Privacy policy.

Who this covers

This notice describes information handled through ourraleigh.com, the Our Raleigh community publication. Email editor@ourraleigh.com or use our contact form for privacy questions.

Information you provide

Story submissions include your name, email, title, story text, category, location, source links and any uploaded photo or video. Sponsorship inquiries include your business name, contact name, email and message. Contact requests include your name, email, topic and message. Please avoid sending sensitive personal information or information you do not have permission to share.

Editor accounts include a name, email, password hash and sign-in records. Passwords are stored as salted hashes rather than readable passwords.

Contributor applications and signed agreements

Contributor applications collect contact details, areas of interest, a Raleigh connection, ideas and optional work samples. If you sign the contributor agreement, we retain your typed signature, exact agreement text and version, acknowledgments, application details, server-recorded signing time, a hashed request address and integrity hashes. Authorized administrators can download the private record for editorial, recordkeeping and legal purposes. These records are not public profiles and are not automatically deleted on a fixed schedule. You can request a copy or report a signing error through our contact form. Retention and deletion requests are evaluated under applicable law and legitimate recordkeeping needs.

Technical information

Our hosting service may process IP addresses, requested pages, browser information and request times in operational logs. The application uses a hashed IP address to limit abusive submissions and stores it with story submissions. A hash is not a guarantee of anonymity.

How we use information

We use submitted information to review and verify stories, respond to inquiries, manage sponsorships, maintain the site and prevent abuse. Approved stories, bylines, locations and selected media become public. Contact email addresses are not automatically included in published stories. Anything you include in story text or media may become public if published; remove private details before submitting.

Services and disclosures

Hosting providers process information needed to operate the website. Website fonts are hosted by Our Raleigh and do not require a request to an external font service. Photos on our published pages are served from Our Raleigh’s own uploads. External source and sponsor links take you to websites with their own policies.

The current application does not use reader profiling or a feature that sells reader information. Aggregate advertising measurement is described below. Local sponsorship placements do not require a tracking cookie. Information may also be disclosed when required by law or necessary to address fraud, security incidents or rights claims.

Storage and your requests

Submissions, inquiries and editorial records are stored in the publisher’s database and are not automatically deleted on a fixed schedule. Published stories remain available until an editor changes or removes them. Hosting logs and backups may have separate retention periods.

You can ask to access, correct or delete information you submitted through our contact form. Include enough detail to locate it, but do not send identity documents. We may need to verify that the request concerns your information. Applicable rights, editorial records, legal obligations and backup limitations may affect what can be removed; submitting a request does not guarantee removal of published reporting.

Cookies and browser storage

See the Cookie policy for editor sign-in, cookie choices, email-popup timing, accessibility preferences and temporary ad measurement tokens.

Email subscriptions

If you subscribe, we store your email address, signup date and the wording of your consent to receive Our Raleigh stories, events and occasional sponsor offers. Subscriber details are available only to authorized administrators. New signups require email confirmation before newsletter delivery. Confirmation and welcome emails include the relevant subscription links when delivery is enabled. General newsletter delivery is currently disabled. Confirmation and welcome emails contain a personal unsubscribe link. Open that link and select Unsubscribe; no account or sign-in is required. You can also email editor@ourraleigh.com or use our contact form to withdraw consent or request deletion. Future newsletter campaigns must include an unsubscribe link.

This browser also remembers when you dismiss the email signup popup, or complete a signup, so we can avoid repeatedly showing it. This preference is stored locally and does not contain your email address.

Advertising measurement

We count ad-link opens and impressions when at least half an ad is visible for one second. Temporary signed ad tokens prevent duplicate counts for a rendered ad and expire after two hours. Reports are aggregated by advertiser, placement and day. These measurements use no reader identifiers or tracking cookies and are not used for personalized advertising.

Do Not Track and cross-site tracking

Our Raleigh does not change its behavior in response to browser Do Not Track signals. We do not use cross-site behavioral advertising or allow third-party advertising trackers to collect browsing activity across websites through our pages. External websites you choose to visit have their own practices.

Children

Our submission and contact forms are intended for adults. Do not submit a child’s private contact details. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact the publisher so it can be reviewed.

Changes

We will update this page when these practices change. The date above identifies this version.