Privacy Policy
Effective Date: September 30, 2025
Last Updated: September 30, 2025
Welcome to Our Privacy Policy
At Mediterranean Diet Choice, we believe that trust is the foundation of any meaningful relationship—and that includes the relationship we have with you, our valued reader. Just as we’re transparent about nutrition and health information, we’re equally transparent about how we handle your personal information.
This Privacy Policy explains in clear, straightforward language (no legal jargon, we promise) what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and what rights you have regarding your data. We encourage you to read this policy carefully so you understand exactly how your information is treated when you visit our website.
By using Mediterranean Diet Choice, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree with our practices, please don’t use our website—though we’d hate to see you go!
Who We Are
Website Name: Mediterranean Diet Choice
Website URL: mdietchoice.com
Contact Email: contact@mdietchoice.com
Mediterranean Diet Choice is an independent health and wellness platform dedicated to helping individuals adopt the Mediterranean lifestyle through practical guides, recipes, meal plans, calculators, and evidence-based nutritional information.
We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information with the care and respect it deserves.
Information We Collect
1. Information You Provide Directly
When you interact with our website, you may voluntarily provide us with certain personal information, including:
Newsletter Subscriptions:
- Name (first name or full name)
- Email address
- Subscription preferences
Contact Forms:
- Name
- Email address
- Any message or inquiry details you choose to share
Comments (if enabled):
- Name or username
- Email address
- Comment content
- Website URL (optional)
Calculator and Tool Usage:
- Information you input into our Mediterranean diet calculators (age, weight, height, activity level, health goals, etc.)
- Please note: This information is processed locally in your browser and is NOT stored on our servers unless you explicitly save or submit it
Account Registration (if applicable):
- Username
- Email address
- Password (encrypted)
- Profile information you choose to provide
2. Information Collected Automatically
When you visit Mediterranean Diet Choice, certain information is automatically collected through cookies and similar technologies:
Technical Information:
- IP address
- Browser type and version
- Operating system
- Device type (desktop, mobile, tablet)
- Screen resolution
- Referring website/source
- Pages visited on our site
- Time and date of visit
- Time spent on pages
- Links clicked
Cookies and Tracking Technologies: We use cookies (small text files stored on your device) and similar tracking technologies to enhance your browsing experience, analyze site traffic, and understand user behavior. See our “Cookies” section below for more details.
3. Information from Third-Party Sources
We may receive information about you from third-party services we use, including:
- Social Media Platforms: If you interact with us on Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube, we may receive publicly available profile information
- Analytics Providers: Aggregated demographic and interest data from services like Google Analytics
- Advertising Partners: Information about your interactions with our advertisements on other websites
How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for legitimate business purposes that benefit both you and our platform. Here’s exactly how:
1. To Provide and Improve Our Services
- Deliver the content, tools, and resources you request
- Send you our newsletter and updates (only if you’ve subscribed)
- Respond to your inquiries and provide customer support
- Personalize your experience on our website
- Improve our content, recipes, meal plans, and tools based on user feedback and behavior
- Develop new features and resources that serve your needs
2. To Analyze and Optimize
- Understand how visitors use our website
- Identify popular content and resources
- Detect and fix technical issues
- Optimize website performance and user experience
- Conduct research and analysis to improve our offerings
3. To Communicate With You
- Send newsletters, recipes, meal plans, and wellness tips (with your consent)
- Respond to your questions and comments
- Notify you about important changes to our policies or services
- Send occasional updates about Mediterranean Diet Choice (you can always opt-out)
4. To Ensure Security and Prevent Fraud
- Protect against spam, harassment, and abuse
- Detect and prevent fraudulent activity
- Enforce our Terms of Service
- Comply with legal obligations
5. For Marketing and Advertising (With Your Consent)
- Display relevant advertisements on our website and other platforms
- Measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns
- Promote our content and resources to interested audiences
- We never sell your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes
Legal Basis for Processing (For EU/UK Visitors)
If you’re accessing our website from the European Union or United Kingdom, we process your personal data based on the following legal grounds:
- Consent: When you’ve given us explicit permission (e.g., subscribing to our newsletter)
- Legitimate Interests: When processing is necessary for our legitimate business interests, such as improving our services and ensuring website security
- Contractual Necessity: When processing is necessary to fulfill our obligations to you
- Legal Obligation: When we’re required by law to process your information
Cookies and Tracking Technologies
What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device when you visit a website. They help websites remember your preferences and understand how you use the site.
Types of Cookies We Use
1. Essential Cookies (Strictly Necessary) These cookies are necessary for our website to function properly. They enable core functionality like security, network management, and accessibility. You cannot opt-out of these cookies.
Examples:
- Session cookies that remember your preferences during your visit
- Security cookies that authenticate users and prevent fraud
2. Analytics and Performance Cookies These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously.
We use:
- Google Analytics: To track website traffic, user behavior, and demographics (anonymized)
- Other Analytics Tools: To measure content performance and user engagement
3. Functionality Cookies These cookies allow our website to remember choices you make (such as your username, language, or region) and provide enhanced, more personalized features.
4. Advertising and Marketing Cookies These cookies track your browsing activity to deliver relevant advertisements on our site and across the internet. They’re used by advertising partners to build a profile of your interests.
We may use:
- Google AdSense/AdWords
- Facebook Pixel
- Other advertising networks
Your Cookie Choices
You have control over cookies! Here’s how to manage them:
Browser Settings: Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser settings to decline cookies if you prefer. Here’s how:
- Chrome: Settings > Privacy and Security > Cookies
- Firefox: Settings > Privacy & Security > Cookies and Site Data
- Safari: Preferences > Privacy > Cookies
- Edge: Settings > Privacy > Cookies
Cookie Consent Tool: When you first visit our website, you’ll see a cookie consent banner allowing you to accept or customize your cookie preferences.
Opt-Out Links:
- Google Analytics Opt-Out: Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on
- NAI Opt-Out: Network Advertising Initiative Opt-Out
- DAA Opt-Out: Digital Advertising Alliance Opt-Out
Please Note: Disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our website and limit your user experience.
Third-Party Services and Integrations
To provide you with the best possible experience, we use various third-party services. Each has its own privacy policy that governs how they handle your data:
Analytics Services
Google Analytics
- Purpose: Website traffic analysis and user behavior tracking
- Data Collected: Anonymized user data, demographics, interests, browsing behavior
- Privacy Policy: Google Privacy Policy
Email Marketing Services
- Purpose: Newsletter delivery and email campaign management
- Data Collected: Name, email address, subscription preferences, email engagement metrics
- Privacy Policy: [Link to their privacy policy]
Advertising Networks
Google AdSense/AdWords
- Purpose: Display advertisements and measure ad performance
- Data Collected: Browsing behavior, device information, ad interactions
- Privacy Policy: Google Privacy Policy
Facebook Pixel
- Purpose: Track conversions and optimize Facebook advertising
- Data Collected: Website activity, device information
- Privacy Policy: Facebook Privacy Policy
Social Media Platforms
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
- Purpose: Social media integration, content sharing, community engagement
- Data Collected: Public profile information, interactions with our social content
- Privacy Policies: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
Content Delivery Networks (CDN)
Cloudflare
- Purpose: Website performance optimization and security
- Data Collected: IP addresses, system configuration, network traffic
- Privacy Policy: Cloudflare Privacy Policy
Comment Systems
- Purpose: Enable comments and discussions on blog posts
- Data Collected: Name, email, comment content, IP address
Important Note: We carefully select third-party services that respect user privacy, but we cannot control their privacy practices. We encourage you to review their privacy policies directly.
How We Protect Your Information
Your trust is everything to us, and we take the security of your personal information seriously. Here’s how we protect your data:
Security Measures
- Encryption: We use SSL/TLS encryption to protect data transmitted between your browser and our servers
- Secure Hosting: Our website is hosted on secure servers with robust security protocols
- Access Controls: Limited access to personal information—only authorized personnel can access your data
- Regular Security Audits: We regularly review and update our security practices
- Secure Passwords: User passwords are encrypted using industry-standard hashing algorithms
- Firewall Protection: Our servers are protected by firewalls to prevent unauthorized access
What We Don’t Do
- We never store credit card information (if applicable, payments are processed through secure third-party processors)
- We don’t sell your personal information to third parties
- We don’t store sensitive health information from our calculators unless you explicitly submit it
Your Responsibility
While we implement strong security measures, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. We encourage you to:
- Use strong, unique passwords
- Keep your login credentials confidential
- Log out after using shared or public computers
- Keep your browser and operating system updated
If you suspect any unauthorized access to your account, please contact us immediately.
Data Retention
We retain your personal information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
Newsletter Subscribers: We retain your information until you unsubscribe or request deletion
Website Analytics: Anonymized analytics data may be retained indefinitely for statistical purposes
Contact Form Inquiries: We retain correspondence for up to 3 years for customer service and legal purposes
Comments: Comments remain on our website unless you request removal or we remove them for policy violations
Account Information: Active account data is retained until you delete your account
After the retention period expires, we securely delete or anonymize your personal information.
Your Privacy Rights
Depending on your location, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information. We respect and honor these rights.
Rights for All Users
Right to Access: Request a copy of the personal information we hold about you
Right to Correction: Request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete information
Right to Deletion: Request that we delete your personal information (with certain exceptions)
Right to Opt-Out: Unsubscribe from our marketing emails at any time
Right to Object: Object to certain types of processing, such as direct marketing
Right to Lodge a Complaint: File a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe your privacy rights have been violated
Additional Rights for EU/UK Users (GDPR)
Right to Data Portability: Receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used format
Right to Restrict Processing: Request that we limit how we use your personal information
Right to Withdraw Consent: Withdraw your consent at any time where we rely on consent as the legal basis for processing
Additional Rights for California Residents (CCPA)
Right to Know: Request information about the categories and specific pieces of personal information we’ve collected
Right to Delete: Request deletion of your personal information (with certain exceptions)
Right to Opt-Out of Sale: We don’t sell personal information, but you have the right to opt-out if practices change
Right to Non-Discrimination: You won’t receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your privacy rights
How to Exercise Your Rights
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at:
- Email:contact@mdietchoice.com
- Contact Form: Our Contact Page
We’ll respond to your request within 30 days (or as required by applicable law). We may need to verify your identity before processing your request to protect your privacy.
Children’s Privacy
Mediterranean Diet Choice is not directed to children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the EU). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
If you’re a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, please contact us immediately. We will promptly delete such information from our records.
If you’re under 18, please use our website only with the involvement and consent of a parent or guardian.
International Data Transfers
Mediterranean Diet Choice is operated from Bhutan. If you’re accessing our website from outside Bhutan, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in Bhutan or other countries where our service providers operate.
These countries may have data protection laws that differ from your country’s laws. By using our website, you consent to the transfer of your information to these countries.
For EU/UK visitors, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for international data transfers, such as:
- Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission
- Privacy Shield certification (where applicable)
- Other lawful transfer mechanisms
Third-Party Websites and Links
Our website contains links to external websites, resources, and affiliate products that are not operated by Mediterranean Diet Choice. These include:
- Research sources and scientific studies
- Recommended products and kitchen tools
- Social media platforms
- Other health and wellness resources
Please Note: We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party websites. When you click on a link and leave our website, you’re subject to that website’s privacy policy, not ours.
We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any website you visit, especially before providing personal information.
Affiliate Links
Some links on our website are affiliate links, meaning we may earn a commission if you make a purchase through them (at no additional cost to you). This is disclosed in our Affiliate Disclosure policy. These affiliate relationships do not influence how we handle your personal information.
Do Not Track (DNT) Signals
Some web browsers have a “Do Not Track” feature that signals to websites that you don’t want your online activities tracked. Currently, there’s no industry standard for how to respond to DNT signals.
At this time, Mediterranean Diet Choice does not respond to DNT signals. However, you can control cookies and tracking through your browser settings and the opt-out links provided in the “Cookies” section of this policy.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make changes, we will:
- Update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this policy
- Notify you of significant changes through a prominent notice on our website or via email (for newsletter subscribers)
- Give you the opportunity to review the updated policy before continuing to use our services
We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information.
Your continued use of Mediterranean Diet Choice after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.
Contact Us
We value your privacy and want to hear from you. If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or how we handle your personal information, please don’t hesitate to reach out:
Email: contact@mdietchoice.com
Contact Page: Our contact page
Mailing Address:
We typically respond to privacy inquiries within 48-72 hours. For complex requests (such as data access or deletion), we’ll respond within 30 days as required by law.
Your Consent
By using Mediterranean Diet Choice, you consent to the collection, use, and sharing of your information as described in this Privacy Policy.
If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use our website or provide us with your personal information.
Summary: Our Privacy Commitment to You
At Mediterranean Diet Choice, we’re committed to:
✅ Being transparent about what data we collect and why
✅ Protecting your information with robust security measures
✅ Respecting your choices and honoring your privacy rights
✅ Never selling your personal information to third parties
✅ Keeping you informed about how we use your data
✅ Responding promptly to your privacy concerns and requests
Your trust is the foundation of our community, and we work hard every day to deserve it.
Thank you for being part of the Mediterranean Diet Choice family. Here’s to your health, your privacy, and your right to know exactly how your information is handled!
Stay connected with Mediterranean Diet Choice for updates, tips, and community support:
- 🌐 Website: www.mdietchoice.com
- 📷 Instagram: Mediterranean Diet Choice
- ▶️ YouTube: Mediterranean Diet Choice