What data we collect, and why

In brief

Weekendisti collects the data needed to give you an account, to publish your travel diaries under your name and to keep you logged in. We show no advertising and we do not pass your data on to anyone. We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used, but only if you accept it in the cookie banner: if you reject it or make no choice, it does not run.

What data we collect

When you sign up we ask for a display name, an email address and a password. The password is not stored in plain text. We also record the moment you accepted the Terms and this policy, and its version, because we need it to prove that we have your consent.

If you choose to complete your profile you can add a bio, a photo and your region. All of these are optional: the account works without them.

When you submit a travel diary we keep what you wrote — title, text, preview, destination, type of experience, tags and any cover image — together with the link to your account, so that the content is published under your name.

During review we keep the status of your submission and the note the editorial team writes to you when it asks for changes or rejects it. You can see that note in your profile.

If you tick the newsletter box when signing up, we keep your preference and the date you gave it, together with the rest of your profile, and your email is added to the same Brevo list described below.

If you leave your email in the newsletter box on the home page or in the footer — without creating an account — your address is sent to our email delivery service, Brevo, which keeps it in a contact list so we can send you new guides. We do not store it in our own database and it is not linked to any account. Every email you receive contains a link to unsubscribe on your own at any time; you can also write to us to have it removed.

If you write to us through the contact form you leave us your name, email address and the text of your message. We use them only to reply to you. The message is not saved on the site: it arrives directly in our mailbox and stays there like any ordinary email. We do not add your address to any list.

What is public and what is not

On your author page and next to your published content we show the name you chose, your image, the bio and region you entered, and your join date. If you leave them blank, nothing appears.

Your email address is never public and does not appear on any page or in any public response from the site. The same goes for the consents you have given and for the editorial team's notes: they are visible only to you and to those who handle the review.

Diaries that have not yet been approved are visible to no one except you and the editorial team: while a submission is under review, there is no public page that shows it.

Cookies

We use a technical cookie called wknd_jwt. It keeps you logged in after you sign in: without it you would have to re-enter your password on every page. It cannot be read by scripts on the page, lasts 30 days and is deleted when you log out of your account. This cookie is always set: it is necessary for the site to work and does not require consent.

We also use Google Analytics to understand how many people visit the site and which pages they look at most. Google Analytics uses measurement cookies and does not run until you choose "Accept" in the banner you see on your first visit: if you reject it, or make no choice, these cookies are never loaded. You can change your mind at any time by clearing the site's data in your browser, so the banner appears again.

On the newsletter, contact and sign-up forms we also use Google reCAPTCHA, to tell people apart from bots that try to abuse them. The script is loaded only when you open one of these forms (not on the rest of the site) and sets its own cookie for fraud analysis; we do not control it and it shows no challenge to solve. Because it is necessary to protect that specific action, it runs without going through the banner — unlike Google Analytics, which is optional statistics and requires your explicit consent.

We do not load fonts, images or other scripts from third-party servers apart from Google Analytics and Google reCAPTCHA, and the Facebook script, which is loaded only when you hover over or select the Facebook share button: everything else your browser downloads while viewing the site comes from our own.

How long we keep your data

We keep your account data for as long as the account exists. If you ask us to delete it, we remove your profile and the related data. The content you have published can stay online without your name if you ask us to, or be removed altogether: tell us which you prefer.

Your rights

You can ask us to access your data, correct it, delete it, receive a copy of it, or withdraw a consent you had given. You can also contact the Italian data protection authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) if you believe something has not been handled properly.

At the moment account deletion is not automatic from the site: it is done by writing to us, and we take care of the removal.

Who helps us run the service

To send emails — replies to your messages, notices about the outcome of a diary you submitted, and the newsletter if you subscribed — we use Brevo, an external email delivery service. This means that your email address and the content of the message pass through their servers, as happens with any email. Addresses subscribed to the newsletter stay in a contact list on Brevo until you unsubscribe.

If you accept the cookie banner, we use Google Analytics (Google Ireland Limited) for site usage statistics. The data collected (pages viewed, origin, device) is processed by Google also outside the European Union, under the safeguards Google provides for this transfer. We do not combine this data with your account.

For the same reason we use Google reCAPTCHA (Google LLC): when you submit one of the protected forms, your browser sends Google a token with technical data (such as how the mouse moved, typing times) to estimate whether you are a person. This data also leaves the European Union under the same Google safeguards.

How to contact us

For any request about your data write to info@weekendisti.it, or use the contact page.

If this policy changes

If we update it, we change the version shown at the top. We record the version you accepted, so we always know which text you gave your consent to.

See also the Terms of service.