Privacy Policy
The short version
- If you fill in the contact form, I receive your name, email address, the kind of story you're asking about and your message. I use it to reply to you. Nothing else.
- No cookies are set and no measurement tools run unless you agree to them first.
- I don't sell your details, and I don't send marketing emails to people who only enquired.
- You can ask me what I hold about you, and ask me to correct or delete it.
1. Who runs this website
This website, talyatakestory.com, is run by Talya Otzar, a documentary photographer and filmmaker working in Israel.
Registered business name:
Talya Otzar
Business address:
Dalia 6, Herzliya, Israel
Contact for anything on this page:
otzar70@gmail.com
2. What information is collected
Information you send me on purpose
The contact form on this site asks for four things: your name, your email address, which kind of story you're enquiring about, and your message. There is also a tick-box confirming you're happy for me to keep those details in order to reply.
Everything in that message is up to you. Please don't include sensitive personal details — health information, identity numbers, financial details — in the form. If you need to share something like that, we can arrange it another way.
If you email me or message me on WhatsApp instead, I receive whatever that service shows me: your email address or your phone number and display name, along with your message.
Information collected automatically
Like any website, this one is served by a hosting company, and its servers keep standard technical logs. These typically include your IP address, the time of the request, which page was requested, and basic information about your browser and device. This happens for every website you visit and is needed to serve pages and to keep the site secure.
This site does not try to identify you from that information, and does not combine it with anything you send through the form.
3. Cookies and storage
This website sets no cookies of its own.
It does use two small pieces of browser storage, which stay on your device and are never sent to me or to anyone else:
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
ttsA11y |
Remembers the accessibility settings you chose (text size, contrast, reduced motion and so on) so you don't have to set them again on every page. | Until you clear your browser storage or press "Reset Settings". |
ttsConsent |
Remembers whether you agreed to measurement, so you're not asked again on every page. | Until you clear your browser storage or change your choice. |
journeyIntroPlayed |
Remembers that you've already seen the opening video, so it doesn't replay on every page in the same visit. | Cleared automatically when you close the browser tab. |
Cookies set only if you agree to measurement
If — and only if — you press "Accept" on the banner, Google Analytics sets the cookies below. If you decline, or simply never answer, neither of these exists on your device and Google Analytics is not contacted at all.
| Cookie | Set by | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
_ga |
Google Analytics | Tells returning visits apart from new ones, using a randomly generated number. It does not contain your name or email address. | 2 years |
_ga_Z69435CRLB |
Google Analytics | Keeps track of the current visit so several page views count as one session rather than several. | 2 years |
These are set by Google, not by me, and I cannot change what they contain or how long they last. Exact names and lifetimes are theirs to alter, so the table above reflects what they publish at the time of writing. You can delete all of them at any time from your browser's settings, or by declining through the "Privacy settings" link at the foot of any page.
No other cookies are used. There is no advertising cookie, no remarketing pixel, no Meta or TikTok tracker, and no cross-site advertising network on this site.
4. Measurement and analytics
I'd like to know roughly how many people visit, which photographs they look at, and how they found the site. To do that I use one tool, Google Analytics — but only if you say yes when the banner appears. Until then it is not loaded at all, and no request is made to Google Analytics.
Google Analytics 4
Provided by Google. It counts page views and gives me general, grouped information: how many visitors, which pages, roughly which country or region, and whether people arrived from a search engine, Instagram or a direct link.
It is set up so that advertising features, remarketing and ad personalisation are switched off. I do not run ads and your visit is not used to build an advertising profile through this site. Nothing you type into the contact form — your name, email address, phone number or message — is ever sent to Google Analytics.
Nothing on this site records your session. There is no tool that plays back your mouse movements, your scrolling or your clicks, and no heatmap of where people tap.
Google is a large international company and may process this information outside Israel, including in the United States and the European Union. Google's own privacy terms apply in addition to this page.
You can change your mind at any time using the "Privacy settings" link at the bottom of every page.
5. Other services this site relies on
These are the only outside services involved in showing you this website:
| Service | What it does here | When it's contacted |
|---|---|---|
| Netlify | Hosts the website and receives contact-form submissions. Keeps standard server logs. | Every visit. |
| Google Fonts | Supplies the typefaces the site is set in. Google receives your IP address as part of that request. | Every visit. |
| Google Drive | Play the documentary films on their project pages. Both films are hosted on Google Drive. | Only after you click to play a film. Not on page load. |
| Google Analytics | Measurement, as described above. | Only if you agreed. |
The WhatsApp and Instagram links on this site are ordinary links. Nothing is embedded from them and they are not contacted unless you click through — at which point you are on their service, under their terms.
6. Why your information is used
- To reply to your enquiry and, if we go ahead, to plan and carry out the photography or filming we agree on.
- To keep records of work I've done, as any business needs to — including for tax and accounting obligations.
- To understand, in general terms, how the website is being used, if you agreed to measurement.
- To keep the site working and secure.
I don't use enquiry details for marketing, and I don't add people to a mailing list because they contacted me.
7. Who else sees it
Your enquiry is not sold, rented or traded. It is seen by me, and it passes through the service providers listed above, which act on my behalf — the hosting company that receives the form, and my email provider.
Beyond that, information is only shared where the law requires it, or where it is necessary to establish or defend a legal claim.
8. Photographs of you
If you become a client, the photographs and films I make are personal information about the people in them. What I may do with them — in particular whether any of them can appear in this portfolio, on Instagram, or in a submission to a festival or competition — is agreed with you separately, in writing, before anything is published. Nothing from a private commission appears here without that agreement.
If you have agreed to something and later change your mind, tell me and I will remove the images from anywhere I control. Copies already printed, downloaded or shared onward by others cannot always be recovered, and material already submitted to a festival may be outside my control.
9. How long it's kept
| What | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Enquiries that didn't become bookings | 12 months. |
| Client records and anything needed for accounting | For as long as required by applicable tax and accounting laws. |
| Photographs and films from commissioned work | For as long as reasonably necessary for business, archival, legal, and service purposes. |
| Analytics data, if you agreed to it | As set by Google Analytics' own retention settings. |
| Hosting server logs | As set by the hosting provider. |
Some records have to be kept for a fixed number of years to meet tax and accounting requirements, regardless of any request to delete them.
10. Your rights
Under Israeli privacy law you can ask me:
- to tell you what information about you I hold;
- to correct anything that is wrong, incomplete or out of date;
- to delete information, where I'm not required to keep it;
- to stop using your photographs in the ways you previously agreed to.
Write to otzar70@gmail.com and I'll respond as quickly as I can. I may need to check who you are first, so that I don't hand someone else's details to the wrong person.
If you're not satisfied with how I've handled it, you can contact the Israeli Privacy Protection Authority (הרשות להגנת הפרטיות) at the Ministry of Justice.
11. Keeping it safe
The site is served over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), so what you type into the contact form is encrypted in transit. Enquiries are held in the hosting provider's system and in my email account, both protected by strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication.
No system is perfectly secure, and I can't promise that nothing will ever go wrong — but I take it seriously, and I'd tell you if something happened that affected you.
12. Children
This website isn't aimed at children and the contact form is meant for adults. I photograph children often — at family sessions, celebrations and bar and bat mitzvahs — and in every case the arrangement is made with a parent or guardian, who decides what may be published.
13. Changes to this policy
If the way this site handles information changes — a new service, a different form, a change in the law — I'll update this page and change the date at the top. Where a change is significant, I'll make that clear rather than quietly editing it.
14. Getting in touch
Any question about this page, or about anything I hold about you:
Privacy contact:
Talya Otzar
Email:
otzar70@gmail.com