Privacy & Cookies

Last updated: May 15th, 2024

We value your privacy as much as we do our own, so we’re committed to keeping your personal and business information safe. We’re uncomfortable with the information companies, governments, and other organisations keep on file, so we ask for only the bare minimum from our customers. We’ll never use your personal information for any reason other than why you gave it, and we’ll never give anyone access to it unless we’re forced to by law.

This Privacy and Cookies Policy refers to www.explorewestcork.ie website, which is run by West Cork People Ltd. (‘we’). In conjunction with our Terms of Use it sets out how we process any personal data that you give us or that we collect from you.

West Cork People respects the privacy of our customers and we are committed to the Privacy Policy outlined below:

We do our utmost to protect our users privacy through the appropriate use of security technology. We make sure that we have appropriate physical and technological security measures to protect your information and that any outsourced service provider is using appropriate security measures. It must be noted that www.explorewestcork.ie does contain links to websites owned and operated by third parties, which have their own privacy policies, including cookies. West Cork People does not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third-party websites, which you use at your own risk.

We respect your right to privacy when using www.explorewestcork.ie and we guarantee that we are transparent in our dealings with you as to what information we collect and how we will use that information. We only collect and use individual user details where we have legitimate business reasons, and where we are legally entitled to do so. For more information about how personal data collected by Irish entities can be used visit the website of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner www.dataprotection.ie.

Our website collects IP addresses from visitors to enable us to identify their location, to block disruptive use and to see how many people visit our site from different countries around the world. We look at this data to understand trends, such as which parts of our site users are visiting and how long they spend there. This means we can improve our site continuously for our visitor’s benefit.

Using www.explorewestcork.ie indicates that you as the user have reviewed this Privacy Policy and that you have agreed to be bound by it as well as by our Terms of Use. If you do not agree to these terms you must leave our site immediately.

We ask for contact information including your name, email address, and phone number, on our website so that we can reply to your enquiry.

We collect your name and email address when you sign up for one of our newsletters.

We ask for your account and contact information when you request to advertise on our site.

Occasionally, we might receive your contact information from one of our partners. If we do, we protect it in exactly the same way as if you give it to us directly.

• When you contact us by email, your information is stored on Blacknight Servers.

• When you contact us through our website contact forms, your information is stored on Bristlebird Media Works web servers in our Content Management System (CMS) software.

We chose these systems partly for their commitment to security.

We occasionally use your contact information to send you details of our products and services. When we do, you have the option to unsubscribe from these communications and we won’t send them to you again. We might also email or phone you about our products and services, but if you tell us not to, we won’t get in touch again. We will use your information to send you invoices, statements, or reminders.

Mary O'Brien, our appointed data controller, is responsible for the security of your information. You can contact them by email at info@westcorkpeople.ie or by phone on +353 23 8835696 if you have any concerns about the information we store.

When we store information in our own systems, only the people who need it have access. Our management team have access to everything you’ve provided, but individual employees have access to only what they need to do their job.

Where we store your information in third-party services, we restrict access only to people who need it. We store passwords in an encrypted password manager, use a different, randomly generated password for each service, and never use the same password twice.

The computers we use and protected either by a passcode or fingerprint access. These computers ask for authentication whenever they’re started or after 5 minutes of inactivity. Our mobile devices are also protected by a fingerprint recognition.

We take complaints very seriously. If you’ve any reason to complain about the ways we handle your privacy, please contact Mary O'Brien by email at info@westcorkpeople.ie or by phone on +353 23 8835696. If you’re the letter writing type, send your envelope to Explore West Cork, Old Town Hall, McCurtain Hill, Clonakilty, Co. Cork, Ireland.

If we change the contents of this policy, those changes will become effective the moment we publish them on our website.

Cookie Policy

What’s a cookie?

A “cookie” is a piece of information that is stored on your computer’s hard drive and which records how you move your way around a website so that, when you revisit that website, it can present tailored options based on the information stored about your last visit. Cookies can also be used to analyse traffic and for advertising and marketing purposes.

Cookies are used by nearly all websites and do not harm your system.

If you want to check or change what types of cookies you accept, this can usually be altered within your browser settings. You can block cookies at any time by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.

We use cookies to track your use of our website. This enables us to understand how you use the site and track any patterns with regards how you are using our website. This helps us to develop and improve our website as well as products and / or services in response to what you might need or want.

Session cookies: these are only stored on your computer during your web session and are automatically deleted when you close your browser – they usually store an anonymous session ID allowing you to browse a website without having to log in to each page but they do not collect any personal data from your computer; or Persistent cookies: a persistent cookie is stored as a file on your computer and it remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the website that created it when you visit that website again. We use persistent cookies for Google Analytics.

Cookies can also be categorised as follows:

Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are essential to enable you to use the website effectively, such as when buying a product and / or service, and therefore cannot be turned off. Without these cookies, the services available to you on our website cannot be provided. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you have been on the internet.

Performance cookies: These cookies enable us to monitor and improve the performance of our website. For example, they allow us to count visits, identify traffic sources and see which parts of the site are most popular.

Functionality cookies: These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced features. For instance, we may be able to provide you with news or updates relevant to the services you use. They may also be used to provide services you have requested such as viewing a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect is usually anonymised.