Privacy policy — Going Global

Who we are

Going Global Relocation Guides (“Going Global”, “we”, “us”) publishes city relocation guides for families on international assignment. We are the controller of the personal data described in this policy. Our company particulars are in the Legal notice. Our data-protection contact is privacy@goingglobalguides.com.

What this policy covers

Two things: this website at goingglobalguides.com, and the Going Global guide app for iPhone, iPad and Android, together with the web edition of the guide that organisations license for their people. Where the app is provided to you by your employer or a relocation company, that organisation may also hold its own records about you under its own policy; this policy covers what we do.

The short version: we collect what the guide needs to work and to prove to the organisations who provide it that it is being used. We do not sell personal data, we do not run advertising trackers, and nothing you write in the guide is used to train any artificial-intelligence model.

This website

You can read this website without giving us any personal data. When you visit, our hosting provider records standard server logs — the IP address of your connection, the pages requested, the time, and the browser and device type — which are used to run and secure the service and are kept for a limited period by the provider. The page uses a small piece of browser storage to remember that you have already seen the opening film in this browsing session; it identifies nothing about you and is cleared when you close the browser. We do not set advertising or analytics cookies of our own.

If you write to us, or ask to be told when the app is available, we keep your message and your email address for that purpose and for as long as the conversation or the request is live.

The guide app

The guide app is provided free to readers. To read it you sign in, and signing in is what lets us keep your place, deliver the edition your organisation licensed, and report honestly to that organisation that the guide is being read. The data involved is:

What	Examples	Why
Account	Your email address; your name if you give it; the organisation that provided your access and your seat within it; the one-time codes we send to sign you in	To create and secure your account and to deliver the right edition
Reading activity	Which city and articles you open, how long you read, which listings you tap, the language you read in, and whether you press an inquiry button for a school or venue	To keep your place, to improve the guide, and to report usage to the organisation that provides it (see Who we share it with)
Device and technical	Device type and operating-system version, app version, language setting, crash reports, and a push-notification token if you turn notifications on	To make the app work on your device and to fix faults
Downloaded content	City packages you download for offline reading, stored on your device	So the guide works without a connection
Questions to the in-app assistant	The text of a question you ask the guide’s assistant	To answer it from the verified guide. Questions are processed to produce the answer and are not used to train any model
Reports you send us	A wrong listing, a closed venue, a broken link, and the details you give with it	To check and correct the guide

We do not collect your precise location, your contacts, your photos, or your calendar. The maps in the guide hand you to your device’s own maps application; what you do there is governed by that application’s policy. Videos in the guide that are hosted by YouTube play only when you choose to play them, through YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player; YouTube’s own policy applies once you press play.

We do not use advertising identifiers and we do not track you across other apps or websites. Advertising in the guide is placed by category and is never targeted at you as an individual.

Why we use your data

To provide the guide — sign-in, editions, offline packages, your reading position, notifications you have asked for. Basis: the agreement under which you use the guide.
To report usage to the organisation that provides your access — so an employer, relocation company or school can see that the guide is being used. Reports to organisations are aggregated and pseudonymous; they show how many people read what, not what a named individual read. Basis: our legitimate interest in demonstrating the service, and the licence agreement with that organisation.
To measure the guide honestly — how often listings are opened and inquiry buttons pressed, so that what we tell the schools and venues that advertise in the guide is true. These figures are reported as totals. Basis: legitimate interest.
To keep the guide accurate and the service secure — investigating reports, fixing faults, preventing abuse. Basis: legitimate interest and, where applicable, legal obligation.
To answer you when you write to us. Basis: your request.

Where the law where you live requires your consent for any of the above — including for the cross-border transfer of your data — we ask for it separately, purpose by purpose, when you first sign in, and you can withdraw it at any time in the app or by writing to us.

The organisation that provides your access receives aggregated, pseudonymous usage reports as described above, and confirmation that the seats it licensed are in use. It does not receive your reading history.
Service providers who host the app and its data, send sign-in codes and notifications, and process crash reports, acting on our instructions under contract. A current list is available on request.
Schools and venues receive an inquiry only when you press the inquiry button for them, and only the details you choose to send.
Authorities where the law requires it.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. Our editorial and verification work never sees who advertises; the same separation applies to your data.

How long we keep it

Your account for as long as it is open, and for thirty days after you delete it, so that a deletion made in error can be reversed. After that it is erased from our systems, and from backups on their normal rotation.
Reading activity linked to your account for the life of the account, then erased with it. Aggregated figures that no longer identify anyone are kept.
Sign-in codes for minutes, not days.
Reports and correspondence for as long as the matter is live and for a reasonable period afterwards.
Server logs for the limited period our hosting provider keeps them.

Your rights

Wherever you live, you can ask us to tell you what personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to give you a copy, to restrict how we use it, to withdraw a consent you have given, to object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and to delete your account and the data with it. Deleting your account is available inside the app and on our account deletion page.

We answer every request. Where the law where you live sets a deadline we meet it; in every case we acknowledge within two working days and complete a deletion within thirty days unless the law requires us to keep something, in which case we tell you what and why. If you are not satisfied, you may complain to the data-protection authority where you live; we would rather you told us first.

International transfers

The guide is read in many countries and our systems are hosted outside most of them. Your data may therefore be stored and processed in a country other than the one you live in. Where the law where you live requires safeguards for such a transfer — contractual terms, an impact assessment, a regulatory filing, or your explicit consent — we put them in place before the transfer. Readers in Vietnam: we ask for your consent to cross-border transfer when you sign in, and you may withdraw it; withdrawing it will end your use of the app, because the app cannot run without it.

Security

Data travels encrypted. Accounts are protected by one-time sign-in codes rather than stored passwords. Access inside Going Global is limited to the people who need it for the purposes above. If a breach ever affects your data we will tell you and, where required, the relevant authority, promptly and plainly.

Children

The guide is written for adults planning a family’s move. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly create accounts for anyone under sixteen. If you believe a child has an account, write to us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy we change the version number and the effective date at the top, and we tell signed-in readers in the app before a material change takes effect. Earlier versions are available on request.

How to reach us

Privacy questions and requests: privacy@goingglobalguides.com. Everything else: Contact & support.

Your data, plainly.