Legal

Privacy policy

Updated: 15 October 2026

Who we are

Alena · AU is a free, Russian-language information site about Australia run by Alena, an author based in Sydney. For any question about your data, use the Contact page. We only collect what the forms, the newsletter and the bot need, and we never sell data.

“Suggest a topic” form

We store the message, the page you came from, the date and your consent. Name and email are optional; the email is only used to reply and is never added to the newsletter. For spam protection we keep a one-way hash of your IP address, not the address itself. Messages are never published.

We store your email, name (if given), where you signed up, the consent date, the status and the confirmation or unsubscribe dates. Sign-up is double opt-in: you get an email with a link, and nothing is sent until you click it. Every email carries an unsubscribe link that works immediately. No other form on the site subscribes you.

Retention

Unconfirmed sign-ups are deleted after 30 days. A confirmed address is kept while you are subscribed; after you unsubscribe we keep only the address marked “unsubscribed” so we never email it by mistake, and we delete it on request. Topic suggestions are kept for no more than 24 months. Deletion requests are handled within 7 days.

Who processes your data

Only the technical providers the site cannot run without: Vercel (hosting), Neon (database), Upstash (rate limiting) and the email service that delivers our mail (Resend or Brevo). They process data on our behalf, and their servers may be outside Australia. We never share data with advertisers.

Analytics and cookies

The site currently runs no third-party analytics, ad pixels or trackers. The server keeps technical logs (page, time, response code) for security and debugging, without form contents. Only functional cookies are used, such as the admin login. If we add analytics, it will record anonymous events only (never message text or emails) and this page will be updated.

Telegram and MAX bot, payments

If you used the bot, we store your messenger ID, name, language, bot activity, purchases and download links. We never store card details: YooKassa and Stripe process payments and receive only the order parameters.

Your rights

You can ask what data we hold about you, correct it or delete it. Write via the Contact page (or /support in the bot) and we will act on it within 7 days.