Privacy Policy

Summary

The short version

This is an informational website. It does not have user accounts, does not run a contact form, does not set cookies, and does not use analytics or advertising technology. The only personal information we hold is what you choose to send us by email.

1. Who we are

This website is operated by ValueMart, LLC, trading as Expat Advantage ("Expat Advantage", "we", "us", "our"). We are the controller of the personal information described in this policy.

For any privacy question or request, contact privacy@expatadvantage.com.

2. Scope of this policy

This policy covers the public website at https://expatadvantage.com and email correspondence with us. Expat Advantage is in development; there is currently no application, no user account, and no connected third-party service available through this site. If and when those exist, this policy will be updated to describe them before they go live.

3. Information you provide voluntarily

You are not required to provide any personal information to use this website. If you email us, we receive whatever you choose to include, which will typically be:

• Your name and email address, as they appear on your message
• The content of your message and any attachments you send
• Any further correspondence in the same thread

We use this only to read, consider and respond to your message, and to understand what people find difficult when planning a move. We do not add you to a mailing list on the basis of an enquiry, and we do not sell or rent personal information to anyone.

Please do not send passport numbers, national identification numbers, financial account details or copies of identity documents. We do not need them and do not wish to hold them. If you send such material unprompted, we will delete it once your enquiry is closed.

4. Contact enquiries

Email to Expat Advantage is received and stored in our email systems. Where we rely on a legal basis under the UK GDPR or EU GDPR, the basis for handling enquiry correspondence is our legitimate interest in responding to people who contact us, and — where you have asked us to do something specific — steps taken at your request.

5. Technical information collected automatically

This website is a set of static files served by our hosting provider. We do not run analytics software, tracking pixels, session recording, fingerprinting or advertising technology on it.

As with any website, our hosting provider processes standard server request data in order to deliver pages and protect the service. That typically includes your IP address, the page requested, the time of the request, your browser's user-agent string and the referring page. We use this only in aggregate and for security and reliability purposes. We do not attempt to identify individual visitors from it, and we do not combine it with any other information.

6. Cookies

This website does not set cookies. It does not use cookies for analytics, advertising, personalisation or preference storage, and there is therefore no cookie banner to dismiss.

If we introduce any functionality that requires cookies or similar storage, we will update this policy and provide appropriate notice and, where required, a means of consent before that functionality is enabled.

7. Third-party services

We keep third parties on this website to the minimum required to publish it:

• Hosting. The site is hosted on Netlify, which serves the pages and processes the server request data described in section 5 as our processor.
• Email. Our email provider processes correspondence you send us.

Fonts, images and stylesheets are served from our own domain. This site does not load fonts, scripts, frames or tracking from third-party content networks, advertising networks or social media platforms.

Because our hosting provider operates a global content delivery network, page delivery may involve servers outside your country. Where personal information is transferred internationally by our providers, they are responsible for applying appropriate safeguards under applicable data-protection law.

8. Future connected services, including Google and YouTube

Expat Advantage is being designed so that, at a later stage, a user might choose to connect a third-party account — for example a YouTube channel, for creator analytics — to features built for that purpose. That functionality is planned, not available.

This section exists so that there is a defined place for that disclosure. Before any such connection is offered, we will publish an updated version of this policy setting out, at minimum:

• Which third-party service the connection is to, and which specific permissions (scopes) are requested
• Exactly what data is accessed under each permission, and the feature that requires it
• Whether that data is stored, and if so where, for how long, and under what security controls
• Whether any of it is shared with, or processed by, any other party
• How to disconnect the account and how to have the associated data deleted
• The applicable platform requirements we operate under, including Google API Services User Data Policy limited-use requirements where a Google or YouTube connection is involved

Until that updated policy is published, no such connection will be offered on this site or in any Expat Advantage product.

9. Data retention

We keep email correspondence for as long as needed to deal with the matter it concerns and to keep a reasonable record of it, and then delete it. In practice we review enquiry correspondence periodically and remove what no longer serves a purpose. Server logs held by our hosting provider are retained according to that provider's own retention schedule, which is measured in days rather than years.

Where we are required to retain something for a longer period by law, we retain it for that period and no longer.

10. Data security

The website is served over HTTPS. We limit the personal information we collect, which is the most effective control available to us. Access to enquiry correspondence is restricted to people who need it to respond. Our hosting and email providers apply their own technical and organisational security measures.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Email in particular is not a secure channel, which is why we ask you not to send sensitive identity or financial documents to us.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal information, including the right to:

• Ask what personal information we hold about you and receive a copy of it
• Have inaccurate information corrected
• Have information deleted
• Object to, or ask us to restrict, our handling of it
• Withdraw consent where we relied on consent
• Lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising. We do not carry out automated decision-making or profiling.

To exercise any right, email privacy@expatadvantage.com. We will respond within the period required by applicable law, and within 30 days where no specific period applies. We may need to ask a question to confirm which correspondence is yours, and we will not use anything you send for that purpose for any other reason.

12. Children

This website is intended for adults making decisions about living or working abroad. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

13. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when what we do changes — in particular before, not after, introducing accounts, forms, analytics, cookies or any connected third-party service. The version number and effective date at the top of this page will change with each revision, and material changes will be described here.

14. How to contact us

ValueMart, LLC, trading as Expat Advantage.
Privacy enquiries: privacy@expatadvantage.com

See also our Terms of Service.