Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how MCO Global Ltd collects, uses, and protects personal data when you use mcoglobal.com. We have written it to comply with the UK GDPR and the EU GDPR.

1. Controller

The controller responsible for personal data processed through this Service is:

MCO Global Ltd
International House, 12 Constance Street
London E16 2DQ, United Kingdom
Company number 13761978
Email: support@mcoglobal.com

MCO Global Ltd has not appointed a Data Protection Officer because it is not legally required to do so. Privacy enquiries are handled directly by the contact above.

Our representative in the European Union under Article 27 EU GDPR is:

Rickert Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH
- MCO Global Ltd -
Colmantstraße 15
53115 Bonn, Germany
Email: art-27-rep-MCOGlobal@rickert.law

If you are in the European Union, you can contact our representative, in addition to or instead of us, on any question about the processing of your personal data.

2. Personal data we collect

Information you provide directly

• Account data (direct memberships on our website): name, email address, password (stored hashed), country of residence.
• Membership data from Patreon: if you join through Patreon, Patreon shares your name, email address, membership tier, and payment status with us. Patreon processes your payment details under its own privacy policy.
• Membership data from YouTube: if you join through a YouTube channel membership, YouTube shows us your channel name and membership level. We do not receive your email address or payment details. Payments are handled by YouTube (Google).
• Payment data (direct memberships, once available on our website): processed by Stripe. We do not store full card numbers on our servers; we receive a transaction reference, the card brand, and the last four digits only.
• Email subscription data: your email address, the edition you chose (English, German, or Spanish), your preferences, the date and version of your consent, and the page or campaign through which you signed up.
• Contact and support data: the name, email address, topic, and message you send us through the contact form or by email. For messages sent through the contact form we also store the IP address from which the message was sent, to prevent abuse.
• Community data: if you connect Discord to your membership, your Discord username and user ID, so that your member role can be assigned on our server.

Information collected automatically

• Server log data: IP address, date and time of the request, requested page, referring URL, browser type, and operating system. These are recorded on our servers, which are hosted by Contabo GmbH in Germany, for security and error analysis and deleted after 30 days.
• Error reports: if a page or function fails, our error monitoring service Honeybadger receives technical details of the error, such as the page address, browser type and, where relevant, the IP address. We use these reports only to find and fix errors.
• Email engagement data: whether an email we send you was opened and which links in it were clicked (see section 5).

3. Legal bases for processing (UK / EU)

We process personal data on the following legal bases under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR:

• Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): to provide the Service to you as a member or account holder.
• Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)): to operate and secure the Service; to answer enquiries; to communicate with members about their memberships; to prevent fraud and abuse.
• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)): for our email publication MCO Intelligence (market analysis and research, MCO updates and subscriber-only offers), including the measurement of opens and clicks, and for any optional features that require consent.
• Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)): to comply with tax, accounting, and other legal requirements.

4. How we use your data

• To provide the Service and process subscriptions (contract; legal obligation for billing records)
• To send transactional emails such as account confirmation, billing and password reset (contract)
• To send MCO Intelligence, with market analysis and research, MCO updates and subscriber-only offers, where you have subscribed to it (consent)
• To answer contact form enquiries and support requests (legitimate interest; contract where the request concerns your membership)
• To understand which emails and topics are useful to readers (consent, as part of your subscription)
• To protect against fraud, spam, and unauthorised access (legitimate interest)
• To comply with legal obligations (legal obligation)

We need your name and email address to provide a membership and to answer your enquiries; without them we cannot do either. Subscribing to MCO Intelligence is optional.

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that have legal or similarly significant effects.

5. Email publication (MCO Intelligence)

When you subscribe on this site or on mcointelligence.com, your email address is added to our MCO Intelligence mailing list, which is hosted by Mailchimp (Intuit Inc., USA). We only send you emails after you have confirmed your address through the link in our confirmation email (double opt-in), and we record the time and version of your consent.

Our emails contain a small tracking image and tracked links that tell us whether an email was opened and which links were clicked. We use this to see which content is useful and to keep our list healthy. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link at the bottom of every email; this also ends the measurement.

6. Data sharing

We do not sell personal data. We share data only with the following categories of recipient:

• Payment processors: Stripe, for memberships bought directly on our website once this is available, Patreon (Patreon, Inc., USA), for memberships through Patreon, and YouTube (Google LLC, USA), for channel memberships, for processing payments and refunds.
• Email infrastructure: Mailchimp (Intuit Inc., USA) for MCO Intelligence, and Twilio SendGrid (Twilio Inc., USA) for confirmation, billing, and account emails.
• Hosting and infrastructure: Contabo GmbH (Germany), which hosts this website, its database and its backups.
• Error monitoring: Honeybadger Industries LLC (USA), which receives technical error reports (see section 2).
• Community: Discord Inc. (USA), when you connect your Discord account so that your member role can be assigned.
• Contractors: freelancers who provide IT support and customer service for us, under a written contract and confidentiality obligations. They are based in the EU.
• Professional advisers: our solicitors, accountants, and auditors, under confidentiality.
• Authorities: when required by law, court order, or to protect legal rights.

Analytics: we do not currently use any third-party analytics services (such as Google Analytics, Plausible, Fathom, or similar) on this site. We do not run a Meta Pixel, TikTok Pixel, or any other advertising tracking. If we introduce analytics in the future, this Policy will be updated and, where required, your prior consent will be obtained through the cookie banner before any non-essential tracking is activated. The measurement of opens and clicks in our emails is described in section 5.

Embedded external resources

Some pages load content from external servers. For technical reasons this transmits the IP address of the requesting device to the provider concerned. These resources are:

• Google Sheets (Google Ireland Limited / Google LLC): the latest MCO News posts shown on the home page are loaded from a published spreadsheet.

These resources are embedded on the basis of our legitimate interest in an up-to-date, functioning and performant presentation of our content under Art. 6(1)(f) UK / EU GDPR. No advertising cookies are set in the process.

7. International transfers

Some of our service providers are located outside the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, mainly in the USA: Patreon, Stripe, Mailchimp (Intuit), Twilio SendGrid, Honeybadger, Discord and Google. Where personal data is transferred to such countries, we rely on adequacy regulations or decisions where they apply, including the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for certified providers, or on appropriate safeguards under Article 46 of the UK / EU GDPR, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses together with the UK International Data Transfer Addendum.

8. Retention

We keep personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes set out above:

• Account data (direct memberships on our website, once available): while your account is in use. If you close your account, we delete it within 30 days. Accounts without a membership and without a login for 2 years are deleted or anonymised; we email you before this happens. Billing records are kept for the statutory periods (see below).
• Billing records: for the statutory retention periods: at least 6 years after the end of the financial year under UK law, and 10 years for records under the EU VAT One Stop Shop scheme where it applies.
• MCO Intelligence: until you unsubscribe, plus a suppression record of your email address so that your opt-out is honoured. Email engagement data is kept while you are subscribed.
• Contact and support messages: 3 years after the last interaction. The IP address stored with contact form messages is deleted after 30 days.
• Patreon memberships: the data is held by Patreon and shown to us in the Patreon creator dashboard. Former members remain listed there and cannot be deleted by us, so Patreon's own retention applies. Patreon payout statements are kept as billing records.
• YouTube channel memberships: the data stays on YouTube; we do not keep a separate copy.
• Discord: your member role is removed when your membership ends. Your Discord username and ID remain on our server until you leave it, which you can do at any time.
• Error reports: up to 90 days.
• Server log data: 30 days.

9. Your rights

Under the UK GDPR and EU GDPR you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access: request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Rectification: ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erasure: ask us to delete your data, subject to legal retention requirements.
• Restriction: ask us to limit processing while we verify a request.
• Portability: receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection: object to processing based on legitimate interest, including direct marketing.
• Withdraw consent: withdraw consent at any time where consent is the legal basis (this does not affect prior lawful processing).
• Complaint: lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) or the data protection authority in your EU country of residence.

Your right to object. Where we process your data on the basis of legitimate interest, you can object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation. You can object to direct marketing at any time without giving reasons; we will then stop using your data for that purpose.

To exercise any of these rights, email support@mcoglobal.com. We will respond within one month. We may ask you to verify your identity before fulfilling the request.

Complaints about how we handle your data

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal data, please tell us first at support@mcoglobal.com with the subject line "Data protection complaint". We acknowledge every complaint within 30 days, look into it without undue delay, and tell you the outcome. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office or your local data protection authority at any time (see above).

10. California residents (CCPA / CPRA)

If you are a resident of California, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act and California Privacy Rights Act:

• The right to know what personal information we collect about you and how we use it.
• The right to delete personal information we hold about you, subject to certain exceptions.
• The right to correct inaccurate personal information.
• The right to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under the CCPA/CPRA.
• The right to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information.
• The right to be free from retaliation for exercising any of these rights.

To exercise your California rights, email support@mcoglobal.com.

11. Cookies and similar technologies

We use only technically necessary cookies and similar storage technologies to operate the Service and remember basic preferences (for example, that you have already dismissed the cookie notice). We do not currently run any analytics, advertising, or third-party tracking cookies of our own.

Links to Patreon, YouTube, Discord, and other platforms open those platforms' own websites, which set their own cookies under their own policies. If you pay directly on our website (once available), Stripe sets cookies during checkout for payment processing and fraud prevention. For full information on which cookies are used and how to manage them, see our Cookie Policy.

12. Fonts

This website uses the Inter and Inter Display typefaces. The font files are served exclusively from our own server and are embedded locally.

No connection to third-party servers is established when the fonts are loaded. In particular, no IP addresses are transmitted to external providers such as Google.

13. Children

The Service is not directed at persons under 18, and memberships are available only to adults. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will delete it.

14. Security

We protect personal data with technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk, including encryption in transit (TLS), hashed passwords, encrypted backups, and access limited to the people who need it for their work. No system is perfectly secure, and we review these measures whenever our setup changes.

15. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. Material changes will be notified by email to members and subscribers and posted on this page at least 14 days before they take effect. The "last updated" date below indicates when this Policy was last revised.

16. Contact

For privacy questions, requests, or complaints, contact:

MCO Global Ltd
International House, 12 Constance Street
London E16 2DQ, United Kingdom
support@mcoglobal.com

Last updated: 26 September 2026