Privacy Policy

Table of Contents

Who we are

We are Blog of Sunshine. Our goal is to deliver a fun and informative travel, language, and lifestyle blog. We want to inspire curious minds with expert tips, personal stories, and practical guides. We hope our readers explore the world, learn new skills, and live with more freedom and joy.

What information do we collect?

Comments: When leave a comment on our site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, your IP address, and browser user agent string to help with our spam detection. An anonymised string created from your email address (which is 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.

Cookies: We use cookies on this website to understand how you browse, to run analytics, to show personalised advertising, and to measure the performance of affiliate links. Cookies are saved on your device and remember when you visit again. They do not store information such as your name or postal address, but they may record your IP address, device information, and pages you visit.

These cookies and the data they collect help improve this site for you and future visitors by tracking user traffic, the success of particular content, and whether a booking or purchase was made after you clicked a link on Blog of Sunshine. You can disable cookies in your web browser settings (the steps vary by browser). If you leave a comment on our site you may opt in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

Automatically collected data: This website uses the third-party service Google Analytics, which collects standard internet log data and details about traffic and visitor behaviour patterns. We use this information to analyse metrics such as the number of visitors over time and the popularity of specific blog posts or content. The data is not processed in a way that identifies individuals. We do not make, nor do we allow Google to make any attempt to identify any individual accessing this website.

Affiliate links and how this site makes money: Blog of Sunshine contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link to a partner website and make a booking or purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Affiliate links are always chosen editorially – they do not influence the topics I write about or the opinions I express.

I use affiliate links to travel-related services such as accommodation booking websites (for example Booking.com, Hotels.com, TravelUp), tours and activities platforms (for example GetYourGuide), and other travel products and services. When you click one of these links, a cookie may be placed on your device by the affiliate network or the partner website so that they can attribute any later booking or purchase to Blog of Sunshine.

Some of these partnerships are managed through CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction LLC / Epsilon International UK Ltd), which provides tracking and reporting tools for affiliate links. CJ Affiliate and the brands I work with may use cookies and similar technologies to record that you clicked a link from this site, to track bookings or purchases, to prevent fraud, and to provide aggregated performance statistics. These cookies are not strictly necessary for the basic operation of the website and are only used with your consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time by adjusting your cookie settings or blocking cookies in your browser.

How we use your data

We may use the data collected about you to:

Operate and maintain this website,
To respond to your comments or queries.

How long we retain your data

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognise and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or if you have left comments, you have the right to request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. If you would like to do this, please email info@blogofsunshine.com.

Where your data is sent

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Third parties

We currently use the following third-party service providers:

Google Analytics: This information is used by ourselves to calculate information such as number of visitors in a given time period, plus the popularity of certain blog posts or content. This information is not processed in a way that identifies individuals.

Really Simple SSL and Really Simple SSL add-ons: Really Simple SSL and Really Simple SSL add-ons do not process any personal identifiable information, so the GDPR does not apply to these plugins or usage of these plugins on our website. You can find their privacy policy on their website.

This website uses Ezoic to provide personalization and analytic services, as well as to serve advertisements. Ezoic may use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect data in order to deliver relevant ads and improve user experience. For more details on how Ezoic handles your data, please visit Ezoic’s Privacy Policy.

CJ Affiliate and travel partners: I use CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction) to manage some of my affiliate partnerships with travel brands such as Booking.com, Hotels.com, TravelUp and GetYourGuide. When you click an affiliate link, CJ Affiliate and/or the partner may use cookies and similar technologies to attribute any bookings to this website and to provide reporting, as described in the “Affiliate links and how this site makes money” section above. For more information about how these partners process data, please refer to their own privacy policies on their websites.

This list may be amended from time to time.

How we protect your data

Although no online service can be completely secure, we make every effort to protect your information from unauthorised access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable steps to ensure its safety. We also actively monitor our services for potential vulnerabilities and attacks.

You also have several options regarding your information. If you have an account, you can choose not to provide optional details. Additionally, you can set your browser to remove or block cookies before using the Blog of Sunshine website.