet’s sending service delivers the emails.
  • Google — provides the analytics described above.
  • Spam filtering — if the site uses an automated spam service, comment data including the IP address may be checked by it

Some of these providers are based outside the UK. Where data is transferred abroad, it is protected by the safeguards those providers have in place, such as the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or an approved adequacy decision.

5. How long we keep it

  • Comments — kept indefinitely, so that follow-up comments still make sense in context. Ask us and we will delete yours.
  • Mailing list — until you unsubscribe, and then removed.
  • Analytics — retained by Google according to the retention period set on the account, and held in aggregate rather than as individual records.
  • Emails to us — kept for as long as the conversation is useful, then deleted.

6. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you have the right to:

  • ask what personal data we hold about you, and get a copy of it;
  • have anything inaccurate corrected;
  • have your data erased;
  • ask us to restrict how we use it;
  • object to us using it, including for direct marketing;
  • receive the data you gave us in a portable format;
  • withdraw consent at any time, where consent is what we relied on.

Email streetsandtaps@gmail.com and we will deal with it within one month. There is no charge.

If you are not happy with how we have handled it, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

7. Children

This site writes about pubs, breweries and travel. It is not aimed at children and we do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has given us their details, email us and we will delete them.

8. Our Facebook page and other social accounts

We run a Facebook page at Streets & Taps, and we post on Pinterest. If you comment on a post, react to one, or send us a message there, we can see it and we keep it for as long as the platform does. We reply to messages and then leave them alone.

Facebook also gives us anonymous statistics about the page — how many people saw a post, roughly what age range and which countries they are in. We cannot see who any individual is. For those statistics Meta and we are joint controllers, and Meta takes primary responsibility under its Page Insights terms.

Everything else that happens on Facebook — the cookies it sets, the advertising profile it builds, the data it holds about your account — is Meta’s, not ours, and is covered by Meta’s own privacy policy. We have no access to it and no control over it. The same applies to Pinterest.

If you would rather not be tracked by Meta, the answer is to change your settings with Meta or not to use Facebook. Unfollowing our page will not change what Meta does.

9. Links to other sites

We link to pubs, breweries, venues and other websites. Once you follow a link you are on somebody else’s site and their privacy policy applies, not ours. We have no control over what they collect.

10. Changes to this policy

If we change how the site works — a new analytics tool, affiliate links, advertising — we will update this page and change the date at the top. Material changes will be mentioned on the blog.