Privacy Policy: Data Collection and Your Rights
How Dolce London handles the data we collect from logs and forms, what we do with it, and the rights you have over it.
Introduction
Last updated: 14 February 2025
Dolce London is a guide to nightlife, dining and late nights across South Kensington and the wider city. We write about cocktail bars, sushi rooms, brunch spots and shisha lounges, and people visit the site to plan where to go. To do that, the site has to collect a small amount of information.
This policy explains exactly what we collect, why we hold it, and how you can ask us to change or remove it. We've kept the legal accuracy without burying you in jargon. If something here is unclear, you can reach us through the Contact page.
Purposes of Processing
We don't collect data for its own sake. Everything we hold maps to one of three reasons.
Keeping the site running
Server logs and error reports tell us when a page breaks, a link rots, or a listing loads slowly on a Friday night when traffic spikes. That's maintenance, plain and simple.
Understanding what gets read
Analytics show us which guides people actually open and which ones they bounce off. We use that to decide what to write next and what to fix.
Replying to you
When you send a message or sign up for updates, we need your details to write back. Nothing more than that.
External Services
Running a site this size means leaning on a few third parties. Here's an honest list of who touches your data and why.
For analytics, we use a standard web measurement platform to count visits and track performance. We're also evaluating a privacy-focused alternative, so this list may shift as we make that switch.
We don't run advertising today. We may integrate an ad network in the future, and if we do, this policy and our Cookie Policy will be updated before any ad cookies are set. We won't quietly turn it on.
The site itself sits behind a hosting provider and a content delivery network. Those services process technical request data — IP addresses, for example, purely to serve pages quickly and block abuse.
Information Collected
There are three buckets, and it's worth knowing which is which.
Technical logs
Every web server records requests. Ours captures your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you visited, and a timestamp. This happens automatically for everyone, and it's mostly invisible. We use it for security and performance, not to build a profile of you.
Contact submissions
If you fill in a form or email us, we keep what you send — your name, your message, and an address to reply to. You chose to give us that, and we only use it to respond.
Subscription inputs
Sign up for updates and we hold your email so we can send them. That's the whole transaction. No selling, no sharing with marketers.
Cookies and Tracking
Cookies are small files stored in your browser. We group ours by what they actually do.
Strictly necessary
These remember your cookie consent choice and keep your session working. The site can't function without them, so they aren't optional.
Analytics
These measure visit patterns and page performance. They help us, but you can switch them off without breaking anything.
Advertising
Reserved for future use. If we ever personalise ads, this is the category that would handle it — and only with your consent.
You control cookies through your browser settings. Every major browser lets you block or delete them, and you can clear ours at any time. Doing so won't lock you out, though some preferences may reset.
For the full breakdown, see our Cookie Policy.
Data Subject Rights
You have real rights over the data we hold, and exercising them should be easy.
- Access. Ask us what personal data we hold about you, and we'll tell you.
- Deletion. Request that we remove your data, and we will — provided we're not legally required to keep it.
- Opt out of tracking. Decline analytics cookies through the consent banner or your browser, any time you like.
- Ask a question. Anything data-related goes through our Contact page.
We aim to answer requests promptly. We're a small editorial operation rather than a large data company, so handling is hands-on rather than automated, that usually means a quicker, more direct reply.
Storage and Deletion
We don't keep things forever. Technical logs are retained only as long as they're useful for security and performance, then rotated out. Contact and subscription details stay until you ask us to remove them, or until they're no longer needed for the reason you gave them.
When you request removal, we delete your data from our active systems and ask any processor holding it to do the same. Once it's gone, it's gone.
Policy Updates
This policy will change as the site grows — new tools, the ad integration mentioned above, or shifts in the law. When we make a meaningful change, we'll update the date at the top of this page and, where the change is significant, flag it through the site.
It's worth checking back now and then. Continuing to use Dolce London after an update means you're comfortable with the current version. Read the Terms alongside this for the full picture.