Privacy Policy

Effective Date: 3rd of June, 2025

This Privacy Policy explains how VaCiKa (www.vacika.com) collects, uses, stores, and protects your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”).

1. Who We Are

VaCiKa is a digital archive and research platform dedicated to the documentation of historical entertainment data. For all data-related matters, you can contact us at: [email protected].

2. Data We Collect

When you use our Services, we may collect the following personal data:

  • Your name

  • Email address (also used for occasional newsletter communication)

  • Optionally, your date of birth

  • Payment history (stored for accounting and record-keeping purposes)

3. How We Collect Your Data

Your data is collected through the following means:

  • Registration and account forms

  • Cookies used for user session identification and basic analytics

  • Bank transfer confirmation and manual entry of payment records

  • PayPal donation or payment confirmations (see Section 5)

4. Why We Collect Your Data

We collect and process your personal data exclusively for the following purposes:

  • To create and manage your VaCiKa account

  • To verify payment and provide access to subscription services

  • To send relevant service updates or newsletters (you can unsubscribe at any time)

  • To analyse usage trends and improve the service

5. Payment Information

VaCiKa does not process or store credit card or banking details directly. Payments may be made via bank transfer or PayPal. For PayPal transactions, basic payment information (payer name, amount, email address, and transaction date) is processed through PayPal in accordance with their Privacy Policy.

We securely store records of transactions for legal and administrative purposes. There is no automatic renewal of subscriptions.

6. Data from Public Sources

VaCiKa’s historical database contains data sourced from publicly available, officially printed materials such as books, journals, posters, programmes, and exhibition catalogues. Some of this content may include personal data, particularly regarding performers and contributors to historical entertainment events.

If you discover personal data in our database that identifies you and believe it exceeds your lawful Right to Know, you may request removal. Please send the exact location (URL or citation) of the content to [email protected].

To verify your identity for such requests, we may require a valid legal identification document. This ensures we only act on genuine data protection requests.

7. Data Storage and Third Parties

Your personal data is securely stored in MongoDB Atlas Cloud, a GDPR-compliant platform with industry-standard encryption and access controls. We also use Sentry.io, a third-party application monitoring and error tracking service. Sentry helps us identify and fix technical issues in real time. In the course of doing so, it may temporarily process anonymised diagnostic data (such as your IP address, browser type, and error logs). Sentry is GDPR-compliant and does not use the data for its own purposes. Data is processed solely to maintain the security and performance of the site.

We do not sell or share your personal data with third parties for advertising or marketing purposes. We do not sell or share your personal data with third parties for advertising or marketing.

8. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data on the basis of:

  • Contractual necessity – to provide you with the services you have subscribed to

  • Consent – for receiving newsletters or other communications

  • Legitimate interest – to analyse service usage and improve performance

9. Your Rights

Under the GDPR, you have the right to:

  • Access the personal data we hold about you

  • Request correction or deletion of your data

  • Withdraw your consent at any time (where processing is based on consent)

  • Object to the processing of your data on grounds relating to your particular situation

  • Lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority

You may request deletion or updates to your account at any time by contacting us at: [email protected].

10. Data Retention

We retain your data only for as long as necessary to provide our Services or meet legal obligations. If you delete your account or unsubscribe, we will erase your personal data unless retention is legally required (e.g. accounting records).

11. Cookies

VaCiKa uses essential cookies to maintain secure sessions and improve your experience. These cookies do not collect personally identifiable browsing data and are not shared with advertisers. You may disable cookies in your browser, though some functions may be limited.

12. Updates to This Policy

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time to reflect changes in legal requirements or service features. We recommend checking this page periodically. Material changes will be communicated where appropriate.

13. Contact

For any data protection questions or requests, please contact us at:

[email protected]

14. Community Features and Third-Party Platforms

VaCiKa may operate community features such as a Facebook Group to allow users to engage in discussion, share materials, and connect with others. Participation in these forums is entirely voluntary and subject to Facebook’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Please be aware that any content you post in such groups may be visible to other members or the public, depending on your personal Facebook settings. VaCiKa does not collect or store personal data from these interactions except where it is publicly available and relevant to research or service development.

15. Third-Party Links and External Sites

Our Service may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.

We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.