Privacy policy

The Wells Post (thewellspost.com) is published by The Wells Post Media, which is the data controller responsible for personal information collected through this website and our email newsletter. You can contact us about privacy at [email protected].

This policy covers our website, our RSS feeds and our newsletter. It does not cover the websites we link to — including the news organizations we cite as sources — or platforms that carry our articles, such as social networks and news apps. Those services have their own privacy policies.

When you read our site

We run our own privacy-first analytics so we know which articles people read. When you view a page, we record:

• the page you viewed and, for an article, which article it was;
• the domain of the website that referred you, such as a search engine or social network;
• campaign labels in the link you followed (such as “utm_source”), if there are any;
• your device category — phone, tablet or desktop — worked out from your browser’s user-agent string;
• your country, when our hosting or network provider supplies it;
• how long the page was actively in view and how far down you scrolled;
• which version of a headline you clicked, when a headline test is running.

To count unique visitors without cookies, our server combines your IP address and browser user-agent with a secret key and the current date, and turns them into a one-way hash. We store only that hash — never your IP address or your full user-agent. Because the date is part of the calculation, the same browser produces a different hash every day, so our records can’t connect your visits from one day to the next. Nothing is stored on your device for this. We still treat these records as pseudonymous personal data and protect them accordingly. Requests from known bots and link previews are not counted. So that no single device or network can inflate our numbers, our server also keeps your IP address in memory — never on disk — for at most a day, to limit how many visits and headline clicks it counts from one network.

Headline tests

When we test more than one headline for an article, your browser stores a random identifier in its local storage so that you keep seeing the same version. The identifier is created on your device, isn’t linked to who you are, and is never sent to our servers. When you click a headline, your browser also remembers for the rest of that browsing session which version you clicked, so that the page view can be credited to it.

When you subscribe to our newsletter

We collect your email address, the dates you signed up, confirmed and (if you do) unsubscribed, and which signup form you used. Subscriptions use double opt-in: we send a confirmation link, and you are added to the list only after you click it. If our email service isn’t running yet when you sign up, your address stays unconfirmed, and you receive nothing, until you click the confirmation link we send once it is. Each subscription has a random token that powers your confirmation and one-click unsubscribe links.

When you contact us

If you email us, we receive your email address, your name if you include it, and whatever you choose to tell us. Please don’t send sensitive personal information, such as health details, that we don’t need.

Server and security logs

Like every website, our hosting and network providers automatically process technical information — including IP addresses, browser user-agents, requested addresses and times — to deliver pages, block abuse and diagnose faults. These logs are kept only as long as needed for those purposes.

Information collected by Google

Our ads are served by Google, which may collect information such as cookie identifiers, IP address, device and browser details and the pages you visit, subject to the choices described below. If we enable Google Analytics, Google also collects usage information for that service. See Advertising and Cookies.

Stored on your device for you

Your light or dark theme preference and your privacy choices are remembered in your browser’s storage, so we don’t have to ask again on every page.

What we don’t collect

We don’t offer reader accounts, we don’t take payments, and we don’t ask for sensitive information about you.

• To deliver the website and newsletter, and keep them working.
• To understand, in aggregate, what readers read, and to improve our coverage. Our automated newsroom learns from aggregated statistics only — see our AI policy.
• To run headline tests and choose the headlines readers find most useful.
• To send the newsletter you asked for.
• To answer your messages and to correct errors you report.
• To keep the site secure and prevent spam, fraud and abuse.
• To show advertising, which pays for our journalism.
• To comply with the law and respond to lawful requests.

We don’t use your information to make decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you, and our AI systems don’t receive personal information about individual readers.

The Wells Post is free to read because it is funded by advertising, which is served through Google AdSense.

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
• You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google’s Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info or, in Europe, www.youronlinechoices.eu.
• Google explains how it uses information from websites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites. Google’s own privacy policy applies to the information it collects.

Google may allow other certified ad technology vendors to take part in serving ads on our site. They are subject to the same consent choices.

When personalized advertising isn’t allowed — because you declined it, or because consent is required and hasn’t been given — Google may still show non-personalized ads. These are chosen using context, such as the page you’re reading and your general location, rather than your browsing history. Google may still use cookies or similar technologies to limit how often you see an ad, for aggregated ad reporting and to combat fraud, where the law allows.

Advertisers never receive your newsletter email address or data from our own analytics. Read more about the ads we accept in our advertising standards.

You can also block or delete cookies and site storage in your browser settings. Our journalism will still work; you may simply see less relevant ads.

Consent

Where the law requires consent for advertising or analytics cookies — including in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland — we will ask for it before those cookies are used. Our site doesn’t currently load any advertising or analytics tags, so there is nothing to consent to yet.

Google Consent Mode

We pass consent signals to Google using Google Consent Mode. It tells Google’s tags whether they may store cookies for advertising (ad_storage) and analytics (analytics_storage), whether your data may be used for advertising (ad_user_data), and whether ads may be personalized (ad_personalization). Google’s tags adjust their behavior accordingly.

Change your mind at any time

Our site isn’t currently loading any advertising or analytics tags, so there are no cookie choices to make. If that changes, a control to review and change your choices will appear here, and you’ll be asked where the law requires it.

Opt out of personalized ads

Independently of our site, you can control personalized advertising from Google at adssettings.google.com and from participating companies at www.aboutads.info.

Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

If you live in California or another US state with a privacy law, you can opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of your personal information for targeted advertising by turning on Global Privacy Control in your browser, which we pass on to Google. When you opt out, Google is told to show only non-personalized ads in your browser. See US state privacy rights.

Global Privacy Control

If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, we treat it as a request to opt out. We tell Google not to personalize ads or use your data for advertising.

Newsletter

Every newsletter email contains a one-click unsubscribe link, or you can email us to be removed.

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, data protection law requires us to explain the legal basis for each use of your personal data:

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object, as described below.

• Raw analytics records (individual page views, including the daily hash) are deleted after 120 days.
• Aggregated statistics — such as daily view totals for an article, with no visitor identifiers — are kept for as long as they are useful for understanding our coverage.
• Newsletter data is kept while you are subscribed. If you unsubscribe, we keep your address marked as unsubscribed so we don’t email you again by mistake. Ask us and we’ll delete it entirely.
• Emails you send us are kept for as long as needed to deal with them and to keep an accurate record of corrections and requests.
• Server logs are kept for short periods by our hosting and network providers for security and troubleshooting.
• Information collected by Google is kept according to Google’s own policies.

We don’t sell personal information for money, and we never give your newsletter email address to advertisers. We share information only as follows:

• Service providers that host our website and database, deliver and protect our pages, and send our emails. They process information only on our instructions.
• Google, which acts as an independent controller when it serves ads and, if enabled, provides analytics, subject to your consent choices and Google’s own policies.
• Authorities and others where the law requires it, or where necessary to protect the rights, safety or property of our readers, the public or The Wells Post Media.
• A successor if The Wells Post is ever sold or merged, in which case information collected under this policy would remain protected by it.

The AI providers that power our newsroom receive news reports and aggregated statistics, not personal information about readers.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you and get a copy of it;
• correct information that is inaccurate;
• have your information deleted;
• restrict or object to how we use it, including where we rely on legitimate interests;
• receive information you provided to us in a portable format;
• withdraw consent at any time, without affecting anything we did before you withdrew it;
• complain to a data protection authority — in the EEA, the authority where you live or work; in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office.

To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected]. We’ll respond within one month, or tell you if we need longer as the law allows. We may need to confirm your identity — for example, by asking you to write from the email address concerned.

Because our analytics hashes can’t be linked back to a person, we usually can’t find analytics records relating to you specifically. That is by design.

If you live in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, Oregon, Texas or another US state with a comprehensive privacy law, you have the right to know what personal information we collect and how we use and disclose it; to access, correct and delete it; to opt out of its “sale,” “sharing” or use for targeted advertising; and not to be discriminated against for using these rights. We do not collect sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you.

What we collect and why

In the past 12 months we have collected the following categories of personal information:

Sale and sharing

We don’t sell personal information for money. However, allowing Google and its partners to use advertising cookies on our site may count as “selling” or “sharing” personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising under California law, and as “targeted advertising” under other state laws. You can opt out at any time using the privacy choices control or by enabling Global Privacy Control in your browser. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16.

Making a request

Email [email protected] with the subject “US privacy request” and tell us what you would like us to do. We’ll respond within 45 days, or tell you if we need more time as the law allows. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. You can use an authorized agent; we may ask for proof that the agent is authorized to act for you.

If we decline your request, you may appeal by replying to our decision. If we deny your appeal, you may contact the attorney general of your state.

We and our service providers, including Google, may process information in the United States and other countries whose data protection laws differ from those where you live. When we transfer personal data from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland, we rely on appropriate safeguards, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or the recipient’s certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and its UK and Swiss extensions.

The Wells Post is a general-audience news site. It is not directed to children under 13, or under 16 in the EEA and the UK, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Children should not subscribe to our newsletter. If you believe a child has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

We collect as little as we can, store analytics without IP addresses, encrypt connections to our site with HTTPS, and restrict access to our administration systems and subscriber data to authorized people. No system is perfectly secure. If a security incident affects your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.

When our practices change, we’ll update this page and the “Last updated” date at the top. If we make a material change — such as a new use of your personal information — we’ll give prominent notice on the site, and email newsletter subscribers, before it takes effect.

The Wells Post Media is responsible for this policy. For any privacy question or request, email [email protected].

If you are in the EEA or the UK and you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to your local data protection authority.