Data Protection

South Shore Guest House operates privacy policies in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, The EU ePrivacy Directive 2012 and the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 onwards. Subject to any statutory disclosure obligations, we will not disclose your personal data to third parties without your permission.

Cookies

The EU ePrivacy Directive (or commonly miss-known as the “Cookie Law”) was issued as guidance to all the countries of Europe in 2002 and the British version was drafted and written into UK Law by the Conservative Government on 26th May 2012. These previous statutes have been superseded by the General Data Protection Regulation which come into law in May 2018. This will enshrine some long needed protection for our personal data and how it is handled.

The law aims to protect the privacy of all EU citizens as they use the internet, and covers several aspects of privacy, not just cookies. The UK Information Commissioner’s Office says:

“Cookies or similar devices must not be used unless the subscriber or user of the relevant terminal equipment:

1. is provided with clear and comprehensive information about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information; and
2. has given his or her consent.

The Regulations are not prescriptive about the sort of information that should be provided, but the text should be sufficiently full and intelligible to allow individuals to clearly understand the potential consequences of allowing storage and access to the information collected by the device should they wish to do so.”

Source: ICO website, May 2012

What information do we collect by using “cookies”?

Our Website may set and refer to “Cookies” that are generally small text files stored by your browser. These can include details that you type into our site or personal choices and preferences you make that help us deliver relevant content to you.

You may, of course, opt out of receiving cookies by following your browsers instructions on how it handles them, the site should still be navigable for information but your choices, logins, map information and booking details may not work as intended.

Our site currently sets these cookies:

1. NAME = wsize, TYPE = temporary session cookie, EXPIRES = when user leaves site.
2. NAME = resolution, TYPE = temporary session cookie, EXPIRES = when user leaves site.
3. NAME = viewed_cookie_policy, TYPE = temporary session cookie, EXPIRES = when user leaves site.

If users log into the private sections of the site then the cookie’s below may also be set:

• NAME = PHPSESSID, TYPE = temporary session cookie, EXPIRES = when user leaves site.

South Shore Guest House, it’s Website and Booking System may collect and store the following kinds of information:

1. Personal details that you provide to us by filling in booking forms or other forms on our website or which you give us over the telephone or by completing the Guest Registration Book on arrival.
2. Information that you provide to us for the purpose of registering or subscribing to a service we offer (or intend to offer). For example subscribing to a email newsletter that gives out discount coupons or keeps guests informed of special offers and forthcoming local events.
3. If you enter your email address when leaving a review, an anonymised string created from that 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: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Information that may be collected by third parties

1. South Shore Guest House and our Payment Gateway partners are fully compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) Program.
2. Please be aware that South Shore’s website may display advertising on it’s pages. As far as we are able, we try to ensure that the products and or services they offer are relevant and even helpful to guests. However, some search companies, advertisers and government agencies do collect information about your computer and surfing habits using various methods especially when clicking through adverts. We have no control over the activities of these third parties and furthermore do not condone their harvesting of personal or private information without consent, for whatever reason.

How long do we retain your data

If you leave a review on our website the content and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up reviews or comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

If at a later date we offer users the option to join our site (to receive special offers or advanced notice of deals or local events etc.) then they would set up their own personal profile, the information they provide accessible by personal login/password only. All users would be then able to login to see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Please note that website administrators can also see that information.

South Shore is legally bound to retain the following information:

1. Guests names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses that appear on our physical invoices or electronic equivalents, have to be retained for 7 years (HMRC). Also required under The Immigration Order 1972 (Hotel Records).
2. Guests nationality, passport number and place of issue, dates of stay and Visa details required under The Immigration Order 1972 (Hotel Records).

Information that we DO NOT collect and store

South Shore Guest House does not store your credit or debit card information on our servers. All card data is “tokenised” by our Payment Gateway Partner “Stripe” and their transactions with the banks are fully encrypted in line with current guidelines.