Privacy

Who runs this site

MetaResearch (metaresearch.group) is published by MRG Canada. It is based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. MRG Canada decides what this notice says. It is in charge of the personal information described below.

MRG Canada also owns a laboratory supply business. That business is the partner named in one of our emails, described below. The partner has no say in what MetaResearch writes.

Questions about this notice go to editor@metaresearch.group.

What we collect

Two kinds of information reach the site. The first kind comes in by itself with every visit. It shows which pages were opened and about where in the world the visit came from. It shows the type of browser and device. It also shows which site or ad sent the visitor here. Most of it is collected by two tools made by Google and by Meta, which are named in the next part. We use it to count readers, to keep the site working, and to see whether our ads on Facebook and Instagram bring readers here.

The second kind is given on purpose. One is an email address typed into the sign up form for our emails. With it, we record the date and time, the exact words agreed to, the page the form was on, and the internet address (the IP address) the sign up came from. Another is the short, optional profile described below. The last is anything a reader chooses to write in a message to the editor. We ask for nothing more. The site has no reader accounts and takes no payments.

Cookies and tracking

Cookies are small files a website saves in the browser. This site loads two tracking tools made by other companies. Both load on every visit, as soon as a page opens. The site does not show a cookie banner, and it does not ask first.

The first tool is Google Analytics, made by Google. It counts visits. It records which pages were read, the type of browser and device, about where the visit came from, and which site or link sent the visitor here. It saves cookies so it can tell a new visitor from one who came back.

The second tool is the Meta pixel, made by Meta, the company that runs Facebook and Instagram. It tells Meta each time a page here is opened, when someone signs up for our emails, and when someone answers all four questions in the optional profile. It does not send the email address, and it does not send any of the answers. It saves a cookie, and Meta can link what it learns to a Facebook or Instagram account signed in on the same browser. We use it to see whether our ads on Facebook and Instagram bring readers here. It is set up so that it does not read the words or buttons on the page by itself.

Some videos on the front page come from YouTube, which Google owns. The main one plays from YouTube without sound when that part of the page is on screen. The others load only when a reader presses play. Until then, only their cover pictures come from YouTube. Once a video loads, YouTube's own privacy policy applies to it, and YouTube may save its own cookies.

To stop both tools, a reader can block cookies or trackers in the browser's settings, or use a browser add on that blocks them. Google also offers a free add on that turns off Google Analytics. Meta has settings, inside a Facebook or Instagram account, that limit how it uses activity from other sites. Every page here still works with these tools blocked.

There are no ads on the site right now, and no ad company sets cookies here. If ads are added, this notice will be changed first, and it will name the ad companies.

The emails

When someone gives an email address in the sign up form, MRG Canada stores it. The emails are sent through Amazon Web Services, a company that sends email for us, so Amazon handles the address too. The address is used to send MetaResearch emails. Nothing is sent until the reader clicks the link in the first email to say yes.

Our emails do not check whether they were opened. Links in them are not changed to count clicks. We only know about three kinds of click: the click that confirms a sign up, the click that stops the emails, and the click on a button that asks to keep getting them. In the partner email, the link to the partner's site carries a tag that tells the partner the visit came from MetaResearch.

The optional profile

Right after signing up, a reader may answer four short questions. They ask for a first name, a province or territory, which role fits best (such as student or researcher), and which topics to send first. Every question is optional. A button skips them all, and the emails come either way.

We use the answers to fit the emails to each reader. The first name is used to say hello at the top of an email. The topics decide which briefings are sent first. The province and the role help us understand who reads MetaResearch. We never ask about health.

The answers stay with MRG Canada. They are never sent to Meta, to Google or to the partner. When a reader answers all four questions, the Meta pixel and Google Analytics are told that a profile was filled in, and nothing more. That message carries none of the answers. We use it to see whether our ads bring readers who fill in the profile. The browser keeps a small note so the message is only sent once.

To change the answers, use the link called Pick your topics in the first email after confirming. To have them deleted, write to editor@metaresearch.group. Stopping the emails does not delete them. Deleting the sign up record deletes the answers with it.

Partner offers

About six days after a reader confirms a sign up, we send one email with an offer from our partner. The partner is the laboratory supply business owned by MRG Canada. The email names the partner, and the offer is labeled and kept apart from the rest of the email.

To make that email, our system sends the reader's email address to the partner's computer system. The partner uses the address to make a code that only that reader can use, one time, and sends the code back. This happens by itself, just before the email goes out. The reader does not have to click or do anything for the address to be sent. The partner keeps the address with the code, so each address only ever gets one code.

Only the email address goes to the partner. The partner does not get our list of readers, the date someone signed up, anything about what they read, or any answer from the optional profile. If a reader stops the emails before the sixth day, or if we have switched the emails off, the address is not sent at all. Partner offers do not decide which studies we write about.

Stopping the emails, and other rights

Every email has a link at the bottom to stop getting them. One click ends the emails. Writing to editor@metaresearch.group does the same thing.

Depending on where a reader lives, they may have other rights too. They may ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about them. They may ask for it to be fixed, or to be deleted. They may also take back their agreement to a use they said yes to before. Requests go to editor@metaresearch.group, including requests about the copy of an address the partner keeps, since the same company owns it. We answer them within the time the law in that place allows.

How long we keep information, and where to write

A sign up that is never confirmed is deleted after seven days. We keep email sign up records while someone is signed up. We also keep a record after they stop, so we can honor the request to stop the emails, and show that we did. Google and Meta keep what their tools collect under their own rules. We only look at it as totals and reports.

MRG Canada is based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Questions and requests go to editor@metaresearch.group, and a mailing address is given on request.

About MetaResearch · How MetaResearch pays for itself · Contact