Privacy Policy

The right of the citizen to read without being watched is as fundamental to a free society as the right of the press to publish without prior restraint. The Commonwealth Times holds that privacy is not a preference to be toggled, not a commodity to be traded, and not a privilege to be earned through the navigation of byzantine consent dialogs. It is a civil right — inherent, unconditional, and non-negotiable. This policy exists not to enumerate the ways in which we exploit your data, but to declare, in plain and binding language, that we do not.

The Commonwealth Times is an independent publication, incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in the City of Boston, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This privacy policy governs all data practices associated with thecommonwealthtimes.com and any affiliated domain through which this publication is accessed. It is effective as of the date of your first visit and applies to every reader, in every jurisdiction, without exception.

What We Collect

The Commonwealth Times collects only what you voluntarily and deliberately provide. If you correspond with our editorial offices by electronic mail, we retain that correspondence. If you create a membership account, we collect the name and email address you supply during registration. If you make a financial contribution through our membership system, the payment processor retains the transaction data necessary to complete and verify your contribution — The Commonwealth Times itself does not store credit card numbers, bank routing numbers, or any other financial instrument details on its own systems.

Our web servers produce standard access logs that record the IP address of incoming requests, the page requested, the referring URL, and the date and time of access. These logs are retained for the sole purpose of maintaining the security and operational integrity of our systems. They are not mined for behavioral patterns, not sold to third parties, and not used for any purpose other than the administration of infrastructure. They are purged on a regular cycle and never aggregated into reader profiles.

What We Do Not Collect

The Commonwealth Times does not engage in behavioral tracking. We do not record which articles you read, how long you spend reading them, where you scroll, what you highlight, or what you click. We do not build reader profiles. We do not construct interest graphs. We do not track your movement across the web before you arrive at our pages or after you leave them. We do not collect your geographic location, whether by GPS, IP geolocation, or any other means, for any purpose beyond the standard server logging described above.

We do not deploy device fingerprinting technologies. We do not collect your screen resolution, your browser plugin inventory, your installed fonts, your hardware identifiers, or any other combination of attributes that could be used to identify or re-identify you across sessions or domains. We do not embed tracking pixels, web beacons, invisible images, or any other surveillance mechanism in our pages or our correspondence.

We do not serve advertisements, and therefore we do not maintain the infrastructure of surveillance that advertising requires. There are no ad networks operating on this publication. There are no demand-side platforms bidding on your attention. There is no real-time auction of your behavioral profile occurring in the milliseconds before our pages load. The Commonwealth Times is sustained by the Massachusetts Society of Journalism, not by the sale of its readers to the highest bidder.

Cookies

The Commonwealth Times uses only those cookies that are strictly necessary for the functional operation of this publication. If you create a membership account and authenticate, a session cookie is placed on your device to maintain your authenticated state as you navigate our pages. This cookie is a technical necessity, not a surveillance instrument. It contains no personally identifiable information, it is not shared with any third party, and it expires when your session ends or within a reasonable period defined by standard session management practices.

We do not use analytics cookies. We do not use advertising cookies. We do not use social media tracking cookies. We do not use any cookie, local storage mechanism, or client-side data store for the purpose of tracking, profiling, or identifying readers beyond what is required to deliver the basic functionality of a membership account. A reader who never creates an account will never receive a cookie from The Commonwealth Times that serves any purpose beyond the essential operation of the site.

Third-Party Services

The Commonwealth Times does not embed third-party services that track readers. We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or any comparable surveillance platform. Where third-party infrastructure is employed — for hosting, content delivery, or payment processing — those services are selected on the basis of their privacy practices and contractual commitments to data protection. No third-party service provider is authorized by The Commonwealth Times to use reader data for any purpose beyond the specific service it provides to this publication.

Payment processing for membership contributions is handled by a PCI-compliant processor that operates under its own privacy policy. The Commonwealth Times does not have access to and does not store the full payment credentials you provide to that processor. We encourage members to review the privacy policy of our payment processor, which is presented during the contribution process.

Data Retention

Information you provide through a membership account is retained for as long as your account remains active or as reasonably necessary to provide you with the services associated with membership. Correspondence with editorial offices is retained for such period as is necessary for the conduct of editorial business and is then destroyed. Server logs are retained for a limited period sufficient for security monitoring and are thereafter purged. The Commonwealth Times does not maintain indefinite archives of reader data, because The Commonwealth Times does not regard reader data as an asset to be accumulated.

Reader Rights Under the General Data Protection Regulation

Readers who are residents of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland possess rights under the General Data Protection Regulation and equivalent legislation. These include the right to access any personal data The Commonwealth Times holds concerning you, the right to rectify inaccurate data, the right to request erasure of your data, the right to restrict the processing of your data, the right to data portability, and the right to object to processing. Because The Commonwealth Times collects so little data, the exercise of these rights is in most cases a simple matter. To make a request, address written correspondence to the contact provided at the conclusion of this policy. We will respond within thirty days.

Reader Rights Under the California Consumer Privacy Act

Readers who are residents of California possess rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act. These include the right to know what personal information is collected and how it is used, the right to delete personal information, the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, and the right to non-discrimination for exercising these rights. The Commonwealth Times does not sell personal information. The Commonwealth Times does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. There is, therefore, nothing to opt out of — but the right is yours nonetheless, and we affirm it without reservation.

Children's Privacy

The Commonwealth Times is a newspaper of general circulation, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of thirteen. If a parent or guardian becomes aware that a child has provided personal information to The Commonwealth Times without their consent, they should contact us at the address below. Upon verification, we will promptly delete such information from our systems. The protection of children in digital spaces is a responsibility we take with the gravity it demands.

Data Sales and Monetization

The Commonwealth Times does not sell, rent, lease, trade, barter, exchange, or otherwise monetize reader data in any form, under any circumstance, for any consideration. This is not a qualified statement. It is not hedged by exceptions for “trusted partners” or “service improvement.” The Commonwealth Times is a newspaper, not a data brokerage. The business of this institution is journalism, and the reader is the citizen we serve — never the product we sell.

Changes to This Policy

If The Commonwealth Times modifies this privacy policy, the revised policy will be published on this page with an updated effective date. Material changes — those that would alter the fundamental character of our data practices — will be accompanied by prominent notice on the homepage of this publication. The direction of any change will be toward greater protection, never less. A newspaper that weakens its privacy commitments has broken faith with its readers, and The Commonwealth Times does not intend to break faith.

Contact

Inquiries regarding this privacy policy, requests to exercise data rights, and any questions concerning the data practices of The Commonwealth Times should be directed to The Commonwealth Times by electronic mail at [email protected] or by post at The Commonwealth Times, Boston, Massachusetts. We will acknowledge receipt within five business days and provide a substantive response within thirty days.