Last updated: 3 November 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how personal information is collected and used when you visit visatide.co.uk, subscribe to the Visa Tide newsletter or contact us. We handle your information in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR).
1. Who is responsible for your data
The data controller is Akwesi Sarfo, trading as Visa Tide. You can contact us at hello@visatide.co.uk.
2. What we collect and why
- Newsletter sign-up. Your email address (and your first name, if you give it), the date and time you signed up and your confirmation click. We use these to send you the Visa Tide weekly newsletter. Our legal basis is your consent. You can withdraw it at any time.
- Contacting us. Your name, email address and the content of your message, so that we can reply. Our legal basis is our legitimate interest in answering enquiries.
- Website usage. Basic, aggregated information about how the site is used, such as pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser type, and referring website, so that we can understand which articles are useful and keep the site secure and working. Our legal basis is legitimate interests, or your consent where cookies or similar technologies are used for analytics.
- Security and technical logs. Our hosting provider records technical information such as IP addresses in server logs to keep the site secure.
We do not ask you for immigration details, nationality or any other special category data, and we ask you not to send it to us. We do not sell your personal data.
3. Newsletter (double opt-in) and Brevo
Our newsletter is sent using Brevo (Sendinblue SAS), an email service provider acting as our processor. We use double opt-in: after you enter your email address, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription. You are only added to the list once you click the confirmation link. Every newsletter has an unsubscribe link, and you can also unsubscribe by emailing us. We may include clearly labelled sponsored content or advertising in the newsletter. We do not share your email address with sponsors. Brevo is based in the EU, and where data is transferred outside the UK it is protected by appropriate safeguards such as the UK International Data Transfer Addendum or an adequacy decision. You can read Brevo’s privacy policy on its website.
We may also use Brevo to measure whether emails are opened and links are clicked, so that we can improve the newsletter. You can ask us to stop this by unsubscribing.
4. Cookies and analytics
Cookies are small files stored on your device. We use:
- Strictly necessary cookies that make the site work, such as security and preference cookies. These do not need your consent.
- Analytics cookies, only if you agree to them through our cookie notice. They help us count visitors and see which pages are read. We will update this page to name the analytics tool we use before we switch any analytics on.
You can change or withdraw your cookie choices at any time and you can block or delete cookies in your browser settings.
5. Who we share your data with
We only share personal data with service providers who help us run Visa Tide, under contract and only for our purposes. These include our web hosting provider (Hostinger), our email provider (Brevo) and our analytics provider once one is in use. We may also disclose information where the law requires it.
6. How long we keep your data
- Newsletter subscribers: until you unsubscribe. We then keep a minimal record (your email address on a suppression list) so that we do not email you again.
- Emails and messages to us: normally up to 12 months after the conversation ends.
- Analytics and server logs: normally up to 26 months.
7. Your rights
Under UK data protection law you have the right to be informed, to access your data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict or object to its use, to data portability, and to withdraw consent at any time. To use any of these rights, email hello@visatide.co.uk. We will normally respond within one month.
8. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please contact us first. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113.
9. Not immigration advice
Visa Tide is a news publication. See our Disclaimer.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated.