Privacy Policy

1. About This Policy

Istaren Press is an independent editorial publication focused on everyday wellness practices. The publication is not affiliated with any commercial, governmental, or institutional body. This privacy policy explains how Istaren Press collects, uses, stores, and protects personal data submitted by visitors to the istaren.info website.

This policy applies to all pages hosted under the istaren.info domain. By using the site, you acknowledge the data practices described here. The policy is reviewed periodically and updated where necessary to reflect changes in applicable data protection legislation.

2. Who We Are

The data controller for this website is Istaren Press, with its editorial office at 38 Lexington Street, W1F 0DT London, United Kingdom. For data-related enquiries, contact us at [email protected] or by telephone on +44 20 7183 4956 (Monday to Friday, 09:00 – 18:00).

3. Data We Collect

Istaren Press collects the following categories of personal data:

• Contact form submissions: When you use the contact form on our website, we collect your name, email address, and the content of your message. An optional subject category is also recorded.
• Usage data: We collect anonymised technical data about how visitors use the site, including page views, referral sources, browser type, and approximate geographic location at country level. This data does not identify individuals.
• Cookie data: Where you consent to non-essential cookies, data relating to your site usage may be stored in your browser. See our Cookie Policy for full details.

We do not collect sensitive personal data. We do not request or store payment information, identity documents, or data relating to personal health status.

4. How We Use Your Data

Personal data collected through the contact form is used solely to respond to your enquiry. We do not add contact form submissions to any mailing list, marketing system, or third-party database without explicit consent.

Anonymised usage data is used to understand how the site performs and to improve editorial content selection. No individual is identified from this data.

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal data with any third party. We do not use personal data for automated decision-making or profiling.

5. Legal Basis for Processing

Under the UK GDPR, our legal basis for processing personal data is as follows:

• Contact form data: Legitimate interest in responding to enquiries submitted to us, and consent where provided.
• Anonymised usage data: Legitimate interest in understanding how the site is used to improve editorial quality.
• Cookie data: Consent, where applicable, as managed through the cookie consent banner on this site.

6. Data Retention

Contact form submissions are retained for a period of twelve months from the date of submission, after which they are deleted. Anonymised usage data is retained in aggregated form indefinitely. Cookie-based data is retained for the duration defined in our Cookie Policy.

Where you have made a request and we have responded, the correspondence record is retained for twelve months to allow for any follow-up. After this period, it is permanently deleted.

7. Data Security

Istaren Press takes reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, disclosure, loss, or alteration. Our website operates over HTTPS. Contact form submissions are handled securely and are not stored in publicly accessible systems.

No system of data transmission over the internet is completely secure. While we apply reasonable safeguards, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of data transmitted to us.

8. Your Rights

Under the UK GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access: You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: You may request correction of inaccurate personal data.
• Right to erasure: You may request deletion of your personal data, subject to any legal obligation to retain it.
• Right to restrict handling: You may request that we limit our use of your data in certain circumstances.
• Right to object: You may object to our handling of your data on grounds of legitimate interest.
• Right to data portability: Where applicable, you may request a copy of data you provided to us in a structured, machine-readable format.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within one month of receiving a verifiable request.

9. Third-Party Services

This website uses the following third-party services that may set cookies or collect usage data in accordance with their own privacy policies:

• Google Maps: An embedded map on our contact page is served by Google Maps. Google's privacy practices apply to interactions with this embed. No personal data entered on our forms is shared with Google Maps.
• Google Fonts: Typography resources are loaded from Google Fonts servers. Google may log IP addresses as part of font delivery. No personal information is passed from our site to Google Fonts.
• CDN libraries: JavaScript and CSS libraries used for site functionality are served from third-party CDN providers (jsdelivr.net, unpkg.com, cdnjs.cloudflare.com). These providers may collect anonymised access logs.

Istaren Press has no control over the data practices of these third-party services. We encourage you to review their respective privacy policies if you have concerns.

10. Cookies

This site uses cookies. For full details of the cookies we use, how they are categorised, and how to manage your preferences, please refer to our Cookie Policy.

11. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we handle your personal data, please contact us in the first instance at [email protected]. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

12. Changes to This Policy

This privacy policy may be updated from time to time to reflect changes in data handling practices or applicable law. The date of the most recent revision is shown at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this page periodically.