Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for Rowaq Arabi

Last Updated: February 9, 2026

Who we are

Our website address is: https://rowaq.cihrs.org.
Rowaq Arabi is a peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, affiliated with the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS).

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form (Name, Email), and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media
If you upload images to the website (as an author or editor), you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Contact forms
When you use the contact forms on our website, we retain the data you enter (Name, Email, and message content) for a specific period for customer service, editorial correspondence, and inquiry purposes. We do not use the information submitted for marketing purposes unless you have explicitly agreed to it.

Cookies

• If you leave a comment on our site, you may opt-in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

• We use technical cookies to remember your language preferences (Arabic or other languages) and to ensure the website displays correctly.

• We use analytics cookies to help us understand how visitors interact with the journal’s content to improve user experience.

Analytics
We use trusted third-party web analytics services (such as Google Analytics) to collect anonymized statistical data about visitors (e.g., number of visits, countries, and most-read pages). This data does not include personally identifiable information (such as your name or email address). You can opt out of tracking through your browser settings or by using dedicated browser extensions.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, tweets, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

We do not sell your data nor share it with commercial parties. Necessary data is only shared with technical service providers who assist us in operating the website, including:

1. Spam Detection Services: Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service to ensure they are free from harmful content.

2. Notification Services: If you subscribe to our alerts, your device data is processed via a specialized service provider to deliver notifications to you.

3. Security Services: Your IP address may be shared with firewall services if suspicious activity threatening the website’s security is detected.

How long we retain your data

• Comments: If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

• Contact Forms: We retain correspondence data for two years for archival and editorial purposes.

• Analytics: Anonymized analytics data is retained for 14 months before being automatically deleted.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Where we send your data

Our website and data are hosted on secure servers. However, some data (such as comments during spam checks) or analytics data may be processed by cloud services located outside your country (e.g., the United States). We always ensure we work with providers who adhere to standard data protection regulations.

How we protect your data

We take strict security measures to protect your data, including:

• Using secure encryption protocols (HTTPS) for data transmission.

• Implementing firewalls and security software to monitor and prevent threats.

• Regularly updating systems and plugins to patch security vulnerabilities.

• Restricting access to administrative data to authorized personnel only.

Contact Information

For any privacy-related inquiries or to exercise your data rights, please contact the website administrator via email at:
[email protected]