Legal

Privacy policy

Last updated 4 September 2026 · English (site language)

Aviation Titans is published from Belgium and written for readers in the United States and Canada. That is why this policy follows both European law (GDPR + ePrivacy) and U.S. law that actually bites a publisher with California traffic (CCPA/CPRA). Canadian PIPEDA is treated as a fairness standard for Canadian readers. A U.S.-only policy would be illegal for a Belgian controller. An EU-only policy would leave California visitors without the notices the CCPA expects.

1. Who is the controller

Controller: the publisher of Aviation Titans (www.aviationtitans.com / aviationtitans.com), established in Belgium. Contact: contact@aviationtitans.com or the contact form. Mentions légales: legal notice.

2. What we collect

• Essential: security logs (IP address, user agent, pages, timestamps) for a typical 90 days; the message you send via the contact form (name, email, contents).
• Consent cookie: a first-party flag in localStorage (at-consent) storing accept or refuse. Not used to track you across sites.
• Advertising (only if you accept): Google AdSense and partners may set cookies and advertising identifiers as described in Google — How Google uses cookies for advertising and Google Privacy Policy.
• Hosting: the live site is intended to run on Vercel (United States). That is an international transfer (see §7).

We do not run an account system. We do not sell subscriber lists. We do not ask for payment card data.

3. Legal bases (GDPR)

• Legitimate interests (art. 6(1)(f)): security logs, abuse prevention, answering a public website.
• Consent (art. 6(1)(a) and ePrivacy): non-essential advertising cookies. You may refuse. Refuse is as easy as accept.
• Contract / steps at your request (art. 6(1)(b)): answering a message you send us.

4. California (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have rights described by the California Attorney General’s CCPA page: know, delete, correct, and opt out of “sale” or “sharing” of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

We do not sell your email. Google advertising cookies can qualify as “sharing” under CPRA. Refusing ad cookies (banner, or the “Do not sell or share” control in the footer) is how you opt out on this site. You can also use Google Ad Settings and YourAdChoices.

Categories that may be processed if you accept ads: online identifiers, browsing on this site, coarse location derived by ad partners. We do not collect sensitive personal information for sale.

5. Canada

Canadian readers are covered by the same notices. We do not require an account. Transport and licensing content we cite is U.S. FAA/BLS unless we link Transport Canada Aviation.

6. Cookies

The inventory, purposes, and retainers are on the cookie policy. First visit: a banner with Accept all and Refuse ads cookies, equal size. No advertising cookies run until you accept. Changing your mind: footer → Cookie settings.

7. Processors and transfers

• Google LLC (AdSense, if accepted) — U.S. — see Google’s policies linked above.
• Vercel Inc. (hosting / CDN) — U.S.

Transfers outside the EEA rely on the service’s Standard Contractual Clauses and, where relevant, the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework listing of that vendor. Personalized ads still need your consent.

8. Retention and security

Security logs: about 90 days unless needed for an incident. Contact messages: as long as the correspondence requires, then deleted. Consent flag: until you clear site data or reset cookies. We use HTTPS and do not store payment data.

9. Your rights (EEA/UK)

Access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability, and withdrawal of consent. Write to contact@aviationtitans.com. You may complain to the Belgian Data Protection Authority: dataprotectionauthority.be / autoriteprotectiondonnees.be.

10. Children

Editorial is for working-age mechanics and student pilots. We do not target children (under 16 in the EEA, under 13 under COPPA).

11. Ads inventory

Units are labeled “Advertisement.” Publisher line in ads.txt: google.com, pub-2814751938165139, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0. See ads & affiliates. Google’s EU User Consent Policy applies once AdSense is live on the domain. This rebuild ships a first-party accept/refuse control; on the live domain, wire a Google-certified CMP (for example Google Funding Choices) so TCF signals reach ad partners.