Privacy policy

Van Life Matters publishes free-to-access content for the benefit of full and part-time Van Lifers. We’re funded by advertisers that share the same passion of our readers; to get out, explore and leave nothing behind but footprints.  Alongside our own original journalistic content, we may work with advertisers to promote the benefits of their products and services to our readers but we promise that all sponsored content will be relevant and clearly marked. We use cookies on the Van Life Matters website and Van Life Matters App to improve your experience and ensure you get the most relevant content. If you’re after a riveting read, we’ve outlined everything you need to know about how we use your data below.

The personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site and app, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site or app you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year. If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser. When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed. If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after one day.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site or app may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website. Our website and app may contain links to enable you to visit other websites of interest. Once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Email newsletters

Van Life Matters email newsletter recipients will have (or a colleague will have) opted-in to receive all newsletter communications. Recipients can opt-out at any time using the single-click unsubscribe button found at the bottom of every newsletter email.

Who we share your data with

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. For users that register on our website or app, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site or app, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. Please contact us via mike.ruff@VanLifeMatters.co.uk if you wish to make a request.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

How to contact Van Life Matters

If you have a specific data query you can send an email via the Van Life Matters ‘contact’ page.