This policy explains what personal data Shumen.UK collects, why, how it is used, and what your rights are. We collect very little data, the only personal information we hold is email addresses from people who voluntarily subscribe to our newsletter.
We collect only your email address, and only when you choose to subscribe to our newsletter using the sign-up form on this website.
We do not collect names, addresses, phone numbers, payment details, or any other personal information. We do not use tracking cookies, advertising networks, or analytics tools that profile individual visitors.
If you choose to use a reader contribution form (such as the price-correction or photo-submission forms on the Sunny Beach guide), the data you voluntarily enter into that form is also collected. This may include a price you observed, a venue, an observed date, an optional handle, an optional email address (which we never publish), and, in the case of a photo submission, an image file plus its caption and your chosen attribution text. Photos are re-encoded server-side which strips EXIF metadata including any embedded geolocation. Submissions go into a private moderation queue; nothing is published until an editor approves it.
Receipts: if you attach a photo or PDF of a till receipt to a price submission, that file is treated as private editor-only evidence. The receipt is never published in any form, never shared with any third party and never used in marketing. On approval, the receipt is moved from a temporary upload area into a private archive on our server (outside the public site, accessible only to the editor) keyed to the venue and date. We retain receipts as audit-grade backing for the published prices: if a reader later disputes a price as wrong, we can verify against the original. On rejection of a submission, the receipt file is deleted. Receipts are never used to identify the submitter. EXIF metadata, including any embedded geolocation, is stripped on upload by re-encoding the image. Card numbers, loyalty IDs and any printed customer name on the receipt are not redacted automatically; we ask you to redact those yourself before uploading. Only the line-item data you type alongside the receipt (item, price, quantity, venue, date) is ever published.
We collect your email address for one purpose only: to send you the Shumen.UK weekly newsletter, which contains a summary of news stories published on the site.
Our legal basis under UK GDPR is consent (Article 6(1)(a)). By submitting the newsletter form, you give us clear, affirmative consent to contact you for this purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time (see section 5 below).
Newsletter subscriptions are managed by MailerLite (UAB MailerLite, Paupio g. 28, Vilnius, Lithuania). MailerLite acts as a data processor on our behalf. Your email address is stored on MailerLite's servers in accordance with their own privacy policy and data processing agreement, which complies with EU GDPR and UK GDPR requirements.
We do not sell, rent, or share your email address with any third party other than MailerLite for the purpose described above.
MailerLite's privacy policy is available at mailerlite.com/legal/privacy-policy.
We retain your email address for as long as you remain subscribed to the newsletter. If you unsubscribe, your email address is removed from our active mailing list. You may also request complete deletion at any time (see section 5).
Reader contributions: approved prices are retained as part of the published guide indefinitely (your handle, if you supplied one, is published; your email is not). Approved photos are retained as part of the published gallery indefinitely under the licence you granted at submission time. Approved menu photos are retained on the relevant venue snapshot indefinitely. Approved receipts are retained in our private archive indefinitely as audit evidence (see section 1 above). You can ask us to remove a published photo, menu, attribution, or any of your contributed price data at any time by emailing hello@shumen.uk; removal happens within 30 days. Rejected submissions and pending submissions older than 90 days are deleted along with any uploaded file.
Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:
To exercise any of these rights, email us at hello@shumen.uk. We will respond within 30 days.
Shumen.UK does not use cookies for tracking, advertising, or analytics. No cookies are set by this website beyond those that may be set by embedded third-party fonts (Google Fonts) for performance purposes. Google Fonts requests are served directly from Google's servers; see Google's privacy policy for details.
Our articles contain links to external news sources and other websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those sites. We recommend you read their privacy policies before providing any personal information.
Shumen.UK is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has submitted their email address via our newsletter form, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.
If we make any material changes to this policy, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We may also notify subscribers by email if the changes are significant.
If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK's data protection authority:
We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you contact the ICO. Please email us first at hello@shumen.uk.