Privacy Policy
Version of 10 November 2026
1. Who we are and how to reach us
1.1 This Privacy Policy explains how Tal Zelinger, or any company established by him or on his behalf to which the Service is transferred ("The Envoy", "we", "us"), handles personal information in connection with The Envoy service (the "Service").
1.2 We are the controller of the personal information described in this Policy. In the terms of Israeli law, we are the owner of the database in which it is held.
1.3 Contact for anything in this Policy: privacy@politicsenvoy.com, or by post to the address above.
1.4 This Policy forms part of our Terms of Use. Capitalised terms not defined here have the meaning given in the Terms. Where a Mission has signed a Mission Agreement with us, that agreement may set additional terms about its users' information.
2. What this Policy covers
2.1 This Policy covers personal information we process when you visit politicsenvoy.com, request access, create or use an account, receive account emails from us, or correspond with us. The Daily Brief is read inside the Service and is not sent by email.
2.2 It also covers, in section 4, the information we publish about the people the Service describes: office holders, candidates, judges and other public figures.
2.3 It does not cover the sites we link to, such as news outlets, official records and pollsters, or Google's or Microsoft's own processing when you sign in with them. Those are governed by their own policies.
2.4 Providing personal information to us is voluntary. You are under no legal duty to provide it. If you do not provide the information marked as required, we cannot consider a request for access, open an account or respond to a request.
3. The information we process about you
3.1 Information you give us
| When | What | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Request for access | Name, email address, Mission or organisation, role, country you represent, anything you add in the free-text field, and whether you agree to receive news about new features and offers | Name, email, Mission and role are required; the rest is optional |
| Account created with Google | Your name, email address, profile picture and Google account identifier, as supplied by Google (see section 6) | Required for a Google account |
| Account created with Microsoft | Your name, email address, profile picture and Microsoft account identifier, as supplied by Microsoft (see section 6) | Required for a Microsoft account |
| Account use | Your preferred language and country, the countries you are entitled to view, the version of the Terms you accepted and when, the time of your last sign-in and your open sessions | Recorded automatically |
| Correspondence | What you write to us, including support requests, correction requests and feedback, and our replies | Depends on the request |
3.2 Information generated when you use the Service
The Service does not keep a record of the pages or items you read, and does not run analytics on individual users. Our hosting provider, Supabase, keeps authentication and request logs that include your IP address for a short period, currently up to 7 days, which we use only for security and fault-finding. Cloudflare keeps request statistics at the level of the whole site, not of individual users.
3.3 Information collected by our infrastructure
Cloudflare, which delivers and protects the Service, processes the IP address and browser details of every visitor to detect bots and attacks, and may set the security cookies described in section 11. Cloudflare Web Analytics gives us aggregate page statistics without cookies or fingerprinting. Supabase, which hosts the Service in Frankfurt, Germany, stores your account information and sends account emails, such as sign-in verification and password reset, on our behalf.
3.4 Information we do not collect
We do not ask for, and do not knowingly collect, information about your political opinions, health, religion, ethnicity or other specially sensitive information. We do not collect payment card details; any fees are invoiced to the Mission under a Mission Agreement. Your Mission and role are professional information, and we treat them as confidential under section 8 of the Terms.
4. People described on the Service
4.1 The Service publishes reference pages about people in public life: holders of public office, members of the Knesset, ministers, judges, candidates, heads of institutions and comparable figures in the countries we cover. This section is addressed to them.
4.2 What we publish. Name, offices held and their dates, parliamentary terms, party or list affiliation, a short biography based on the public record, and photographs from public or official sources. We also report what the press and official records say about a person's public conduct, in the Daily Brief and on institution pages.
4.3 What we do not publish. We do not publish private information, such as home address, family details, health, personal finances or private contact details, beyond what the public role requires and the public record already contains.
4.4 Sources. Knesset and parliamentary records, official gazettes and government publications, court publications, the websites of institutions and parties, and the press. Each page names or links its sources where practical. Press reports, which name people in public life, are sent to the artificial-intelligence services described in section 14 for translation, summarising and classification.
4.5 Why. The Service exists to inform foreign missions about the public life of the state they are posted to. Information about public office and public conduct is published in the public interest and in our legitimate interest in providing an accurate reference work. The information is drawn from sources that are lawfully public.
4.6 Your rights. If you are described in the Service, you may ask us to see the information we publish about you, to correct it, to add a response, or to object to the publication of a specific item. Write to privacy@politicsenvoy.com, identify the page, and tell us what is wrong and why. We aim to respond within 14 days. We will correct inaccurate information, and will consider every objection on its merits, weighing your interest against the public interest in a complete record of public office.
5. Why we use the information, and on what basis
5.1 We use personal information only for the purposes below.
| Purpose | Information used | Basis under Israeli law | Basis under the GDPR, where it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Consider a request for access and set up access | Request for access details | Your consent, given by submitting the form | Steps at your request before a contract; legitimate interest |
| Send news about new features and offers | Name, email address, and the record of your consent (the wording you agreed to and when) | Your consent, which you may withdraw at any time | Consent |
| Provide the Service and your account | Account information, settings, Mission and role | Performance of the Terms; your consent on sign-up | Performance of a contract |
| Send account emails and notices about the Service | Email address | Performance of the Terms | Performance of a contract |
| Keep the Service secure and prevent abuse | Technical logs, Cloudflare security data | Our legitimate interest in security; our legal duties on data security | Legitimate interest |
| Improve the Service | Aggregate usage statistics, feedback | Our legitimate interest | Legitimate interest |
| Respond to requests, corrections and complaints | Correspondence | Your consent; our legitimate interest | Legitimate interest; legal obligation |
| Comply with law and enforce the Terms | Any of the above, as needed | Legal obligation; legitimate interest | Legal obligation; legitimate interest |
5.2 Mailings. We write to users and to people who requested access about their account and the Service, such as the start or end of a free trial or a material change to the Service. We send news about new features and offers only to people who agreed to receive them, by ticking the optional box on the request for access form or on the Terms screen. That consent is never a condition of using the Service. You may withdraw it at any time, through the link in any such message, on your Account page or at privacy@politicsenvoy.com, and we will stop.
5.3 We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it with advertisers.
6. Signing in with Google or Microsoft
6.1 If you sign in with Google, Google sends us your name, email address, profile picture and a Google account identifier. If you sign in with Microsoft, Microsoft sends us your name, email address, profile picture and a Microsoft account identifier. In each case we request only the basic profile and email permissions. We do not request, and cannot access, your Gmail, Drive, Contacts, Calendar, Outlook, OneDrive, Teams or any other Google or Microsoft data.
6.2 We use this information only to create and operate your account, to show your name and picture in the Service, and to contact you about the Service.
6.3 The Envoy's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
6.4 You can see and revoke The Envoy's access at any time in your Google account, under third-party apps and services, or in your Microsoft account, under apps and services you have given access to. Revoking access does not delete your account with us; section 12 explains how to do that.
7. Who we share information with
7.1 Processors. We use the following providers to run the Service. Each processes personal information only on our instructions, under a written contract that requires it to protect the information and not to use it for its own purposes.
| Provider | What it does | Information it processes | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Hosting, database, authentication, file storage and account emails | Account information, profile pictures, short-lived technical logs | Frankfurt, Germany (AWS region eu-central-1) |
| Cloudflare | Content delivery, DNS, security and bot protection, aggregate analytics | IP address, browser details, security cookies | Global network |
| Microsoft | Sign-in with Microsoft | Sign-in data described in section 6 | Microsoft data centres worldwide |
| Sign-in with Google; web fonts; the Gemini artificial-intelligence service used to prepare the Daily Brief | Sign-in data described in section 6; IP address when your browser loads a font; for the Daily Brief, press content only, with no user information | Google data centres worldwide | |
| Groq | Fallback artificial-intelligence service used to prepare the Daily Brief when Google's service is unavailable | Press content only; no user information | United States |
7.2 Other disclosures. We may disclose personal information: to our professional advisers under a duty of confidence; to a court, authority or law-enforcement body where the law requires it, subject to section 8.3 of the Terms; where needed to enforce the Terms or to protect the rights, safety or property of The Envoy, our users or others; and to a successor to our business, who will be bound by this Policy.
7.3 Missions. Where your Mission asked us to grant you access, we may confirm to the Mission that your account exists and is active, and we will close your account at the Mission's request when you leave it. We do not give Missions any other information about your use of the Service.
7.4 We do not sell personal information. We do not share it with advertisers or data brokers. We do not disclose the identity of our users or Missions to any government, except as the law requires.
8. Where information is stored and international transfers
8.1 We are based in Israel. Personal information is stored on Supabase servers in Frankfurt, Germany (AWS region eu-central-1), and passes through Cloudflare's global network. Press content sent to the artificial-intelligence services described in section 14 may be processed in other countries; it contains no user information.
8.2 Transfers of personal information out of Israel are made in accordance with the Privacy Protection (Transfer of Data to Databases Abroad) Regulations, 5761-2001. Each recipient has given a written undertaking to apply the standards of Israeli privacy law to the information and not to transfer it onward except as agreed.
8.3 For users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland: the European Commission has recognised Israel as providing an adequate level of data protection, so transfers to us do not require additional safeguards. Onward transfers by our processors to other countries are covered by the standard contractual clauses in their data processing agreements.
9. How long we keep information
9.1 We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purposes in section 5.
| Information | How long |
|---|---|
| Request for access | Until the request is decided, and then 12 months, unless an account is opened |
| Account information | Deleted immediately when you close your account; copies in backups are overwritten within 7 days |
| Record of your acceptance of the Terms | 7 years after your account is closed, to evidence the agreement |
| Technical and security logs | Up to 7 days, as kept by our hosting provider |
| Correspondence | 3 years after the last exchange |
| Aggregate statistics with no personal information | Indefinitely |
9.2 We may keep information longer where the law requires it or where it is needed for a legal claim. When information is no longer needed we delete or anonymise it.
10. How we protect information
10.1 We apply the technical and organisational measures required by the Privacy Protection (Data Security) Regulations, 5777-2017, at the level applicable to our database. We keep a database definition document, access and permissions procedures and an incident procedure, as the Regulations require.
10.2 Our measures include: encryption of all traffic in transit; encryption of stored data by our hosting provider; access to personal information limited to the operator and the persons the operator authorises, each with their own credentials; logging of access to the systems that hold personal information; bot and attack protection at the network edge; and written contracts with each processor that set out what it may do with the information and the security it must apply.
10.3 If a security incident affects your personal information, we will notify the Privacy Protection Authority where the law requires, and will tell you and your Mission without undue delay, with what we know and what we recommend.
10.4 No system is completely secure. The Service is not designed for classified or restricted information, and you should not submit it.
11. Cookies and similar technologies
11.1 The Service uses only the following cookies and browser storage. None is used for advertising, and we do not use third-party tracking.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sign-in session (browser storage) | The Envoy, through Supabase | Keeps you signed in between page loads | Until you sign out |
| Language, introduction tour, Terms acknowledgement and open tabs (browser storage) | The Envoy | Remembers your language, that you have seen the introduction, that you ticked the Terms, and the tabs you had open | Until cleared |
| Side panel state (cookie) | The Envoy | Remembers whether the side panel is open or closed | 7 days |
| __cf_bm | Cloudflare | Distinguishes people from bots to protect the Service; contents encrypted; strictly necessary | 30 minutes of inactivity |
| cf_clearance | Cloudflare | Records that a security check was passed; strictly necessary | Set by Cloudflare |
11.2 Analytics. We use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which does not use cookies, browser storage or fingerprinting, to see aggregate statistics such as page views and load times.
11.3 Fonts. Pages load the fonts Inter, Lora, Libre Baskerville and Frank Ruhl Libre from Google Fonts. When your browser requests a font, Google receives your IP address and browser details. We do not control what Google does with that information; Google's privacy policy applies.
11.4 You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking the strictly necessary cookies may prevent you from signing in.
12. Your rights
12.1 Under Israeli law you may: see the personal information we hold about you; ask us to correct or delete information that is inaccurate, incomplete, unclear or out of date; ask to be removed from any mailing list; and complain to the Privacy Protection Authority.
12.2 If the GDPR applies to you, you may also: ask for a copy of your information in a portable format; ask us to restrict processing; object to processing based on legitimate interest; withdraw consent at any time, without affecting earlier processing; and lodge a complaint with your national supervisory authority.
12.3 How to exercise them. Write to privacy@politicsenvoy.com from the email address on your account, or by post. We may ask you to confirm your identity. We respond within 30 days, and tell you if we need longer. There is no charge, unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.
12.4 Deleting your account. You can close your account on the account page of the Service, or by writing to us. Closing your account immediately deletes your account, profile, entitlements and profile picture. Copies in backups are overwritten within the period in section 9, and short-lived technical logs expire as described there.
12.5 Mission accounts. Where your Mission asked us to grant you access, we may tell the Mission that your account has been closed.
13. Children
The Service is for professionals and is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us personal information, write to privacy@politicsenvoy.com and we will delete it.
14. Automated decisions and AI
14.1 We do not make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects. Requests for access are reviewed by a person.
14.2 The Daily Brief is prepared with the help of artificial-intelligence services: Google Gemini, accessed through Google AI Studio, and Groq as a fallback when Google's service is unavailable. They receive press reports from public feeds and our classification instructions, translate and summarise them, and tag the people and institutions they concern, as described in section 3 of the Terms. They receive no user information: no name, email address, account identifier or record of what anyone read. The press reports do name people in public life. Under the terms of the Google AI Studio tier we currently use, Google may use submitted content to improve its services. Where the Service shows text generated by artificial intelligence that has not been reviewed by an editor, it is marked as such.
14.3 Security systems, including Cloudflare's bot protection, automatically assess traffic to the Service and may block requests that appear automated or malicious. If you believe you have been blocked in error, write to contact@politicsenvoy.com.
15. Changes to this Policy
15.1 We may update this Policy to reflect changes in the Service, in the law or in our practices. The date of the current version appears at the top of this page.
15.2 If a change materially affects how we use your personal information, we will tell you by email or in the Service at least 14 days before it takes effect, and will ask for your consent where the law requires it.
15.3 Earlier versions are available on request.
16. Complaints and contact
16.1 Questions, requests and complaints about personal information: privacy@politicsenvoy.com.
16.2 If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Israeli Privacy Protection Authority or, if the GDPR applies to you, to the supervisory authority in your country.
16.3 Related documents: Terms of Use at politicsenvoy.com/terms.