Privacy notice
Version 1.7, effective 29 October 2026 (adds fair-use counters and mock timing; service providers described by role)
Who we are
The Near Miss Show is run by Adnan Zafar (AZL), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He is the data controller: he decides how and why your personal data is used, and is responsible for it. Contact: azl@thenearmissshow.com.
What we collect and why
| Data | Why | Basis | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email address and display name, when you create a free study account | To sign you in and show your name in the portal | Your consent, and providing the service you asked for | Until you delete your account, or 24 months after your last sign-in |
| Study progress (sections read, check answers, sessions complete) and the date you consented | To save your progress across devices | Your consent, and providing the service | As above |
| Daily counts of how many practice questions you opened and checked, and the time you started each mock | To apply fair daily limits, protect our questions from copying, and check that mock attempts for The Catch were taken at a genuine pace | Our legitimate interest in protecting the service and keeping certificates honest | Daily counts: 90 days. Mock start times: until the mock is submitted, or 12 hours |
| Email address, when you subscribe to email updates | To send you new episodes, working papers and practice proposals | Your consent, confirmed by clicking the link we email you | Until you unsubscribe (one click in any email). After that we keep only a record that you unsubscribed, so you are never emailed again. |
| Emails you send us | To reply to you | Our legitimate interest in answering you | 12 months after the conversation ends |
Without an account, your study progress is stored only in your own browser and never sent to us. We don't use advertising, tracking or analytics cookies, and we never sell or share your data for marketing.
We count visits with a privacy-friendly analytics service so we can see how many people use the site and which parts help them. It uses no cookies and stores no personal data: it records the page visited, the site you came from, browser and screen size, and country and region (worked out from your IP address, which is not stored). In the ASP portal it also counts anonymous milestones such as "Mock 1 finished" or "practice set finished", with no link to you or your answers.
The Catch certificates
When you take a full mock exam while logged in, we store your score for that attempt (score, number of questions, time taken and date) so we can check The Catch on our side. If you claim a certificate, we store the name you give us, your certificate ID and whether you chose to appear on the Champions wall. Your name, certificate ID and issue date are shown on the public verification page so anyone with the ID can check it; your name is only listed on the Champions wall if you tick that box. Deleting your account deletes your scores and your certificate record.
Services we use to run the site
We use a small number of trusted service providers to run the site: website hosting and security, an account database, email delivery, privacy-friendly visit counting, and fonts and video. They handle data only to provide these services to us, under their data-protection terms, and never for their own marketing. Your data is encrypted in transit, and each person can read only their own account records. A list of the providers we use is available on request.
Cookies and browser storage
We don't set advertising or tracking cookies. The site keeps a few small items in your browser's local storage so it works properly: your study progress (if you don't have an account), your sign-in session (if you do), whether you've closed the collaboration message, and whether you've closed the sign-up reminder. You can clear them at any time in your browser settings. Clearing them signs you out and, without an account, removes your progress.
Where your data is stored
Account data and emails are handled by our service providers and may be held outside your country. Any such transfer is protected by their standard data-processing terms. By creating an account you consent to these transfers. Our providers protect data with encryption and access controls.
Your rights
Under Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law, and the GDPR where it applies, you can:
- Get a copy of your data: use Download my data in the portal, or email us.
- Correct it: email us.
- Delete it: use Delete my account in the portal, or email us. We delete it within 30 days.
- Withdraw consent at any time by deleting your account. This doesn't affect anything done before.
- Complain to the regulator: in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA); in the EU or UK, your local data protection authority.
We reply to every request within 30 days. We don't make automated decisions about you, and we don't share your data with anyone except the providers above, or where the law requires it.
Age
The study portal is for adults preparing for a professional exam. Please don't create an account if you are under 18.
Security
Sign-in uses one-time email links, so we store no passwords. Access to the account database is limited to the account holder and to AZL as administrator. If a breach affects your data, we will tell you and the regulator as the law requires.
Changes
If this notice changes, we'll update the date above and say what changed on our standards page.