Privacy Policy
Effective Date: November 1, 2024
Welcome to www.smalltownpost.com! We are a local community blog dedicated to bringing you news and stories from Blackstone, Massachusetts, and its surrounding communities. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and share information when you visit our website.
By using www.smalltownpost.com, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
1. Information We Collect
We may collect the following types of information from you:
- Personal Information: This includes information that can be used to identify you, such as your name, email address, or any other information you voluntarily provide when you comment on articles, subscribe to a newsletter (if offered), or contact us.
- Usage Data: We automatically collect certain information about your interaction with our website. This may include your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring website addresses, pages you view, the dates and times of your visits, and other standard web log information. We use services like Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors use our site.
- Advertising Interaction Data: If you interact with advertisements on our website, we may collect information about those interactions, such as which ads you click on and how you engage with them.
- Online Shop Information (If Applicable): If we launch an online shop in the future, we will collect information necessary to process your orders, such as your name, shipping address, billing address, payment information (which may be processed through a third-party payment gateway), and details of your purchases.
- Comments: When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
- Media: If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
- Cookies: Our website uses cookies to enhance your Browse experience. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your device to collect standard internet log information and visitor behavior information. We use cookies for purposes such as:
- Essential Cookies: These cookies are necessary for the basic functionality of our website.
- Analytics Cookies: We use Google Analytics and other analytics tools that may set cookies to collect information about how visitors use our website. This helps us understand website traffic and improve our site.
- Advertising Cookies: These cookies may be used by our advertising partners to deliver ads that are relevant to you based on your Browse history. You can control and manage cookies in your browser settings. Please note that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of our website.
- Embedded Content from Other Websites: Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
2. How We Use Your Information
We may use the information we collect for various purposes, including:
- To operate and maintain our website, www.smalltownpost.com.
- To provide you with the content you access on www.smalltownpost.com.
- To personalize your experience on our website.
- To analyze website usage and trends, including through the use of Google Analytics, to improve our content and services.
- To display advertisements that may be relevant to your interests.
- To process and fulfill orders if our online shop is launched.
- To communicate with you, such as responding to your inquiries or providing updates (if you have subscribed to a newsletter).
- To moderate and manage comments left on the website.
- To detect, prevent, and address technical issues and security incidents.
- To comply with applicable laws and regulations.
3. Sharing Your Information
We may share your information with third parties in the following circumstances:
- Service Providers: We may share information with third-party service providers who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or providing services to you. This may include providers of analytics services (like Google Analytics), advertising networks, email marketing services (if used), payment processors (if our online shop is launched), and website hosting providers. These service providers are typically contractually obligated to protect your information.
- Advertising Partners: We may share certain non-personally identifiable information with advertising partners to help them deliver relevant advertisements on our website and other websites.
- Legal Requirements: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities (e.g., a court or government agency).
- Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or other business transfer, your information may be transferred to the acquiring entity.
- With Your Consent: We may share your information with third parties when we have your explicit consent to do so.
4. Advertising
www.smalltownpost.com may display advertisements. These advertisements may be served by third-party advertising networks. These networks may use cookies, web beacons, or other similar technologies to collect information about your Browse activities across different websites in order to provide you with targeted advertisements. This Privacy Policy does not cover the privacy practices of third-party advertisers, and we encourage you to review their respective privacy policies.
5. Online Shop (If Applicable)
If www.smalltownpost.com launches an online shop, any payment information you provide will be processed securely through a third-party payment gateway. We will only retain information necessary to fulfill your orders and for our internal record-keeping purposes.
6. Data Security
We take reasonable measures to protect the information we collect from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
7. How Long We Retain Your Data
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.
If we have an online shop, we will retain order information as long as necessary for accounting, legal, and customer service purposes.
Usage data collected by analytics services like Google Analytics is typically retained for a period as specified in their respective policies.
8. What Rights You Have Over Your Data
If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
To exercise these rights, please contact us at editor@smalltownpost.com
9. Where Your Data is Sent
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. Usage data collected by analytics services like Google Analytics may be transmitted to and stored on their servers, which may be located outside of your country of residence. Similarly, data shared with advertising partners may be transferred internationally. If we implement an online shop, transaction data may be sent to payment processors located in various countries. We take reasonable steps to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy, regardless of where it is sent.
10. Third-Party Links
Our website, www.smalltownpost.com, may contain links to other websites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s website. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every website you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites or services.
11. Children’s Privacy
www.smalltownpost.com is a general audience website and does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will take steps to delete such information.
12. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
13. Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: editor@smalltownpost.com