Privacy notice
Last updated 16 September 2026.
Who is responsible
This site is run by Madina Umbetova (The Closed Gap), Basel, Switzerland. For anything about your personal data, write to [email protected].
What the site collects, and who receives it
Hosting and security
The site is served by Cloudflare. To deliver a page and protect the site from abuse, Cloudflare processes technical data from every request, such as your IP address, your browser type and the page you asked for.
Visitor statistics
Cloudflare Web Analytics counts page views. It sets no cookies and does not follow you across other websites. I see totals, such as how many people read a page, and never a list of individual visitors.
Fonts
The typefaces load from Google Fonts, so your browser sends your IP address to Google when a page opens.
Newsletter sign-up
The sign-up box is Substack's own form, embedded in this site. The email address you enter goes straight to Substack and is handled under Substack's privacy policy. As the publisher I can see the addresses of my subscribers, and I use them only to send The Closed Gap and the resources that come with it.
Voice assistant
The "Talk to us" button opens an AI voice assistant I built. It runs only if you start a conversation, and it tells you that you are speaking to an AI. Your speech is sent to OpenAI to produce the replies, and a written transcript of the conversation is stored in the assistant's database (Supabase, hosted in Zurich), on servers run by Vercel. If you give the assistant your name or contact details, those are stored with the transcript. If you do not want this, do not start the assistant.
Forms and email
Some pages carry a form, for example a questionnaire before a piece of work. What you enter, including any files you attach, is emailed to me through Resend and kept in my Gmail inbox. When you email me directly, your message also sits in Gmail. I use this information only to answer you and to do the work you asked for.
Cookies
The site itself sets no cookies for visitors. The embedded Substack form and the voice assistant are run by those services and may set their own, under their own policies.
What I do not do
I do not sell personal data, and I do not use advertising or advertising trackers on this site.
Where the data is processed
Cloudflare, Google, Substack, OpenAI, Resend and Vercel are companies based in the United States, so your data can be processed outside Switzerland and the EU under the safeguards each of those companies publishes.
How long it is kept
Emails, form answers and voice transcripts are kept for as long as they are needed to answer you or finish the work. I delete them earlier when you ask.
Your rights
Under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, and the EU General Data Protection Regulation where it applies to you, you can ask to see the personal data I hold about you, have it corrected or deleted, and object to its use. Email [email protected] and I will answer. You can also complain to the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner or to the data protection authority where you live.
Changes
When the site starts using a new service, this notice changes the same day and the date at the top moves.