Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal data when you visit or interact with our website: https://thesocialnetwork.ie.

Who We Are

We are The Social Network, a digital marketing agency based in Ireland.
Our website address is: https://thesocialnetwork.ie.
You can contact us about privacy matters at: jacinta@thesocialnetwork.ie .

What Personal Data We Collect and Why

Comments

When visitors leave comments, we collect the data shown in the comment form, the visitor’s IP address, and browser user agent string to help with spam detection.
An anonymised string (hash) from your email may be shared with the Gravatar service to check if you’re using it. Gravatar’s privacy policy is available here.

Contact Forms

If you contact us via our forms, we collect your name, email address, and message. This data is used to respond to your enquiry and retained for up to 12 months unless required longer for legal purposes.

Media Uploads

If you upload images, please avoid including embedded location data (EXIF GPS), as other visitors may download and extract location information.

Cookies

We use cookies to improve your experience and analyse site usage. You can control cookie preferences through our cookie banner.

  • Comment cookies: Stored for one year for convenience.
  • Login cookies: Last for up to 14 days depending on preference settings.
  • Editing cookies: Expire after one day and store post ID only.

For more details, please see our Cookie Policy .

Embedded Content from Other Websites

Articles may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles). This content behaves as if the visitor has visited the external website directly. These sites may collect data, use cookies, and track interaction.

Analytics

We use third-party tools such as Google Analytics to monitor site usage. These tools may collect anonymised data such as IP address, browser type, and pages visited. This data is not used to identify individuals and is retained for a limited period.

Legal Basis for Processing Data

We process personal data under the following legal bases:

  • Consent – e.g. accepting cookies or submitting forms
  • Legitimate interest – e.g. spam prevention or analytics
  • Contractual necessity – e.g. providing a service you’ve requested
  • Legal obligation – e.g. complying with tax and regulatory requirements

Who We Share Your Data With

We only share data with trusted service providers to support our services, such as:

  • Website hosting providers
  • Email and form processing tools
  • Analytics platforms like Google Analytics

All third parties are required to process your data in compliance with GDPR.

International Data Transfers

Some service providers are based outside the EEA. Where this occurs, we ensure appropriate safeguards such as Standard Contractual Clauses are in place.

How Long We Retain Your Data

  • Comments: Retained indefinitely to enable automatic approval of future comments.
  • Contact form data: Retained for up to 12 months unless required longer.
  • User profiles: Stored until deleted by the user or upon request.

Your Rights Under GDPR

You have the right to:

  • Access the data we hold about you
  • Correct inaccurate data
  • Request deletion of your data
  • Object to processing
  • Request data portability
  • Withdraw consent at any time

To exercise these rights, contact us at [insert contact email].
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission at www.dataprotection.ie.

How We Protect Your Data

We use SSL encryption, access restrictions, secure passwords, and firewalls to protect your data.

Data Breach Procedures

In the event of a data breach, we will notify affected users and the Data Protection Commission within 72 hours, where required.

Automated Decision-Making

We do not carry out automated decision-making or profiling that has legal or significant effects.

Policy Updates

This policy may be updated periodically. Please check this page for the most recent version.