Privacy Policy

Last updated: 20 October 2026

Who we are

Expat Living Italy is a personal, non-commercial blog written by Caitlin and Eugenio. It is not run by a company. For any privacy question, or to exercise any of the rights below, write to hello@expatliving.it.

What we collect, and why

Privacy-friendly statistics. We use Vercel Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights to count visits and measure how fast pages load. They set no cookies, do not follow you across other websites, and give us only aggregated numbers. They run for every visitor.

Google Analytics, only if you accept it. If you choose "Accept" in the cookie banner, we load Google Analytics, which sets cookies (named _ga and _ga_…) so we can see which pages are read and how people find them. Google processes this data on our behalf under Google's privacy policy. If you choose "Reject", or make no choice, Google Analytics is not loaded and no request is sent to Google. You can change your mind at any time with "Cookie settings" at the bottom of every page; choosing "Reject" later stops Google Analytics and deletes its cookies.

Your choice itself is remembered in your browser's local storage, on your device only. It is not a cookie and it is not sent to us.

One cookie that remembers a choice you make. If you pick a nationality on a data page (for example, to see where Americans live), we store that choice in a cookie named el_nationality so the next page you open shows the same nationality. It holds only that code, it disappears when you close your browser, and it is set only when you pick one. It isn't used for statistics or tracking, so it doesn't need the banner.

Newsletter. If you subscribe, we keep your email address, when and on which page you signed up, and when you confirmed, so we can send you the weekly email and show that you asked for it. We send it through Resend, our email provider, which processes your address on our behalf under Resend’s privacy policy. To see whether the newsletter is working, we record for each email whether it was delivered and the first time you opened it and clicked a link in it: the email carries a small invisible image that tells us it was opened, and its links pass through Resend on the way to our site. We use this only to count, issue by issue, how many emails were opened and clicked; we don’t sell it or share it. If your email app blocks images, we don’t see opens. Links from the newsletter to our site are tagged so our analytics can tell those visits came from the newsletter. Every email has a link to unsubscribe, which works at once; we keep a note that you unsubscribed so you aren’t added again by mistake. If an email to you bounces permanently, or you mark one as spam, we stop sending to you. If you subscribed through our old Substack publication, we brought your address over with your Substack sign-up date before we deleted it. Ask us and we will delete your address and everything attached to it.

Your account. You can sign in with a link we email you, or with Google. If you choose Google, we receive only your email address and name from your Google account, and nothing else. Your account is the same record as your newsletter subscription: your email address, the name you give us if you give one, and when you signed in. Signing in sets a cookie that keeps you signed in on that browser until you sign out or for up to 90 days; it is used for nothing else. If you choose to give a nationality, it is optional, stored on your account, used only to preselect the nationality on town, province and region pages (we keep a copy in a cookie on your devices for that), and deleted with your account. On your account page you can change your name, turn the newsletter on or off, and delete your account, which deletes everything we keep about you at once.

Saved shortlists, followed towns and alerts. If you save a shortlist or follow a town, we keep the filters you saved, the towns you follow, and when we last emailed you about them, on your account. If you tick the box, we email you at most once a week when a data update changes one of them. That is a separate list from the weekly newsletter: you can switch it on or off on your account page without touching the newsletter, and the unsubscribe link in an alert email stops alerts only. Alerts go out through Resend like the newsletter. Resend’s open and click tracking is a setting on our sending domain, so it applies to alert emails too, but we store nothing from it for alerts. We do record when an alert bounces permanently or you mark it as spam, and we stop sending to you. Your account page shows everything we keep about them, and deleting your account deletes all of it.

Saved comparisons and your checklist notes. If you save a comparison, we keep its name and the towns in it. Saving one does not follow the towns and sends no email. For a town you follow, you can tick the three “Check on the ground” questions and write a note and a date for each. Those notes are private: they are shown only to you when you are signed in, we don’t read them or use them for anything else, and the alert emails never use them. Unfollowing a town deletes your notes for it, and deleting your account deletes your comparisons and every note.

Email to us. If you write to hello@expatliving.it, we keep your message and address only to reply and to follow up on what you raised. We do not share them. Ask us and we will delete them.

People and publications we work with. When we ask another writer, newsletter or website to work with us, or to link to our work, we keep their published name and a public contact page or published email address in a private working list, with a note of what we asked and when. We use it only to run that collaboration, on the basis of our legitimate interest in doing so. We don't collect private details, and we don't share the list. Ask us and we will delete your entry.

Hosting. The site is hosted by Vercel, which, like any web host, briefly processes technical information such as your IP address and browser type to deliver pages and keep the service secure.

Maps. Pages with a map load the base map from CARTO, which receives your IP address as part of the request, the same as any website you visit.

Share buttons. The share buttons are plain links. They load nothing from Facebook or anyone else; information goes to a service only if you click one.

What we don't do

We don't show ads, we don't use the Meta Pixel or any advertising tracker, and we don't sell or share personal data with anyone for marketing.

Your rights

If you are in the EU/EEA or the UK, the GDPR (or UK GDPR) gives you rights to access, correct and delete your personal data, to object to or restrict how it is used, and to withdraw consent at any time. Write to hello@expatliving.it and we will reply. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will update it on this page and change the date at the top. For a significant change we will also say so on the site.