Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

Into Lebanon is a travel guide website operated by Farawen Studios. When this policy refers to "we", "us" or "our", it refers to Farawen Studios and the Into Lebanon website at intolebanon.com (and any subdomain).

We are committed to protecting your personal data and handling it in accordance with applicable data protection law, including the UK GDPR and EU GDPR where applicable.

2. Data We Collect

We may collect the following types of data:

• Contact form data: name, email address, and message content when you submit a form on our site.
• Newsletter data: email address if you subscribe to our mailing list.
• Usage data: pages visited, time on site, referring URL, browser type, and device information — collected via analytics cookies (only if you consent).
• Technical data: IP address and server logs, retained for security purposes.

We do not collect any special categories of personal data (such as health data, racial or ethnic origin, or religious beliefs).

3. How We Use Your Data

We use personal data for the following purposes:

• To respond to enquiries submitted through our contact forms.
• To send newsletters to subscribers (you can unsubscribe at any time).
• To understand how visitors use the site and improve our content (analytics, with consent).
• To serve relevant advertisements (with consent).
• To maintain the security and performance of the website.

Our legal basis for processing contact and newsletter data is consent. Our legal basis for technical/security data is legitimate interests.

4. Cookies & Tracking

We use cookies — small text files stored in your browser — for the following purposes:

• Strictly necessary cookies: required for the website to function (e.g. remembering your cookie consent choice). These cannot be disabled.
• Analytics cookies: used to understand how visitors use the site (e.g. Google Analytics). Only set with your consent.
• Advertising cookies: used to show personalised ads (e.g. Google AdSense). Only set with your consent.

You can manage your cookie preferences at any time by clicking "Manage Preferences" in the cookie banner, or by clearing your cookies in your browser settings.

For more information about cookies generally, visit allaboutcookies.org.

5. Advertising (Google AdSense)

We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on this website. Google AdSense uses cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites.

Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visit to our site and/or other sites on the internet. You may opt out of personalised advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.

AdSense advertising cookies are only set if you have consented to "Advertising" cookies via our cookie banner.

6. Third Parties

We use the following third-party services which may process your data:

• Google Analytics — website analytics (with consent). Privacy Policy
• Google AdSense — advertising (with consent). Privacy Policy
• Cloudflare — website hosting and CDN. Privacy Policy
• Google Fonts — typefaces loaded from Google's servers. Privacy Policy
• Leaflet / OpenStreetMap / CARTO — interactive map tiles. Privacy Policy
• Unsplash — photography. Privacy Policy

We do not sell your personal data to any third party.

7. Your Rights

Under UK/EU GDPR you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectify inaccurate personal data.
• Erase your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
• Restrict processing of your personal data.
• Data portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format.
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the address below. We will respond within 30 days.

8. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary:

• Contact form enquiries: up to 2 years.
• Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe.
• Analytics data: per Google Analytics' default retention settings (up to 26 months).
• Cookie consent records: 1 year.

9. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorised access, loss, or misuse. Our site is served over HTTPS via Cloudflare. However, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure.

10. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your rights, or have a complaint, please contact us via the contact form on our About page.

If you are unhappy with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority (in the UK: the Information Commissioner's Office).