Privacy Policy

Last updated 2 September 2026. This policy describes what www.hanoitourism.org actually does today. When something changes — and the advertising section below is about to — this page is updated and the date above changes with it.

Who is responsible

Hanoi Tourism Guide (www.hanoitourism.org) is an independent travel publication about Hanoi, Vietnam. It is run by a single publisher and is the data controller for the information described here. To ask about your data, to request a copy of it, or to ask for it to be deleted, use the contact form.

What we collect

If you read the site and nothing else

You do not create an account, you cannot comment, and there is no newsletter to subscribe to. Reading a guide involves no form and no login.

Our host, DreamHost, keeps standard web server logs of requests to the site: IP address, date and time, the page requested, browser user agent and referring page. These are generated automatically by the server, are used for security and diagnostics, and are retained on the host’s own schedule. We do not use them to build a profile of you.

If you send us a message

The contact form asks for your name, email address, a topic and your message. That goes to the publisher’s email inbox and is used to reply to you and, where you have sent a correction, to fix the article. Contact form submissions are not added to any list, are not used for marketing, and are not shared. Messages are deleted once the matter is closed, and in any case within twelve months.

Analytics

The site uses Google Analytics 4, added through the Site Kit by Google plugin, to see which guides get read and how people arrive. This sets Google Analytics cookies in your browser and sends Google your IP address, pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser type, and how you got to the site. IP addresses are anonymised by Google Analytics 4 before being stored. We look at this data in aggregate. We do not attempt to identify individual readers from it, and we have never tried to link it to anything else.

We also use Google Search Console, which reports on search queries that led to the site. It works from Google’s own search logs and does not place anything in your browser.

You can opt out of Google Analytics entirely using Google’s browser add-on, which works across every site that uses it.

Advertising

As of the date at the top of this page, this site carries no advertising and no advertising cookies are set. We are in the process of applying to Google AdSense, and this section describes what will apply once ads are live. It will be rewritten in the present tense on the day the first ad appears.

When advertising is enabled, ads will be served by Google and its certified third-party vendors. Google uses cookies, including the DoubleClick DART cookie, to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visit to this site and other sites on the internet. You will be able to opt out of personalised advertising at any time through Google Ads Settings, and to opt out of third-party vendor cookies generally at aboutads.info/choices and youronlinechoices.com. Third-party vendors’ own use of data is governed by their own privacy policies, not this one.

Other cookies

WP Super Cache, which makes the site load faster, may set a cookie when a page is served that tells the cache not to serve you a stale copy. It is functional, contains no personal data and is not used for tracking. The contact form and WordPress itself may set short-lived cookies for spam prevention and to preserve what you typed if a submission fails.

Every cookie described here can be blocked or deleted through your browser’s settings. Blocking analytics or advertising cookies does not stop you reading anything on the site.

Consent, and where we are honest about a gap

If you are reading from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, you should know that this site does not currently present a consent banner before loading Google Analytics. A Google-certified consent management platform is being put in place and will be live before any advertising is enabled. Until then, if you would prefer that no analytics data is collected from your visit, use the Google Analytics opt-out add-on linked above or block third-party scripts in your browser, and nothing will be sent.

Legal bases (UK and EU GDPR)

• Server logs and security — legitimate interest in keeping the site running and defending it from abuse.
• Replying to your message — legitimate interest in answering someone who has chosen to write to us, and performance of the request you have made.
• Analytics and, in future, advertising — consent, once the consent platform described above is in place.

Who your data goes to

Google LLC, for analytics and search reporting, and in future for advertising. DreamHost, as our hosting provider. That is the list. We do not sell data, we do not trade it, and we have no advertising or data partners beyond Google. Data processed by Google and DreamHost may be stored on servers in the United States.

Your rights

If you are in the UK, EU, California or another jurisdiction with statutory data rights, you may ask for access to your personal data, correction of it, deletion of it, a portable copy, or that we stop processing it. Write to us through the contact form and we will respond within thirty days. In practice, the only personal data we hold about a reader is a contact form message, and we will delete it on request without argument. Californian readers should note that we have never sold or shared personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA, and there is nothing to opt out of.

If you think we have handled your data badly, tell us first — but you are entitled to complain to your national data protection authority, which in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Children

This site is written for adults planning travel and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent us their details through the contact form, tell us and we will delete the message.

External links

Our guides link out to embassies, Vietnam Railways, UNESCO, health authorities, hotel and restaurant websites and other travel resources. Once you follow one of those links you are on someone else’s site, under someone else’s privacy policy. We check that what we link to is relevant; we cannot vouch for how it handles your data.

Changes

Material changes to this policy will be reflected in the date at the top. The next change will be the advertising section moving from future tense to present tense.