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Legal & privacy

Privacy notice

How personal information is handled on this website, in professional and commissioned-service enquiries, and within the OPTARUS subscriber account service.

Updated 2 October 2026 · Subscriber-account version

Who is responsible

The data controller is Stephen J. Taylor, trading as Optarus Risk & Intelligence.

The primary contact route is info@optarusrisk.com. Contact is also available through Stephen J. Taylor on LinkedIn.

FA-72 membership is now live. Secure member login and Stripe subscription checkout are available now.

Information processed by the current website and enquiries

OPTARUS has not added advertising trackers or a marketing cookie system to this website. The hosting service may process technical request information—such as IP address, device or browser information, requested page, timestamps and security logs—to deliver and protect the site.

If you contact OPTARUS about commissioned work or another professional matter, the information processed may include your name, organisation, professional contact details, the content of the enquiry, relevant attachments, correspondence and records needed to scope or administer the requested service. Do not send highly sensitive material by ordinary email before agreeing an appropriate transfer method.

If you follow a link to a third-party service, including LinkedIn, that service processes information under its own privacy terms.

Subscriber accounts and payment records

The member login uses Supabase to process the email address, account identifier, authentication session, access status and records needed to protect subscriber content. A one-time email sign-in link is used instead of a website password.

Stripe is used for subscription payment processing and supplies OPTARUS with limited customer, subscription and transaction references needed to activate or withdraw access and administer the contract. OPTARUS does not receive or store full payment-card details.

Member documents are held in protected storage. Access requests may be logged for service delivery, security, troubleshooting and misuse prevention. Account data is not used for marketing unless a separate lawful basis and appropriate choice are provided.

Information used in open-source research

OPTARUS may process information about identifiable people where it is necessary for proportionate geopolitical, maritime-security or commercial-risk analysis. This can include professional identity, public roles and statements, company or vessel relationships, official designations and relevant publicly reported allegations.

Sources may include official publications, sanctions and corporate registers, court or parliamentary material, reputable journalism, specialist research, public professional profiles and other lawfully accessible open sources. Public availability does not remove the duties of necessity, fairness, accuracy and data minimisation.

Research is analyst-led. OPTARUS does not use solely automated processing to make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about an individual. Further safeguards are set out in the Data Processing & Responsible OSINT Policy.

Purposes and lawful bases

Site delivery and securityLegitimate interests in providing, protecting and diagnosing the website and subscriber portal.
Professional enquiriesLegitimate interests and steps requested before entering a contract.
Open-source researchLegitimate interests in producing necessary and proportionate geopolitical, security and commercial-risk analysis, subject to a documented balancing assessment where personal-data use is material.
Membership and portal accessSteps requested before entering a contract and performance of a contract, including account access, delivery, billing and support.
Required recordsCompliance with legal obligations, including accounting and consumer obligations.
Optional marketingConsent where required, or another lawful route permitted for the intended recipient and communication; every marketing message will provide an appropriate opt-out.

Recipients and international processing

Technical data may be processed by the website hosting provider and its infrastructure suppliers. Supabase provides account authentication, access records and protected document storage. Stripe provides subscription payment processing. Each provider processes relevant information under its own contractual and security arrangements.

Some provider processing may occur outside the UK. Where restricted transfers occur, OPTARUS relies on the provider’s applicable transfer mechanism and contractual safeguards and reviews those arrangements as the service develops.

Retention

Information is retained only for as long as necessary for the relevant purpose. Subscriber account and access records are retained while the account or contract is active and afterwards where reasonably required for accounting, legal obligations, security, dispute handling or the defence of claims. Records no longer required are deleted or anonymised where appropriate.

Your data-protection rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability and objection. Where processing relies on consent, consent may be withdrawn. These rights are not absolute and the applicable right depends on the lawful basis and context.

Your right to object: you may object to processing based on legitimate interests. Direct marketing will stop when you object.

You may complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk. We would welcome the opportunity to address a concern first through the contact route published above.