Site information

Privacy Policy

Epilepsy: The Untold Side respects your privacy. This page explains how information submitted through this website is handled.

Information you choose to send

If you use the Contact form, we may receive your name, email address, subject and message. If you use Share Your Story, we may also receive your chosen credit preference, display name, story title, story text and the permissions you select.

How it is used

Contact information is used to respond to enquiries. Story submissions are reviewed privately and are not published automatically. A story is only considered for publication where the contributor has given permission, and the chosen attribution option is respected.

Who receives it

Form submissions are sent privately to the site administrator through the website’s contact-form system. The website is hosted by IONOS and uses WordPress and Contact Form 7 to provide the site and forms. Information may therefore be processed by service providers where technically necessary to operate the website and deliver messages.

Optional email newsletter

If you choose to subscribe to our free email updates, we collect your email address and your subscription preference through MailPoet, a WordPress newsletter service. MailPoet may process subscription information and technical delivery data needed to send messages, confirm consent, manage unsubscribes and prevent misuse. We use this information only for the newsletter you requested, not to diagnose conditions, and we do not automatically subscribe people who contact us or submit stories.

New subscribers are asked to confirm their subscription by email. Each newsletter includes an unsubscribe link. You can unsubscribe at any time, or contact us to request access, correction or deletion of newsletter information where applicable. The subscriber list is accessible to authorised site administrators and relevant email service providers. We retain subscription records while you are subscribed and retain any records needed to document consent or meet legal requirements for an appropriate period.

How long information is kept

Information is kept only for as long as reasonably necessary to respond to an enquiry, review a contribution, keep an appropriate record of publication permission, or meet legal and administrative requirements.

Your choices and rights

You can ask about personal information you have submitted, request corrections, or ask for deletion where applicable by using the Contact page. If you have given permission for a story to be published and later want to discuss that permission or attribution, please contact The Untold Side.

Technical information

Like most websites, the hosting platform and WordPress may process basic technical information such as IP addresses, browser information, security logs and essential cookies needed to operate and protect the site. We use Independent Analytics, a self-hosted, cookieless analytics plugin, to understand aggregate website use, including page views, visits, referral sources, approximate geographic location and device types. Its reporting data is stored in this website’s WordPress database and is available only to authorised WordPress administrators. The plugin uses a privacy-preserving visitor identifier rather than storing visitors’ raw IP addresses in its analytics reports. It does not record information entered into our contact or story-submission forms as part of those reports. If advertising or additional tracking tools are added later, this policy will be updated.

Contact

For a privacy question or request, use the Contact page. You can also find independent information about UK data-protection rights from the Information Commissioner’s Office.