Effective date: 19 June 2026
1. Who we are
“Never Been Abroad” (this website) is a personal blog. “We”/“the site” means Never Been Abroad. For any privacy request or question, use the contact form — that’s the channel for everything below. We don’t publish a postal address.
2. The short version
We collect only what you actively give us — when you comment, contact us, or subscribe. To run the site we use a content delivery network (CDN) for speed and security, and we show advertising and use analytics, which rely on cookies and similar technologies that can track your activity. You can manage non-essential cookies through our consent tool and your browser. We don’t sell your personal data for money — but sharing data for personalised ads may count as a “sale”/“share” under some U.S. laws, which you can opt out of. Region-specific rights for the EEA/UK and California are set out in sections 12–13.
3. What we collect
- Comments — name, email, the comment, your IP and browser user-agent; a cookie may save your name/email. Avatars are provided by a third-party avatar service (a one-way hashed form of your email is sent to it to show one).
- Contact form — name, email, subject, message; stored and emailed to us to reply.
- Subscribing — name, email, consent, and date/IP of signup; to tell you when a new piece is published. We may later add subscribers to a newsletter list with automated emails; each will carry an unsubscribe link.
- Usage & advertising data — collected automatically by our analytics and advertising partners via cookies, tags and device identifiers: pages viewed, time on site, approximate location, device/browser, referring site, and identifiers used to measure and personalise ads, including activity over time and across other websites.
- Technical & security data — a CDN/security layer processes connection data (IP, request details) to deliver pages and block bots/attacks; the server keeps standard logs.
4. Cookies and similar technologies
We use essential cookies, analytics cookies, and advertising cookies (some set by third parties). You can manage non-essential cookies through our consent tool and your browser. For EEA/UK visitors, analytics and advertising cookies load only after you consent. For California visitors, we honor opt-out preference signals (see section 13).
5. Advertising and analytics
We use third-party advertising and analytics services — including Google’s advertising and measurement products — to show ads and understand how the site is used. These use cookies, tags and identifiers to collect the usage/advertising data above, including to serve personalised (interest-based) ads based on your activity over time and across other sites. You can control personalised ads at Google Ad Settings, aboutads.info/choices, and youronlinechoices.eu; opt out of Google Analytics via its browser add-on; and read how Google handles data from sites using its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
6. Why we use it (legal bases)
Your consent (comments, subscribing, and analytics/advertising cookies); the need to respond to you (contact form); and the legitimate interests of us and our partners in running, securing, measuring and funding the site. Where the law requires consent for cookies/tracking, we rely on your consent, which you can withdraw.
7. Who we share it with
We don’t sell or rent your personal data for money. It’s handled by the service providers that operate the site — for content delivery and security, comment avatars, email delivery, analytics, and advertising — each under its own terms. Some sharing of online identifiers with advertising/analytics partners for personalised advertising may be a “sale” or “share” under California law; see section 13 to opt out. We may disclose data if the law requires it.
8. Where your data goes
The site’s infrastructure and the partners above may process data on servers in other countries, including outside India; for EEA/UK data, see the transfer safeguards in section 12.
9. How long we keep it
Comments stay while the post is online unless you ask us to remove them; subscriber details until you unsubscribe; contact messages as long as needed plus a reasonable period. Analytics/advertising data are retained by those partners under their own policies.
10. Your rights (everyone)
Under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and comparable laws, you can ask us to access, correct, or delete your data, or withdraw consent — via the contact form. You may also approach your local data-protection authority.
11. Younger readers
The site isn’t aimed at children and we don’t stop younger people reading or interacting. If you’re under 13, please don’t submit personal information without a parent’s or guardian’s consent; if we learn we collected it from an under-13 without consent, we’ll delete it.
12. EEA & UK visitors (GDPR / UK GDPR)
- Controller: Never Been Abroad; contact via the contact form.
- Legal bases: as in section 6.
- Your rights: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability, objection (including to profiling/direct marketing), and withdrawing consent at any time (without affecting earlier processing).
- Consent: analytics and advertising cookies are set only after you consent via our cookie tool; you can change or withdraw consent anytime.
- International transfers: where data leaves the EEA/UK, we and our providers rely on adequacy decisions or Standard Contractual Clauses (with the UK Addendum) as safeguards.
- Complaints: you may lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority (in the UK, the ICO).
13. California residents (CCPA/CPRA)
- Categories collected (last 12 months): identifiers (name, email, IP, online/device IDs); internet/network activity (pages, interactions, referrer); approximate geolocation; and inferences for ad personalisation — for the purposes in this policy.
- “Sale”/“Share”: we don’t sell personal information for money, but using advertising/analytics cookies for personalised ads may be a “share” (cross-context behavioural advertising) and possibly a “sale” under California law. We don’t knowingly sell or share the data of anyone under 16.
- Your rights: to know/access, delete, correct, opt out of sale/sharing, limit the use of sensitive personal information, and non-discrimination for exercising rights.
- How to opt out: use the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” / cookie-choices control on the site; we also honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signal.
- Other requests: use the contact form; we may verify your request, and you may use an authorized agent.
14. Changes
Where laws conflict, the stricter applicable rule governs for that visitor. We may update this policy; the effective date shows the latest version.
