Privacy & cookies

Who runs this site

The Arch is a personal publication run by Gemma, based in Cumbria, UK. For data protection purposes that makes her the data controller. She can be reached at thearchhello@gmail.com.

What this site collects

Very little, and none of it deliberately identifying. The Arch has no accounts, no logins, no comments and no shop — there is nowhere to hand over personal information, and no database storing it.

If you email

Your message and address sit in an ordinary email inbox, used only to reply to you. They aren't added to any list without you asking.

If you sign up to the newsletter

Your email address is stored with the email provider used to send it, solely to send you the weekly edit. There's an unsubscribe link on every email, and unsubscribing removes you. Your address is never sold, rented or passed to anyone else.

Hosting and server logs

Like every website, the host records basic technical information when a page is served — IP address, browser type, and which page was requested. This is standard security and diagnostics logging, kept briefly by the host and not used to build a profile of you.

Cookies

There are three kinds of cookie this site may involve.

• Essential. One small item stored in your browser remembering the cookie choice you made, so you're not asked on every page. Nothing else depends on it.
• Analytics. Aggregated counts of which edits get read, used to decide what to write next. These load only if you accept them.
• Affiliate tracking. If you click through to a retailer, that retailer (or their affiliate network) may set a cookie so a purchase can be credited back here. That cookie is set by them, on their site, under their privacy policy — not by The Arch. It records that a click came from this site; it does not tell us who you are or what you bought.

You can change your mind at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser settings, which resets the banner. Blocking cookies entirely won't break anything here.

What is never done

• Your data is never sold, rented or traded. Not to anyone, ever.
• There is no advertising network on this site and no ad-targeting profile built.
• No content on this site is directed at children, and no data is knowingly collected from anyone under 13.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you can ask what personal data is held about you, ask for it to be corrected, ask for it to be deleted, or object to it being used. In practice that mostly means your newsletter subscription or an email you sent. Write to thearchhello@gmail.com and it will be handled within one month.

If you're unhappy with how a request was handled, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

Other sites

This site links out to retailers constantly. Once you follow a link you're on their site under their rules — their privacy policy governs what happens next, and The Arch has no control over or responsibility for it.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Material changes will be noted on the homepage.