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My Travel Innovations

Privacy Policy

Updated: July 17, 2026

1. Who operates this site

My Travel Innovations LLC operates mytravelinnovations.com and acts as the controller for the personal information described in this policy. The company is a registered Idaho Limited Liability Company with its office at 950 W Bannock St, Boise, ID 83702, United States. Evan Merrick, the founder and editor, manages the publication and its records personally. This site is an independent journal about travel methods and field trials. It sells nothing, takes no payments, runs no store, and requires no reader accounts. Because of that, the amount of personal information it handles is deliberately small. This policy explains what the site collects, why it collects it, how long records are kept, and what choices you have. This version takes effect on July 17, 2026 and replaces any earlier version of the document.

2. What this policy covers

This policy covers the pages served at mytravelinnovations.com and the correspondence that reaches the company through them. It applies to visits from any country, although some later sections describe rights that depend on where you live. It does not cover copies of pages saved outside our control or mail you exchange with other people about the site. The pages here link only within the site, so there is no list of outside destinations to disclose and no outside operator whose practices you need to check on our account. Reading this policy alongside the Cookie Policy and the Terms of Use gives you the complete picture of how the site operates. If any part is unclear, write to records@mytravelinnovations.com and ask. Plain answers to plain questions are part of how this publication tries to work.

3. Information this site collects

The site collects information in four narrow situations. Each situation is set out below in ordinary language, with the specific fields named.

The contact form

The form on the contact page asks for your name, your email address, a topic, and a message. You decide what the message field contains, so please share only what your question requires. The form also holds one hidden field that stays empty for human visitors and helps the site filter automated submissions. When you send the form, its contents are relayed to the company's mailbox and handled like any other letter.

Direct email

If you write to mailroom@mytravelinnovations.com or records@mytravelinnovations.com, the company receives your address, your subject line, and whatever the message contains. Any attachment you choose to send is stored together with the message. The mailroom does not open unexpected attachments as a matter of practice.

Server logs

The hosting provider that serves these pages keeps short-lived technical logs. A log entry can include an IP address, a timestamp, the requested page, the referring page, and a browser identifier string. The company reviews these logs only to diagnose faults, confirm the site is reachable, and detect abusive traffic patterns.

Local storage

If you make a choice in the consent notice, the site stores a single value in your browser's local storage under the key mti_bench_ok_v1. The value records whether you chose "Allow all" or "Keep it minimal" and nothing more. That value stays on your device and is not transmitted to the company. The Cookie Policy documents this mechanism in full detail.

4. Information this site does not collect

The site has no reader accounts, no login system, and no comment section. It runs no third-party advertising trackers and embeds no social media widgets or outside media players. It does not ask for payment details, government identifiers, precise location, or any category of sensitive data. It does not build marketing profiles of visitors and does not buy information about readers from outside sources. The company does not sell personal information and has not sold it in the twelve months before the date at the top of this page. If consent-based advertising is ever enabled on this site, this policy will be updated first, and the notice on each page will present that change before anything else happens.

5. How the information is used

The company uses the information above for a short list of purposes, and each purpose maps to one collection point. Form and email data is used to read your message, answer it, and keep a record of the exchange in case a follow-up arrives. Correction mail is additionally used to fix published pages and note the fix. Log data is used to keep the site online, measure basic reliability, and investigate errors or abusive requests. The local storage value is used to remember your consent choice so the notice does not reappear on every visit. Aggregate figures, such as how many requests a page received in a given week, may inform editorial planning. None of these purposes involve automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects for you. No purpose involves selling data or sharing it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

For readers in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, each use described above rests on a legal basis. Answering your correspondence rests on legitimate interest and, where you ask for something specific, on taking steps at your request. Keeping server logs rests on the company's legitimate interest in running a stable and safe website. Storing your consent choice rests on consent itself, which you give through the notice and can withdraw at any time. Retaining records that a statute requires the company to hold rests on legal obligation. Where legitimate interest is the basis, the company has weighed that interest against your rights and freedoms and kept the collection to the minimum the purpose allows.

7. How long records are kept

Correspondence, including form submissions relayed by email, is kept for up to 24 months after the last message in the thread. That window lets the company answer follow-up questions, keep published corrections traceable, and show its work if a dispute arises. Threads with no continuing purpose may be deleted sooner than that. Server logs are retained by the hosting provider for a short rolling window, typically 30 to 90 days, and then removed automatically. The local storage value on your device has no expiry set by the company. It remains until you clear your browser's site data or make a different choice in the notice. Records connected to a legal claim or a legal duty may be kept for as long as that specific matter requires, and no longer.

8. Who receives the information

The company does not share reader information with advertisers, data brokers, or list builders. A small set of service providers process data on the company's behalf, and each one sees only what its task requires. The hosting provider serves the pages and holds the technical logs described above. The form delivery service relays contact form submissions to the company's mailbox. The email provider stores and transmits the company's correspondence. These providers act under terms that restrict their use of the data to performing the service itself. Beyond that, information leaves the company only if a law, a court order, or the defense of clear legal rights requires it, and only to the extent actually required. If the company were ever reorganized or its assets transferred, records would pass to the successor under this same policy.

9. Where the information is processed

The company operates from Boise, Idaho, and its service providers process data in the United States. If you write from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or another region with data transfer rules, your message and its technical traces will be transferred to the United States for handling. United States law does not offer protections identical to those of every other jurisdiction, and you should weigh that before sending more than a message requires. Where recognized transfer safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, apply through a provider's terms, the company relies on them. The practical exposure stays narrow by design, because the only personal data crossing borders is what you choose to send plus routine server records.

10. Your rights under the GDPR and UK law

If the GDPR or the UK GDPR applies to you, you hold a set of rights over your personal data. You can ask for access to the data the company holds about you and receive a copy of it. You can ask for correction of inaccurate data and completion of incomplete data. You can ask for erasure, for restriction of processing while a question is resolved, and for a portable copy in a common machine-readable format. You can object to processing that rests on legitimate interest, and the company will stop unless a compelling ground overrides the objection. You can withdraw consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority, although the company would welcome the chance to resolve the issue directly first. To use any of these rights, follow the steps in section 12.

11. Your rights under United States state privacy laws

Several states grant privacy rights to their residents, and the company honors those rights where the laws apply to it. In California the governing statutes are the Consumer Privacy Act together with the Privacy Rights Act that amended it, and between them a resident may ask what is held, see it, have it put right, and have it removed. Virginia residents hold comparable rights under the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act. Colorado residents are covered by the Colorado Privacy Act, Connecticut residents by the Connecticut Data Privacy Act, Utah residents by the Utah Consumer Privacy Act, and Texas residents by the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act. Because the site does not sell personal data and does not run targeted advertising today, the opt-out rights those laws create currently have nothing to act on here. If consent-based advertising is ever enabled, this policy and the site's controls will be updated before the change takes effect. The company will not deny you service, change quality, or treat you differently for exercising any privacy right.

12. How to submit a privacy request

Send privacy requests to records@mytravelinnovations.com or mail them to the office address in the contact section below. State which right you want to exercise and which email address or message your request concerns. The company will confirm receipt and may ask one clarifying question to match you to the correct records, since it holds very little identifying data to begin with. Verified requests receive a substantive response within the period the applicable law sets, which is typically 45 days. Where a law permits an extension for complex requests, the company will tell you before the first period ends and explain the reason. If a request is denied in whole or in part, the response will state the grounds and describe any appeal path the law provides. Authorized agents may submit requests where state law allows it, with reasonable proof of authorization.

13. Children and this site

This publication is written for adult travelers and is not directed to children. The company does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13, in line with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. The contact form asks for no age data, the site hosts no games or child-directed features, and nothing here is designed to attract young children. If you believe a child under 13 has submitted personal information through this site, write to records@mytravelinnovations.com with the details you have. The company will review the report and delete the information promptly once the situation is confirmed.

14. Cookies, local storage, and advertising

The site currently sets no cookies of its own. Its only stored value is the local storage key covered in section 3, and the Cookie Policy documents that key, its possible values, and how to remove it. The consent notice on each page exists so that any future optional storage would activate only with your permission. If consent-based analytics or consent-based advertising is ever enabled, this policy and the Cookie Policy will be updated first, and the notice will present the new choice in plain terms. Until such an update appears on this page, you can read the absence of those disclosures as an accurate picture of the current site.

15. How the site protects information

All pages and form submissions travel over HTTPS, which encrypts the data moving between your browser and the server. The company limits access to correspondence to the people who answer it, which in practice is a very short list. Mailboxes sit behind strong authentication, and records are removed on the schedule in section 7 rather than kept indefinitely. No online system can promise perfect security, so the company's main safeguard is restraint, collecting little and keeping it briefly. If a breach ever affects your personal data, the company will notify you and the relevant authorities as the applicable law requires.

16. Changes to this policy

The company reviews this policy whenever its practices, its providers, or the governing law change. Updates appear on this page with a revised date at the top, and material changes are written into the text before they take effect. Enabling any consent-based advertising or analytics would count as a material change and would be disclosed here first. Checking this page from time to time is the reliable way to stay informed, since the site sends no notification emails. Continued use of the site after an update means the posted version applies, as the Terms of Use explain in more detail.

Contact about this policy

Direct privacy questions, access requests, and deletion requests to the records desk.

General reader mail belongs at mailroom@mytravelinnovations.com, and the contact page explains what a useful note includes. A short message with the word privacy in the subject line reaches the right folder fastest.