Privacy Policy

In this policy, "ExpatPedia", "we" and "us" mean the team that runs ExpatPedia.

We decide how and why the personal data described here is processed, and we handle it in line with Bahrain's Personal Data Protection Law (Law No. 30 of 2018). Where you live in another Gulf country, we also respect the data protection law that applies to you there.

We collect what you give us and what we need to run the service:

• Account: your name, email address and password. If you sign in with Google, we receive the name, email address and photo Google shares with us.
• Profile: your photo, headline, profession, employer, country and city, nationality, languages, phone and WhatsApp numbers, LinkedIn and other links you choose to add.
• Careers: CVs you upload, applications you send, saved jobs and services, and alerts you set up.
• Verification: identity documents and professional evidence you submit to request a verification tick.
• Content: company pages, job, service and event listings, forum posts and replies, reviews, Spotlight nominations, messages and support conversations.
• Activity: which profiles you view and which members view yours, your searches, your notification settings and other preferences.
• Premium: the name, company, email and phone you give us when you ask for an invoice, and a record of what you paid.
• Technical: your IP address, browser and device type, and server logs we need to keep the service running and secure.

An organisation, or our own team, can invite people to ExpatPedia, one at a time or from a spreadsheet. When they do, we receive the details they provide: usually a name and email address, and sometimes a phone number, job title, country or photo. We use these only to send the invitation and to set up the account if it is accepted. Whoever provides them must have the right to share them with us.

Other members may also mention you: by nominating you for Spotlight, adding you as an employee of their company, or reviewing a company or service you run.

We use your data to:

• provide your account and the features you use, which is necessary to perform our agreement with you
• show your profile to other members, and to visitors if you turn that on, as your settings allow
• send your application, and the CV you attach, to the company you apply to
• review verification requests and listings before they go live
• moderate content, prevent fraud and abuse, and keep the service secure, which is in our legitimate interest and yours
• send the emails the service needs, such as sign-in links and replies, and the notifications you have left switched on
• invoice Premium and keep the records the law requires
• answer you when you contact us

We do not sell personal data, and we do not use it to profile you for advertising.

• Your profile is visible to signed-in members. Visitors who are not signed in see it only if you allow that in your settings.
• When you apply for a job, the company that posted it sees your application and the CV you attached. It keeps the copy it received, even if you later remove that CV from your own list.
• Verification documents are seen only by authorised ExpatPedia staff, through short-lived links, and are deleted once the request is decided.
• Messages are seen only by the people in the conversation. Support conversations are also seen by the staff who answer them.
• Forum posts, reviews and listings are public and appear under your name or your company's.
• Our staff can see only what their role needs.

We use a small number of providers to run ExpatPedia. Each processes data only on our instructions:

• Supabase: database, sign-in and file storage
• Netlify: website hosting
• Google: sign-in, only if you choose to sign in with Google
• Resend: email delivery
• Esri (ArcGIS): map tiles, which receive your IP address when you open a map

We may also disclose data when the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of our members or others.

Some of these providers store or process data outside the Kingdom of Bahrain. Where they do, we rely on safeguards the law recognises, such as contractual commitments to protect the data to an equivalent standard.

We keep your data while your account is open. When you ask us to delete your account, we delete or anonymise your data within 30 days, except:

• applications you already sent, which the companies that received them hold
• invoices and payment records, which we keep for as long as the law requires
• records of moderation decisions and security logs, kept for as long as needed to prevent abuse

Verification documents are deleted once the request is decided. Invitations that are never accepted are deleted when they expire or are withdrawn.

You have the right to:

• know what personal data we hold about you and receive a copy
• have inaccurate data corrected
• have your data deleted
• object to processing, or withdraw consent where we rely on it

You can edit most of your profile, your visibility and your notifications yourself in Settings. To change your account email address, delete your account, or exercise any other right, use the form on the Contact page and choose Privacy and your data. We may ask you to confirm your identity first.

If you are unhappy with how we handled your data, you can complain to Bahrain's Personal Data Protection Authority.

Access to data is enforced in the database itself, not only in the app. CVs and identity documents are kept in private storage and opened only through short-lived links. No online service is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your data, and we will tell you and the authority if a breach puts you at risk.

ExpatPedia is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account, and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

When we change this policy, we post the new version here with a new date. If a change materially affects how we use your data, we tell members before it takes effect.

For privacy questions and requests, use the form on the Contact page and choose Privacy and your data.