This Privacy Policy explains what personal information DecorPatch collects, why, who receives it, and the rights you hold over it. We collect only what the site actually needs to work.
Information we collect
- Information you give us – the name and email address you submit through a comment form, newsletter sign-up, contact message, or when you send photographs of a repair.
- Technical information – your IP address, browser and device details, referring page, and the pages you request. This arrives automatically in server logs and through analytics.
- Cookies and similar technologies – described in detail in our Cookie Policy.
Why we process it
To publish and maintain the site, answer messages, send the newsletter where you asked for it, moderate comments, understand which repairs readers actually attempt, and serve the advertising that pays for the materials we destroy in testing. Our lawful bases are consent for email marketing and non-essential cookies, legitimate interest for security logging and aggregate analytics, and contractual necessity where you have asked us to provide something.
Advertising and third parties
DecorPatch displays advertising from third-party ad networks and ad-tech companies, which may use cookies and similar identifiers to serve relevant ads, cap frequency and measure performance. In the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, ad-targeting cookies load only after you consent; elsewhere interest-based advertising may run on a legitimate-interest basis with an opt-out available as described below.
We may share information with our web host, our email service provider, our analytics provider, and where the law requires, with competent authorities or as part of a business transfer.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you may request access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, a portable copy of the data you gave us, object to processing, and withdraw consent at any time. Under the CCPA and similar US state laws you may request disclosure of the categories we collect, deletion, and opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. We do not sell personal information; ad-tech sharing is what the opt-out refers to.
To exercise any right, write to [email protected]. We answer within thirty days and may need to verify your identity first. If you are in the EU or UK you may also complain to your national data-protection authority.
Retention and security
Comments and their metadata are kept while the thread remains useful to readers. Newsletter records are deleted within thirty days of an unsubscribe. Server logs roll on the retention window set by our host. Emails you send are kept while the thread remains relevant. Administration access is restricted, credentials are stored hashed, and the site is served over HTTPS.
Reader photographs
If you send us a photograph of your home to illustrate a repair, we treat it as a favour, not an asset. We do not publish identifiable interiors without your written agreement, and we crop or blur anything that could locate the property.
Children and changes
The site is not directed at children under 16 and we do not knowingly collect their data. We update this page when practices change; the revision date appears below, and continued use after an update means the revised policy applies.
