Modern Expat Magazine ("we", "us", "our") is an online publication covering life abroad, with stories, interviews, guides, events and community features. We are responsible for the information we collect through this website. You can read the site without registering an account or accepting optional analytics. A visit still involves technical information needed to deliver and secure the website; visits are not necessarily anonymous.

Information We Collect

We collect information that you give us directly and information that is generated automatically when you use the site.

Information you provide

  • Newsletter signup information, usually your email address and the update categories you select, such as magazine, property or expat services. You can also choose to tell us your broad stage of planning a move and a destination of interest. These questions are optional.
  • Enquiry form details such as your name, email address, phone number, message, project type, and any other fields you choose to submit.
  • Any information you send us by email or through direct contact.

Information collected automatically

  • Technical request information, which can include IP address, browser information, requested URL and response information, processed by our hosting and security services to deliver the site and prevent abuse.
  • Submission metadata such as the form's page and source, browser information, and security information used to prevent repeated or abusive submissions.
  • If you accept analytics: page and content identifiers, broad device type and browser language, referring website and campaign labels, navigation and link interactions, search categories and result counts, article scrolling and active reading time, form stages and success or failure, and page-performance measurements.
  • Browser storage that remembers your privacy choice and practical preferences, such as whether you have subscribed or dismissed a prompt. Additional analytics storage is used only with your analytics consent.
Email and form processors

We store newsletter and enquiry data using Firebase/Google Cloud services and use Klaviyo to manage the email lists you select and send emails. Optional reader preferences submitted with your signup can be passed to Klaviyo to make those updates more relevant. Your submission data may therefore be processed by Google and Klaviyo as our service providers/processors.

How We Use Your Information

  • To send newsletters and updates if you subscribe.
  • To reply to enquiries and, where the form explains this and you agree, arrange a relevant partner introduction.
  • To operate, maintain, secure and improve the website.
  • To monitor spam, abuse, fraud and technical issues.
  • With analytics consent, to understand which destinations, articles, campaigns and features help readers, where navigation or forms cause difficulty, and whether enquiries or subscriptions complete successfully.
  • With analytics consent, to measure page performance and improve the website.

Our Basis For Using Information

We ask for your consent before optional visitor analytics and for the email updates you select. We process information you submit to respond to your request and provide the service you ask for. We also process information needed to operate and secure the website, prevent abuse, and meet applicable legal obligations. Where we rely on a legitimate interest, we consider the necessity of that processing and its effect on your rights. A newsletter subscription or enquiry does not itself grant analytics consent.

Newsletter Consent

If you subscribe, you give us permission to send the categories you select: the Modern Expat Magazine newsletter, property updates, and/or expat-service updates such as healthcare, insurance and relocation. These preferences are maintained as separate Klaviyo lists. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences using the link in any email or by contacting us.

Enquiry Forms

If you fill out an enquiry form, we use the details you provide to respond to that enquiry. Any partner-sharing choice is explained on the form or confirmed with you before the introduction. Sending an enquiry does not automatically subscribe you to marketing.

Property introduction requests

If you request a developer introduction, we use your name, email, project name and enquiry to respond. We share these details only with the developer or project you name and with your explicit consent. We confirm the intended recipient before sharing. Any referral arrangement will be explained before handover. Your enquiry does not subscribe you to marketing.

Sharing Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We only share it when necessary to run the site, respond to your request, or meet a legal obligation.

  • With Firebase/Google and Klaviyo, and other service providers that help us host, store, secure or send data.
  • With a relevant partner when you have agreed to the introduction as explained on the form or confirmed before sharing.
  • When required by law, to protect our rights, or to respond to lawful requests.

Our providers may process information outside the country where you live, including in the United States. Applicable provider terms and transfer safeguards govern this processing. Contact us for information about the providers and safeguards relevant to your information.

Retention

We keep newsletter and enquiry records for as long as needed for the purpose they were collected for, unless a longer retention period is required by law or is needed for legitimate business, tax, audit or security reasons.

We currently use Google Analytics for consented visitor analytics and do not store a separate copy of visitor events in Firebase. Google applies its own data-retention settings to analytics reports. Hosting and service-provider request logs have their own operational retention settings.

On your device, we remember the current privacy choice for up to 180 days. With analytics consent, a random session identifier lasts until 30 minutes of inactivity, and a returning-visit marker and campaign attribution can last up to 90 days. These items are removed when you withdraw analytics consent. Google Analytics, where enabled, has its own cookie and server-side retention settings; its aggregate reports and exported data can follow different retention rules from individual events.

Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect the information we collect. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Cookies And Similar Technologies

We use browser storage to remember your privacy choice, respect internal/testing-device exclusions and support practical site features such as form-abuse protection and prompt preferences. You can control cookies and local storage in your browser.

Optional analytics starts only after you accept it. If you reject it, leave the choice unanswered, or send a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, our optional analytics events are not sent and optional analytics providers are not loaded. We do not send cookieless analytics pings as an alternative to your refusal. This choice does not stop technical requests needed to display the website or submit a form you choose to send.

With your consent, Google Analytics groups activity within a short browser session and produces reports. We do not attach your newsletter email, enquiry details or CRM record to that activity. We do not send raw search terms, form contents, names, email addresses, phone numbers or full URL query strings in our analytics events. Campaign and content fields use restricted labels. We do not use device fingerprinting or request precise GPS location for visitor analytics.

Google Analytics is an optional provider when enabled. It can process cookie identifiers, technical information and approximate location derived from an IP address. Google's handling of IP addresses differs by region; this is not a promise that no provider processes or retains IP addresses. Our integration keeps advertising consent and advertising-personalisation features disabled. See Google's Privacy Policy and Google's regional data information.

Session replay and heatmap recording are not currently enabled. If we introduce them, we will identify the provider and purpose and request a separate choice before recording. We do not currently use visitor analytics for advertising remarketing.

  • Privacy-choice storage: your selections, the notice version and the date of your choice, for up to 180 days.
  • Consented analytics storage: a short-lived session marker and restricted campaign attribution used for Google Analytics events.
  • Google Analytics cookies: only after analytics consent and only when that provider is enabled.
  • Privacy settings: available in the website footer to reject analytics or change your choice.

Your Choices

  • You can unsubscribe from newsletter emails at any time.
  • You can use Privacy settings in the footer to change or withdraw analytics consent. Withdrawal stops future collection, clears our analytics storage and reloads the page to unload active analytics providers. It does not reverse collection that occurred before withdrawal.
  • We treat a browser's Global Privacy Control signal as a request to keep optional analytics and replay off.
  • You can ask us to access, review, correct or delete information you have submitted, and exercise other rights available under applicable law, by emailing our privacy contact. Some records must be retained for legal or security reasons. We may need information to verify your request.
  • Analytics reports are separate from newsletter and enquiry records, so an email address alone may not identify historical activity in those reports.
  • You can disable cookies or local storage through your browser, although some site features may not work as intended.

Children

This website is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Changes To This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The updated version will be posted on this page with a new last-updated date.

Contact

If you have any questions about this policy or want to make a privacy request, email legal@modernexpatmagazine.com.