Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 25, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how personal data is collected, used and protected when you use CiaoWed.com (the “Website”).

1. Data Controller

The Data Controller responsible for the processing of personal data through CiaoWed.com is:

Marika Menegoni
CiaoWed.com

For any questions concerning privacy or the processing of your personal data, you can contact us through our
contact form.

2. Personal Data We Collect

Depending on how you use CiaoWed, we may collect the following categories of personal data:

  • name and surname;
  • email address;
  • telephone number, when provided;
  • account and login information;
  • information included in vendor or venue profiles;
  • information submitted through enquiry or contact forms, including event date, event location and message content;
  • reviews, comments and other content submitted to the Website;
  • technical information such as IP address, browser information and information collected through cookies and similar technologies;
  • communications sent to us in connection with your account, profile, enquiries or use of the Website.

You can browse many parts of CiaoWed without creating an account or directly providing personal information.

3. Vendor and Venue Profiles Created from Publicly Available Information

In some cases, CiaoWed may create an initial profile for a wedding professional, venue or other wedding-related business using professional information that is already publicly available, for example on the professional’s own website, business website, professional directory or public social media pages.

The information used for this purpose may include the professional or business name, publicly available contact information, location, business description, services offered and other information relevant to presenting the professional’s services on CiaoWed.

Where personal data has not been obtained directly from the professional concerned, the source of the information is publicly available online information relating to their professional or business activity.

The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in developing and maintaining a useful directory of wedding professionals and venues in Italy and enabling couples and wedding planners to discover and contact relevant professionals.

Professionals whose profiles have been created in this way can take control of their profile, update or correct its information, and may object to the processing at any time. They may also ask us to remove the profile and associated personal data by contacting us.

4. How We Use Personal Data

We may use personal data for the following purposes:

  • to create and manage user accounts;
  • to create, maintain and display vendor and venue profiles;
  • to allow registered professionals to access and edit their profiles;
  • to enable couples and wedding planners to contact professionals through CiaoWed;
  • to send service-related communications, including enquiry notifications and account information;
  • to respond to questions, support requests and other communications;
  • to operate, maintain, secure and improve the Website;
  • to prevent spam, fraud, abuse and security incidents;
  • to comply with applicable legal obligations;
  • to establish, exercise or defend legal claims where necessary.

5. Legal Bases for Processing

Depending on the circumstances, we process personal data on one or more of the following legal bases:

  • Performance of a service or contract: where processing is necessary to provide an account, profile, enquiry service or another service requested by you.
  • Legitimate interests: where processing is necessary for the operation, improvement, security and development of CiaoWed, including the creation and maintenance of professional directory profiles from publicly available professional information, provided that these interests are not overridden by the rights and interests of the individuals concerned.
  • Consent: where consent is specifically requested, for example for certain optional cookies or communications where applicable.
  • Legal obligations: where processing is necessary to comply with applicable law or regulatory requirements.

6. Wedding Enquiries and Quote Requests

CiaoWed enables users to send enquiries directly to wedding professionals and venues listed on the Website.

When you submit an enquiry, the information you enter in the form may include your name, email address, telephone number, event date, event location and the content of your message.

This information is sent to the professional you choose to contact so that they can respond directly to your enquiry.

The enquiry form may also give you the option to share your enquiry with a limited number of additional professionals offering similar services. If you select this option, the enquiry information will also be sent to those additional professionals. If you select “Only this vendor”, the enquiry will only be sent to the professional you selected.

Once an enquiry has been delivered to a professional, subsequent communication takes place directly between you and that professional. The professional may process the information they receive independently and in accordance with their own privacy practices.

CiaoWed does not sell enquiry information or provide it to unrelated businesses for their independent marketing purposes.

7. Vendor Accounts and Profiles

Registered professionals may have an account allowing them to manage information displayed on their CiaoWed profile.

Account information may include a name and email address as well as technical information necessary for login and account administration.

Users can update much of their account and profile information after logging in. Website administrators may also access or modify account and profile information where necessary to operate the Website, provide support or maintain accurate listings.

A professional may request the deletion of their account and personal data at any time. Where the account is associated with a vendor or venue profile, deletion of the account may also result in removal of that profile from CiaoWed.

8. Reviews and Comments

When visitors submit reviews, comments or similar content, we may collect the information entered in the relevant form as well as technical information such as the visitor’s IP address and browser user-agent string for security and spam-prevention purposes.

Information that forms part of an approved public review or comment may be displayed publicly on the Website.

Where Gravatar functionality is used, an anonymized string created from your email address (a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to determine whether you use that service. You can read the Gravatar/Automattic privacy policy at
https://automattic.com/privacy/.

9. Cookies and Analytics

CiaoWed uses cookies and similar technologies for essential website functionality, account management, security and website analytics.

Necessary cookies may be used where required for the basic operation of the Website, including account login and session management, security, remembering user preferences and storing the user’s cookie consent choices. These cookies are necessary for the Website or for services specifically requested by the user and cannot be disabled through the Website’s cookie preference tool.

WordPress and WooCommerce may set necessary cookies when particular functionality is used, for example when a registered vendor logs in to or manages their account.

Google Analytics is used to help us understand how visitors use CiaoWed and to produce statistics about Website traffic and usage. Google Analytics may collect information such as browser and device information, approximate location, visits, pages viewed and interactions with the Website.

You can accept or reject Analytics cookies and change your preferences at any time through the Website’s cookie settings. You can also manage or delete cookies using your browser settings. Disabling necessary cookies directly through your browser may affect some Website functionality.

10. Embedded Content and Third-Party Websites

Pages and articles on CiaoWed may contain embedded content such as videos, images, maps or other content provided by third-party websites.

Embedded content may behave as though you had visited the third-party website directly. Those third parties may collect information about you, use cookies or similar technologies, and monitor your interaction with their content in accordance with their own privacy policies.

CiaoWed may also contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those external websites.

11. Service Providers and Other Recipients of Personal Data

We do not sell personal data.

Personal data and technical information may be processed by trusted service providers where necessary for the operation, security and improvement of CiaoWed.

These providers may include:

  • Cloudflare, which provides content delivery network, performance and security services;
  • Google, in connection with Google Analytics and Website usage measurement;
  • website hosting and infrastructure providers;
  • email delivery and communication service providers;
  • security services, including tools used to detect and prevent malicious activity, spam and unauthorized access;
  • technical service providers involved in maintaining and operating the Website.

These providers may process personal data only to the extent necessary to provide their services and subject to the applicable contractual and data-protection requirements.

Personal data may also be disclosed where required by law, regulation or a lawful request from a competent authority, or where necessary to protect our rights, users or the security of the Website.

Information submitted through a wedding enquiry is disclosed to the professional selected by the user and, where the user expressly chooses to share the enquiry with additional professionals, to those additional professionals.

12. International Data Transfers

Some of the service providers used by CiaoWed operate internationally and may process certain personal data outside the European Economic Area.

For example, Cloudflare operates a global network and Google provides services through an international infrastructure. Where personal data originating in the European Economic Area is transferred to or processed in a country outside the European Economic Area, appropriate safeguards required under applicable data-protection law are used where necessary.

These safeguards may include an adequacy decision adopted by the European Commission, participation in an approved data-transfer framework such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework where applicable, or Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission.

13. How Long We Retain Personal Data

We retain personal data only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, taking into account operational requirements, statistical purposes, security, record keeping and applicable legal obligations.

Account information is generally retained while the account remains active. A user may request deletion of their account and associated personal data, except where certain information must be retained for legal, security or administrative reasons.

Vendor and venue profile information is generally retained while the profile remains published on CiaoWed. Professionals may request correction or removal of their profile at any time.

Information submitted through wedding enquiry forms may be retained in the Website’s internal records after the enquiry has been delivered to the relevant professional. These records may be used for operational purposes, troubleshooting, security, monitoring the performance and development of the enquiry service.

Where identifiable enquiry information is no longer reasonably necessary for these purposes, it may be deleted or anonymized while aggregated or non-identifying statistical information may be retained.

Reviews, comments and associated metadata may be retained while the relevant content remains published or for as long as necessary for moderation, security and record-keeping purposes.

Technical and security logs may be retained for a limited period where necessary for Website security, troubleshooting and abuse prevention.

14. Your Data Protection Rights

Subject to the conditions and limitations established by applicable law, you may have the right to:

  • request access to the personal data we hold about you;
  • request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data;
  • request deletion of your personal data;
  • request restriction of the processing of your personal data;
  • object to processing based on legitimate interests;
  • receive certain personal data in a portable format where the right to data portability applies;
  • withdraw consent at any time where processing is based on consent, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal;
  • lodge a complaint with a competent data-protection supervisory authority.

Where personal data relating to a professional has been used to create a CiaoWed profile on the basis of our legitimate interests, that professional has the right to object to such processing. You can contact us at any time if you would like a profile corrected or removed.

To exercise your rights or ask a question about your personal data, please use our
contact form.

Individuals in Italy may also lodge a complaint with the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali.

15. Security

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against unauthorized access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

However, no website, electronic communication or data-storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

16. Children’s Privacy

CiaoWed is intended for adults looking for or providing wedding-related services and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly seek to collect personal data from children through the Website.

17. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to CiaoWed, the services we provide, the technologies we use or applicable legal requirements.

When this Privacy Policy is updated, the revised date shown at the top of the page will also be updated.

18. Contact

For questions about this Privacy Policy, requests concerning your personal data, or requests to remove a vendor or venue profile, please contact:

Data Controller: Marika Menegoni
CiaoWed.com
Contact us through this form