Privacy
Privacy notice
Effective date: 28 September 2026Who this covers
This notice applies to apeldesign.com, operated by Amit Apel Design, Inc., doing business as Apel Design, 33202 1/4U Mulholland Hwy., Malibu, CA 90265.
The website is built and hosted on a website platform that runs it for us, including the database that stores inquiries and the service that emails them to the studio. The company that provides the platform handles this information on our behalf and sets out how it does so in its data processing terms.
What this website collects
This website has no visitor accounts and does not sell anything online. It collects information in three ways: what you choose to send us through the project inquiry form, a basic record of the pages that are visited, and the technical details every browser sends when it loads a web page. Each is described below.
The project inquiry form
The project inquiry form on the contact page asks for your name, your email address and a message, and you can also give a telephone number if you wish. Some versions of the form, opened from buttons on this website, ask one or two optional questions about your project, such as its general area.
When you send the form, your browser transmits what you entered directly to the platform that hosts this website, and two things happen. Your inquiry is saved as a record in this website's database, holding your name, your email address and your message, with any telephone number and any answers to the optional questions added to the message. When you reach the form from a button on this website, the address of the page you came from is added too, so we can see which parts of the site help people reach us. A copy is also emailed to the studio at Contact@ApelDesign.com through the platform's email service.
The form also contains a hidden field that visitors do not see. It is there to catch automated spam, and it stays empty when a person fills in the form.
The form does not open your email program. Nothing you type is sent until you press the button to send it, and if you leave the page without sending, we receive nothing.
Email and telephone
If you click our email address or telephone number on this site, your own email program or phone app opens. Nothing reaches us until you send the message or place the call, and we then receive whatever you choose to include.
Cookies, online tracking and Do Not Track
This website sets no cookies and contains no advertising pixels, social media trackers or advertising networks. We do not collect information about your activity across other websites over time, and as far as we know, no other company uses this website to do so. Apart from links you choose to follow, your browser also contacts the company that hosts this website and Google, which supplies some of the typefaces, as described in this notice. Because this site does not track you across other websites, it does not change its behavior in response to browser Do Not Track signals.
The hosting platform keeps four small items in your browser's local storage, a storage area on your own device: a randomly generated visitor identifier used for the visitor statistics described below; the identifier of this website on the platform; the version of the site's server functions in use; and the address of the most recent page on this site that your browser loaded in full. None of them contains your name or anything you type into the form. You can remove them at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser; they are created again on your next visit.
Page visits
Each time you open a page, your browser sends the platform a short record naming the part of the site being viewed, for example projects or contact. The platform keeps these records as a log of how the site is used.
The site also uses the platform's built-in visitor statistics. While you browse, your browser sends the platform short records: one when the site first loads, including the page you arrived from if your browser shares it; one about once a minute while a page is open and in view; and one noting how long the site was in view when you switch to another tab or app. Each record carries the time, the address path of the page you are on (the part after apeldesign.com, without anything after a question mark) and the random visitor identifier described above. These statistics do not include your name or anything you type into the form.
Like any website host, the platform receives your IP address and the browser and device details your browser sends with every request. It may keep them in standard server logs for security and reliability, and may use them to estimate your general location and your type of device and browser in its records of site use. We look at this information in aggregate, to understand which pages are used and to keep the site working. We do not use it to identify individual visitors or to build profiles of them.
If we add any other analytics, advertising or tracking tool to this website, we will update this notice before the tool is switched on.
Fonts and images
Some of the typefaces on this site are provided by Google Fonts. When a page loads, your browser requests them from Google's servers (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com), and Google receives your IP address and browser details as part of that request. We do not send Google anything else about you. Google explains how it handles this information in its privacy policy.
The images on this site are delivered from the hosting platform's media servers, which receive the same basic details with each request.
How we use what you send us
We use what you send us to respond to your inquiry, to discuss a possible project, and to carry out any engagement that follows. We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information, and we do not share it with third parties for their own marketing.
Information may be shared with the licensed design professionals, consultants, engineers, contractors or government agencies involved in your project where doing so is necessary to advance it; with service providers that handle it on our behalf, such as the company that hosts this website and our email provider; and where the law requires it.
How long we keep it
Inquiry records in the website's database are kept for two years after our last contact with you, and then deleted. The copy of each inquiry emailed to the studio is kept for two years after our last contact with you, and then deleted. If an inquiry becomes a project, project correspondence is kept for the life of the project and afterwards as required for professional, insurance, tax and legal purposes. The platform keeps its records of site use for the periods its own systems set. You can ask us to delete your inquiry at any time.
Your choices
You can ask us what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. That includes your inquiry record in the website's database and the copy in our email.
To make any of these requests, email Contact@ApelDesign.com or call (310) 317-0500. Someone you have authorized may also make a request on your behalf. We may need to verify your identity before we respond.
California residents
If you live in California, you can ask us to tell you what personal information we have collected about you, where it came from, why we collected it and who we have shared it with. You can also ask us to correct it or to delete it. To make a request, use the email address or telephone number above. We will not treat you differently for making a request. We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for targeted advertising.
Children
This website is not directed to children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect information from them.
Links to other sites
This site links to other websites, including our social media profiles, press coverage and related practices. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of sites we do not operate.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS, so what you send through the form is encrypted on its way to the platform. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and email in particular is not a secure channel. Because each inquiry also reaches the studio by email, please do not send sensitive personal information, such as financial or health details, through the form or by email.
Changes
If we change this notice, we will post the new version on this page and update the effective date at the top.
Contact
Apel Design, 33202 1/4U Mulholland Hwy., Malibu, CA 90265