Effective Date: April 21, 2025
Last Updated: April 21, 2025
Who We Are
This is the official website of American Community Media (ACoM), accessible at https://americancommunitymedia.org. We are a community-based nonprofit media organization focused on storytelling and representation for underserved communities.
What Personal Data We Collect and Why
Comments
When visitors leave comments, we collect the data shown in the comment form, your IP address, and browser user agent string to help detect spam. An anonymized string (hash) of your email address may be sent to the Gravatar service to check if you’re using it. Their privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval, your profile picture is visible publicly next to your comment.
Media Uploads
If you upload images, avoid embedding location data (EXIF GPS) as visitors may download and extract this information.
Cookies
We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience.
- If you leave a comment, you may opt-in to saving your name, email, and website. These cookies last one year.
- A temporary cookie is set on the login page to detect if your browser accepts cookies.
- Login cookies last two days, or two weeks if “Remember Me” is selected. Screen option cookies last one year.
- When editing/publishing a post, a cookie is stored with the post ID. It expires after one day.
Embedded Content from Other Websites
Articles may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, articles). These behave as if you visited the external site directly. These sites may collect your data, use cookies, and monitor your interactions.
User Accounts & Data Storage
If you register, we store your provided personal info. You can view, edit, or delete your data anytime (except your username). Admins can also see and edit that info.
Comments and metadata are stored indefinitely to auto-approve future comments.
Your Rights Over Your Data
You may request an exported file of the personal data we hold or request deletion of your data (excluding what we must retain for legal/security purposes). Use our contact page to request this.
Who We Share Your Data With
We do not sell or rent your data. We may share with:
- Trusted third-party service providers (e.g., hosting, analytics),
- Spam detection services,
- Authorities if legally required.
If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.
We use third-party analytics services (e.g., Google Analytics) to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behavior patterns. These are used to monitor and improve site performance.
Where Your Data Is Sent
Comments may be filtered through spam detection tools such as Akismet.
Security Measures
We use encryption, secure hosting, and access controls to protect your data. However, no online method is 100% secure.
Children’s Privacy
Our site is not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
Policy Changes
We may update this Privacy Policy at any time. Continued use of our website indicates your agreement to any changes.
Contact Us
If you have questions about this policy or your data, please contact:
American Community Media
https://americancommunitymedia.org/contact-us