Privacy Policy
1. Introduction and Controller Identity
Middle East Chronicle (Inside Matters) is a digital news publication covering the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, operated by Harbinger Bros. LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company with its principal office at 1309 Coffeen Avenue, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States. Contact: support@harbingerpressmedia.com.
For GDPR purposes, Harbinger Bros. LLC is the data controller for personal data processed through middle-east-chronicle.com. The GDPR applies by virtue of Article 3(2) GDPR because we offer an information service to individuals in the EU/EEA and monitor their online behaviour.
2. Applicable Legal Frameworks
This Privacy Policy applies to all visitors of middle-east-chronicle.com:
- EU/EEA visitors: GDPR Regulation (EU) 2016/679, applicable under Art. 3(2)
- UK visitors: UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018
- California residents: CCPA as amended by CPRA
- Wyoming residents: Wyoming Data Privacy Act
- Canadian visitors: PIPEDA and applicable provincial legislation
- MENA region visitors: We respect applicable national privacy legislation in the MENA region, including Israel's Protection of Privacy Law 5741-1981 (as amended), Turkey's Personal Data Protection Law (KVKK, Law No. 6698), the UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on Personal Data Protection, and Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) 2021. We apply GDPR-equivalent principles as our global baseline.
3. Data Collection
3.1 Infrastructure Data (Vercel)
Vercel Inc. (440 N Barranca Ave #4133, Covina, CA 91723, USA) processes standard server request data: IP addresses, User-Agent strings, request paths, referrer URLs, timestamps, and response codes, for the purpose of routing traffic and maintaining site security. We do not independently store or use these logs for profiling.
3.2 Database (Supabase)
Supabase Inc. (970 Toa Payoh North #07-04, Singapore 318992) hosts our content database. No personal data you submit is stored (no user registrations or comment submissions).
3.3 Browser localStorage
| Key | Purpose | Data | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
hpm_cookie_consent | Records consent banner interaction; prevents repeated display | Consent status string only; not transmitted to any server | Persistent until manually cleared |
This item is strictly necessary under §25(2) No. 2 TDDDG and Art. 5(3) ePrivacy Directive. No consent is required for this item.
4. GDPR Legal Bases
- Art. 6(1)(f): Legitimate interests in delivering a secure, functional website via infrastructure processing. Legitimate interests assessment confirms no override of your fundamental rights.
- Art. 6(1)(c): Compliance with legal obligations.
- Art. 6(1)(a): Consent, where applicable to future optional features.
5. International Data Transfers
5.1 To the United States (Vercel)
Vercel participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1795). Standard Contractual Clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR, Commission Decision (EU) 2021/914) are applied as supplementary safeguards.
5.2 To Singapore (Supabase)
Singapore has no EU adequacy decision. Transfers rely on Standard Contractual Clauses per Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR. A data processing agreement incorporating SCCs is in place with Supabase. A transfer impact assessment concludes that residual risk is low given the nature of the data (no user personal content submitted).
6. Data Retention
Vercel server logs: up to 30 days per Vercel's standard retention policy. localStorage: persists on your device; we have no server-side access.
7. GDPR Rights (EU/EEA and UK)
Rights under Articles 15–22 GDPR: access (Art. 15); rectification (Art. 16); erasure (Art. 17); restriction (Art. 18); portability (Art. 20); objection (Art. 21); no automated decision-making (Art. 22). To exercise rights, email support@harbingerpressmedia.com; response within one month.
Right to complain (Art. 77) to supervisory authorities: BfDI (Germany), CNIL (France), ICO (UK), Garante (Italy), AEPD (Spain), or your local authority.
8. CCPA/CPRA (California)
Rights: right to know; right to delete; right to correct; right to opt-out of sale (we do not sell data); right to non-discrimination. Personal information collected in past 12 months: electronic network activity (server log data). Submit requests to support@harbingerpressmedia.com subject “California Privacy Request.”
9. PIPEDA (Canada)
Canadian visitors may request access to and correction of personal information at support@harbingerpressmedia.com.
10. MENA Region Visitors
We apply GDPR-equivalent standards globally. Visitors from Israel, Turkey, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and other MENA jurisdictions with privacy legislation may exercise applicable rights by contacting us at support@harbingerpressmedia.com. Turkish visitors have rights under the KVKK. UAE visitors have rights under Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021. Saudi visitors have rights under the PDPL.
11. Third-Party Services and External Connections
Middle East Chronicle operates without advertising revenue. We do not deploy advertising networks, retargeting pixels, or behavioural profiling technologies. The following third-party services are involved in the operation of this website:
Infrastructure Providers
- Vercel Inc. (650 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94108, USA) — website hosting and content delivery. Vercel processes server log data including IP addresses solely for the purpose of delivering web pages to your browser. Vercel’s privacy policy: vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy
- Supabase Inc. (970 Toa Payoh North, Singapore 318992) — database hosting. Supabase stores article content and site configuration data. No visitor personal data is stored in our database beyond what is described in this policy. Supabase’s privacy policy: supabase.com/privacy
Image Delivery
Article images may be hosted on and served directly from Unsplash (Unsplash Inc., Montreal, QC, Canada). When your browser loads an image from Unsplash servers, Unsplash may receive your IP address and standard browser request headers as part of the HTTP connection. We have no control over Unsplash’s data processing. Unsplash’s privacy policy: unsplash.com/privacy
Google Search Console
We use Google Search Console (Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) to monitor how middle-east-chronicle.com appears in Google Search results and to identify and resolve indexing issues. Google Search Console provides us with aggregated, anonymised data about search queries and page performance; we do not receive personal data about individual visitors through this tool. Google’s privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy
Social Media
We maintain social media presences on Instagram (Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland), X / Twitter (X Corp., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA), and Facebook (Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland). The social media icons in our footer are simple hyperlinks — no social media plugins, share buttons, tracking pixels, or “Like” buttons are embedded on this website. Your browser makes no connection to any social media platform unless you actively click one of these links. When you click a link and are redirected to the platform, the platform’s own privacy policy governs all subsequent data processing.
12. Children's Privacy
This site is not directed at children under 16. Contact us if you believe a child's data has been inadvertently collected.
13. Security
TLS/SSL encryption, infrastructure access controls, and contractual obligations with processors are in place. We apply industry-standard security measures.
14. Updates
We update this Policy as needed. Revision date appears at the top of the page.
15. Contact
Harbinger Bros. LLC
1309 Coffeen Avenue, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States
Email: support@harbingerpressmedia.com