Malta Central is a website, not a data business. It has no user accounts, no logins for readers and no advertising profiles. Most people who use this site never give it a single piece of personal information, and nothing on it requires you to.
This policy explains the exceptions: what is collected when, why, and what you can do about it. Malta is in the EU, so the GDPR applies in full.
What we collect
By situation
- Just reading
- Nothing that identifies you, unless you agreed to analytics. Your cookie choice is stored on your own device.
- If you allow analytics
- Google Analytics records the pages visited, approximate location derived from IP, and device and browser type. It also records a small number of deliberate actions, such as clicking out to a partner or subscribing. It is used to see which pages are worth improving.
- If you allow partner links
- Travelpayouts records that a click came from this site, so a booking can be credited to us. We do not receive your booking details, payment details or name from it.
- If you send us something
- Corrections, event submissions and directory applications store what you typed. That includes your name and email address where the form asks for them, so we can check the claim and reply.
- If you subscribe
- Your email address, and only to send you Central Weekly. The newsletter is not running yet. When it starts, the service that delivers it will be named on this page before any address is collected.
- Always
- Our web host keeps ordinary server logs, including IP addresses, for security and troubleshooting. This is standard for any website and happens before any code of ours runs.
Why we are allowed to
Analytics and partner attribution run on consent, which you give or refuse in the banner and can withdraw at any time from the cookie policy. Answering your message and running the newsletter are the performance of what you asked for. Server logs and keeping the site standing up are our legitimate interest in operating a secure website.
Who else sees it
Google receives analytics data, but only if you allowed it. Travelpayouts, for booking attribution, if you allowed it. Our web host stores the site and its database. That is the complete list. We do not sell personal data, and we have never shared a reader’s details with an advertiser.
Some of these providers are based outside the EU or process data there. Where that happens they operate under the safeguards the GDPR requires for international transfers, such as an adequacy decision or standard contractual clauses.
Maps
Pages with a map load their tiles from openstreetmap.org, so your IP address reaches OpenStreetMap when a map appears. We consider this a legitimate interest, because a map cannot work otherwise. It is still your data leaving to a third party, and you are entitled to know. No cookie is set by it and no tile request identifies you to us.
How long we keep it
Analytics data follows Google’s retention setting and is aggregated well before that. Submissions are kept while the page they relate to is live. Knowing why a fact was changed is part of being able to defend it. Newsletter subscriptions last until you unsubscribe. Server logs are cycled by our host on a short schedule. Your cookie choice sits on your device for a year.
Your rights
You can ask what we hold about you and ask for a copy. You can also ask us to correct it or delete it, object to a use of it, or withdraw a consent you gave. There is no charge and you do not have to explain why. In practice the honest answer for most readers is that we hold nothing, and we will tell you that rather than manufacture a file.
Ask through the contact page. Two things make it faster. Tell us which of the situations above applies to you, and use the email address you gave us. That is usually the only way we can find you.
Complaints
If you think we have handled your data badly, tell us first and we will try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to Malta’s supervisory authority, the Information and Data Protection Commissioner, without going through us at all.
Children
This site is written for adults planning trips and lives. It is not aimed at children and we do not knowingly collect anything from them. If you believe a child has sent us personal information through a form, tell us and we will remove it.
Changes
When what the site does changes, this page changes with it, and the date below moves. If a change means collecting something materially new, the consent version is bumped and you are asked again rather than carried over.