Privacy Policy
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.
The short version
- You can read the news, the events calendar, and Talk of the Town without an account.
- We use Google Analytics and Cloudflare Web Analytics to understand how many people read the site and what they read.
- If you create an account, we keep your display name, email address, and what you post.
- We don't sell your information, and ads here aren't targeted at you personally.
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.
Signing in with Google, Facebook, or Apple. If you use one of these services to sign in, 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.
Talk of the Town. Threads and replies you post are stored with your account and shown publicly. 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.
Information collected automatically
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. A session is deleted when you sign out or when it expires.
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. 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.
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, or Apple, to complete the sign-in securely.
- Google Analytics cookies (
_gaand_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
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
Your display name, and the threads and replies you post, are public and can appear in search engines. 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
- Cloudflare, which hosts the site, stores our database and images, and provides Web Analytics
- Google, for Google Analytics and Google Fonts
- Google, Facebook, or Apple, only if you choose to sign in with them
- 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
We keep your account and posts until the account is deleted. Posts that moderators hide stay stored but out of public view. 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 on accounts, such as suspensions and deletions, which includes the account's name or email address; that record is kept after an account is deleted so we can account for moderation decisions. Backup copies of our database are kept for up to 30 days and then discarded.
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. To change your display name or email address, 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.
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.