What we collect, and what we do with it

What we collect

Nothing, to read. The essays, the issue pages, and everything else published here are free and open. You do not create an account, and we do not ask who you are.

Your email address, if you subscribe to the Parkview Letter. We store the address, the date, and which form on the site you used, so that we can send you the essays and stop when you tell us to. We also record the subscription disclosure and any separate choice to receive supporter updates. A Letter subscription alone does not enroll you in fundraising appeals.

What you type, if you write to us. The contact form and the speaking invitation form collect your name, your email address, an organization if you give one, and your message. We keep them so a person can reply and so we can find the conversation later.

Your name, email address, and gift, if you donate. We record who gave, how much, whether the gift is one time or monthly, and whether the receipt has been sent. Card numbers never reach this website. The payment fields on the donation page are served by Stripe and the card details go straight to Stripe, which returns a confirmation to us. We can see the last four digits and the card brand on a completed gift, and nothing more.

Ordinary technical information. Our host records the usual server logs. Where we need to slow down abuse of a form, we store a one way hash of the IP address rather than the address itself, so that repeated attempts can be counted without the address being readable.

Analytics and cookies

We use Google Analytics, loaded through Google Tag Manager, to count visits and see which essays are read. It sets cookies in your browser and reports to Google. We use it to understand what people read. Google Analytics is not used to build advertising audiences or to follow you to other websites; the section below covers the advertising measurement that is. Where your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, we do not load the analytics script. If you would rather not be counted, Google publishes a browser add on that turns Google Analytics off, and most browsers can block these cookies directly. Nothing on this site stops working if you do.

We do not host third party ad networks, and we do not sell, rent, or trade your information to anyone.

Advertising and the Meta pixel

We advertise on Facebook and Instagram, and we use Meta’s pixel to see which of those ads bring people here. It sets Meta’s own cookies in your browser and tells Meta which pages you opened on this site.

When you sign up for the Letter, send an enquiry, or make a gift, we also tell Meta that it happened, from our server rather than from your browser. Your email address and name are turned into a one way scramble before they are sent, so what Meta receives cannot be read back into an address. We never send Meta the address itself, and we never send the text of what you wrote.

Two things we have deliberately turned off. Meta’s pixel can be set to read whatever it finds typed into forms on a page and report that on its own; we have switched that off, so the only details Meta gets are the ones described above. We also apply Meta’s limited data use setting, which restricts what it may do with the information where state law requires it.

Where your browser sends Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track, none of this loads and our server sends Meta nothing. You can also block these cookies in your browser, or change what Meta shows you in its own ad preferences. Nothing on this site stops working if you do.

Who else handles it

We use a small number of service providers, and each one sees only what its job requires:

• Stripe processes donations and holds the payment details we never see.
• Resend delivers the Parkview Letter and the receipts, and therefore holds subscriber email addresses.
• Vercel hosts the site, and Turso stores the database behind it.
• Google Analytics counts visits, as described above.
• Meta receives the advertising measurements described above, including scrambled forms of your email address and name when you sign up, enquire, or give.
• Slack receives an internal notice when a form is submitted, so that a message is not missed.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it. Otherwise, this list is the whole of it.

How long we keep it

Unsubscribing stops the Letter. We retain a suppression record so a later import does not subscribe you again. You can ask us to delete your information; we may retain records needed to honor your preferences or meet recordkeeping obligations. Messages are kept while the conversation is useful. Donation records are kept as long as a nonprofit is required to keep its financial records, because the IRS and our auditors ask for them.

What you can ask us to do

You can unsubscribe from the Letter in one click, from the link at the foot of every email. Beyond that, you can ask us what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it, and we will do it. Some state privacy laws give you those rights explicitly; we do not think it is worth checking which state you are in before honoring them.

Write to us through the contact form and say what you want done. We will not make you justify the request, and we will not charge for it.

Children

This site is written for adults and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from them. If you believe a child has given us something, tell us and we will remove it.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top of the page changes with it. Material changes will be described here rather than made quietly.

Who we are

The Parkview Institute Inc is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN 93-1374330, based in Bethesda, Maryland. Questions about this policy go through the contact form, and a person answers them.