Privacy Policy


Effective Date / Last Updated: July 18, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how PlaceQuester (“PlaceQuester,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses, and safeguards information in connection with the website located at https://placequester.com (the “Site”). It also explains the choices and legal rights available to you, including rights recognized under the EU/UK General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (together, the “CCPA”).

By accessing or using the Site, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the practices described here, please discontinue use of the Site.

In this Policy:

  1. Information We Collect
  2. Cookies We Use
  3. Analytics & Performance Monitoring
  4. Third-Party Advertising, Including Google AdSense
  5. Affiliate Links & Commission Tracking
  6. Embedded Content From Other Websites
  7. Who We Share Your Data With
  8. Where Your Data Is Sent
  9. How Long We Retain Your Data
  10. Your Privacy Rights Under the GDPR
  11. Your Privacy Rights Under the CCPA
  12. Exercising Your Rights
  13. Children’s Privacy
  14. Data Security
  15. Changes to This Privacy Policy
  16. Contact Us

1. Information We Collect

Comments

When a visitor leaves a comment on the Site, we collect the data included in the comment form, together with that visitor’s IP address and browser user-agent string, which we use to assist with spam detection.

An anonymized string created from your email address (a “hash”) may be shared with the Gravatar service operated by Automattic, to check whether you have an associated Gravatar account. Gravatar’s data practices are governed by Automattic’s own privacy policy, available at https://automattic.com/privacy/. Once a comment is approved, your profile picture, if any, is displayed publicly next to your comment.

Media & Uploaded Images

Images uploaded to the Site may contain embedded location data (EXIF GPS metadata). Anyone uploading images to the Site should remove or avoid including this metadata, because visitors to the Site can download images and extract any embedded location data from them.

Account Information

Where account registration is available on the Site, we store the personal information provided in a user’s profile. Registered users may view, edit, or delete their personal information at any time, except that a username cannot be changed once set. Site administrators can also view and edit this information for account-management and security purposes.

2. Cookies We Use

Comment Cookies

If you leave a comment, you may opt in to having your name, email address, and website saved in cookies. This is solely for your convenience, so you do not have to re-enter this information the next time you comment. These cookies expire after one year.

Login Cookies

When you visit our login page, a temporary cookie is set to test whether your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded as soon as you close your browser.

When you log in, we also set cookies to store your login information and your screen-display preferences. Login cookies last for two days, and screen-option cookies last for one year. If you select “Remember Me” at login, this cookie persists for two weeks. Logging out of your account removes your login cookies.

Content-Editing Cookies

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie is stored in your browser. This cookie contains no personal data — it simply records the post ID of the article you edited — and it expires after one day.

Performance & Caching Cookies

As described in Section 3, we use caching and performance technology, including LiteSpeed Cache, to accelerate page delivery. This may involve strictly technical cookies used to manage how cached content is served (for example, distinguishing a logged-in session from a logged-out one). These cookies are functional in nature and are not used for advertising or cross-site tracking.

Advertising & Affiliate Cookies

Third-party advertising cookies and affiliate-tracking cookies are described in Sections 4 and 5 below.

3. Analytics & Performance Monitoring

We use performance-optimization technology — including LiteSpeed Cache — together with web analytics tools, to monitor the Site’s technical performance and aggregate, non-personally identifiable traffic patterns. This includes information such as page-load times, cache efficiency, general visitor volume by page, browser and device type, and referring pages.

This data is analyzed in the aggregate and is used solely to maintain, secure, and improve the Site. It is not used to individually identify visitors, and we do not combine it with other information in a way that would identify a specific person.

4. Third-Party Advertising, Including Google AdSense

We display advertisements on the Site through Google AdSense and may work with other third-party advertising vendors. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a visitor’s prior visits to this Site or other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables Google and its partners to serve ads to visitors based on their visits to this Site and/or other sites on the Internet — a practice commonly known as interest-based or personalized advertising. (Some of the cookies used for this purpose descend from, and are still occasionally referred to in industry shorthand as, the historical Google “DART cookie” originally associated with Google’s DoubleClick ad-serving platform.)

Your choices. You can control or opt out of personalized advertising through:

  • Google’s Ads Settings / My Ad Center — manage or turn off ad personalization for your Google Account at myadcenter.google.com, or via your Google Account’s Data & Privacy settings.
  • Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) — opt out of interest-based advertising from NAI member companies at optout.networkadvertising.org.
  • Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) — opt out of participating companies’ interest-based advertising at optout.aboutads.info.

These opt-out tools are specific to the browser and device used to set them, so you may need to repeat this process on each device or browser you use. Opting out does not stop advertisements from appearing on the Site; it stops those advertisements from being personalized to your browsing activity.

Visitors in the EEA, UK, and Switzerland. Non-essential advertising and analytics cookies are placed only after you provide consent through the Site’s cookie-consent mechanism, consistent with Google’s EU User Consent Policy and applicable EU and UK data protection law. You may withdraw or adjust that consent at any time through the same mechanism.

5. Affiliate Links & Commission Tracking

The Site contains affiliate links to third-party travel service providers, including Viator, GetYourGuide, and Booking.com. When you click one of these links, the destination provider sets a third-party tracking cookie on your browser. That cookie is used exclusively to attribute any resulting booking, reservation, or purchase back to PlaceQuester for the purpose of earning a referral commission.

This affiliate-tracking cookie does not collect or transmit personally identifying information to us, and we do not receive your payment details, booking information, or other personal data through it. If you proceed to book or purchase through an affiliate partner’s site, any personal information you provide at that point is collected and processed by that third party under its own privacy policy, which we encourage you to review before completing a transaction.

6. Embedded Content From Other Websites

Pages on the Site may include embedded content, such as videos, maps, images, or articles sourced from other websites. Embedded content behaves in exactly the same way as if you had visited the other website directly.

These third-party websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with the embedded content — including tracking your interaction if you have an account and are logged in to that third-party website.

7. Who We Share Your Data With

We share limited categories of data as follows:

  • Password reset requests. If you request a password reset, your IP address is included in the password-reset email.
  • Spam detection. Comments submitted to the Site are checked through an automated spam-detection service, which evaluates comment content and associated metadata, such as IP address, to identify likely spam.
  • Advertising partners. As described in Section 4, Google and other advertising vendors receive cookie-based data in order to serve interest-based advertisements.
  • Affiliate partners. As described in Section 5, affiliate partners such as Viator, GetYourGuide, and Booking.com receive cookie-based referral data in order to attribute bookings to PlaceQuester.
  • Service providers. We may share limited data with vendors that support Site operations, such as web hosting and performance/caching providers, strictly to operate, secure, and maintain the Site.

We do not sell your personal information in exchange for money. However, our use of advertising cookies as described in Section 4 may be considered a “sale” or “share” of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising under the CCPA. Section 11 explains how to opt out of that sharing.

8. Where Your Data Is Sent

  • Comments may be checked through an automated, third-party spam-detection service.
  • Data associated with advertising cookies is transmitted to Google and its advertising partners, which may process that data outside your country of residence, including in the United States.
  • Data associated with affiliate-tracking cookies is transmitted to the relevant affiliate network (such as Viator, GetYourGuide, or Booking.com), which may likewise process that data outside your country of residence.
  • Where personal data originating in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland is transferred to a country without an equivalent data-protection framework, we require our service providers to rely on a legally recognized transfer mechanism, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or the UK’s International Data Transfer Addendum, as applicable.

9. How Long We Retain Your Data

  • If you leave a comment, the comment and its associated metadata are retained indefinitely. This allows us to recognize and automatically approve legitimate follow-up comments, rather than holding every comment in a moderation queue.
  • For registered users, we retain the personal information stored in their profile for as long as the account remains active. Users may view, edit, or delete this information at any time, except that a username cannot be changed. Site administrators may also view and edit this information.
  • Advertising and affiliate-tracking cookies persist for the retention period set by the relevant third-party vendor, which commonly ranges from 30 days to 2 years depending on the cookie and vendor.
  • Beyond the specific retention periods above, we retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Policy, or as required by applicable law, taxation, accounting, or security obligations.

10. Your Privacy Rights Under the GDPR (EU, EEA, and UK Residents)

If you are located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, applicable data protection law gives you the following rights over your personal data:

  • Right of access (Art. 15 GDPR) — request confirmation of whether we process your personal data, and a copy of that data.
  • Right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR) — request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
  • Right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR) — request deletion of your personal data, subject to the exceptions described in Section 12.
  • Right to restrict processing (Art. 18 GDPR) — request that we limit how we use your data in specific circumstances.
  • Right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR) — receive your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or have it transmitted to another controller.
  • Right to object (Art. 21 GDPR) — object to our processing of your data, including processing carried out for interest-based advertising.
  • Right to withdraw consent (Art. 7(3) GDPR) — where processing relies on your consent (for example, non-essential cookies), withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.
  • Right to lodge a complaint (Art. 77 GDPR) — with the data protection supervisory authority in your country of residence, place of work, or the location of the alleged infringement.

Legal basis for processing. We process comment and account data on the basis of your consent and, where applicable, to perform our agreement with you (for example, maintaining your account). We process IP addresses and related metadata connected to spam detection and Site security on the basis of our legitimate interest in maintaining a safe, functional Site. Non-essential cookies — including advertising and analytics cookies — are placed on the basis of your consent, obtained through the Site’s cookie-consent mechanism.

11. Your Privacy Rights Under the CCPA (California Residents)

If you are a California resident, the CCPA gives you the following rights:

  • Right to know / access — request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected, the categories of sources, the business purpose for collecting it, and the categories of third parties with whom it has been shared or sold.
  • Right to delete — request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain statutory exceptions.
  • Right to correct — request correction of inaccurate personal information we maintain about you.
  • Right to opt out of sale or sharing — direct us to stop “selling” or “sharing” your personal information, including for the type of cross-context behavioral advertising described in Section 4.
  • Right to limit use of sensitive personal information — where applicable to the categories of data we process.
  • Right to non-discrimination — we will not deny goods or services, charge different prices, or provide a different level of service because you exercised any of these rights.

Opting out of sale/sharing. You may opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information by contacting us using the details in Section 16, or by adjusting your cookie preferences through the Site’s cookie-consent mechanism where available. We honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, where technically detectable, as a valid request to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for the browser or device sending the signal. We do not currently respond to legacy, browser-based “Do Not Track” signals, since no common industry standard for interpreting them has been adopted.

Authorized agents. You may designate an authorized agent to submit a CCPA request on your behalf. We may require proof of the agent’s authorization and independent verification of your identity before fulfilling the request.

12. Exercising Your Rights

To exercise any of the rights described in Sections 10 and 11, contact us at privacy@placequester.com. If you have an account on the Site, or have left comments, you may request an exported file containing the personal data we hold about you, or request that we erase it.

Erasure requests do not extend to data we are legally required to retain for administrative, legal, security, tax, or fraud-prevention purposes.

We take reasonable steps to verify your identity before fulfilling a request. We aim to respond to GDPR requests within one month of receipt (extendable by a further two months for complex requests, with notice to you), and to CCPA requests within 45 days of receipt (extendable by a further 45 days, with notice to you), or such other period as applicable law requires.

13. Children’s Privacy

The Site is not directed to children under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information without appropriate parental or guardian consent, please contact us using the details in Section 16, and we will take steps to investigate and, where appropriate, delete that information.

14. Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect personal data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. No method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, the services we use, or applicable law. The Effective Date at the top of this Policy reflects the date of the most recent revision. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically.

16. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, or wish to exercise any of the rights described above, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@placequester.com Website: https://placequester.com