Privacy and terms
Last updated: [date of publishing]
This page explains how The Coventry Pulse handles your personal information, and the terms for using our newsletter and website. If anything is unclear, email [email protected].
Privacy policy
Who we are
The Coventry Pulse is a free local email newsletter for Coventry and the CV postcode area, published at www.thecoventrypulse.co.uk. For the personal information described here, the data controller is The Coventry Pulse. You can contact us about privacy at [email protected]. Our registration with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is pending.
What we collect
- Your email address, when you sign up. We need it to send you the newsletter.
- How you use our emails and website, collected by our email platform, beehiiv: whether an email was delivered and opened, which links you clicked, how you found us (for example a link or a referral) and your approximate location (city, region and country), which is inferred from your IP address when you open or click. This location is approximate and often wrong, so we never treat it as your home address.
- Emails you send us, such as tips, corrections, questions or advertising enquiries, including your name and email address and anything you choose to include.
We don't ask for, and don't want, sensitive information such as health, religion or political views.
Why we use it, and our lawful basis
- Sending you the newsletter (Monday city news and the Thursday what's-on guide). Lawful basis: your consent, given when you sign up. You can withdraw it at any time with the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email.
- Understanding what readers find useful: for example, which stories and events get clicked and roughly which areas readers are in, so we cover the right places. We look at this mostly as totals. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in running and improving a free local newsletter.
- Replying to your emails and handling tips, corrections and complaints. Lawful basis: our legitimate interests in running the newsletter and putting mistakes right.
- Keeping the service safe (for example, stopping spam sign-ups) and meeting legal duties. Lawful basis: legitimate interests and legal obligation.
We don't sell your personal information. We don't share your email address with advertisers. Advertisers never get our subscriber list.
Who processes it for us
- beehiiv (beehiiv Inc., based in the United States) is our email and website platform. It stores our subscriber list, sends our emails, hosts this website and records the email and website activity described above. When beehiiv handles our subscribers' information, it acts as our processor, following our instructions. beehiiv also processes some information on its own behalf, for example to keep its service secure, prevent spam and abuse, and comply with the law. That processing is covered by beehiiv's own privacy policy: https://www.beehiiv.com/privacy.
- Our email provider for hello@, tips@, ads@ and editor@ holds the emails you send us.
- Social media: if you follow or message us on Facebook, Instagram or X, those platforms' own privacy policies apply.
International transfers
beehiiv is headquartered in the United States, and its policy says the people it shares information with are "located in the United States and elsewhere in the world". This means your information may be transferred outside the UK. beehiiv says it protects cross-border transfers "including through the use of regulator-approved Standard Contractual Clauses where appropriate". For transfers from the UK, we rely on the safeguards in our agreement with beehiiv.
How long we keep it
- Subscribers: while you're subscribed. If you unsubscribe, we stop emailing you straight away. We keep a minimal record that you unsubscribed so we don't email you again by mistake.
- Your emails to us: as long as needed to deal with them, and no more than 2 years. Corrections may be kept longer in our corrections log so we can show what we changed.
- beehiiv may keep backups for longer than the original data, as its own policy explains.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018) you have the right to:
- ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you;
- ask us to correct it, or to delete it;
- ask us to restrict how we use it, or object to how we use it (including for direct marketing, which includes our newsletter);
- receive your information in a portable format;
- withdraw your consent at any time (this doesn't affect what we did before you withdrew it).
To use any of these rights, email [email protected]. We'll reply within one month. The quickest way to stop our emails is the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every issue.
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, please tell us first so we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, or call 0303 123 1113.
Cookies and tracking
Our website is hosted by beehiiv. beehiiv's own privacy policy says it may use cookies, local storage and similar technologies, for example to keep the site working, remember choices and measure visits. Our emails contain small tracking images and tracked links so we can tell whether an email was opened and which links were clicked. Many email apps let you block images, which stops open tracking.
Children
The Coventry Pulse is written for adults. Please don't sign up if you're under 18. beehiiv's own privacy policy says its services aren't intended for under-18s either. If we learn that someone under 18 has signed up, we'll remove them.
Changes
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top. If the change is significant, we'll also tell subscribers in the newsletter.
Terms of use
A free service
The Coventry Pulse is free to read. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in every email. We may change, pause or stop the newsletter or website at any time.
Accuracy and corrections
We check every date, time, price and fact against a source we link to, and a person approves every issue before it goes out. But events change, and venues and organisers sometimes update details after we publish, so please check with the venue or organiser before you set off. We're not responsible for changes or cancellations made by others. If we get something wrong, we'll fix it and say so in the next issue. Tell us at [email protected].
Links to other websites
Our emails and website link to venues, organisers, news sources and other websites. We don't control those sites and aren't responsible for their content, tickets, prices or privacy practices.
Advertising
The Coventry Pulse is paid for by local advertising. Every ad is clearly labelled "Ad · Sponsored by" with the advertiser's name. An ad isn't a recommendation, and any purchase is between you and the advertiser. We don't take political ads.
Sending us tips and other material
When you send us an event, news tip, photo or other material:
- please only send what's true to the best of your knowledge, and only material you have the right to share;
- don't send anything unlawful, defamatory, abusive, political campaigning or advertising dressed up as a tip;
- we decide what to publish, and we may edit, shorten or not use it. We check tips before we publish them;
- by sending it, you allow us to use it, with credit where you ask for it, in the newsletter, on our website and on our social media;
- we'll treat your personal details in line with the privacy policy above, and won't publish your email address.
Our content
The newsletter and website content belongs to The Coventry Pulse or the people who supplied it. You're welcome to forward an issue or share a link. Please don't copy whole issues or republish our content elsewhere without asking.
Liability
Nothing in these terms limits any rights you have by law. As a free service, we're not liable for any loss caused by relying on information in the newsletter, except where the law doesn't allow us to limit that liability.
Law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.