Privacy Policy

What we collect, and why

• If you submit anything (an event, a business listing, a trading post item, a job post, a club or class, a lost pet or item, or a big idea): the details of that submission, plus your contact info if you gave any, and a photo if you attached one. Once approved, that's shown publicly on the listing itself, on purpose, so people can reach you directly. We don't use it for anything else.
• If you use the flyer reader on the event form: the photo you pick is sent to an AI service that reads the text on it and fills in the form. We don't save the photo unless you send the event with it. If you found the flyer and say you're not the organizer, your own contact info stays private, and only the contact printed on the flyer is shown. To keep anyone from running up the cost, we count how many flyers each network address has sent in a day, stored as a scrambled code, not the address itself.
• If you ask for an email when your event is on the site: the address you give is used to send you emails about that one event: one when we get it and one if it goes up. It isn't shown on the calendar, it isn't added to any list, and you won't get anything else.
• Removal codes: submitting to a board also gives you a private code so you can take your own post down later. If you gave an email, we send that code there too, in a short note that we got your post, and the take-down link comes again when it's approved. It's tied to that one post, not to you.
• If you add an email to a question, an answer or a Good to Know notice: it's optional, and we use it only to send you two short notes about that one post: one that we got it, with your removal code, and one when it goes up. It isn't shown on the site and it isn't added to any list. It waits with your post while it's looked over, and we delete it once the post is approved or turned down.
• Voting on the Big Idea Board: your browser gets a random ID, stored only on your device, so clicking an arrow twice cancels your vote instead of double counting it. We can't tell who voted for what.
• If you sign up for reminder emails or the newsletter: your email address, which opt-ins you checked, and any towns you chose to filter by. Used only to send the emails you actually opted into.
• If you turn on phone notifications: a code your phone's browser creates that lets us send to that one device, plus the towns and event types you picked and which notifications you chose. No name, no email, no location. Used only to send the notifications you chose.
• If you use the contact form, the suggestion box or the fix-a-listing form: your name, email, and message, sent directly to us so we can reply. If you gave an email, we send you a short note that we got it. Not shown publicly, and not used for anything else.
• If you just subscribe to the calendar on your phone or computer's calendar app: nothing personal is collected at all. That's a direct connection between your device and the calendar file. We don't know who's subscribed.
• Basic site usage: anonymous pageview counts via Cloudflare Web Analytics: no cookies, no personal identifiers, just aggregate visit numbers.

Where this goes

We use a few outside services to run this site, and each only sees the specific piece of information it needs to do its job:

• Contact form messages are emailed to us via Web3Forms.
• Every other submission (events, business listings, trading post, jobs, clubs & classes, lost & found, big ideas) is held for review in a private Google Sheet, using Google Apps Script. Once approved, its public details, and any photo, are saved to a private Google Drive folder and published on this site. When a post is removed, it comes off the live site, but a private backup copy can stay in our own backups.
• The flyer reader sends the photo to Anthropic, the company that makes Claude, to read it. Anthropic may keep it for a short time to catch misuse, and doesn't train its models on it.
• Reminder/newsletter sign-ups are stored in a Google Form and Sheet.
• Phone notifications are delivered by the push service built into your phone's browser (Apple, Google or Mozilla), which sees the notification text, public event information, and that it was sent to your device. The list of subscribed devices is kept in our Cloudflare account.
• Reminder emails, and the short notes we send after you post something (that we got it, that it is approved, updates on an idea), are sent through Brevo, from info@linncountylocal.com. If Brevo is ever down, Gmail sends them instead.
• The site itself is hosted on Cloudflare, which, like any web host, keeps standard technical access logs.

What we don't do

• We don't sell, rent, or trade your information to anyone.
• We don't call or text you using contact info from any submission.
• We don't use your email for anything beyond what you specifically opted into.

Public calendar content

Some of what appears on the calendar isn't submitted by anyone directly. It's aggregated from other public sources (city/county government calendars, school athletic schedules, local funeral homes' published obituaries, etc.) to build a single, complete community calendar. That content reflects what those sources already publish publicly; we don't collect it from the individuals it's about.

Your choices

• To stop reminder/newsletter emails, use the unsubscribe link included in every email, or go directly to unsubscribe.html.
• To stop phone notifications, tap Turn off notifications on the notifications page, which also deletes your saved choices, or block notifications for the site in your phone's settings.
• To stop seeing events on your phone or computer, remove the subscribed calendar in your device's own calendar app settings.
• To take a post down early (a job, trading post, lost & found, or clubs & classes listing), use the removal code you were given when you posted it, on the Remove a Listing page.
• Questions about a specific listing, or anything else here: use the contact form linked below.