Merqavell is a reading site. It has no accounts and no tracking beyond what is described below; the only list is the notification list you can join yourself from a form. This page explains exactly what exists, because a privacy policy that is vague is not much use to anybody.
The publisher
Merqavell (merqavell.com) is published by Mia Walker in Braddon, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Privacy questions and any request described further down go to [email protected]. The site is operated under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
Information that exists about you
There are exactly three categories, and no others.
- Request logs. The hosting provider and the delivery network in front of the site keep the usual technical record of each request: IP address, page, timestamp, referring page and user agent. This is how any web server works and it is needed to serve pages and to deal with abuse.
- Your cookie answer. Held in your own browser, never transmitted, containing one word.
- Correspondence. If you write to me, through the form or by email, I have your name, your address, a phone number if you added one, and what you said, for as long as answering it requires.
- Your notification subscription. If you allow browser notifications, OneSignal stores a subscription identifier for your browser, together with the email address, name and any phone number you entered on the form. It exists so a reply and later updates can reach you, and it disappears when you unsubscribe or clear the site data.
What does not exist: any account, any profile, any advertising identifier, and any record of which guides a particular person read. The one list that does exist is the notification list, and you are only on it if you ticked the box on a form and then allowed notifications in your browser.
Purposes
Logs are held to keep the site running and secure. Correspondence is held to answer correspondence. Your cookie answer is held so you are not asked the same question on every page. Where a legal obligation applies to a particular record, that is also a purpose, and it has not arisen so far.
Measurement and advertising scripts are not loaded until you accept them in the notice. Declining changes nothing about what you can read.
The forms, and notifications
Two forms exist: one on the contact page and one on the handbook page. Each takes a name, an email address, an optional phone number and a message; the handbook form also records which item you selected. Each carries a tick box that must be ticked before the form will send, confirming you want a reply and browser notifications. Neither takes a card number, a bank detail or a postal address, because no payment is processed on this site.
Both are handled in your own browser and passed to OneSignal, the notification service this site uses: the email address, the name, the phone number if given and the first part of the message are stored there against your subscription. OneSignal processes them on my instructions and under its own terms, and this is disclosed because it would otherwise be invisible to you.
Nothing else happens to it. It is not stored in a database on this site, not added to any list, and not used to contact you about anything other than your own message. The basis for handling a general enquiry is that you asked to be contacted; for an order it is the steps you asked me to take before a contract, and then performing that contract.
Order correspondence is kept longer than a general enquiry, because a question about a purchase can arrive months afterwards and consumer guarantees do not lapse on delivery. It is still used for nothing but answering you and sending the file.
The form carries one field that people cannot see and that only automated submissions fill in. Messages arriving with it completed are discarded unread, which is the entire spam defence.
Others involved in running the site
- The hosting provider that stores and serves these files.
- Cloudflare, as the content delivery network sitting in front of the site.
- OneSignal, which delivers browser notifications and holds the form details described above.
There is no analytics provider at present, no tag manager, no embedded video, no social button and no external font. The one asset loaded from elsewhere is the OneSignal notification SDK; everything else on every page comes from this domain, which you can verify in your browser's network panel in about ten seconds.
Leaving the site
Links to Google Play and the App Store take you to Google and Apple, whose own privacy terms then apply. No information comes back to this site from those visits, and there is no mechanism here that could tell whether you installed anything.
Retention
Logs are kept briefly for operational purposes and then discarded or aggregated by the provider. Correspondence is kept while it is live and for a reasonable period after, in case the same question returns. Your cookie answer stays in your browser until you clear it, and you can clear it yourself at any time using the steps on the cookie policy page.
Your rights and how to use them
The Australian Privacy Principles give you the right to ask what personal information is held about you and to have it corrected if it is wrong. Write to [email protected]. In practice, for most readers the honest answer is that nothing beyond a short-lived server log exists, and I will say so plainly rather than sending a form letter.
If you are not satisfied with the response, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au takes complaints. Readers in the European Union may also contact their national supervisory authority.
Updates
Changes are reflected in the date at the top of this page. Anything significant is described in the opening paragraph for a while after it happens, rather than being slipped in quietly.