Privacy Policy
1. Who We Are and What We Promise
Effective date: October 15, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how 618 Digital, Inc. ("618 Digital," "we," "us") handles personal information across our publications. These include ILSider (ilsider.com), Granite Citizen (granitecitizen.com), and any other publication we operate now or in the future (each a "Publication"). It applies to our websites, newsletters, accounts and paid services (the "Services"). The same policy is posted at /privacy on every Publication.
Our commitments in brief:
- We do not sell your personal information.
- We do not run third-party advertising networks or allow third-party advertising cookies on our Publications.
- Advertising measurement on our websites is anonymous and cannot be linked to you from one day to the next.
- Advertisers receive only aggregate figures, never information about individual readers.
- We collect only what we need to run the Services, and we delete measurement records after 90 days.
2. Information We Collect
Information you give us
| When | What we collect |
|---|---|
| Newsletter signup | Email address, optionally your name, and your postal code. We use postal code to tailor local news and events and to understand where readers are concentrated. |
| Supporter membership | Name, email, membership status and payment history. |
| Orders, listings, ads and classifieds | Name, business name, email, phone, billing details, and the content you submit. |
| Claimed directory listings | Contact details used to verify that you represent the business. |
| Scoreboard accounts | Name, title, school, school email, and the sports you are assigned to. |
| Contributors, authors and editors | Contact details, payment and tax information as required for contractor or employment records. |
| Comments, forum posts, tips, letters and event submissions | What you send us, and your name and email. |
| Display name | The name shown with your comments and forum posts. You choose it, and it is stored separately from your account and billing name. |
| Reports of comments or posts | What you report and why, and which account reported it. |
Payments. Card payments are processed by Stripe. We never receive or store your full card number. We keep a Stripe reference so a saved card can be used for renewals you authorize.
Information collected automatically
Site analytics. We use Fathom Analytics, a privacy-focused service that does not use cookies and does not track you across sites. It tells us which pages are read, where visitors come from, and what device types they use, in aggregate.
Advertising measurement on our websites. We count how often advertisements are displayed and clicked. This measurement is anonymous and uses no cookies.
We combine your IP address and browser details with a value that changes every day to form a short code. That code lets us count unique viewers within a single day. The day's value is then discarded, so the code cannot be linked from one day to the next, and we cannot identify you from it.
Newsletter measurement. Our newsletters are sent through SendLayer, which measures them in two ways:
- Links in our newsletters carry a token identifying your subscription, so we can see which links are clicked and count each reader once.
- Our newsletters contain a small invisible image that records when an email is opened.
If you would rather not have opens recorded, most email programs allow you to block images from loading, which prevents it. Clicking a link will still be recorded. To stop all newsletter measurement, use the unsubscribe link in any email.
Local storage. We store a count of the articles you have read on your device, using browser local storage. It tells us when to ask you to subscribe. It contains no personal information and is not sent to us unless you choose to subscribe.
Sign-in. When you sign in, we use a cookie to keep you signed in. This is necessary for the Services to work.
Server logs. Our servers record standard request information (IP address, browser, pages requested) for security and troubleshooting.
3. How We Use and Share Information
How we use it. We use your information to deliver the Services: send the newsletters you chose, run your account, process and fulfill orders, publish your submissions, measure and report advertising results, prevent fraud and abuse, and improve our coverage. We email account holders about orders, renewals and changes to our policies.
Across our Publications. Our Publications share common systems. If you subscribe on one Publication, your email address is stored in a shared database, and we may invite you to subscribe to another. We will not subscribe you to a Publication you did not sign up for, and each newsletter subscription is managed and unsubscribed separately. Accounts and Supporter memberships work across all Publications.
With advertisers. Advertisers receive only aggregate figures, such as impressions, clicks, unique clickers and audience by area. We never share an individual reader's identity, email, postal code or activity with an advertiser.
With service providers. We use companies that help us operate, under agreements limiting their use of your information to providing services to us:
| Provider | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Stripe | Payment processing |
| SendLayer | Sending newsletters, and measuring opens and clicks |
| Fathom Analytics | Cookieless site analytics |
| Cloudflare | Security, performance and content delivery |
| [Web host] | Hosting our servers |
| Google Workspace | Our staff email and documents |
What we publish. Content you submit for publication (listings, events, classifieds, comments, forum posts, Scoreboard posts) is public by design, along with any name attached to it. Comments and forum posts show your display name. Scoreboard posts show the poster's name and title.
Reports. If you report a comment or forum post, we do not tell the person you reported who reported them. Reports are visible to our moderators and administrators, and are kept with our moderation records.
Legal and safety. We may disclose information if required by law, to respond to valid legal process, or to protect the rights, safety or property of our readers, our staff or the public. As a news organization, we will resist demands for unpublished reporting material and the identity of confidential sources to the extent the law allows.
Business transfers. If 618 Digital or a Publication is sold or merged, information may transfer to the new owner, who must honor this policy for information collected under it.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-site targeted advertising.
4. Student Athletes and the Scoreboard
Scoreboard posts report high school results, and those results may name students who are minors. We treat that carefully.
A student's name may appear only where the school has told us it may. Before any coach or athletic director can name a student in a post, the school's athletic director or a school administrator must confirm to us, in writing, that the school's media policy permits student names to be published. We record who gave that confirmation and when.
Photographs require a separate confirmation. A photograph that identifies a student may be posted only where the athletic director or administrator has confirmed to us that the necessary releases are on file at the school.
A school may withdraw its confirmation at any time, by emailing us. We will stop publishing student names for that school on request, and will remove existing names on request.
Posts never include a student's contact information, email address, phone number, home address or social media handles.
Parents and guardians may ask us to remove a student's name or photograph at any time, for any reason, by emailing [privacy@ilsider.com]. We do not require a reason and we do not ask the school first. We will remove it promptly.
5. Your Rights
We offer the following to every reader, whatever state you live in. Some states grant their residents additional rights; where a law applies to you, we will honor it.
- See what we have. Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
- Correct it. Ask us to fix anything inaccurate.
- Delete it. Ask us to delete your personal information. Some records, such as payment and tax history, must be kept for legal reasons, and we will tell you if that applies.
- Stop email. Unsubscribe from any newsletter using the link in every email.
- Not be sold. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-site targeted advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of.
Email [privacy@ilsider.com]. We respond within 30 days. We will not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights.
6. Retention, Choices and Contact
How long we keep information
| Information | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Unconfirmed newsletter signups | Deleted entirely if not confirmed within 7 days |
| Newsletter subscriptions | Until you unsubscribe; then only the minimum needed to honor the unsubscribe |
| Individual ad displays and link clicks | 90 days; after that only daily totals remain |
| Daily measurement value for website uniques | Discarded at the end of each day |
| Accounts and order history | While the account is active, then as required for tax and accounting records |
| Contributor and staff records | As required for employment and contractor record-keeping |
| Comments and forum posts | Published indefinitely unless removed. Removed posts are retained in our moderation records. |
| Moderation records and reports | 2 years |
| Server logs | 30 days |
Other choices. Update your account details from your account page. Clear the article count by clearing your browser's site data.
Security. We use encryption in transit, limited staff access, and reputable service providers. No system is perfectly secure; if a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you as required by law.
Children. The Services are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. Scoreboard posts are governed by Section 4. If you believe a child's information was submitted to us, contact us and we will remove it.
Changes. We will post any update with a new effective date and email account holders about material changes before they take effect. Previous versions of this policy remain available at /privacy/archive.
Contact. 618 Digital, Inc., PO Box 26, Edwardsville, IL 62025. Email: [privacy@ilsider.com].