Privacy policy.

Who we are

The Oakville Digest is a local newsletter run by Your Porch Media, based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. When this policy says "we," "us," or "our," it's us. When it says "you," it's anyone who visits this website, subscribes to the newsletter, or sends us a form.

If you have questions about any of this, email info@yourporchmedia.com.

What we collect, and why

When you subscribe to the newsletter

We collect the email address you give us. We use it to send you the newsletter and occasional emails about the publication. Subscriptions are managed through Beehiiv, which stores your email and tracks aggregate stats like open rates and click-through rates to help us understand what readers are interested in.

When you fill out the partner inquiry form

On the partners page, if you reach out about advertising or sponsoring an issue, we collect:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your company (optional)
• Your website (optional)
• What you'd like to do and your budget range (optional)

We use this information to get back to you about the partnership. Inquiries are stored in our internal admin system and are seen only by us.

When you submit an event

On the event submission form, we collect the event details you provide (title, date, description, location, photo, etc.) along with your name and email so we can contact you if we have questions. If you choose to pay to feature your event, the payment itself is handled by Stripe — we never see your card details, only that payment was completed.

When you book a call

If you book a discovery call through our booking page, we collect your name, email, company, optional phone number, and any notes you choose to share. The calendar event itself is created in our Google Calendar with you added as an attendee.

When you visit the site

Our servers automatically log basic technical details on every visit — your IP address, browser type, the page you visited, and the time. We use this to keep the site running, catch errors, and stop abuse. We don't use this data to build a profile of you.

The newsletter platform (Beehiiv) places a small tracking pixel in the emails it sends so it can report open and click rates. You can disable image-loading in your email client if you'd rather not have that.

Cookies and tracking

This website uses a few kinds of cookies and tracking:

• Essential cookies — session cookies and security tokens that keep the site working and protect our forms. These can't be turned off.
• Google Analytics — Google's standard website analytics. It sets cookies so we can see how many people visit, which pages are popular, and roughly where visitors come from. We use it only to understand and improve the site.
• Meta (Facebook) Pixel — a small piece of Meta's code that helps us measure how well our Facebook and Instagram ads work and reach more people like our current readers. It records anonymous actions like a page view or that someone subscribed. We do not send your name or email address to Meta from this website.
• Our own visitor counter — a simple, cookie-free page-view counter we built ourselves. It doesn't identify you and isn't shared with anyone.

If you'd rather not be tracked by Google Analytics or the Meta Pixel, you can turn them off with your browser's privacy settings or a free ad/tracker blocker — the site works exactly the same either way.

Some third-party services we link to or embed (like Google Maps for event locations) may set their own cookies if you interact with them. Their privacy policies apply to those interactions.

Who we share information with

We don't sell or rent your personal information to anyone, and we never hand your name or email to advertisers. The places your information — or, in a couple of cases, anonymous activity — goes are the services we use to actually run and grow the publication:

• Beehiiv — newsletter delivery and analytics
• Stripe — payment processing for paid event listings
• Google — calendar bookings (Google Calendar), map embeds, and website analytics (Google Analytics)
• Meta (Facebook) — anonymous website activity (page views, and whether someone subscribed) used to measure and target our Facebook and Instagram ads. We don't send them your name or email.
• Cloudflare — site hosting, image storage, and security
• Railway — our backend hosting provider

Each of these is a well-known company with its own privacy practices. We use them because we trust them and because they handle the parts of the operation we can't do ourselves.

We might also share information if we're legally required to — for example, in response to a valid court order or government request, but only the minimum necessary.

How long we keep your information

We keep your information for as long as it's useful for the purpose we collected it:

• Newsletter subscribers — until you unsubscribe.
• Partner inquiries and event submissions — indefinitely, for records and analytics about what kinds of conversations come in.
• Booked calls — until the meeting has happened, then archived.
• Server logs — typically 30 days, then rotated out.

If you'd like us to delete your information sooner, email us and we will.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• See what we have on you. Email us and we'll share what's in our records.
• Correct anything that's wrong. Same — just email us.
• Have it deleted. Email us and we'll wipe your information from our system. (Beehiiv's records are handled through their unsubscribe link, which also removes you from their database within a reasonable time.)
• Unsubscribe from the newsletter. Every email we send has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. One click and you're out.

If you're in the European Union, the UK, or California, you may have additional rights under GDPR or CCPA. Email us and we'll honour the same kinds of requests.

Children

This site isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If you're a parent and you think your child has signed up, email us and we'll remove the record.

Security

We take reasonable steps to protect your information — encrypted connections (HTTPS everywhere), trusted third-party providers, and access controls so only people who need to see your data can see it. No system is 100% secure, but we treat your information the way we'd want ours treated.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the publication grows. When we do, we'll change the "last updated" date at the top. Material changes (new third parties, new categories of data) will be flagged more visibly — usually a note in an upcoming newsletter.

Contact

Questions, requests, or anything else: email info@yourporchmedia.com. We aim to respond within a few business days.