Who is responsible

Ray Donnelly, publisher of Brand Tool Guide in Ireland, is responsible for the personal information processed for this publication. For privacy questions or requests, email hello@brandtoolguide.com.

Scope

This policy covers visits to brandtoolguide.com and correspondence with the publication. The current website has no visitor accounts, comments, newsletter signup forms or checkout. Visiting the site or reading these notices is not consent to analytics or marketing.

Operating and protecting the website

Hosting infrastructure processes connection and request information needed to deliver and secure the website. This may include IP addresses, requested URLs, timestamps, browser information, response codes and security events. This processing supports our legitimate interest in operating a functioning, secure publication and preventing misuse.

Contact emails

If you email us, we receive your email address, any name or signature you include, your message and attachments, and delivery information. We use this information to answer enquiries, investigate corrections and manage correspondence, on the basis of our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact the publication.

We do not add you to a marketing list simply because you email us. You choose what to send. If information needed to answer a particular enquiry is missing, we may be unable to resolve it. Please avoid sending unnecessary sensitive information.

Optional Google Analytics

Only if you select Accept analytics, the site loads Google Analytics to understand visits and improve the publication. Analytics may process pages viewed, referring sites, visit times, interactions, browser and device information, approximate location and cookie identifiers. We rely on your consent for this optional processing.

Before acceptance and after rejection, the site's consent implementation does not load the Google analytics tag or send analytics requests, including cookieless analytics pings. You can use the website without accepting.

The installed tag disables Google signals and advertising-personalisation signals and keeps advertising consent denied. It supplies page and referrer URLs without query strings or fragments in its initial configuration. We do not intentionally send names or email addresses as analytics identifiers.

Cookies, storage and withdrawing consent

Your choice is saved in browser local storage under btg-analytics-consent-v1 with a validity of 180 days. Expired choices are ignored, although an entry can remain until replaced or cleared. This preference is not used for tracking.

After acceptance, Google Analytics can use first-party cookies including _ga and _ga_5X6XLJN3NB. The site's tag requests a maximum cookie lifetime of 180 days without extending expiry on each visit. Browser restrictions can shorten it.

Use Cookie settings in the footer and select Reject analytics to withdraw consent. This disables further analytics for that browser and removes accessible first-party Google Analytics cookies. If analytics was loaded, the page reloads to unload it. Withdrawal does not undo processing that occurred before withdrawal or recall data already received by Google. See the Cookie Policy.

Service providers and disclosures

The website hosting and publication mailbox are provided through Namecheap. These services process information needed to provide, maintain and secure the website and email service. Google receives analytics information only after you accept. Relevant information may also be provided to professional advisers or competent authorities where lawfully necessary, including for a legal obligation or legal claim.

We do not sell personal information. Following a link to another website takes you to a service with its own privacy practices. The current site has no embedded social feeds, live chat or advertising pixels.

International processing

Hosting, email and analytics services can involve processing outside the European Economic Area, including in the United States. Google describes its international processing and transfer arrangements in its privacy policy and data-transfer information. Its partner-sites information explains data received through websites using its services.

Contact us if you need information about the processing locations or transfer arrangements relevant to your information. A provider's general privacy statement is not a guarantee that every service uses the same arrangements.

How long information is kept

We keep correspondence while dealing with an enquiry and afterwards only where needed for a specific legal obligation, dispute or related follow-up. The relevant criteria are whether the matter remains open, the need to retain a record of its resolution, and any applicable legal requirement. This is not permission for indefinite retention.

Hosting logs and backups are subject to service-provider and account controls. Their retention depends on operational, security and recovery requirements. Contact us for information about records relevant to a request.

The 180-day browser-storage period is not a deletion deadline for information already received by Google. Analytics retention also depends on the service's retention controls and the type of data, including aggregated reports. See Google's explanation of analytics data retention. We do not state an account-specific deletion period here that has not been established.

Your rights

Subject to the applicable conditions and exceptions, you may request access, correction, erasure, restriction or portability of your personal data. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests and withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing.

Email us to make a request. We may need proportionate information to verify your identity and locate relevant records. Do not send identity documents unless specifically requested through an appropriate channel.

We will respond without undue delay and normally within one month. If an extension is permitted because of the complexity or number of requests, we will explain it within the initial month. If we cannot fulfil a request, we will explain the reason and your complaint options.

You can complain directly to the Irish Data Protection Commission or another competent supervisory authority. You do not have to complain to us first.

Children, automated decisions and security

This publication is intended for adult business owners and marketers, not children. Contact us if you believe a child has supplied personal information requiring attention. The current editorial website does not make automated decisions about individuals with legal or similarly significant effects.

No website or email service can be guaranteed completely secure. Please contact us privately if you identify a security concern.

Changes

We will revise this notice when our processing changes and provide additional information or seek fresh consent where required. A policy update does not retrospectively authorise unrelated uses of information.