Privacy notice.

This notice explains what information themeliverse.com (the website for The Meliverse, the two-volume poetry collection by Dr. Meliton P. Zurbano) collects when you visit, why it collects it, and what your rights are. It is written to satisfy the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173) and to be readable by visitors covered by the EU General Data Protection Regulation and similar laws.

Dr. Meliton P. Zurbano (Valenzuela City, the Philippines) is the author of the book and the operator of this website. For the purposes of the Data Privacy Act, he acts as the personal information controller for data collected through the site.

The site is built and maintained by alapaap (a small digital studio based in the Philippines) on the author’s behalf. alapaap acts as a personal information processor under the Data Privacy Act.

For privacy questions, write to hello@themeliverse.com.

When you visit themeliverse.com:

• Technical data, collected automatically by the hosting provider: your IP address, user-agent string, device type, browser, operating system, the page you visited, the page that referred you, and the time of the visit.
• Analytics data, if you accept analytics cookies: Google Analytics 4 sets two cookies — typically named _ga and _ga_<ID> — to distinguish your browser from other browsers. The cookies do not contain your name or address. They persist for up to two years.
• Communications: if you email hello@ or orders@themeliverse.com, the email reaches the author’s inbox along with the details you include (name, shipping address, phone number, your message).

The print-order form at /order does not send any data to this site’s servers. It builds a draft email in your own mail program, which you then send yourself. Once you send that email, the contents are processed by your email provider and the author’s email provider, not by this site.

This site does not collect sensitive personal information (such as health, biometrics, government IDs, or financial account data). The order form asks for what is needed to ship a book — name, address, phone, copies — and nothing more.

Under the Data Privacy Act and, where applicable, the GDPR, the legal bases for processing are:

• Running the site — legitimate interest in delivering pages, preventing abuse, and keeping the site online. This covers technical data the hosting provider sees.
• Understanding aggregate readership — your consent, captured through the banner on first visit. Without consent, Google Analytics is not loaded and no analytics cookies are set.
• Replying to your email — performance of pre-contractual measures (for orders) or legitimate interest (for general inquiries).

The site relies on the following third parties, each of whom processes data on the author’s behalf:

• Vercel Inc. (United States) — website hosting. Vercel sees the technical data described in section 2. vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy
• Google LLC (United States and other regions) — Google Analytics 4 for aggregate readership measurement, loaded only after you accept analytics cookies. policies.google.com/privacy

Books are sold through external platforms. When you click an Amazon or Gumroad link from this site, those platforms apply their own privacy notices to whatever you do there. We do not see those interactions.

The author does not sell, rent, or trade personal information.

The service providers above are based outside the Philippines, and your data may be transferred to, processed in, and stored in countries outside the Philippines, including the United States. By using the site, you understand that this occurs. The transfers rely on the contractual and technical safeguards each provider publishes in its own terms.

• Server logs are kept by the hosting provider for their default retention window (typically days to weeks).
• Google Analytics data is retained according to the GA4 property setting (default two months for user-level data, configurable up to fourteen months). Cookies persist in your browser for up to two years unless you clear them.
• Email correspondence is kept as long as needed to reply, fulfill an order, and keep a reasonable archive.

Under the Data Privacy Act, you have the right to be informed, to access the data we hold about you, to object to processing, to have inaccurate data corrected, to have your data erased or blocked in certain circumstances, to data portability where applicable, to lodge a complaint with the National Privacy Commission, and to seek damages if your rights are violated.

If the GDPR applies to you, you additionally have the rights to restriction of processing, to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority, and to withdraw consent at any time (which you can do by rejecting analytics in section 9 below). Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

To exercise any of these rights, write to hello@themeliverse.com. The author aims to reply within fifteen business days.

This site is not directed at children under thirteen. Book content is suitable for older readers and classrooms. We do not knowingly collect personal information from young children. If you believe a child has provided information through this site, write to hello@themeliverse.com and reasonable steps will be taken to delete it.

You can change your decision about analytics cookies at any time. The button below sets your preference for this browser. If you reject, Google Analytics is not loaded and no analytics cookies are set. Already-set cookies can be cleared in your browser settings.

This notice may change as the site or its services evolve. The “last updated” date at the top of the page reflects the most recent material change. If the change affects how data is used in a way that requires fresh consent, you will see the consent banner again.