Our Privacy Policy
Last updated: 25 August 2026
At MatineeDog.com, we take your privacy seriously.
This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we may collect when you visit or interact with MatineeDog.com, why we collect it, how it may be used and the rights you have over your personal information.
We aim to collect only the information that is reasonably necessary to operate MatineeDog, communicate with our readers and provide a safe and useful website.
We do not sell your personal information.
Information We May Collect
You can browse MatineeDog.com without directly providing us with personal information such as your name or email address.
However, we may collect personal information when you choose to interact with the website, including when you:
- leave a comment;
- contact us;
- subscribe to our email newsletter;
- enter a competition or promotion, where offered; or
- create or use an account, where this functionality is available.
Certain technical information may also be collected automatically when you visit the website. This can include your IP address, browser type, device information and other technical information required to operate, secure and maintain the website.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on MatineeDog.com, we collect the information entered into the comments form. We may also collect the visitor’s IP address and browser user-agent information to help with spam detection, moderation and website security.
Comments may be checked using an automated spam-detection service.
If you use a service such as Gravatar, an anonymised string created from your email address may be provided to that service to determine whether you have an associated profile image. Once your comment has been approved, your profile image may be publicly visible alongside your comment.
Please remember that any information you choose to include within a publicly visible comment may be seen by other visitors.
Email Newsletter and Mailchimp
Matinée Dog offers an optional email newsletter containing theatre news, reviews, features, competitions and other updates from MatineeDog.com.
If you choose to subscribe, we will collect your email address and any other information you voluntarily provide when signing up.
We use Mailchimp, operated by Intuit, to manage our mailing list and deliver Matinée Dog newsletters.
When you subscribe, information such as your email address and subscription preferences may therefore be processed by Mailchimp on our behalf for the purposes of managing your subscription and delivering our emails.
Mailchimp may also provide tools that allow us to understand how subscribers interact with our newsletters, such as whether an email has been opened or a link has been clicked. If we use these features, this information may help us understand which Matinée Dog content readers find useful and improve future newsletters.
We will use your newsletter information to send you MatineeDog news and updates that you have chosen to receive. We will not sell our mailing list or your email address to third parties.
You can unsubscribe at any time by using the unsubscribe link included at the bottom of our newsletters. You may also contact us and ask to be removed from the mailing list.
After you unsubscribe, we or our email service provider may retain limited information where necessary to record your request and help ensure you are not accidentally added back to the mailing list.
Where consent is required, we will only add you to our marketing mailing list after you have actively chosen to subscribe. Mailchimp may process personal information outside the United Kingdom. Where applicable, appropriate safeguards are used for international transfers of personal information.
You can find further information about how Mailchimp processes personal information in Mailchimp’s own privacy documentation.
Cookies
MatineeDog.com uses cookies and similar technologies to help the website operate correctly and, where applicable, remember your preferences and understand how the website is used.
A cookie is a small piece of information stored on your device when you visit a website. Some cookies are necessary for the website to function. Other cookies, such as those associated with analytics, advertising or certain third-party services, may require your consent.
Where required, non-essential cookies will only be used after you have provided consent.
Login Cookies
If you visit a login page, a temporary cookie may be used to determine whether your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal information and is normally removed when you close your browser.
If you log into Matinée Dog, cookies may be used to remember your login details and display preferences.
Login cookies generally last for two days, while display preference cookies may last for up to one year. If you select Remember Me, your login may remain active for up to two weeks. Logging out will remove the relevant login cookies.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie may be stored in your browser. This contains no personal information and simply identifies the article you have edited. It normally expires after one day.
Managing Cookies
You can control or delete cookies using your browser settings.
Where Matinée Dog provides a cookie consent tool, you may also be able to use it to manage your preferences for non-essential cookies. Please be aware that disabling necessary cookies may affect the way certain parts of the website work.
Analytics
We may use analytics services to help us understand how visitors use MatineeDog.com. This may include information such as which articles are viewed, how visitors arrive at the website, approximately how long they spend on pages and general information about the browser or device being used.
We use this information to understand our readership and improve Matinée Dog and its content.
Where analytics involves cookies or similar technologies that require consent, these will only be activated after the appropriate consent has been provided.
Embedded Content From Other Websites
Articles on Matinée Dog may include embedded content from other websites. Examples can include videos, images, social media posts and other interactive content. Embedded content behaves in much the same way as it would if you visited the third-party website directly.
These third-party websites may collect information about you, use cookies or similar technologies and monitor how you interact with their content. If you have an account with the third-party service and are logged into it, that service may also be able to associate your interaction with your account.
Third-party services operate according to their own privacy policies. Matinée Dog does not control how those organisations process your personal information.
Links to Other Websites
Matinée Dog regularly links to external websites, including theatres, productions, ticketing providers, venues and other organisations that we think may be useful to our readers. Clicking a link and leaving Matinée Dog means that the privacy practices of the website you visit will apply.
We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security or content of third-party websites.
We recommend reviewing the privacy information provided by those websites before supplying them with personal information.
Media and Images
If you are able to upload images to MatineeDog.com, you should avoid uploading photographs containing embedded location information, such as EXIF GPS data.
Visitors may be able to download publicly available images from the website and extract any location information embedded within them.
How We Use Your Information
Depending on how you interact with Matinée Dog, information we collect may be used to:
- operate and maintain MatineeDog.com;
- respond to enquiries and comments;
- moderate comments and prevent spam;
- maintain the security of the website;
- deliver our email newsletter when you have subscribed;
- understand how visitors use the website;
- improve our articles, features and services;
- administer competitions or promotions where applicable; and
- meet legal, regulatory or security requirements.
We will only use personal information where we have an appropriate legal basis for doing so.
Depending on the circumstances, this may include your consent, our legitimate interests in operating and protecting MatineeDog, fulfilling a request you have made, or complying with a legal obligation.
How Long We Keep Your Information
We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, unless we are required to retain it for longer for legal, administrative or security reasons.
If you leave a comment, the comment and its associated metadata may be retained indefinitely. This allows us to recognise and approve legitimate follow-up comments rather than automatically placing them into moderation.
If registered user accounts are available, personal information supplied within a user profile may be stored for as long as the account remains active or as otherwise necessary to operate the website.
Registered users can generally view, edit or delete personal information within their profile, although usernames may not be changeable. Website administrators may also access and edit this information where necessary to administer the website.
Newsletter information will generally be retained while you remain subscribed. If you unsubscribe, limited information may be retained to record your unsubscribe request.
Your Data Protection Rights
Under UK data-protection law, you may have a number of rights concerning your personal information, depending on the circumstances.
These can include the right to:
- ask what personal information we hold about you;
- request a copy of your personal information;
- ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
- ask us to delete your personal information in certain circumstances;
- ask us to restrict how your information is used in certain circumstances;
- object to certain uses of your personal information;
- withdraw your consent where we rely on consent; and
- request information you have provided to us in a portable format where applicable.
If you have an account with Matinée Dog or have left comments, you can contact us to request an exported copy of personal information we hold about you.
You may also ask us to erase personal information we hold about you.
These rights are not absolute. In some circumstances we may be required or permitted to retain information for legal, administrative, fraud-prevention or security purposes.
Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing that took place before consent was withdrawn.
Keeping Your Information Secure
We take reasonable steps to protect the information processed through MatineeDog.com from unauthorised access, loss, misuse or disclosure.
However, no website, online service or method of electronic storage can guarantee complete security.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. This may be necessary when we introduce new Matinée Dog features or services, change the third-party services we use or need to reflect changes in applicable law or guidance.
When we make significant changes, we will update the Last updated date at the top of this page. We recommend checking this page occasionally for the latest version.
Contact MatineeDog
If you have a question about this Privacy Policy, want to exercise your data-protection rights or have a concern about how your personal information has been handled, please contact us using the contact details provided on MatineeDog.com.
If you are unhappy with how your personal information has been handled, you may also have the right to make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent data-protection regulator.