Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 14, 2026

The CommonWires operates a network of local news publications ("the Service"), each serving a city or region under its own brand. This policy describes what information we collect across all network publications, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to our websites, email newsletters, podcasts, and games.

Information you give us

• Email subscriptions. When you subscribe to a newsletter (the morning briefing, Weather Watch, team newsletters), we collect your email address, the edition you subscribed to, the topics you chose, and how you found us (the page and signup form you used, and any campaign tags on the link that brought you here). We use it to send the newsletters you asked for, to count subscribers, and to learn which parts of the site people find worth subscribing from. Our email provider reports delivery, opens, link clicks, bounces, and spam complaints for the emails we send you; we keep those reports to measure what's worth writing and to stop mailing addresses that bounce. Every email includes an unsubscribe link.
• Reader accounts. If you create an account (sign-in is by one-time email link — we never store a password), we keep your email address and the preferences you save: followed teams, saved recipes, game and quiz streaks, and your subscription settings. Sign-in links expire in minutes and work once; you can sign out everywhere or ask us to delete your account and its data at any time.
• Referrals. If you share your referral link, we associate signups with your referral code to credit your referral progress.
• Reader submissions. If you email us a recipe, tip, or correction, we keep the message to act on it.
• Advertisers. If you buy a local ad, we collect your business details and payment is processed by Stripe — we never see or store full card numbers.

Information collected automatically

• Approximate location (edition routing). On your first visit we may use your IP address and standard request headers to guess your nearest edition and route you there. We don't build a location history; the result is stored as a simple cookie.
• Cookies. We set a small number of first-party cookies: your remembered edition (cw_edition), a referral code if you arrived through a share link (cw_ref, 30 days), teams you follow (cw_teams), and our own readership measurement: a random visitor id (cw_id), a short-lived session id (cw_ses, 30 minutes), and how you found us — your first visit's source (cw_ft, 13 months) and your latest one (cw_lt, 30 days). These measurement cookies contain random identifiers only — no name, email, or cross-site tracking. We do not use cross-site tracking cookies ourselves; advertising partners may set their own (see below).
• Readership measurement (first-party). We measure how the Service is used with our own systems, keyed to the random visitor id above — never to your name or email: pages viewed, how far down a page you read and for how long, which sections and modules you interact with, newsletter signup form views, game plays, completions and streak milestones, audio and video plays, share-button use, and clicks that leave our site. If you subscribe to a newsletter, the signup is linked to that visitor id so we can tell which parts of the site earn subscriptions. We use this to decide what to keep building and what to drop.
• Browser storage. Game streaks and podcast playback position are stored in your browser's localStorage so they survive between visits. Completion and streak milestones are also reported to us as part of readership measurement (above); the playback position itself stays on your device.
• Link click measurement. Outbound sponsored, affiliate, and referral links route through our redirect endpoint, which logs the click event (which edition, which placement, a timestamp) for measurement and payout accounting. These logs are keyed to placements, not to your identity.
• Analytics. Where enabled, we use Google Analytics 4 to understand aggregate readership (pages viewed, approximate geography, device type). GA4 sets its own cookies; see Google's privacy documentation.
• Story feedback. Upvotes are recorded as anonymous counters.

How our content is made (and what that means for data)

Our articles, forecasts, games, and guides are generated by AI systems working from public records, cited sources, and official data feeds (e.g., the National Weather Service, official league statistics, public reference works), with automated fact-checking — including checks against independent web sources — before publication. Public source material is processed by third-party AI providers (currently Google's Gemini models). Subscriber emails and personal information are not sent to AI models.

Advertising, affiliate links, and sponsorships

• We show standard display advertising, which may be served by advertising partners who use their own cookies or identifiers subject to their policies.
• Some links are affiliate links — including Amazon Associates and travel booking partners (flights, hotels, experiences, car rental, insurance, eSIM). If you click one and make a purchase, the partner may pay us a commission and will know the click came from our site. Affiliate placements carry a disclosure where they appear.
• Sponsored placements in newsletters and podcasts are labeled.

Third-party services we rely on

Resend (email delivery), Stripe (advertiser payments), Google (AI generation, analytics), Windy.com (the interactive weather radar embed, which loads from their servers and is subject to their policies), Wikimedia (freely licensed imagery), and standard web infrastructure providers. Each processes only what its function requires.

What we don't do

• We don't sell your personal information.
• We don't send subscriber data to AI models.
• We don't run cross-site behavioral tracking of our own.

Your privacy choices

• Global Privacy Control. We honor the GPC signal. When your browser sends it, we set no measurement cookies, collect no visitor-keyed readership events, and request non-personalized ads from our advertising partners — treating it as a "do not sell or share" opt-out under the CCPA/CPRA and similar state laws.
• Personalized advertising. Display ads may be personalized by our advertising partners, which some state laws treat as "sharing" personal information. Turning on GPC in your browser (or a browser extension that sends it) opts you out; you can also use Google's ad settings.
• Email. Unsubscribe from any email via its footer link, or manage topics from your account page.
• Cookies & storage. Clear our cookies and localStorage in your browser at any time — everything we set works without an account and regenerates harmlessly.

Retention & your rights

We keep subscriber records while your subscription is active and delete them on unsubscribe requests. Readership measurement is kept as event logs keyed to random identifiers and is aggregated for reporting. Signed-in readers can exercise access and deletion themselves from the account page — "Download my data" exports everything we hold as JSON, and "Delete my account" permanently removes the account, subscriptions, teams, recipes and streaks. You can also email us to access, correct, or delete information we hold about you. California and other state residents may have additional statutory rights (access, deletion, correction, non-discrimination, and opting out of "sale" or "sharing"); we honor verified requests regardless of state, and we do not discriminate against anyone for exercising them.

Children

The Service is general-audience local news and is not directed to children under 13; we do not knowingly collect their personal information. Sports-betting-related content, where it appears at all, is gated to 21+ in permitted states.

Changes & contact

We'll update this page when our practices change and revise the date above. Questions or requests: privacy@commonwires.com.