Last updated Aug. 6, 2023
Privacy Policy and Other Terms
We take privacy pretty seriously at NowKalamazoo. In fact, a lot of the values and beliefs at the heart of our approach to publishing online are a “No, thank you” reaction to the privacy-violating practices found all across the internet these days.
As journalists, we take seriously the privacy of our sources and the citizens who confide in us. The privacy of our readers is just as important.
We’ve made this website so that you can visit and obtain valuable civic information without having to provide any personal information or identify yourself.
Tracking
We do not track visitors from this site as they go on their way about the web.
We do use web analytics from Google to help us understand how you use the site. This helps us learn how to improve the website, and it helps us gauge whether what we thought was important enough to publish is actually important enough for you to spend time with. To learn this, the analytics technology looks at things like what web browser you’re using on which device, your IP address, what links you click on our site, and details of that nature. None of this information is linked to personally identifying information about you, and this is the same website analytics used by nearly every website you visit.
Anyone can opt out of tracking by Google Analytics. Go to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout for more information.
Your personal information
If you subscribe to the NowKalamazoo newsletter, you’ll provide us with an email address. We won’t ever share or sell that email address. If we do share it, it would only be with your permission and we would let you know in advance when you were signing up. This would only be in circumstances such as a partnership with another news organization — a joint newsletter project, for example.
Should you become a donor — first, thank you — know that none of the information you provide us will be sold, traded or shared to any third party. If you donate more than $5,000 — again, we’re extremely grateful — by law we must disclose this in the annual filings we make with the IRS.
Donations to NowKalamazoo are processed by Stripe, a financial technology vendor. When you click “Support Us” on the website and are generous enough to enter your credit card billing information, that information is processed by Stripe. It is not stored on our website.
Cookies
The NowKalamazoo website does use cookies. You probably already knew that because, by law, we have to show you a slightly annoying banner that announces this when you arrive at the site. Somewhat ironically, it’s actually the cookie attached to your device’s web browser that prevents that banner from popping up repeatedly when you visit again. The cookies set by our site are all used for analytics purposes, for trying not to annoy you, and for keeping the website from looking broken.
Advertising
You’ll see what look like advertisements on the NowKalamazoo site. We don’t call them that — it’s an IRS thing — we offer sponsorships. The real point here is that we aren’t using “programmatic advertising” that follows you around the internet. We don’t use “ad exchanges” or “ad auctions” or any of the things that pollute websites and spy on you.
Other websites & social media services
The NowKalamazoo website includes links to other websites. If you click these links, you are leaving our website; the site at the other end likely has a very different privacy policy. We encourage you to read it. Odds are that site is not as interested in helping you preserve your privacy.
You might be visiting this site because you clicked a link from another website, especially a social media service. In some cases, depending on that website or application’s technology, you might not have actually left their website or app. You might be viewing the NowKalamazoo website through a “window,” if you will, from inside that social media application. They are tracking you while you do, and you should familiarize yourself with their privacy policy.
Accessing & updating your personal information
If we have any of your personal data, you have the right to know what we have, to access it and to change it, and you can contact us to request the same.
Donors can check or change account information by logging in here.
Changes to this policy
This policy might change. If it does, changes will be made to the terms you’ve read above. The “Last updated” date at the top of the page will be revised when that happens. These changes are not what most of us consider “news,” so you’ll have to visit this page periodically to see if there are any.
Contact us
If you have questions about this privacy policy, please contact us.
