This policy says what The Gulf Magazine collects when you read the site, subscribe, write to us, or pitch a feature, and what we do with it. It is written to be read, not scrolled past. If anything is unclear, ask us.
Who we are
The Gulf Magazine publishes thegulfmagazine.com, the monthly features issue, and the Sunday newsletter. We are the data controller for the personal data described here. Reach us at hello@thegulfmagazine.com or through the contact page.
What we collect, and when
Most readers give us nothing but a page view. The rest depends on what you do.
- 01
Reading the site
We collect
Pages viewed, the page you came from, a rough location from your IP address, device and browser type, and the time of the visit. Collected through analytics and server logs.
Why
To see what gets read and to keep the site up.
- 02
Subscribing to the newsletter
We collect
Your email address, the date you signed up, and whether emails were opened or links clicked. Handled by our newsletter provider.
Why
To send the email and see which stories land.
- 03
Writing to us
We collect
Your name, email address, and the message.
Why
To reply.
- 04
Pitching a feature
We collect
Your name, role, company, LinkedIn address, country, and the story you pitch. If you nominate someone else, the same details about them.
Why
To decide whether to feature you and to run the editorial process.
- 05
Asking about advertising
We collect
Company, contact name, work email, the formats you are interested in, and your brief.
Why
To send you a proposal.
- 06
Being written about
We collect
Facts about your public role gathered while reporting: name, role, company, quotes, and images you or your company supply.
Why
Journalism. See the section on people we write about.
What we do not do
- We do not sell personal data.
- We do not build advertising profiles of individual readers, and we do not share the subscriber list with partners.
- We do not make automated decisions about you that have legal or similar effects.
Our legal grounds
Where a data protection law applies to you, for example the UAE and Saudi personal data protection laws or the UK and EU GDPR, we rely on one of these grounds:
- Consent for the newsletter and for cookies that are not strictly necessary. You can withdraw it at any time.
- A contract, or the steps before one when you ask us for something, such as a proposal or a feature.
- Legitimate interests for running and securing the site, measuring what is read, and answering messages.
- Legal obligation where a law requires us to keep or hand over records.
- Journalism for the reporting itself, under the press and public interest provisions those laws contain.
Cookies and analytics
We use Google Tag Manager to load our analytics and, when a campaign runs, advertising measurement tags. These set cookies and similar identifiers to tell repeat visits from new ones and to measure whether a campaign worked. Embedded content, such as a video or a social post inside an article, is loaded from the platform that hosts it and is covered by the policy of that platform.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site keeps working without them, though some embedded content may not load.
Who we share data with
- Providers that host the site, run our content system, deliver email, send the newsletter, and supply analytics. They act on our instructions and are bound by contract.
- People you ask us to involve, for example when you nominate someone for a feature and we contact them.
- Courts, regulators, and law enforcement where the law requires it, or to protect our rights, our readers, or the public.
Where data is kept
Our providers run servers in several countries, including outside the GCC and outside the European Economic Area. Where a law requires safeguards for moving data across borders, we rely on the standard contractual terms those providers offer.
How long we keep it
- Newsletter: until you unsubscribe. The provider keeps a record of the unsubscribe so we do not email you again.
- Messages to the desk: for as long as the conversation is live, then for up to two years in the mailbox archive.
- Pitches: while the pitch is under consideration and for two issue cycles after a decision, in case a later issue fits. Then deleted, unless the pitch became a feature.
- Advertising enquiries: for up to two years after the last contact.
- Published stories: kept as part of the archive. See the next section.
- Analytics: aggregated and kept according to the retention settings of the analytics provider.
People we write about
Features and articles are journalism. We publish names, roles, companies, and facts about the public and professional lives of the people in them. We check features with the person before publication and note substantive corrections on the story.
If you are the subject of a story and something is wrong or out of date, write to the desk and we will look at it. We do not remove accurate reporting because it is unwelcome, but we will consider requests where the law gives you the right to make them.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to ask for a copy of your data, to correct it, to delete it, to restrict or object to how we use it, to take it elsewhere, and to withdraw consent at any time.
Unsubscribe links sit at the bottom of every newsletter. For anything else, email us with the word Privacy in the subject line. We may ask you to confirm who you are before we act. If you are not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the data protection authority where you live.
Children
The site is written for adults working in and around Gulf business. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you think a child has given us data, tell us and we will delete it.
Security
Connections to the site use HTTPS. Access to the content system, the mailbox, and the newsletter account is limited to the people who need it and protected with passwords and, where the provider offers it, two-step verification. No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach that affects your data, we will tell you and any authority we are required to tell.
Changes to this policy
When we change this policy we update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use data you have already given us, we will say so on this page and, for subscribers, in the newsletter.
Contact
hello@thegulfmagazine.com, or the contact page. Put Privacy in the subject line and it reaches the right person faster.