This Privacy Policy explains how PhotoBarter (“we”, “us”), operated at photobarter.online, collects, uses and protects personal data of its visitors and students. It applies to the online course “PhotoBarter” — video lessons and related materials about bartering photography for hotel and restaurant stays — and to all interactions with this website.
One of our main priorities is the privacy of our visitors. This document describes the types of information that are collected and recorded by photobarter.online and how we use them. By using the Site, requesting the free trial lesson or purchasing the full course, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Policy.
This Policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website with regard to the information that they share and/or that we collect on the Site. It does not apply to information collected offline or through channels other than this website.
1. Who We Are (Data Controller)
For the purposes of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other applicable data protection laws, the data controller is PhotoBarter, an online educational project. If you have questions about this Policy or about the processing of your personal data, contact us at 9370660@gmail.com. We respond to legitimate inquiries within thirty (30) days.
2. Information We Collect
2.1. Information you provide voluntarily:
contact details — name and email address (and, if you choose, a phone number or messenger handle) submitted through our forms, such as the free trial request or the order form for the full course;
correspondence — the contents of any message and attachments you send us, including support and refund requests;
homework submissions — photographs and descriptions that students upload in the homework section of the course for review. Please submit only materials you have the right to share;
payment-related information — payments are processed by a third-party payment provider. We receive only the data needed to identify and deliver your access (payer’s name, email, order identifier) and never receive or store full card numbers or security codes.
2.2. Information collected automatically: server log files (IP addresses, browser type, ISP, date and time of requests, referring/exit pages, click data) used for security, administration and trend analysis; and one strictly necessary cookie (pb_acc) that stores your course access level in an authenticated form. It contains no personal identifiers beyond a signed access marker, expires after 30 days and cannot be used for advertising or tracking.
3. How We Use Your Information
provide, operate, secure and maintain the website and deliver the course materials, including granting and restoring access to lessons;
process orders and payments through our payment provider and issue access codes by email;
respond to your inquiries, provide customer support and handle refund requests in accordance with our Refund Rules;
review homework submissions and provide feedback to students;
send service and transactional communications (access codes, payment confirmations, important course updates);
send marketing communications where permitted, with an easy opt-out in every message;
understand and analyse how the Site is used in order to improve content, structure and user experience;
detect, prevent and address fraud, abuse and technical issues;
comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.
4. Legal Bases for Processing (GDPR)
If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, we process your personal data only where we have a legal basis to do so under Article 6 of the GDPR:
performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) — your contact details, access codes, homework and payment identifiers are processed to deliver the course you requested or purchased;
legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) — log files and essential cookies to secure the Site, prevent fraud and improve our services, provided such interests are not overridden by your rights;
consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) — marketing emails and, where required, non-essential cookies; you may withdraw consent at any time without affecting processing already carried out;
compliance with a legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) — retaining order and payment records where required by tax, accounting or consumer protection law.
5. Cookies and Similar Technologies
The Site uses a minimal cookie approach. We set only one strictly necessary cookie: pb_acc, which remembers your permission to view the lessons you are entitled to (free trial or full course). It is essential for the website to function as a paid product and cannot be disabled without losing access to the course materials.
Lesson pages embed video from YouTube. When you press play, YouTube (Google) may set its own cookies and process data in accordance with the Google Privacy Policy. You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings at any time; see allaboutcookies.org for general guidance.
6. Third-Party Services We Rely On
We share personal data only with the categories of processors listed below, each of which processes data under its own privacy policy and only to the extent necessary to provide its service to us:
hosting provider — serves the website files and stores server logs;
payment provider — processes payments for the course; we do not receive or store your full card details;
email services — deliver transactional and, where consented, marketing emails;
YouTube / Google — hosts the video lessons embedded in the course.
We do not sell or rent your personal data, and we do not use third-party advertising networks, ad servers or web beacons on this Site. This Policy does not apply to third-party websites; we encourage you to review the privacy policies of any external services you visit through links on our pages.
7. International Data Transfers
Your personal information may be processed in countries other than your own, including countries outside the European Economic Area. Where we transfer personal data from the EEA or the UK to a country that has not been recognised as providing an adequate level of protection, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, and take steps to ensure that your data remains protected in accordance with this Policy.
8. Data Retention
We keep personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Policy: contact details and correspondence — for the duration of our communication and any applicable warranty or refund period; order and payment records — for the period required by tax and accounting legislation; homework submissions — while your course access is active and for a reasonable period afterwards; server logs — for a limited technical period. When data is no longer needed, it is securely deleted or anonymised.
9. Data Security
We apply reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal data, including encrypted (HTTPS) connections, access control based on signed cookies, limited administrative access and regular backups. However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If you believe your interaction with us is no longer secure, please notify us immediately.
10. Your Rights in the EU/EEA (GDPR)
If you are located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you have the following data protection rights, subject to the conditions set out in the GDPR:
the right to access — request copies of the personal data we hold about you;
the right to rectification — request correction of inaccurate data or completion of incomplete data;
the right to erasure — request deletion of your personal data under certain conditions;
the right to restrict processing — request restriction of processing under certain conditions;
the right to object to processing — object to processing based on legitimate interests and to direct marketing;
the right to data portability — receive the data you provided in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or have it transferred to another organisation;
the right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, at any time;
the right to lodge a complaint — with your local data protection supervisory authority.
We respond to such requests within one month of receipt and do not charge a fee unless the request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. We may ask you to verify your identity before disclosing data. To exercise these rights, contact us at 9370660@gmail.com.
11. Your Rights in the United States
11.1. California (CCPA/CPRA). Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act, California residents have the right to:
know — request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information collected about you, the categories of sources, the business purposes and the categories of third parties to whom it was disclosed;
delete — request deletion of personal information we have collected, subject to statutory exceptions;
correct — request correction of inaccurate personal information;
opt out of sale or sharing — we do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of;
non-discrimination — we will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.
Categories of personal information we may collect about California consumers include: identifiers (name, email address, IP address); commercial information (records of course purchases); internet activity (pages visited on this Site); and user content (homework photographs and correspondence). We retain these categories for the periods described in Section 8.
11.2. Other U.S. states. If you are a resident of Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon or another U.S. state with a comprehensive consumer privacy law, you may have similar rights, including the right to confirm whether we process your personal data, to access and correct it, to delete it, to obtain a portable copy, and to opt out of targeted advertising, the sale of personal data or certain profiling. As stated above, we do not sell personal data and do not run targeted advertising on this Site.
To exercise any right available to you under U.S. law, email us at 9370660@gmail.com. We will verify your request and respond within the time frame required by the applicable law (up to 45 days where permitted).
12. Children’s Privacy
The Site and the course are not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 13, in accordance with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). If you think that your child provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records. In the EEA, where processing of a minor’s data is based on consent, we require such consent to be given or authorised by the holder of parental responsibility in accordance with local law.
13. Do Not Track Signals
Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” (DNT) signal. Because we do not track visitors across third-party websites for advertising purposes, DNT settings have no effect on how this Site operates.
14. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, the course or legal requirements. The current version is always published on this page with an updated “Last updated” date. Continued use of the Site after an update constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy.
15. Contact Us
If you have additional questions, require more information about this Privacy Policy, or wish to exercise any of your rights, do not hesitate to contact us by email at 9370660@gmail.com. We aim to respond within one month of receiving your request.