What we collect
- Approximate location (country only). We infer this from your IP address, either via a header our hosting provider sets or, as a fallback, a lookup against ip-api.com. We do not store your IP address.
- Page views. When you load the site, we log which country section you viewed and when. A cookie prevents counting repeat visits from the same browser within the same day.
- Article clicks. When you click through to a news article, we log which outlet and country the click came from, and when.
- Contact form spam protection. If you submit the contact form, we compute a one-way, keyed hash of your IP address (not the address itself) and log it with a timestamp, solely to detect and block repeated automated submissions. These records are automatically deleted after about an hour.
- Aggregate traffic and performance metrics. Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights collect anonymous, cookie-less page-view counts, referrers, and page-load performance data directly from your browser. They don't set a cookie or build a persistent profile of you across visits.
What we don't collect
- No accounts — there's nothing to sign up for
- No names, emails, or other identifying information just from browsing — the only place we ask for these is the optional contact form, and that content is emailed to us, not stored in our database
- No raw IP addresses stored in our database — the contact form's spam protection stores only a one-way hash, never the address itself
- No cross-site or ad-tracking cookies, no personal profiles
Cookies
We set one cookie, named pv_<country>. It's first-party, expires after 24 hours, and exists solely to avoid counting the same browser's page view twice in one day. It isn't used for advertising or for tracking you across other websites.
Third parties who process data on our behalf
- Supabase — hosts the database that stores the anonymous click and page-view records described above.
- Vercel — hosts the website and serves every request; like most hosting providers, it may log IP addresses as part of standard server operation. Vercel also runs Analytics and Speed Insights on our behalf, which briefly process your IP address server-side (e.g. for one-day-deduplication and coarse geolocation) to produce the anonymous, cookie-less metrics described above.
- ip-api.com — receives your IP address momentarily to determine your country, only when our hosting provider's own location header isn't available.
- Brevo — sends the email notification when you submit the contact form; your name, email, and message pass through Brevo to deliver that email, per Brevo's own privacy policy.
When you click an article
Clicking any article takes you directly to that outlet's own website (e.g. nytimes.com, rte.ie). Once you're there, that outlet's own privacy policy applies — we have no visibility into or control over what they collect.
Data retention
Click and page-view records are currently kept indefinitely. They contain no directly identifying information — just a country, an outlet, and a timestamp. Contact-form rate-limiting records (the hashed IP mentioned above) are deleted after about an hour.
Your rights
If you're in the EU/UK and have questions about, or want to request removal of, any data associated with your visit, contact info@bestlocalnews.net.
Changes
This policy may be updated as the site changes. Check back periodically for the latest version.