Privacy Policy

Skip to Malou

Last updated: 22 September 2026

Skip to Malou ("the blog", "we", "us", "our") is a travel, family and slow-living blog published from Barbados at skiptomalouuu.com. This policy explains what personal information we collect from readers, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the rights you have over it.

We are the data controller for the personal information described here. If you have any question about this policy, or want to exercise any of the rights set out below, write to skiptomalouuu@gmail.com.

1. The law this policy follows

This blog is based in Barbados and our handling of personal information is governed by the Data Protection Act, 2019-29 of Barbados, overseen by the Barbados Data Protection Commission.

Because our readers come from all over the world, we also honour the rights given to readers in other places:

  • If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, the UK/EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to you, and Section 9 sets out your rights.

  • If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the CPRA applies to you, and Section 10 sets out your rights.

Where these frameworks differ, we apply whichever gives you the stronger protection.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you give us

What When you give it Why we need it Name and email address Subscribing to the newsletter, downloading a free guide To send you the emails or guide you asked for Name, email address, message Using the contact form or emailing us To answer you Name, email, billing details Buying a digital product To complete the sale and deliver the file Name, email, comment text Leaving a comment on a post To publish and moderate the comment Anything else you choose to send Emails, collaboration enquiries, media enquiries To respond and, where relevant, work together

Please don't send us sensitive personal information — health details, identification numbers, financial account numbers — through the contact form or comments. We don't need it and we'd rather not hold it.

2.2 Information collected automatically

When you visit the blog, certain information is collected automatically by our website platform and analytics tools:

  • IP address and approximate location (usually city or country level)

  • Browser type, device type and operating system

  • Pages viewed, time on page, and the link or search that brought you here

  • Cookie identifiers (see Section 5)

2.3 Payment information

If you buy a digital product, payment is taken by our payment provider. We never see or store your full card number. We receive only confirmation of payment and the details we need to send you your purchase.

3. Why we use your information, and on what legal basis

Purpose Legal basis Sending the newsletter and free guides Your consent — you asked to receive them Delivering a digital product you bought Performance of a contract with you Replying to your emails and enquiries Our legitimate interest in responding to readers, or steps toward a contract Publishing and moderating comments Your consent, and our legitimate interest in running a civil comment section Measuring traffic and improving the blog Your consent for non-essential analytics cookies; otherwise our legitimate interest in understanding what readers find useful Keeping records for tax and accounting Compliance with a legal obligation Protecting the site from spam, fraud and abuse Our legitimate interest in keeping the site secure

You can withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawing it doesn't affect anything we did lawfully beforehand.

4. The services we use

We run a small blog on third-party platforms, and those platforms process reader information on our behalf or, in some cases, in their own right:

  • Website hosting: Squarespace, which also provides the blog's built-in visitor statistics

  • Site analytics: Google Analytics, provided by Google

  • Email: Google (Gmail). Reader enquiries, replies and any newsletter we send are handled through a Gmail account, so your name, email address and the contents of your message are stored in Google's systems

  • Payments: Squarespace Commerce, which uses Stripe and PayPal to process card payments

  • Social platforms: Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook, where embedded content or share buttons appear on the blog

  • Affiliate networks: see Section 6

Each of these has its own privacy policy governing what it does with the data it collects. We don't sell your personal information to anyone, and we don't share it with third parties for their own marketing.

5. Cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small files placed on your device. This blog uses:

  • Essential cookies — needed for the site to work, for example to keep items in a cart or remember that you've dismissed a banner. These can't be switched off.

  • Analytics cookies — to count visits and understand which posts readers use. These are set only after you agree.

  • Affiliate tracking cookies — set by our affiliate partners when you click one of their links, so that a booking or purchase is credited to this blog (see Section 6).

  • Social and embed cookies — set by Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube or similar when their content is embedded in a post.

When you first arrive, a cookie banner asks whether you accept. Until you choose, only the essential cookies needed to serve the page are set — analytics and other non-essential cookies stay switched off. You can select Accept all, Decline all, or Manage cookies to choose category by category, and you can change your mind at any time using the Cookie Preferences link that stays on the site.

You can also clear or block cookies in your browser settings. Blocking analytics or affiliate cookies won't stop you reading the blog; blocking essential cookies may break parts of it.

6. Affiliate links and sponsored content

Some posts contain affiliate links. If you click one and go on to book or buy something, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Our affiliate partners include programmes such as Booking.com, Expedia, Viator, GetYourGuide and the Amazon Associates programme, among others. When you click an affiliate link, the partner may set a cookie on your device to attribute the booking. What that partner then collects is governed by their privacy policy, not ours.

Some posts are sponsored, gifted or produced in partnership with a brand, hotel or tourism body. These are always disclosed within the post. A sponsor does not get access to your personal information unless you separately give it to them — for example, by entering a giveaway they run, in which case we'll say so clearly at the time.

Recommendations on this blog reflect our own experience. A commission or a partnership doesn't buy a good review.

7. Sharing your information

We share personal information only with:

  • Service providers who run the blog's infrastructure — hosting, email delivery, payments, analytics — and only so they can provide that service to us

  • Professional advisers such as an accountant, where needed

  • Authorities, where we're legally required to disclose information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.

8. Sending information outside Barbados

Our hosting, email and analytics providers are based mainly in the United States and Europe, so your information will be processed outside Barbados. Where we transfer personal information out of Barbados, the EEA or the UK, we rely on our providers' contractual safeguards — including Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK International Data Transfer Addendum where they apply — and on the adequacy decisions that cover the receiving country, as required by section 26 of the Data Protection Act, 2019-29 and by the GDPR.

9. Your rights

Under the Barbados Data Protection Act, 2019-29 and the GDPR, you may ask us to:

  • Tell you what personal information we hold about you and why, and give you a copy

  • Correct information that is wrong or incomplete

  • Delete your information, where we have no continuing reason to keep it

  • Restrict how we use it while a question about it is resolved

  • Port the information you gave us to another service, in a machine-readable form

  • Object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to direct marketing at any time

  • Stop automated decision-making about you — though we don't do any

To exercise any of these, email skiptomalouuu@gmail.com. We'll respond within 30 days. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we'll tell you if a request takes longer or can't be met in full, and why.

You can unsubscribe from our emails at any time by using the unsubscribe link where one is provided, or simply by replying with the word "unsubscribe" — we'll remove you and confirm that we've done it.

Complaints

If you think we've mishandled your information, please tell us first — most things are fixed quickly. You also have the right to complain to the regulator:

Data Protection Commission
5th Floor, SSA Building, Vaucluse, St. Thomas, Barbados
Tel: (246) 536-1200 / (246) 536-1212

Readers in the EEA or the UK may instead complain to their own national supervisory authority or, in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office.

10. California residents

If you are a California resident, you have the right to know what personal information we collect and why, to request a copy of it, to request its deletion, to request correction, and not to be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.

In the last 12 months we have collected the categories of information described in Section 2: identifiers (name, email, IP address), commercial information (purchases), and internet activity (pages viewed, referring links). We collect it for the purposes in Section 3 and share it only with the service providers in Section 4.

We do not sell or share your personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA/CPRA, and we do not sell the personal information of anyone under 16.

To make a request, email skiptomalouuu@gmail.com with "California privacy request" in the subject line. You may use an authorised agent; we'll ask for proof of their authority.

11. Children

This blog is written for adults and is not directed at children. We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us their information, email skiptomalouuu@gmail.com and we'll delete it.

Posts on this blog sometimes describe family travel and parenting. Where a child appears in our own content, that is our editorial choice as a family and no information about any child is collected from readers.

12. How long we keep information

  • Newsletter subscribers: until you unsubscribe, and then for a short period to record that you opted out

  • Purchase and tax records: for as long as Barbados tax law requires

  • Contact form messages and emails: up to two years, unless the conversation is ongoing

  • Comments: for as long as the post is published, unless you ask us to remove yours

  • Analytics data: in aggregate, and in line with the retention period set in our Google Analytics account (currently 14 months for user-level data)

13. Security

We use reputable hosting and payment providers, keep accounts protected with strong passwords and two-factor authentication where available, and limit access to reader information to those who need it. No website can promise perfect security, but if a breach happens that is likely to put your rights at risk, we will notify the Data Protection Commission within 72 hours of becoming aware of it and tell you directly where the law requires.

14. Links to other sites

This blog links to hotels, restaurants, tour operators, shops and other blogs. We're not responsible for their privacy practices. Read their policies before giving them your information.

15. Changes to this policy

We'll update this policy when the blog changes or the law does. The date at the top always shows the current version. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we'll say so on the blog or by email.

16. Contact

Skip to Malou
Barbados
Email: skiptomalouuu@gmail.com