Privacy Policy and Data Deletion

Last updated: 20 October 2026

This policy explains what personal data Restaurant Gardenia Skopje collects when you visit gardeniaskopje.com, make a reservation or send us a message, why we use it, how long we keep it and how you can have it deleted.

1. Who we are

Restaurant Gardenia Skopje, Mitropolit Teodosij Gologanov 34A, 1000 Skopje, North Macedonia, is responsible for your personal data (the data controller).
Email: info@gardeniaskopje.com · Phone / WhatsApp: +389 71 394 591 · Instagram: @gardenia_skopje

2. What we collect

Reservation details: your name, phone number, email address, the date and session, the number of guests, the chosen menu, notes you give us (for example dietary needs or a celebration), and the payment status of the booking.
Messages: what you write to us by WhatsApp, phone, email or Instagram, so that we can answer you and arrange your reservation.
Bookings made for you by others: when a tour operator, travel agency, hotel or online booking platform (such as Viator or Tripadvisor) books a table for you, they send us your name, the group size and the booking details.
Website use: only if you accept analytics cookies, Google Analytics measures how the website is used (see section 9). The website has no user accounts and no forms that store your data.

We do not ask for and do not store payment card numbers.

3. Instagram and WhatsApp messages, automated assistant

When you send a direct message to @gardenia_skopje, Meta Platforms delivers it to our reservation system through the official Instagram API, so that our staff can read and answer it there. For each conversation we receive and store:

your Instagram account ID, username, display name and profile picture link;
the text of your messages and our replies, with their times;
links to photos, videos or voice messages you send.

We use these only to answer you and to manage your reservation. We do not use them for advertising, we do not sell them and we do not read your other Instagram data (posts, followers or other conversations). Only messages you send to our account reach us.

Automated assistant. Instagram messages are first answered by an automated assistant that uses artificial intelligence (Claude, provided by Anthropic). It answers from our menu, prices and frequently asked questions, checks available dates, and can make, change or cancel a booking for you after you confirm the details it shows you. To do this, the content of the conversation and the booking details you give are sent to Anthropic for processing; under Anthropic’s commercial terms this data is not used to train their models. Our staff can see every conversation and take over at any time — just ask for a person. Changes and cancellations made by the assistant are recorded and checked by our team.

Comments. If you comment on one of our Instagram posts with a question (for example about prices or dates), the assistant may send you one private message about it.

WhatsApp reminders. If your booking includes a phone number, we may send you, through WhatsApp (Meta), a reminder the day before your visit and, the day after, a thank-you message with a link to leave a review. If you do not want these messages, tell us by email or on WhatsApp at +389 71 394 591 and we will stop them for your number.

4. Why we use it

To take, confirm, change and serve your reservation, and to contact you about it (performing the booking you asked for).
To answer your questions by message, phone or email, including through our automated assistant (our legitimate interest in replying to you quickly).
To remind you of your booking and to ask how your visit was (our legitimate interest; you can opt out at any time).
To keep records required by accounting and tax law (legal obligation).
To understand how the website is used, only with your consent (website analytics).

We never sell your personal data. It is handled only by:

our staff, who need it to manage reservations;
the partner that booked for you (tour operator, agency, hotel or booking platform), only about that booking;
service providers that run our systems: our web and reservation system hosting, Meta (Instagram, WhatsApp) for messages, Anthropic for the automated assistant, and Google (Analytics with your consent, Google Maps and Google Fonts on the website, and YouTube videos shown in privacy-enhanced mode);
authorities, when the law requires it.

Some of these providers (Meta, Google) may process data outside North Macedonia under their own safeguards.

6. How long we keep it

Instagram conversations and the record of what the automated assistant did in them: deleted automatically 24 months after the last message, or earlier if you ask.
WhatsApp reminders: a record that a reminder or thank-you message was sent is kept with the reservation.
Reservation records: kept as long as accounting and tax law requires; contact details you ask us to delete are removed from the record.
Analytics data: collected only if you accepted analytics cookies, and kept by Google Analytics for at most 14 months.

7. Your rights

You may ask us to see the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to delete it, to limit or object to its use, and to receive a copy of it. You can withdraw your consent to analytics at any time. If you think we handle your data wrongly, please tell us first; you can also complain to the Personal Data Protection Agency of North Macedonia (azlp.mk).

8. How to delete your data

To have your data deleted, including your Instagram conversation with us, do one of the following:

Email info@gardeniaskopje.com with the subject “Delete my data”, and tell us your name and your Instagram username, phone number or reservation code; or
Send “Delete my data” as a direct message to @gardenia_skopje on Instagram or by WhatsApp to +389 71 394 591.

We delete your messages and contact details within 30 days and confirm by the same channel. Records we must keep by law (for example an invoice) are kept without your contact details until the legal period ends.

You never log in to our systems with Instagram, so there is no app to remove from your Instagram settings. Deleting the conversation in your own Instagram app does not delete our copy; please ask us as described above.

9. Cookies and website analytics

gardeniaskopje.com uses Google Analytics 4 only after you click Accept in the cookie banner. Until then no analytics cookies are set and nothing is sent to Google Analytics. Analytics shows us, for example, how many people visit and which booking buttons (WhatsApp, phone, Instagram) are clicked. Advertising features are switched off. You can change your choice at any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of every page; rejecting removes the analytics cookies.

Your choice is stored in your browser for 12 months. The map in the Visit section is loaded from Google Maps and the videos from YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode; Google receives your IP address when they load, under Google’s own privacy policy.

10. Changes and contact

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. Questions about your data: info@gardeniaskopje.com.