Privacy policy

Last revised: 10 August 2026.

1. Who is responsible for this site

The site is founded and owned by the Holy Dormition Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (male monastery) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a non-profit religious organisation, EDRPOU 14351528, 15 Lavrska St., bldg. 42, Kyiv, 01015, Ukraine. "Monastic Herald of Ukraine" is published by the Synodal Commission of the UOC for Monastery Affairs.

The Lavra is the owner of personal data within the meaning of the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Personal Data" and the data controller within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (GDPR).

2. The essentials, in brief

This site is purely informational. It has no registration, no user accounts, no subscriptions and no mailing lists. There is no form anywhere on the site through which you would send us your data: the search fields on the "Monasteries" and "Map" pages work inside your own browser and send us nothing. We do not sell, transfer or exchange users' personal data.

At the same time we should say plainly: visiting any website involves the technical processing of certain data — without it the site does not work. What data, and for what purpose, is described below.

3. What data is processed

3.1. Data you send us yourself. This happens only when you choose to write to us by e-mail or to contact us through the "Contacts" page. In that case we see your address, the name you signed with, and the content of your message. We use them solely to reply to you.

3.2. Data collected automatically. While you browse the pages, the following is processed: IP address, browser type and language, device type and operating system, the address of the page you came from, the date and time of the request, and the pages viewed. This data is processed in an anonymised, aggregated statistical form and is not used to identify an individual visitor.

3.3. We do not process special categories of personal data — in particular data concerning health, political opinions or the religious beliefs of identified individuals. The site's subject matter concerns monasteries and church life, but we draw no conclusion about a visitor's beliefs from the fact that a page was viewed, and we store none.

4. Cookies

Cookies are small text files that a site stores in your browser. We use:

• technical — the session identifier (PHPSESSID), required for the pages to work correctly;
• functional — remembering the language you chose (lang) and the fact that you have already seen the cookie notice, so that it is not shown again;
• analytics — files of the Google Analytics service (section 5.1).

You may delete cookies at any time or block them in your browser settings. Technical cookies cannot be blocked without harming the site's operation; analytics cookies can be declined by enabling third-party script blocking in your browser or by installing Google's official opt-out add-on for Google Analytics.

5. Third-party services

The site uses services provided by other companies. When a page contacts such a service, that service sees your IP address and technical browser data. Each of them has its own privacy policy, and in that respect the processing follows their rules, not ours.

5.1. Google Analytics 4 — anonymised visit statistics: how many people come to the site, from which countries, and which pages they read. We receive no names, no addresses and no telephone numbers through it. Google Privacy Policy.

5.2. YouTube — the "UOC Live" page shows broadcasts from public YouTube channels. Video is embedded in privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com). Watching video is governed by YouTube's terms and by the Google Privacy Policy. You may review and revoke the access you have granted to Google applications at security.google.com/settings/security/permissions.

5.3. Google Maps — the monastery map and directions. Google Privacy Policy.

5.4. Facebook — some pages carry links and embedded community elements. Meta Privacy Policy.

5.5. monobank (send.monobank.ua) — acceptance of charitable donations. The button leads to the bank's own page; you enter your card details on the bank's side, and we neither see, receive nor store them.

5.6. Content delivery networks — ajax.googleapis.com, code.jquery.com, oss.maxcdn.com, from which the auxiliary page-layout libraries are loaded.

There is no advertising on the site: we display no ad blocks, use no advertising networks and build no profiles for ad targeting.

6. Purpose of processing and legal basis

Data is processed so that the site works technically, so that we understand which materials are being read, and so that we can answer your message. Legal bases: our legitimate interest in operating and improving the site (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) for technical and analytics data; your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), given by remaining on the site after the cookie notice, for analytics cookies; and your own enquiry, for correspondence.

7. Retention period

Technical cookies are stored for the duration of the session, functional ones for up to one year, and Google Analytics statistics according to that service's settings. Correspondence is kept for as long as it is needed to reply and for church record-keeping, after which it is destroyed.

8. Your rights

You have the right to: learn which of your data we process; request its correction or erasure; object to processing; withdraw consent; obtain a copy of the data; and lodge a complaint with the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights or, if you are in the European Union, with the supervisory authority of your country.

To exercise any of these rights, write to us (section 10). We will reply within thirty calendar days.

9. Data protection and children

The site operates exclusively over a secure HTTPS connection. Access to the site's administrative area is limited to authorised persons.

The site is not intended for children under fourteen and does not knowingly collect their data. If you become aware that a child has sent us their data, please tell us and we will delete it.

10. Contacts

For any question concerning personal data, please write to info (at) inok.info — the same address is also given on the Contacts page. Postal address for correspondence: 15 Lavrska St., bldg. 42, Kyiv, 01015, Ukraine.

11. Changes to this Policy

We may change this Policy — for example when a new service appears or the law changes. The version in force is the one published on this page; the date of the latest revision is given at the top. Material changes will additionally be marked by a notice on the site.

A separate privacy policy applies to the online broadcasting service — UOC Live: it concerns the use of YouTube API Services and supplements this Policy without superseding it.