Privacy Policy

This policy explains what information Town Name Stories (townnamestories.com, "we", "us") collects when you visit, how it's used and what choices you have. The short version: you can read the whole site without an account, and we don't sell your personal information.

Information we collect

Information you send us

If you email us, we get your email address and whatever you write. We use it only to answer you and, if you sent a correction or a source, to check it. We don't add you to any mailing list.

Information collected automatically

Like nearly every website, our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes basic technical data when your browser requests a page: your IP address, browser type, the page you asked for and the time. This is used to deliver the site, keep it secure and protect it from abuse. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.

Search and "Stories near me"

When you use the search box, the matching happens in your browser using files from our own site. If you tap Stories near me, your browser asks for permission to share your location. Your location is used only inside your browser to sort nearby stories. It's never sent to us or anyone else, and it isn't stored.

Share buttons

Our Share buttons are plain links. Facebook, X, Pinterest and the others don't load anything on our pages and get no information from us unless you click one, which takes you to their site under their own privacy policy.

Cookies and advertising

Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. Town Name Stories doesn't set its own cookies for tracking you.

We may show ads served by third parties, including Google AdSense. When ads are on, these companies may use cookies, web beacons and similar technologies to show ads and measure how they perform:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
• You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalized advertising at aboutads.info.
• Learn more in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

Visitors from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland will be asked for consent before personalized ads are shown. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings. The site works fine without them.

Affiliate links

Some pages may include affiliate links. If you click one, the store or service you visit may use cookies to know you came from us so we can earn a commission. Their own privacy policy applies on their site. See our Affiliate Disclosure.

How we use and share information

We use the limited information above to run and secure the site, answer messages and understand, in general terms, how the site is used. We don't sell or rent personal information. We share it only with the service providers described here, or when the law requires it.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, including California and other U.S. states with privacy laws, you may have the right to know what personal information we have about you, ask us to delete it or correct it, and opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information for targeted advertising. To ask about any of these, email us at contact at townnamestories.com. We won't treat you differently for making a request. For ad-related choices, use the opt-out links above.

Children

Town Name Stories is a general-audience history site and isn't directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we'll delete it.

Links to other sites

Our stories link to sources and other websites. We're not responsible for their content or privacy practices.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email us at contact at townnamestories.com.