Privacy & Data Use

croton.news is an independent, AI-assisted civic information project. We do not sell reader data or use advertising trackers. This page explains the principal ways information is used by the site, including optional features.

Analytics

We use first-party analytics to measure page views, reading time and scroll depth. Reading-behavior measurements use a daily salted visitor token. Other readership classifications use a separate salted token that may persist across days. Campaign tags may be recorded to understand referral traffic. These measurements are separate from server logs and abuse-prevention records.

Server logs and abuse prevention

Web-server logs may contain IP addresses, requested URLs and browser information. The current configuration rotates the main access and error logs daily without keeping an older rotation, and keeps one extra daily rotation of a separate readership log. Rotation is a configured schedule, not a guarantee that every copy disappears at an exact hour. Comment and tip abuse controls use salted IP-derived tokens; these are separate from the daily analytics token and may persist longer. These controls should not be described as complete anonymity.

Comments and optional email notifications

Comments store the submitted name and text, article/thread reference, submission time, moderation or forwarding status, and an IP-derived abuse token. Published comments are public. An account or email address is not required to comment. If you request reply or article notifications, we store your email address, subscription preferences and confirmation status. Notifications require email confirmation. Unsubscribing stops notifications but does not automatically delete the subscription record; contact us to request deletion.

Forwarding a comment

A commenter may request that a comment be forwarded to the Village Board. The editor reviews the request; if forwarded, the selected comment is sent to recipients outside croton.news. Do not use a public comment or the forwarding option for a confidential tip.

News tips

Tips are treated as confidential submissions rather than public comments. Name and email fields are optional. Tip content and any contact details are retained for editorial review and follow-up; there is no fixed automatic deletion period for the content. Separate abuse-prevention records use an IP-derived token. The form is not an anonymous or secure whistleblowing channel, and we cannot promise absolute confidentiality. Contact information is used for follow-up, not published as part of a tip without permission.

Contact and corrections

Messages to our editorial address and feedback submitted through the site are retained as correspondence. We use them to investigate issues and respond. A correction may be summarized in the public corrections log without identifying the person who reported it. The contact page provides our email address.

External services and linked records

Links to official records and external websites take you to services with their own privacy practices. Some interactive tools load charting resources or media from external services. AI-assisted search questions and relevant source excerpts may be sent to an external processing service to prepare an answer. The site also logs up to the first 500 characters of an AI-assisted search question, its time, selected source collections and outcome for troubleshooting and retrieval improvement. There is no automatic deletion period configured for that query log. Avoid entering confidential or sensitive personal information in those tools. First-party analytics and locally served fonts do not mean that every page or feature makes no third-party requests.

Cookies and local storage

We do not use advertising tracking cookies. Browser storage supports interface preferences, such as theme and dismissal of a notice. Administrative sign-in has separate session requirements.

Requests about your information

To ask about information we hold or request deletion of a comment, tip, subscription or message, contact us and identify the relevant item. We may need enough information to locate it and establish that the request concerns your data. We will explain any limits on what can be removed, including copies already sent to outside recipients.