Privacy Policy

What We Collect

ETTG is built on a minimal-data philosophy. We collect only what is necessary to operate the service and review community contributions. Here is a complete, plain-language account of what we hold and why.

Browsing — No Account Required

• No Account Required: You can browse all news content, location pages, and directory listings without creating an account or providing any information.
• No Tracking Cookies: We do not place advertising or tracking cookies on your device.
• Anonymous Usage Statistics: We use privacy-focused analytics to understand which states, counties, and news topics are most popular. This helps us improve the service. We do not track individual users — only aggregate trends.
• Server Logs: Like all websites, our servers generate operational logs for security monitoring and abuse prevention. IP addresses in these logs are hashed and anonymized before storage — raw IP addresses are never retained in association with user activity. Security logs are retained per our Document Retention Policy and are not used for tracking.

Community Submissions — Information You Voluntarily Provide

ETTG offers public submission forms that allow anyone to suggest:

• Local spots and points of interest
• Local news sources
• Community groups and organizations
• Government offices and agencies
• Community resources and services

When you use a submission form, we collect:

• Your email address — Required. Used only to contact you if we have questions about your submission or need to notify you of its status. Your email address is never published, never shared, and never added to any mailing list. It is stored internally in our database associated with the submission record, accessible only to site administrators.
• Information about the place or organization you are submitting — This is the entity's name, description, website, and optionally its phone number and address. This is public information about a third-party entity (a business, park, government office, etc.), not personal data about you. If approved, this information will be published in our public directory.

Important distinction: When a Government Office or Community Resource form includes a phone number or address, that is the organization's public contact information — not yours. We do not ask for or store your personal phone number or physical address anywhere on this site.

Submission Data Retention

Your submitter email address is retained in our database for as long as the associated listing record exists. If a submission is rejected, the record (including your email) is retained for a short period for abuse-prevention purposes, after which it may be purged. If you would like your email address removed from a submission record, contact us with the name of the entity you submitted and we will remove it promptly.

API Access and Advertiser Registration

Users who register for API access or apply to advertise on ETTG provide additional information governed by separate terms presented during those flows. Please review the API Terms of Service for details on data collected during API registration.

Advertising

ETTG uses contextual advertising through our own in-house ad system. We have complete control over what ads are shown - no third-party ad networks, no tracking pixels, no auction-based advertising.

How Contextual Ads Work

Instead of tracking YOU, contextual ads look at the CONTENT of the page you're viewing:

• Reading about local politics in your state? See ads relevant to your community or civic engagement
• Browsing news about local government? See ads for government transparency tools
• That's it. No user profiles, no cross-site tracking, no creepy "this ad followed me everywhere" moments

Why We Use Ads

Running a news aggregation service costs money:

• Server hosting and bandwidth
• Database storage for 125,000+ locations and news articles
• Development and maintenance

Contextual ads help cover these costs while keeping the site free for everyone and respecting your privacy.

Your Choices

Submission Opt-Out

Providing a submission is entirely voluntary. If you do not wish to provide an email address, you may not use the community submission forms — that is the only field we require from you personally. You can still browse, search, and use every other feature of ETTG without providing any personal information.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

ETTG honors browser privacy signals:

• Do Not Track (DNT): Our self-hosted analytics are configured to skip tracking when your browser sends a DNT signal. No data is collected for DNT-enabled users.
• Global Privacy Control (GPC): If your browser sends a Sec-GPC: 1 header or sets navigator.globalPrivacyControl, analytics are disabled entirely for your session. GPC is supported by browsers such as Firefox, Brave, and DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser.

Don't Like Ads?

We get it. You can:

• Support us directly: Visit our Support page to make a donation. Every dollar helps keep this service running.
• Use an ad blocker: We won't guilt-trip you. If you block ads, consider supporting us another way if you find the site valuable.

Cookies

We use only essential cookies required for the website to function (like remembering your state/county preferences). We do NOT use tracking cookies.

Data Security

We take reasonable precautions to protect any data we collect:

• HTTPS encryption for all connections
• Secure database storage
• Regular security updates
• No sensitive personal information stored

Children's Privacy

ETTG is intended for general audiences and is not directed at children under 13 years of age. Community submission forms may not be used by anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal information, please contact us and we will delete such information from our systems promptly.

Third-Party Services

We use minimal third-party services:

• Advertising: We run our own ad system - no third-party ad networks. Advertisers work directly with us, and we manually approve every ad that appears on the site.
• Cloudflare (if enabled): CDN and DDoS protection (Their Privacy Policy)
• Google reCAPTCHA: We use Google reCAPTCHA v2 on all community submission forms (local spots, news sources, community groups, government offices, and community resources) as well as on advertiser registration and API access request forms, to prevent spam and abuse. reCAPTCHA collects IP addresses, browser fingerprint information, and interaction data and transmits them to Google's servers for evaluation — including your IP address. This service is governed by Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. reCAPTCHA is only loaded on specific forms where it is required — never on general browsing pages.

Changes to This Policy

If we make significant changes to how we handle privacy, we'll update this page and note the date of changes below.

Questions, Concerns, or Feedback?

We welcome questions about our privacy practices or any concerns about our platform.

Contact Us