Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

When someone visits a public page, we may collect first-party analytics data such as page views, anonymous visitor and session identifiers, estimated engaged time, pages per visit, scroll depth, internal clicks, outbound clicks, search activity, search-result clicks, traffic source, and approximate network proximity to Indiana, Pennsylvania. For Local Wire, a clicked source link may also record limited item metadata such as item ID, publisher slug, item title, and destination host so we can report aggregate source and publisher clicks.

For site search, we may store the number of results, query length, and term count. We do not store the raw search phrase.

If a visitor submits the contact form or a privacy request form, we collect the information they choose to provide, such as name, email address, organization when applicable, request type, and message. The Local Wire source suggestion form asks for a source URL and message, and does not ask for a name or email address. Forms may include a hidden anti-spam field; submissions that complete that field may be accepted without being stored.

How We Use It

We use analytics information to understand whether pages are useful, improve site content, measure general audience patterns, diagnose broken experiences, and understand whether visitors are local, regional, or farther away.

We use source suggestions to review local publishers people recommend and decide whether they may belong in Local Wire.

We use submitted form information to read and respond to inquiries, evaluate whether we can help, verify and complete privacy requests, and maintain a practical record of the conversation. Submission contents are reviewed in our private admin system, not sent through email.

If a contact request turns into a normal business conversation, that conversation may continue in email. At that point, the email thread is treated as invited business correspondence, not just website intake data.

For visitors in places where a legal basis is required, we rely on our legitimate interest in operating and improving a privacy-light website and responding to requests.

Information We Do Not Store

For analytics, we do not store names, email addresses, account details, raw IP addresses, raw user-agent strings, exact location, full browser fingerprints, or sensitive personal information.

Anonymous visitor and session identifiers are created in the browser and hashed before they are written to the analytics log.

This site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Storage And Signals

This site does not rely on traditional tracking cookies for analytics. Where browser storage is used, it is limited to first-party local storage or session storage as described below.

We may use local storage to recognize a returning anonymous browser and session storage to count pages in the current visit. If a visitor has Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control enabled, first-party analytics do not run.

Engaged time is estimated in the browser from visible-tab activity and occasional scroll-depth checks. Stale tabs are capped or excluded from reporting. We do not store raw interaction paths, keystrokes, mouse movement, or precise behavior timelines.

When the hosting environment provides coarse geographic headers, we convert them into a distance bucket from the center of Indiana, Pennsylvania. We do not store exact latitude or longitude.

Sharing And Selling

We do not sell personal information. We do not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not use third-party analytics, ad pixels, tracking beacons, external font services, or social media tracking scripts.

We may use service providers, such as Cloudflare for website hosting, private storage, and count-only digest email delivery, plus Google Workspace for mailbox and group forwarding, to operate the site and respond to requests. They process information only as needed to provide their services.

Retention

We keep analytics information only as long as it is useful for understanding site performance and content quality. Raw analytics logs are kept private. Public reporting uses aggregate information.

Contact, privacy request, and source suggestion submissions are stored privately in our Cloudflare account. Contact requests and source suggestions stay active in our private inbox until we clear them. When we clear one, we may keep a small evidence record showing that the local website intake copy was handled and removed from the active board.

Website intake submissions, including source suggestions, may be retained for up to 180 days unless we need them longer to manage an active business relationship, comply with legal obligations, document a privacy request, or resolve a dispute. If a contact request becomes an email conversation, that email thread may be kept as ordinary business correspondence. We may send a count-only digest email to hello@fifthandcrowe.com noting how many new contact, privacy request, or source suggestion submissions were received, but the submitted content is not included in that email.

Email should not be considered a secure method for sending sensitive information. Please do not send Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, health information, or other sensitive information unless we specifically ask for it.

Who Is Responsible

Fifth & Crowe LLC is responsible for this website and the limited information described in this policy. Privacy-specific requests can be submitted through the form above or by emailing hello@fifthandcrowe.com. General messages can be sent through the contact form on the home page.

Providing information through a form is optional, but we may not be able to respond without enough information to understand the request and reply.

Legal Bases

For visitors in the EU, United Kingdom, Switzerland, or other places where a lawful basis is required, we rely on legitimate interest to operate, secure, understand, and improve this privacy-light website. We rely on legitimate interest or steps requested by the visitor when we read and respond to form submissions.

Our legitimate interest is simple: keep the site working, understand whether the information is useful, respond to people who contact us, and avoid collecting more information than we need. We do not use this site for automated decision-making, targeted advertising, or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

International Visitors

This site is operated from the United States. If you visit from outside the United States, including the EU, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, information described in this policy may be processed in the United States by us and by service providers such as Cloudflare and Google Workspace.

Where international transfers require safeguards, we rely on the safeguards available through our service providers and the limited, privacy-light nature of the information we collect. Visitors in the EU, UK, and Switzerland may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to, or receive a copy of personal information. They may also have the right to complain to a local data protection authority or supervisory authority.

Security And Incidents

We use reasonable safeguards for the limited information we collect. No website or storage system can be guaranteed perfectly secure, but the site is designed to avoid collecting information we do not need.

If we determine that a security incident requires notice under applicable breach-notification law, including Pennsylvania law when it applies, we will provide required notices. Pennsylvania law may require notice to affected residents and notice to the Pennsylvania Attorney General when more than 500 Pennsylvania residents are affected.

Updates

We may update this policy when our website, privacy practices, or legal obligations change. The effective date shows when the current version took effect. Changes are effective on the listed effective date, and material changes may be highlighted on the site.