Privacy.

HicksNewMedia operates a network of properties — the main site at hicksnewmedia.com, the newsletter at digitalcollective.media, the premium community at digitalcollective.network, the merch store at merch.hicksnewmedia.com, and other sub-properties. Different properties collect different things. The summary:

• Site visitors (anyone reading this). Basic analytics data — page views, referring source, country-level location, browser type, session duration. This is aggregate data used to understand which content resonates. We do not link analytics data to identifiable individuals.
• Newsletter subscribers. Email address. Optional name. Opt-in date. Subscription preferences. Open and click metadata (used in aggregate to improve content). All collected at the point of sign-up with explicit consent.
• Premium community members. Account email, display name, profile information you choose to provide, content you post within the community, billing information for paid tiers (handled by Stripe — see Third Parties below).
• Customers of paid products (PostGrid, merch, etc.). Name, email, billing address, shipping address (for physical product), payment information processed by Stripe.
• Contact form and partnership inquiries. Name, email, company, the message you send, and any context you provide. Stored to maintain the conversation thread and respond to your inquiry.
• Booking calendar submissions. Information you submit when scheduling a partnership or consultation call — name, email, company, meeting topic, and any context you add.

What we don't collect: precise location data, device fingerprints beyond what standard analytics provides, social graph data, cross-site tracking pixels, or any inferred demographic data sold by third-party data brokers.

The data above gets used for a narrow set of purposes:

• Service delivery. Sending the newsletter to subscribers. Granting access to the premium community. Fulfilling merch orders. Honoring partnership conversations. Standard "we said we'd send this, so we're sending it" use.
• Communications. Transactional messages (order confirmations, account changes), newsletter content (opt-in only), and responses to inquiries you initiate.
• Aggregate analytics. Understanding which content performs, which platforms drive traffic, which regions the audience is in. Used to make better content decisions, never to target individuals.
• Legal compliance and security. Fraud prevention, tax records, responding to lawful requests from authorities (rare; documented when it happens).
• Editorial improvement. Aggregate feedback patterns — what kinds of corrections audiences submit, what topics get the most engagement, what feature requests come in — inform what HicksNewMedia produces next.

"If the use case isn't on this list, we're not doing it. The list is short because the business model is straightforward — we make content, you read it, sometimes you buy something or sign up for something, and that's the whole transaction."

HicksNewMedia is run lean. We use standard tools to handle infrastructure rather than build everything ourselves. Each of these vendors has its own privacy practices that apply to data we send them. Where relevant, links to their policies are provided.

This list is reviewed annually and any time a new vendor is added that handles personal data. If a vendor is dropped, the corresponding entry is removed and the change is logged in the changelog.

What's not on this list: ad networks, data brokers, social-media tracking pixels beyond the standard YouTube embed, or any vendor whose business model is reselling user data.

Cookies on HicksNewMedia properties fall into two buckets:

• Necessary cookies. Required for the site to function — session state, login persistence, cart contents on the merch store, basic security tokens. These cannot be opted out of without breaking the site.
• Analytics cookies. Used by Google Analytics to track aggregate visitor behavior. These can be declined when prompted, and the site continues to function without them.

There are no advertising cookies. There are no third-party tracking pixels beyond YouTube embeds (which load only when the embedded video is interacted with). There are no fingerprinting or device-identification scripts.

To clear cookies set by HicksNewMedia, use your browser's standard cookie clearing tools. Browser-level "Do Not Track" signals are respected where the underlying analytics provider supports them.

Depending on where you live, you may have specific legal rights over your personal data. HicksNewMedia honors the following for all users, regardless of jurisdiction:

• Right to access. You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you. We respond within 30 days.
• Right to correction. If we hold inaccurate data about you, you can request a correction.
• Right to deletion. You can request that we delete your data. This is honored within 30 days unless we are legally required to retain something (tax records, for example).
• Right to portability. Subscriber and account data can be exported in a machine-readable format on request.
• Right to opt out of marketing. Every newsletter email contains an unsubscribe link. Marketing emails can be opted out of without affecting transactional emails you still need (order confirmations, account changes).
• Right to object. If you believe HicksNewMedia is processing your data in a way that exceeds what's needed for the service, you can object and we'll review.

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@hicksnewmedia.com from the email address associated with your account or subscription. We may ask for identity verification to prevent unauthorized requests.

For California residents (CCPA / CPRA): You also have the right to know what categories of personal information we collect, the sources, the purposes, and the third parties we share with. All of those are listed above in plain English — no separate California-specific addendum is needed.

For EU and UK residents (GDPR): The lawful basis for processing your data is either your explicit consent (newsletter, premium community), the performance of a contract (paid products), or our legitimate interests (basic analytics, fraud prevention). You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority if you believe we've processed your data improperly.

We don't keep things forever. The retention schedule:

• Newsletter subscribers. Retained as long as the subscription is active. Unsubscribed addresses are kept for 12 months in a suppression list (to prevent accidental re-subscription) and then deleted.
• Premium community accounts. Retained as long as the account is active. Closed accounts are anonymized within 90 days; transaction records are retained for tax compliance (typically 7 years in the US).
• Customer order records. Retained for the period required for tax and business records compliance (7 years in the US), then deleted or anonymized.
• Contact form and partnership inquiries. Retained for 24 months after the last conversation, then deleted unless the relationship is ongoing.
• Analytics data. Aggregate data is retained indefinitely; user-level data is retained for the period set in the Google Analytics defaults (14 months at the time of this writing) and then deleted.
• Server logs. Retained for 90 days for security and operational purposes, then deleted.

HicksNewMedia content is directed at adult audiences — primarily IT professionals, technical decision-makers, and content creators in the business of technology. The properties on this network are not designed for or directed at children under 13.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal data to a HicksNewMedia property, contact privacy@hicksnewmedia.com and we will delete the data within 14 days of verification.

HicksNewMedia is based in the United States. If you access these properties from outside the US, your data will be transferred to and processed in the United States, which may have different data protection laws than your home country.

By using HicksNewMedia properties or providing data to us, you consent to this transfer. We apply the same baseline protections to all user data regardless of where the user is located.

For users in jurisdictions with specific data transfer requirements (EU/UK/Switzerland), we rely on standard contractual clauses and the underlying vendor protections of the third parties listed above.

This policy is reviewed at least once per year and updated whenever a material change occurs — a new vendor added, a new data category collected, a change in retention practices, or a substantive policy shift.

• Minor changes (clarifying language, typo fixes, vendor updates) update the version number and effective date at the top of this page.
• Material changes (new data categories, new vendors handling personal data, substantive shifts in how data is used) are announced to active newsletter subscribers and account holders by email at least 30 days before they take effect.
• Version history is maintained in the changelog alongside the ethics standard.

If a change is significant enough that continuing to use a HicksNewMedia service would constitute consent to materially different data handling, you'll get advance notice and the option to opt out before the change takes effect.