At the Provincetown Independent we are committed to careful, sensible, and ethical use of the information you share with us.

 

This Privacy Policy describes when and why we collect information about people who visit our website, how we use it, how we keep it secure, and the conditions under which we may disclose it to others.

 

By visiting provincetownindependent.org, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

 

What Information Do We Collect and How Do We Collect It?

The information we gather on this website falls into two categories: (1) personal information you supply, and (2) tracking information collected as you navigate through our website.

Personally Identifiable Information

We will collect personally identifiable information whenever you register your account on this website, or update your registration information. That is, when you apply for a log-in account to access the website, we ask you to provide us your name, address, phone number, and email address.

Please note you also will be asked to provide credit card information if you are paying for your subscription or other Indie products such as gifts, T-shirts or classified ads online.

Credit card information is processed by Provincetown Independent's third party vendor, Stripe.

Provincetown Independent itself does not collect or store any user's credit card information, and Provincetown Independent is not responsible for maintaining the security or privacy of any information that you provide, including credit card information, in connection with purchasing products or services via the website.

 

Aggregate Information

When you use this website, we may collect tracking information such as your browser type, the type of operating system you use, the domain name of your Internet service provider, and the pages you view on the website. None of this information identifies you personally; we see it in the aggregate to understand activity on the website. For example, we may want to know how long the average user spends on this website, or which pages or features get the most attention. The idea is for us to be able to use this information to think about how well we are communicating and what we could do better.

1. Web Beacons. We may use "Web Beacon" (also known as "clear GIF", "pixel tag", "data tag" or "image tag") technology to collect anonymous, non-personal information about how this website is used. We will use this information to make improvements to this website and to help us plan for technical improvements. This information will not identify you or any other user of this website as an individual.
2. E-Mail. We use clear gifs in our HTML - based emails that tell us whether or not you can accept HTML images and, if you can accept HTML, whether or not you viewed the e-mail. If we ever get the time, we might use this information to help us think about how to make our e-mails more useful and interesting. This process does not leave any information on your computer, nor does it collect information from your computer. We do not share or sell this information to others, and we only use it to improve our e-mail communications with you.
3. Cookies. A cookie is a block of text placed in a file on your hard drive by a website you've visited. We use cookies to understand, again, only in the aggregate, how visitors to this website click to get here and what pages they view during their visit. We do not store any personal information in any cookie at any time.

The "help" function on most browsers contains information on how to set your browser to notify you before accepting cookies or to disable cookies entirely. However, if you don't accept cookies, you may not be able to take advantage of various features on this website that are available to other visitors.

Does Provincetown Independent Share the Information It Receives?

We will never sell the information collected by our website to others.

However, we may share your information with third parties in the following circumstances:

Service Providers: We employ third party service providers to perform functions on our behalf, including, for example, the processing of online subscriptions or orders for T-shirts or other products we may eventually be selling on the website. They have access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not use it for other purposes. Examples include fulfilling orders, delivering packages, sending mail, and processing credit card payments.

Legal Obligations: From time to time, we may be required to share personal information in response to a valid court order, subpoena, government investigation, or as otherwise required by law. We also reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we, in good faith, believe to be unlawful.

Protection of Provincetown Independent and Others: We will release the names of account holders and other personal information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law; enforce or apply the Terms of Use for this website and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of provincetownindependent.org, our users, or others. However, this does not include selling, sharing, or otherwise disclosing personally identifiable information from customers for commercial purposes in violation of the commitments set forth in this Privacy Policy.

How Secure is the Information that Provincetown Independent Collects?
We strive to keep information such as your name and email address safe, and employ stringent security measures to make sure that your information is not unintentionally shared with others. Despite our efforts, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

Children's Policy

We are concerned about children's access to the Internet and the Internet's access to children. Consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, we do not knowingly request or accept information submitted to this website by any visitor under 13 years of age.
If we become aware that an individual under 13 has provided information to us through this website, we will not use or disclose that individual's information for any purpose unless required to do so by law.

Third party links

The website may also contain links to advertisers or other third party websites that are not under our control. These websites have their own policies regarding privacy, and you should review these policies before providing information to these websites. Provincetown Independent has no responsibility for linked websites and provides these links solely for the convenience and information of our visitors. Provincetown Independent also maintains a strict "no-spam" policy and fully complies with CAN-SPAM Act regulations.

Terms of Use, Notices, and Revisions

If you choose to visit provincetownindependent.org, your visit and any dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, application of the law of the State of Massachusetts and resolution of any disputes in Massachusetts. If you have any concern about privacy at provincetownindependent.org, please contact us with a thorough description, and we will try to resolve it.

Our website is updated frequently, and the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for this Website may change also. We may e-mail periodic reminders of our notices and conditions, unless you have instructed us not to, but you should check this Website frequently to see recent changes. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have collected from you through this Website. We stand behind the promises we make, however, and will never materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of information collected in the past without notifying affected members, either by communicating directly with them or by posting the changes on this Website.

Privacy Support
If you have an inquiry or concern about our privacy policy, please contact: publisher@provincetownindependent.org