Privacy

ADVICEdge (advicedge.org) is run by Ritu Kant Ojha from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. If you have any question about your data, write to hi@advicedge.org.

The short version

• You can read every page of this site without giving us any personal information.
• Your answers to the ADVICEdge Test stay in your browser. They are never sent to us or stored.
• We only receive personal information when you choose to send it: through the contact form, by subscribing to the newsletter, or by saving an Advisor Check report.
• The Advisor Check never asks for your advisor’s name. If you save a report, we keep your email, your answers and the nickname you give the advisor, so that you can see them in your dashboard.
• We count visits anonymously, without cookies and without storing IP addresses. Advisor Check answers are recorded anonymously too, so we can improve the check and publish research as totals.
• We do not sell, rent or trade personal information, and we do not use advertising trackers.

What we collect, and why

When you use the contact form, we receive your name, email address, the topic you choose, your message and, if you give it, your phone number. We use these only to read and reply to your message. The form also sends you a confirmation email.

When you subscribe to the newsletter, we receive your email address. We use it only to send the newsletter. Every issue has an unsubscribe link, and you can also ask us to remove you at any time.

When you take the ADVICEdge Test, your answers are scored inside your own browser and disappear when you close the page. Nothing is transmitted.

When you take the Advisor Check, your answers are scored in your browser and kept on your device until you finish, so that you can pause and come back. Each answer is also recorded anonymously, as described under “Anonymous statistics and research” below. The free signal needs nothing else. If you ask for the full report, we receive your email address, your answers, the nickname you chose for the advisor and whether you agreed to research use. We use them to send your sign-in link and to show your dashboard. We never ask for, or store, your advisor’s real name.

Research use is optional. If you tick the research box, your answers may be studied together with others’, without your email or the nickname, to understand how people judge advisors. Results are only ever published as totals. You can withdraw this at any time by deleting the advisor in your dashboard or by writing to us.

When you visit any page, our hosting provider processes technical information such as your IP address and browser type, which is needed to deliver the page and protect the site from abuse.

Anonymous statistics and research. To understand how the site is used, we record each page view and each step of the Advisor Check: the page, the website that sent you (if any), campaign tags in the link, your country (worked out by our hosting provider from your connection, without us storing the IP address), your device type (phone, tablet or computer), and your browser and operating system family. For the Advisor Check we record when you start, each answer you give (Yes, No or Not sure), the signal and score you get, and whether you asked for the report. These records carry a random code that lasts only for one browser tab session, so the steps of one visit can be linked. They do not contain your name, email or IP address, and they are not linked to your account or to any advisor. Visit records are kept for up to 13 months. The anonymous set of answers from each completed check is kept for research, and is published only as totals and percentages, never as one person’s answers. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, nothing is recorded. We may also use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts visits in the same cookie-free way.

Who processes it for us

• Cloudflare hosts the site, processes the contact form and stores saved Advisor Check reports.
• Resend delivers the emails sent from the contact form and the Advisor Check sign-in links.
• Kit (ConvertKit) manages newsletter subscriptions and sends the newsletter.
• Google Workspace hosts our email inbox, where contact messages arrive.

These providers may store data on servers outside the UAE. Each acts under its own privacy and security terms, which are published on its website.

Cookies

The site sets one cookie, and only if you sign in to the Advisor Check: a session cookie that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days. It is strictly necessary and is removed when you sign out. There are no analytics or advertising cookies. The visit statistics use a random code held in your browser’s session storage, which is deleted when you close the tab. Our hosting provider may set a strictly necessary security cookie to tell people apart from automated traffic.

How long we keep it

Contact messages are kept in our inbox for as long as they are useful for the conversation, and deleted on request. Newsletter addresses are kept until you unsubscribe. Saved Advisor Check reports are kept until you delete them in your dashboard or ask us to remove your account. Unused sign-in links expire after 30 minutes. Anonymous visit statistics are deleted after 13 months; anonymous Advisor Check answer sets are kept for research. Our email providers keep delivery records for a limited period under their own policies.

Your choices

You can ask us what information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Write to hi@advicedge.org and we will reply within thirty days. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights under your local data-protection law, including the UAE’s Personal Data Protection Law and, for visitors in Europe, the GDPR.

Research partnerships

If ADVICEdge ever takes part in a research study, for example to test the reliability of the ADVICEdge Test, participation will be voluntary, explained in advance, and run under the ethics approval of the partner institution. Nothing like that happens on this site today.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top of the page will change with it.