Privacy policy

Unpause Asia cares about your privacy. Our site deliberately collects very little data: no advertising profiles, no cookies while you read and no sale of personal data. This policy explains clearly what personal data we process, why, for how long and what your rights are. It is written with the Philippines' Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173, the “Data Privacy Act”) in mind.

Who is responsible for your data

Under the Data Privacy Act, the “personal information controller” — the entity that decides why and how your personal data is processed — is the company that publishes Unpause Asia:

What data we process

We limit collection to what is strictly necessary. The data we process falls into the following categories.

• Technical connection data. As with any website, our hosting provider's servers automatically record certain technical information in their logs, such as the IP address, the date and time of the request, the page requested and the type of browser. This data is used for security and to keep the service running properly.
• First-party audience statistics. To know which articles are read, we use a measurement tool built in-house, without cookies and without any third-party service. For each page view it records the page address and title, the referring site (only its domain name, for example a search engine or a social network), the type of device (computer, smartphone or tablet), the browser and operating system family and, when the network infrastructure provides it, the country. To count unique visitors, it computes a pseudonymous identifier — a salted hash — from the IP address and the browser, combined with a secret key that changes every day: the tool does not store the IP address, and the identifier cannot recognise you from one day to the next. Bot traffic is excluded and the data is only viewed in aggregate.
• Newsletter. If you subscribe, we record your e-mail address, the date and the page where you subscribed, as well as the IP address and browser used, to prevent abuse and to keep a record of your subscription.
• “Follow this article”. If you choose to follow an article, we record your e-mail address and the article concerned, so that we can let you know if it is updated or corrected, as well as the date, the IP address and the browser to prevent abuse.
• Reader contributions. The form at the bottom of our articles lets you send the newsroom a message and, if you wish, a photo. It asks for neither your name nor your e-mail address. We record the message, the photo, the original file name, the article concerned, the date, the IP address and the browser (the last two to prevent abuse). The photo is re-encoded and renamed, which removes embedded metadata such as EXIF data that can reveal a location. Please do not include personal data that is not needed in your message, in particular health information, bank or card details, game account credentials, or government identification numbers such as PhilSys, SSS or TIN numbers.
• Article ratings. When you answer the question at the end of an article asking whether you liked it, we record your vote together with a pseudonymous identifier for the day (computed without cookies), the IP address and the browser, so that each visitor is counted only once and abuse is limited.
• Messages you send us. If you write to us by e-mail, we process the information you give us, in particular your e-mail address and the content of your message.

Readers' data is never sent to the artificial intelligence services we use to write articles and generate illustrations.

Why we use your data

Each use of personal data has a specific, declared purpose.

• To provide and protect the service (technical logs, anti-abuse measures): to run a reliable and secure website.
• To measure our audience in aggregate (in-house statistics, article ratings): to understand which content is useful to readers, using identifiers that do not let us recognise you from one day to the next.
• To send you the newsletter and alerts about the articles you follow: on the basis of the consent you give when you sign up, which you can withdraw at any time.
• To review contributions and reports and to reply to your messages: for the specific purpose for which you chose to send us your data and, when you exercise your rights or raise a complaint, to handle your request as the law requires.

We do not build profiles, we do not track readers' behaviour for advertising and we do not take decisions about you based solely on automated processing.

Consent and withdrawal

When we ask for your consent (newsletter, “Follow this article”), it is for that purpose only, and you give it through a clear action of your own. You can withdraw it at any time, as easily as you gave it: every newsletter or alert we send will include an unsubscribe link, and you can also simply write to us. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing carried out before the withdrawal.

Cookies and other trackers

While you browse, Unpause Asia places no cookies on your device: no technical, analytics, advertising or third-party cookies. The site uses no other form of browser storage (such as localStorage), serves its fonts from its own servers and embeds no third-party content such as videos, maps or social media widgets: the share buttons are plain links, and nothing from a social network loads until you click one. That is why we do not show you a cookie banner.

The statistics tool described above uses no cookies and no identifiers stored on your device; the data it collects is processed in aggregate, for the publisher's use only, and is not combined with any other information.

The only cookie the site uses is a technical session cookie for the administration area reserved for the newsroom: it is set only for people who log in to that area, never while reading the site.

The site shows no advertising today. If we introduce advertising, or any cookies or trackers other than those described here, we will update this policy before activating them and ask for your consent first. You can, in any case, manage or delete cookies in your browser settings.

Who receives your data

Your data is accessible only to people authorised by the publisher and to technical providers acting on its behalf as personal information processors. The site is hosted by o2switch, in France:

To help write articles and generate illustrations, we use artificial intelligence services from OpenAI. These services receive only the published sources and the editorial instructions needed for that work: no data about our readers is sent to them.

We do not sell, rent or hand over your personal data to third parties for commercial purposes.

Where your data is stored

Your data is stored on servers located in France, in the European Union. Because the publisher, AZ Medias Limited, is based in Hong Kong, some processing may involve access to the data from Hong Kong. Where personal data is processed outside the Philippines, we remain responsible for it and use contractual and technical safeguards to give it a comparable level of protection, as the Data Privacy Act requires of a personal information controller.

How long we keep data

We keep data only as long as needed for the purpose for which it is used.

• Server technical logs: for a limited period, for security and to keep the service running, according to the hosting provider's settings.
• Audience statistics: individual page views are deleted automatically after 180 days; only aggregate counters remain, such as the number of times an article has been read.
• Newsletter and “Follow this article”: until you withdraw your consent or ask us to erase your data. After you unsubscribe from the newsletter, your address may be kept with the status “unsubscribed”, solely so that we respect your choice, unless you ask us to erase it.
• Contributions, ratings and messages: for as long as needed to review them and follow up on your request, subject to any legal obligation to keep them longer.

Your rights

Under the Data Privacy Act, as a “data subject” you have the right to:

• be informed about whether and how your personal data is processed, which is the purpose of this policy;
• access your personal data and the information about how it is processed;
• object to the processing of your personal data, in particular where it is based on consent, and withdraw your consent at any time;
• rectification: have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected;
• erasure or blocking: have your data suspended, withdrawn, blocked, removed or destroyed when it is incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained or no longer needed for its purpose;
• data portability, where the law provides for it;
• damages: be indemnified for any damage caused by inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained or unauthorised use of your data.

To exercise your rights, or to unsubscribe from the newsletter or from alerts about an article, write to us at newsroom@unpause.asia with “Privacy request” in the subject line. We may ask you to confirm your identity to keep your request confidential. We aim to respond within 30 days, and in any case within the time limits set by applicable law. Because the pseudonymous statistics do not allow us to identify you, we may not be able to find any data about you in them.

Complaints and the National Privacy Commission

If you are not satisfied with how we handle your personal data, please first write to us with “Complaint” in the subject line, so that we can resolve the issue; we aim to acknowledge your complaint within 48 hours. If you remain dissatisfied with our response, you can lodge a complaint with the National Privacy Commission of the Philippines, in the manner the Commission prescribes.

Visitors in the European Union

Our servers are located in France. If you read Unpause Asia from the European Union or the European Economic Area and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to the processing of your data, you also have the rights it gives you — access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and portability — and you can lodge a complaint with the data protection authority of the country where you live or work. Any transfer of data outside the European Union takes place with appropriate safeguards, as Chapter V of the GDPR requires.

Children

If you are a minor, please do not subscribe to the newsletter or send us personal data without the consent of a parent or lawful guardian. We do not track the behaviour of any reader, minors included, and we show no targeted advertising.

Security

We take reasonable and appropriate organisational, physical and technical measures to protect your data against loss, unauthorised access, disclosure or alteration. Since no system is infallible, we keep improving these measures, and if a personal data breach occurs that requires it, we will notify the National Privacy Commission and the people affected, as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

This policy may change, in particular to reflect changes in the law or in our services. Any change will be published on this page, and the date of the latest update shown below is the one that applies. We encourage you to check it from time to time.

Last updated: 26 October 2026.