OceanMerge

Privacy notice

Last updated 12 November 2026

How OceanMerge collects, uses and stores personal data for the OceanMerge GCC Readiness Index and the OceanMerge Landfall Report.

Who we are

This Privacy notice is issued by OceanMerge, which is operated by Ryan Babbage. For questions about this notice or your personal data, email contact@oceanmerge.ae.

The service

The OceanMerge GCC Readiness Index is a free self-assessment of your readiness to enter a GCC market. You may optionally buy the OceanMerge Landfall Report for a one-off payment of US$99. The Landfall Report is unlocked instantly in your browser after payment. We do not email the report to you.

What we collect

When you complete the Index we collect the information you enter on the form:

• Company name
• Your name
• Work email address
• Headquarters country
• Sector
• Company size
• Priority GCC country
• Your answers to the 20 Index questions
• Whether you opted in to be contacted about this assessment (optional tick box)
• If they were present in the link you used: utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign (marketing source)

We do not ask for a telephone number.

If you buy the Landfall Report, Stripe also processes your payment details (including your card number) on its own systems. We receive a payment reference, amount, currency and status. We do not store your full card number.

Cookies and local storage

This service sets two cookies, both HttpOnly and SameSite=Lax:

• rc_sid — an essential session cookie, kept for 24 hours. It protects forms against cross-site request forgery and helps us avoid counting the same visit twice in anonymous usage statistics.
• rc_utm — kept for 30 days. It stores utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign when those appear in the link you used, so we can attribute your assessment if you complete it later.

Your questionnaire progress is also saved in this browser tab using sessionStorage. That is not a cookie. It stays on your device until you submit or start again, and it is not sent to our server until you submit.

If you pay, Stripe's hosted checkout may set its own cookies on stripe.com. Those are covered by Stripe's notices, not this one.

We also keep anonymous daily totals of landing views, starts, completions and payments, with no personal identifiers.

How we use your information

We use this information to:

• Calculate your Index score and, if you buy it, produce your Landfall Report
• Take payment and process refunds
• Follow up about the OceanMerge GCC diagnostic. If you buy the Landfall Report, or if you tick the optional contact box and your score meets our qualification threshold, a short record — company name, contact email, priority country, score, band, paid or free status, and any marketing source — is stored in OceanMerge's internal CRM (the Command Centre). Your full answers stay in the Index database.
• Understand which marketing sources bring people to the Index
• Meet legal and accounting obligations

We do not sell your personal data.

Payments

Payments are processed by Stripe. Until OceanMerge's own Stripe account is ready, charges are taken on Ryan Babbage's Stripe account, and your card statement will show RYANBABBAGE.COM. Stripe acts as our payment processor.

Where we store information

Assessment records are stored in a database (SQLite) on the server that hosts this service and, where the follow-up conditions above apply, in OceanMerge's internal CRM. Payment processing takes place on Stripe's systems.

How long we keep it

We keep assessment records and payment references for as long as needed to provide the Landfall Report, handle refunds, meet legal and accounting obligations, and follow up about the diagnostic. We will delete or anonymise personal data on request where we are not required to keep it.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights under the UAE Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) and, where it applies, under the EU or UK GDPR. These typically include the right to access, correct or delete your personal data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. To exercise these rights, or to ask a question about how we use your data, email contact@oceanmerge.ae. This notice describes our practices; it is not a claim of certification, formal registration or audited compliance under any data-protection regime.

Changes

We may update this notice from time to time. The dated version on this page is the current one.

See also: Privacy notice · Terms of use.