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Privacy Policy

Effective: Version 1.0

01Who we are

The Third Side is an independent arts magazine published in Arabic, English and Romanian, with a website and a mobile app. This policy explains what data we collect about you when you use the site or the app, why, what we do with it, and the choices you have.

02What we collect

We collect only what we need to run the service:

  • Account details: your name, email address, password (stored hashed, so we cannot read it), your language, and whether you have confirmed your email.
  • Optional profile details: date of birth, gender, governorate, a short bio, your profile photo, and whether you want the newsletter. All of these are optional and none is shown publicly, except your name when you comment or write an article.
  • What you write and do: your comments, ratings, likes and reports; the articles and images you send us; the articles you save; and the writers, sections and festivals you follow.
  • Notifications: your notification inbox and the types you chose.
  • Your device's alert address, if you turn alerts on: a browser push subscription or the phone's push token, and its system (Android or iOS).
  • Technical data that servers and hosting providers normally log for security and troubleshooting: network address, device or browser type, and the time of the request.

03What we do not do

We do not sell your data or share it for advertising. We use no third-party analytics or tracking tools, and we do not build an advertising profile of you. Ads on the site and in the app are sponsors and events we choose ourselves; we count how often they are shown and tapped as plain totals, without identifying you.

04Why we use your data

We use your data to:

  • create your account, sign you in, reset your password and confirm your email;
  • show your comments, ratings, articles, saved items and follows;
  • send you messages about your account and articles, notifications about what you follow, alerts on your device if you turn them on, and our newsletter if you opt in;
  • review content and reports, and protect the site and app from abuse and fraud;
  • understand and fix faults.

05Who we share data with

We use service providers who process data for us, on our instructions only:

  • hosting, file and image storage and content delivery (including Cloudflare and cloud storage services);
  • email delivery (Brevo);
  • delivery of alerts to phones through Expo's push service, Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android and Apple's push service on iOS, and to browsers through the browser's own push service. These alerts carry a short text and a link;
  • articles may embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo; when you play one, that service deals with you under its own policy;
  • authorities, where the law requires us to.

06What is public

Your name appears with your comments, and articles we publish for you appear under your name as the writer. Your email, other personal details, ratings, saved items and follows are never shown publicly.

07What we store on your device

We keep on your device what is needed to keep you signed in and remember your preferences (language, appearance, reading settings). In the app, the sign-in token is kept in the system's secure storage. On the website we use the browser's local storage for this. We do not use cookies for tracking or advertising.

08How long we keep it

We keep your account data for as long as your account exists. Read notifications are removed after about 90 days. A device's alert address is removed when you turn alerts off, sign out, or it stops working. Server logs are kept by hosting providers for the period their policies set.

09Your choices and rights

At any time you can:

  • see and edit your profile details on the Profile page;
  • turn off notification types, or turn off alerts on a device, in the notification settings;
  • unsubscribe from the newsletter;
  • delete your account for good in the app (Profile, then Delete my account) or by writing to us;
  • ask us for a copy of your data, to correct it, or to object to how we use it, by writing to us.

10What happens when you delete your account

We permanently delete your account and personal data, including your comments, ratings, likes, follows, saved items, notifications, profile photo and alert addresses, and the articles you sent that have not been reviewed yet. Articles that were published or are already in editing stay published under your name as the writer, with no link to your account; write to us if you want a published article removed. Deletion cannot be undone.

11Children

The site and the app are not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you learn that a child has created an account, write to us and we will delete it.

12Changes and contact

We may update this policy. The date of the latest update is shown at the top, and we will tell registered readers about material changes. For any question about your data, or to use your rights, write to the email address shown in the footer of the site.

Contact about your data: contact@third-side.org