Privacy Policy
This policy explains how Mikey Korea handles information associated with its website and editorial correspondence.
1. Who We Are and What We Collect
Mikey Korea is an independent English-language travel and lifestyle publication. You can read the public guides without creating a Mikey Korea account. The reviewed edition does not provide a public membership system, newsletter registration or payment checkout. Editorial inquiries are handled by email.
If you contact us, we receive your email address, message, attachments and ordinary delivery metadata, together with any information you voluntarily provide. We use these details to answer inquiries, investigate corrections or rights concerns, manage necessary correspondence and protect the website where applicable law permits. Ordinary editorial correspondence is not automatically added to a marketing list.
Our hosting and security providers may process technical information such as IP addresses, request times, requested URLs, browser or device information and error records to deliver and protect the website. Provider-controlled records and retention arrangements are distinct from data that we manage directly.
2. Data Minimization and Sensitive Information
We do not require identification documents, payment-card details, health information or a visitor's sexual orientation to provide ordinary editorial information. Please avoid sending sensitive information unless it is necessary for a specific agreed process. Unnecessary sensitive information is restricted and deleted or redacted as soon as it is no longer needed.
3. Retention and Deletion
Mikey Korea has adopted the following operating policy for information under its control. We review ordinary correspondence monthly and delete information when the purpose has ended and no legitimate reason for further retention remains. Applicable legal preservation duties or a necessary legal hold may require limited, separately protected retention.
| Information | Retention policy |
|---|---|
| Ordinary editorial inquiries and correspondence | Up to 12 months after the inquiry is closed or the last substantive response. The mailbox is reviewed monthly; deletion is not represented as an automatic 12-month server setting. |
| Unnecessary sensitive information and identity-document copies | Deleted or redacted as soon as unnecessary, normally within 30 days of identification. |
| Privacy access, correction and deletion request records | Only the minimum information needed to document handling is retained for up to 3 years after closure, subject to applicable law and a necessity review. |
| Routine raw access and error logs controlled by Mikey Korea | Target maximum of 30 days. Provider-controlled security and access logs may follow independently applicable periods, which must be checked against the actual service arrangements. |
| Necessary security-incident evidence | Up to 12 months after closure, unless a continuing lawful need requires longer protection. |
| Deleted personal information in backups controlled by Mikey Korea | Scheduled for expiry within 30 days of active-data deletion where technically possible. Independent provider backups follow their actual retention and recovery arrangements; deletion from an active mailbox is not a promise of immediate removal from every backup. |
| Records subject to legal preservation duties | The period required by the applicable law, with access restricted and records separated where required. |
These are Mikey Korea's selected policy periods, not universal statutory minimums. Our operational controls and provider arrangements are reviewed periodically. If an actual service cannot meet an intended period, we adjust the configuration or explain the applicable arrangement accurately. We do not promise immediate deletion from independent provider systems.
4. Website Features and External Services
The site uses Hostinger for web hosting and related services. Editorial email is intended for contact@mikeykorea.com; actual mail routing, data-center locations, subcontractors and provider-controlled retention depend on the active account and provider agreements. We will not invent an unverified processor, storage country or transfer safeguard. Details required under applicable data-protection law will be provided or updated as the actual arrangements are confirmed.
Our current edition uses locally hosted editorial media, optional externally sourced news or video information and a reference exchange-rate service. Weather and air-quality panels link to official information sources instead of using the former Open-Meteo free numerical API. A reference exchange rate is not a live executable quotation. A feed may be cached or unavailable, and its timestamp does not certify the current status of the underlying service.
External websites, maps, video platforms and retailers have their own data practices when you choose to use them. Where an embedded service is enabled, the browser may connect directly to that provider. We do not claim that every linked service is operated or controlled by Mikey Korea.
5. Advertising, Analytics and Cookies
Mikey Korea has applied for Google AdSense. Application or review status is not a claim of approval or a statement that advertising is already being displayed. When advertising is enabled, Google and its partners may use cookies or other identifiers to provide, measure and personalize advertising, subject to applicable law and visitor choices. Learn about Google's processing at Google's partner-sites information and ad choices at Google Ads Settings.
Optional analytics, advertising, affiliate tracking and consent technologies must be described according to the services actually activated. Before enabling advertising, we will review the applicable notice, consent and user-choice requirements, including Google-certified CMP and TCF requirements where relevant for visitors in the EEA, United Kingdom or Switzerland. A Privacy Policy alone does not implement a consent mechanism. We will not describe a CMP as installed or certified unless it actually is.
Essential browser storage may be used to support website functions. If optional tracking services are introduced or materially changed, this policy and the applicable controls will be updated. External services may set or read their own cookies according to their policies and the applicable consent choices.
6. Your Rights and Requests
Depending on applicable law, you may request access to, correction of or deletion of personal information, withdraw consent where applicable, or raise a privacy concern. Contact contact@mikeykorea.com and provide only the information necessary to identify the request. We may ask for proportionate verification but do not routinely require a copy of an identity document. We respond within applicable legal deadlines and explain any lawful restriction or refusal. You may also contact the appropriate data-protection authority.
7. Security and International Processing
We use appropriate account, access and transport security measures and limit access to personal information to those who need it. No internet service can guarantee absolute security. Hosting, email, analytics or advertising providers may process data in other countries according to their actual service arrangements and applicable law. We review relevant provider terms and transfer requirements, and do not assume that using a provider's Korean-language interface means all data is stored in Korea.
8. Children and Changes
The publication is intended as general travel and lifestyle information and is not specifically directed to children. If you believe a child has supplied information requiring attention, contact us. We update this policy when material processing changes occur and record the effective date of substantive revisions. New data-collection features are not treated as covered by an inaccurate older notice.
Publisher: Michael Bahk
Privacy contact: contact@mikeykorea.com
First-party aggregate usage measurement
Mikey Korea uses a small first-party measurement system to understand which public guides and decision tools are useful. The application stores aggregate event counts only, such as a page view, a click from a guide to a tool, the start of a tool interaction, or a click from a tool to a related guide.
The measurement code does not set analytics cookies, does not create a persistent visitor identifier, does not store IP addresses in the Mikey Korea analytics dataset, and does not save search terms, form values, calculator inputs, full referrer URLs, or device fingerprints. Referrers are reduced in the browser to broad categories such as Google, Naver, Bing, direct, internal or other before the event is sent.
Aggregate daily metrics are retained for up to 90 days. The measurement script does not run when the browser signals Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track. Standard web-server security and access logs may still be maintained separately by the hosting provider as part of ordinary site operation.