Privacy Policy
Prepared by the website team; it takes effect once the institute has reviewed and approved it.
When you browse the site
You can read every page of the site without creating an account or entering any data.
The site uses no visitor analytics or tracking tools, no advertising and no third-party services. Fonts, images and files are served by the site’s own server.
The one exception is the Google map on the contact page: it is not loaded, and your browser does not contact Google, until you press “Show the map”. The map then comes straight from Google, and Google’s privacy policy applies. The “Open in Google Maps” link opens Google’s own site.
The site counts how many times each article is read, to show “Most read”, and stores only the number, with no data about you. To avoid counting the same reader twice, the IP address is used briefly as a salted hash from which the address cannot be recovered, and deleted within two days.
What is stored in your browser
The site stores only two things in your browser, and none of them is used to track you:
- Your theme choice (light or dark), kept in the browser’s local storage only once you choose one, and never sent anywhere.
- When you read an article: a mark in the session storage (sessionStorage) named raya:viewed: plus the article’s number, so reading the same article again is not counted twice. It is deleted when you close the browser and never sent anywhere.
The dashboard (institute staff only)
Session cookies are created only when authorized staff sign in to the dashboard, and the public pages do not read them. They are protected from page scripts, and the session ends automatically after a period without use.
To protect accounts, sign-in attempts and the changes staff make are recorded, and the IP address in these records is kept only as a salted hash from which the address cannot be recovered.
The contact form
When you send a message from the contact page, what you write is stored: your name, email address, phone number if you give one, the subject and the message, with the time it was sent and the page language. Institute staff read messages in the dashboard only to answer them, and the message is not emailed to anyone.
Your IP address is not stored, only a salted hash of it from which the address cannot be recovered, used to block spam (at most three messages every ten minutes from the same device).
Messages are deleted automatically 12 months after they arrive, and staff can delete a message earlier. The dashboard’s activity log never records the text of a message.
Published images and files
Images and files uploaded by institute staff are published on the site. Hidden data in photos, such as where they were taken, is removed when they are uploaded.
Items that staff delete stay in the Trash for 30 days and are then deleted permanently.
Backups
The site’s database is backed up to protect it from loss. Daily copies are kept for 14 days and weekly copies for 8 weeks, then deleted automatically, so a deleted message may remain in a backup until that copy expires.
Other sites
The site links to other sites, such as the institute’s online portals, the national admissions site and social media pages. When you open them, their own policies apply.
Questions and deletion requests
To ask about this policy or to have a message you sent deleted, contact the institute: