Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Ethicly ("we", "us", "our") is a privacy-first advertising network operated by Pablo Meijer as a sole proprietor based in Switzerland. We connect advertisers with publishers using contextual targeting only. No user profiles are created, no cross-site tracking is performed, and no personal data is sold to third parties.

2. What data we collect

For advertisers and publishers (account holders): We collect the information you provide when creating an account: name, email address, company name, and website URL. This data is stored in our database and used for account management, billing, and communication about the service.

While you are signed in, we also measure how the dashboard is used, so we can see which parts of the product work and which do not: pages viewed, features used, buttons clicked, and errors encountered. This is recorded against your account, using no cookies and no device identifier. We do not record your screen, and we do not measure anything at all when you are signed out.

For visitors to ethicly.ch who are not signed in, and for people seeing Ethicly ads: We do not collect any personal data, set any cookies, run any analytics, fingerprint your device, or identify you in any way. The only signal used for ad selection is the approximate country derived from the request IP address, which is used in the moment to choose an ad and discarded immediately. The IP address is never stored.

For Tabs4Palestine extension users: The extension does not transmit any browsing data, history, or personal information to our servers. Ad requests contain only the ad format type. No user identifier is created or stored.

3. How we use your data

Account holder data is used to: operate and maintain your account, process payments and generate invoices, understand how the dashboard is used so we can improve it, communicate service updates, and comply with legal obligations. We do not use account holder data for advertising purposes, we never sell it, and we share it only with the service providers listed in section 6, each acting on our instructions.

4. Cookies

The Ethicly ad unit shown on publisher websites sets no cookies and uses no browser storage of any kind.

ethicly.ch itself sets no cookies at all. The product analytics described in section 2 run only while you are signed in, and keep nothing on your device: no cookie, no local storage, no identifier that survives closing the tab. Sessions are linked to your account, not to your browser. Staying signed in uses your browser's local storage rather than a cookie, and is strictly necessary for the dashboard to work.

We use exactly one cookie, and only when an advertiser enables conversion tracking. When someone clicks an Ethicly ad and arrives on the advertiser's own website, our conversion script may set a single first-party cookie named ethicly_click on that advertiser's domain. It stores a random, single-use token (no name, email, IP address, or device identifier), expires after 14 days, and exists only to credit a later action such as a sale back to the ad that led to it. It is never used to build a profile or to track anyone across websites, and it is never read on any site other than the advertiser's own.

Because this cookie is set on the advertiser's website, advertisers who enable conversion tracking are responsible for obtaining any consent their local law requires from their own visitors.

5. What we do not do

• We do not build profiles of the people who see our ads
• We do not set tracking cookies, advertising cookies or third-party cookies, on our own site or on any publisher's
• We do not record your screen or your keystrokes anywhere in the product
• We do not participate in real-time bidding (RTB) or programmatic auctions
• We do not share data with data brokers
• We do not use third-party tracking pixels (Meta, Google, or otherwise)
• We do not perform cross-site tracking of any kind
• We do not fingerprint browsers or devices

For people who see our ads, this is not a policy decision. It is architectural. The ad unit has no infrastructure to collect, store, or process personal data from ad viewers, even if we wanted it to. The one place we do measure anything is the signed-in dashboard, and section 2 says exactly what that covers.

6. Data storage and security

Account data is stored on Supabase, in their Zurich region (Switzerland). All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest. Access to production databases is restricted to authorised personnel only. We use row-level security (RLS) policies so users can only access their own data.

The service providers who process data on our behalf, each under a data processing agreement, are:

• Supabase (database, authentication, file storage) - Zurich, Switzerland
• Vercel (web hosting) - United States
• Stripe (payments) - United States and United Kingdom
• PostHog (product analytics for signed-in users) - United States
• Sentry (error monitoring for signed-in users) - Germany
• Resend (transactional email) - United States

Transfers to providers outside Switzerland and the EEA are made under the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. We will update this list before adding any new provider that handles personal data.

7. Data retention

• Account data (name, email, company, website) is kept while your account is active and deleted within 30 days of account closure, except where we are legally required to keep it longer.
• Billing and transaction records are retained for 10 years, as required by Swiss commercial law (Art. 958f of the Swiss Code of Obligations).
• Impression and conversion records contain no personal data and are retained in aggregate for reporting and fraud prevention.
• Dashboard usage analytics are retained for as long as they are useful for improving the service, and reviewed annually. Ask us and we will tell you exactly what is held about you.
• The ethicly_click conversion cookie expires after 14 days.

8. Your rights

If you are an account holder, you have the right to: access the data we hold about you, correct inaccurate data, request deletion of your account and associated data, export your data, and object to any processing we carry out on the basis of legitimate interests. That includes the dashboard analytics described in section 2. Email us and we will stop processing your dashboard analytics and delete what has already been collected about you, with no effect on your use of the service. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at pablo@ethicly.ch.

If you are a website visitor who has seen an Ethicly ad, we hold no data about you. There is nothing to access, correct, or delete.

9. GDPR and consent

Our contextual ad model processes no personal data from ad viewers, so no consent is required to show an Ethicly ad. The approximate country used to select an ad is derived from the request IP and discarded immediately; the IP is never stored.

For account holders, our legal basis is contractual necessity (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR) for running your account and billing you, and our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) in operating, securing and improving the service. The dashboard analytics and error monitoring described in section 2 rest on that legitimate interest: they are limited to people who already hold an account with us, they store nothing on your device, and you can object at any time under section 8. We rely on consent for nothing, because we ask for nothing that requires it. Conversion tracking is optional and runs on the advertiser's own website; where local law requires consent for the ethicly_click cookie, obtaining it is the advertiser's responsibility.

You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. In Switzerland this is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).

10. Changes to this policy

We will notify account holders by email of any material changes to this policy. The current version is always available at this URL.

11. Contact

For privacy-related enquiries, contact us at pablo@ethicly.ch.