Privacy Policy

Effective September 27, 2026 · Updated November 11, 2026

Firelands Current is owned and operated by Stone Dragon Media, LLC ("we," "us"). This policy explains what information we collect when you read or take part in firelandscurrent.com, what we do with it, and the choices you have.

Information you give us

Your account. When you register, we collect a display name, your email address, and a password. We store only a secure hash of your password, never the password itself. To confirm the address is yours, we email you a one-time link before the account can be used, and we email a link if you ask to reset your password or change your email address; those messages go out through Cloudflare, and our Cloudflare Turnstile human check runs on those forms.

Signing in with Google, Facebook, Apple, or Microsoft. If you use one of these services to sign in or sign up, it shares your name, email address, and profile picture with us, and we keep them with your account. We don't receive your password for that service or access to your contacts or posts there, and we don't keep the access tokens the service issues during sign-in.

Talk of the Town. Threads and replies you post, including comments on news stories, are stored with your account and shown publicly. The upvotes and downvotes you cast are stored with your account too; we show only the total for each post, not who voted. If you report a post, we keep the report, including who made it, for our moderators.

Businesses and advertisers. If your business advertises with us, we keep the business contact details you provide, such as its name, website, email address, and phone number, along with which accounts belong to it.

Contact and news tip forms. If you use our Contact or Submit news form, we collect the name, email address, subject, and message you enter. News tips are stored in our database for newsroom review and linked to your account when you submit while signed in. You can also choose whether you want credit if a tip is used in a story. Tips are emailed to newsroom staff and are not published as submitted. How long we keep them is described under "How long we keep information." Contact messages are emailed to staff and are not stored in our database. Both forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to check that you're not a bot, which sends details about your browser and IP address to Cloudflare. We use submissions to review, respond to, and report on news tips.

Inaccuracy reports. Each story and event page links to a form for reporting a mistake. If you use it, we collect your name, email address, and what you tell us (including any suggested fix and source link), along with the story or event it concerns, and link it to your account if you are signed in. Reports are stored in our database and emailed to newsroom staff so editors can check the facts, correct the page, and follow up with you; we keep them as a record of corrections. They are not published. The form uses Cloudflare Turnstile, which sends details about your browser and IP address to Cloudflare.

Advertising inquiries. The form on our Advertise page collects your name, email address, business or campaign subject, and message. Cloudflare delivers the inquiry to our advertising team's mailbox at ads@firelandscurrent.com, with your email address in Reply-To so staff can respond. Inquiries are not stored in our website database or shown publicly, but may be retained in our mailbox to discuss and manage your advertising request. The form uses Cloudflare Turnstile, which sends browser and IP address details to Cloudflare to help prevent spam.

Form drafts in your browser. When you submit the Contact, Submit news, Advertise, or inaccuracy report form, your browser keeps a copy of what you typed in session storage, which is private to that browser tab. If the form comes back with an error, we use that copy to fill the fields in again. It is never sent to us or placed in a web address, and it is removed after the message sends, the next time you open the form without an error, or when you close the tab.

Staff story previews. When newsroom staff preview a story, including a draft based on a news tip, the editor sends the current story text to our Cloudflare-hosted server to format the preview. This process does not save a separate copy of the text or publish it. Preview images load only from our media library; images embedded from other websites are not requested.

Information collected automatically

Google Analytics does not load on sign-in, registration, password, account, or business portal pages. On the pages where it does load, we configure Google Analytics to redact email addresses and the values of the URL query parameters token, code, state, and email before sending supported event data to Google. This automatic redaction is a precaution, not a guarantee that every possible instance of personal information will be detected. What you type into the site search is not sent to Google Analytics: the search results page reports itself to Google Analytics without your search words, and links from it pass on only our site's address. We don't save searches in our database. Like any page request, a search passes through the hosting logs described below, and Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts page views without cookies, may receive the search page's full address, including the words searched.

Sign-in sessions. When you sign in, we record your IP address and your browser's user-agent string with that session. This lets us and you see where an account is signed in and helps us protect it. We also note when you last confirmed your password or finished a sign-in with another service during that session, which is how we ask staff to confirm again before changes such as assigning staff roles. A session, and that note with it, is deleted when you sign out or when it expires.

Sign-in protection. To slow password guessing and misuse of our email links, we count requests to our account system, such as signing in, registering, or resetting a password, by the IP address they come from, and briefly refuse an address that sends too many. Each count is stored with that IP address, not with an account, and is deleted within about an hour of the address's last such request.

Posting limits. To limit spam and flooding, we also count how often you vote, send a contact, news tip, advertising, or inaccuracy-report form, and, for signed-out visitors, which IP address it came from. Signed-in visitors are counted by account, and signed-out visitors by a scrambled (keyed hash) form of the IP address rather than the address itself. These counts are stored briefly and deleted within about an hour. The number of discussions, comments, and reports you post is counted from the posts and reports themselves.

Google Analytics. Public pages load Google Analytics, which tells us things like how many people visit, which pages they read, how they found us, and their general location and type of device. Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser and sends information about your visit to Google. Google uses your IP address to estimate your location but, in the version we use (Google Analytics 4), does not store it. We also send three event names to Google Analytics when something succeeds: an account was created (with the sign-in method, such as email or Facebook), a news tip was sent, or an advertising inquiry was sent. These events never include your name, email address, or anything you wrote. Because account pages do not load Google Analytics, a new account's event is held in your browser's local storage until you next open a public page, then sent once and removed. Visits from newsroom staff who are signed in are marked as internal so that they aren't counted. Google's handling of this data is described in Google's Privacy Policy and in how Google uses information from sites that use its services.

Cloudflare Web Analytics. Our pages also include Cloudflare's Web Analytics script, which counts page views and measures how quickly pages load. It doesn't use cookies or other browser storage and doesn't try to identify or follow individual visitors.

Hosting logs. The site runs on Cloudflare, which processes every request to it, including your IP address and browser details, in order to deliver pages and protect the site from abuse. We keep technical logs of requests for a few days to diagnose problems. Those logs also hold short security entries for account activity such as signing in, failing to sign in, resetting a password, or being turned away by a rate limit: what happened, whether it worked, and scrambled versions of the email address and IP address involved that let us notice repeated attempts without keeping either in readable form. They never contain passwords, links we email you, or session details. So we can notice a burst of failed sign-ins or other unusual account activity quickly, we also keep running counts of those entries, five minutes at a time, under the same scrambled versions of the email address and IP address and nothing else. These counts are deleted after about a day, and when one is unusually high we send the site owner an email that names the pattern and part of a scrambled value, never an email address or IP address.

Security reports. Our pages tell your browser which websites they may load scripts, styles, images, and other content from. If your browser finds something on one of our pages that falls outside those rules, such as a script added by a browser extension, it may send us an automatic report. From each report we keep only the kind of content, the website it came from (without the specific address), and the page on our site where it happened (without any search or form details), and we discard the rest, including any code excerpt and details about your browser. These entries go into the same short-lived hosting logs and are not stored in our database.

Ad counts. We count how many times each ad is seen and clicked so we can report totals to advertisers. These counts aren't tied to you: we don't use cookies for ads, and we don't record who saw or clicked an ad.

Fonts. Our pages load typefaces from Google Fonts, so your browser contacts Google's servers when you visit, as it does for many websites.

Cookies

• Session cookie (ours): set only when you sign in, so the site knows it's you. It's required for accounts to work.
• Sign-in cookies (ours): short-lived cookies used while you sign in with Google, Facebook, Apple, or Microsoft, to complete the sign-in securely.
• Google Analytics cookies (_ga and _ga_…): distinguish one visitor from another so visits can be counted. They last up to two years unless you clear them.

We don't use advertising or social media tracking cookies.

How we use information

• To run your account and sign you in
• To publish what you post in Talk of the Town, and to moderate it
• To keep the site and its members secure and prevent spam and abuse
• To understand our readership and decide what to cover and improve
• To report ad totals to advertisers and manage their accounts
• To respond to contact messages and advertising inquiries

We don't sell or rent personal information, and we don't share it with advertisers. Ads are chosen by the page and news section you're reading, not by anything we know about you.

What others can see

Staff-entered details for published and cancelled events, including organizer names and websites, performer names, admission prices, ticket availability, and ticket links, are public and included in structured data that search engines can read. Draft events remain staff-only.

Our community links directory publishes staff-entered organization names, official websites, counties, communities, resource types, descriptions, and last-checked dates. Draft links remain staff-only. When you follow a directory link, the destination website’s privacy policy applies.

Your display name, published articles attributed to your account, and the threads and replies you post are public and can appear in search engines. Clicking a byline or forum name opens a public profile grouping that person’s published articles, visible topics, and visible replies. Changing your display name updates it on your profile and account-linked bylines and posts. Hidden posts and unpublished stories are excluded from profiles. Newsroom staff can also write a short author bio, up to 600 characters, about their local experience and what they cover; it appears publicly only on their profile, which readers can open by clicking their byline, and we only show it while the person holds a staff role. Readers and other members cannot add one. Your email address is never shown publicly. Our staff can see account details, including email addresses and active sign-in sessions, when they need to for moderation, support, or security.

Who we share information with

Facebook Page publishing. We send published news headlines, summaries, and story links to Meta to share on the Firelands Current Facebook Page. Meta can fetch the public story and its preview image. Staff authorize a Page access token, stored as a server secret, and we keep story-to-post records, posting times, error codes, and staff actions to track delivery. This publishing process does not send reader account details, private news tips, or unpublished story text to Meta. Facebook's privacy policy applies when you visit or interact with the Page.

• Cloudflare, which hosts the site, stores our database and images, delivers the emails you send through our forms, and provides Web Analytics
• Google, for Google Analytics and Google Fonts
• Google, Facebook, Apple, or Microsoft, if you choose to sign in with them; Meta also receives public news content for our Facebook Page
• Authorities, if the law requires it, or when needed to protect people's safety or our rights

When you click an ad, you go to the advertiser's own website, and its privacy policy applies there.

How long we keep information

Google Analytics retains detailed user and event data for 14 months; new activity resets the retention period for that user's data. This limit does not apply to most standard reports, which use aggregated data.

We keep your account and posts until the account is deleted. Posts that moderators hide stay stored but out of public view. Published news articles remain in the newspaper archive after an author account is deleted, with a text byline and no account link. Deleting an account removes it along with its sign-in sessions, linked sign-in methods, posts, and reports. We keep a record of actions our staff take, such as suspending or deleting an account, publishing, editing or removing a story, event or community link, hiding a post, editing another staff member's author bio, or settling a correction request or news tip. It includes the name of the staff member and the account's name or email address, or the title of the story, event or discussion, or the organization name for a community link; it does not include the text of posts, tips or correction reports. We also note when a signed-in account tries to use staff tools it has no access to. That record is kept after an account or story is deleted so we can account for editorial and moderation decisions. Backup copies of our database are kept for up to 30 days and then discarded.

News tips. A tip we decline is deleted 90 days after we decline it. A tip we review or use in a story is kept as part of our reporting record: a year after that decision we remove your name, email address and account link from it, and keep the subject and text. A tip nobody has reviewed yet stays until an editor reviews or declines it. The copy emailed to our newsroom mailbox is deleted on the same schedule. If your account is deleted, tips you sent while signed in that we haven't reviewed or that we declined are deleted with it; reviewed tips and tips used in a story stay as part of our reporting record, without the link to your account, until your name and email are removed as described above. You can ask us to remove your name and email from a tip sooner; for a tip we used in reporting, an editor will decide whether we need to keep them a while longer, for example to check facts or handle a correction.

Your choices

• Analytics: you can block Google Analytics with Google's opt-out browser add-on, a content blocker, or your browser's privacy settings. The site works normally without it.
• Your account: you can see your account details on your account page. You can change your display name, email address, and password there. A new email address replaces your old one only after you confirm the link sent to the new address; Cloudflare Turnstile protects that request. To get a copy of your information or delete your account, email us from the address on your account. We'll confirm the request is from you before acting on it.
• Cookies: you can clear or block cookies in your browser. Blocking our session cookie means you can't sign in.

How to delete your data

You can ask us to delete your account and the information we hold about you at any time, including if you signed in with Facebook, Google, Apple, or Microsoft.

1. Email privacy@firelandscurrent.com from the address on your account, or, if you signed in with Facebook, tell us the name on your account and the email address Facebook shared with us.
2. We'll confirm the request is from you, then delete your account, its sign-in sessions, linked sign-in methods, posts, and reports, and handle any news tips you sent, as described under "How long we keep information." To have tips you sent without an account included, tell us the email address you used.
3. If you signed in with Facebook, you can also remove Firelands Current from your Facebook settings under Apps and Websites. That stops Facebook sharing new information with us, but it doesn't delete what we already hold, so email us as well.

Security

Pages are served over encrypted (HTTPS) connections, passwords are stored as hashes, and access to our staff tools is limited by role. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a password you don't use elsewhere.

Children

Firelands Current is a general-audience news site not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us and we'll delete it.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle information, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change significantly affects information we already hold, we'll post a notice on the site.

Contact us

Questions or requests about your privacy: privacy@firelandscurrent.com.