Effective Date: March 27, 2026

1. Who We Are

This website, grherald.com, is operated by The Grand Rapids Herald, an independent digital news publication based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you have questions about this privacy policy or how your data is handled, you can contact us at hello@grherald.com.

2. Information We Collect

Information You Provide Directly

• Newsletter subscription: When you sign up for our free email newsletter, we collect your email address and any other information you provide in the signup form.
• Comments: If you leave a comment on an article, we collect the information shown in the comment form (such as your name, email address, and website), as well as your IP address and browser user agent string to assist with spam detection.
• Contact and tips: If you email us at hello@grherald.com or submit a news tip, we collect whatever information you choose to include in your message.

Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our website, certain information may be collected automatically, including:

• Your IP address and general geographic location.
• Browser type, operating system, and device information.
• Pages visited, time spent on pages, referring URLs, and other browsing behavior on our site.
• Cookies and similar tracking technologies (see Section 5 below).

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

• Deliver our email newsletter and other communications you have signed up for.
• Operate, maintain, and improve our website.
• Analyze site traffic and reader engagement to better understand our audience.
• Detect and prevent spam, abuse, and security threats.
• Respond to your inquiries or news tips.

4. Third-Party Service Providers

We use the following third-party services to operate this website. These providers may process your data in accordance with their own privacy policies:

• Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) — We use Brevo to manage our email newsletter. When you subscribe, your email address and engagement data (such as whether you opened an email or clicked a link) are stored and processed by Brevo. Brevo Privacy Policy
• WP Engine — Our website is hosted by WP Engine. Their servers may log standard access information such as your IP address and request data. WP Engine Privacy Policy
• Google Analytics / Site Kit — We may use Google Analytics or similar tools to analyze website traffic and usage patterns. These tools may collect information about your browsing behavior using cookies or similar technologies. Google Privacy Policy
• Gravatar — If you leave a comment, a hashed version of your email address may be sent to the Gravatar service to retrieve your profile image. Automattic Privacy Policy
• Spam detection — Comments may be processed through an automated spam detection service such as Akismet, which may store and analyze submitted data to identify spam.

5. Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. Our site uses cookies in the following ways:

• Essential cookies: If you log in to the site, cookies are used to maintain your session and save your display preferences. Login cookies last for two days (or two weeks if you select “Remember Me”) and are removed when you log out.
• Comment cookies: If you leave a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies so you do not have to re-enter them. These cookies last for one year.
• Analytics cookies: Third-party analytics tools may place cookies on your device to measure site traffic and usage. These cookies help us understand which pages are visited most frequently and how readers navigate the site.
• Embedded content cookies: Articles on this site may include embedded content from other websites (such as videos or social media posts). Embedded content from other websites may set their own cookies and collect data about your interaction, just as if you had visited those websites directly.

Most browsers allow you to control or disable cookies through their settings. Note that disabling cookies may affect the functionality of certain features on this site.

6. Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes.

We may share your information only in the following circumstances:

• With the third-party service providers listed in Section 4, solely for the purposes of operating this website and delivering our newsletter.
• If required by law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request.
• To protect the rights, safety, or property of The Grand Rapids Herald, our readers, or the public.

7. Data Retention

• Newsletter subscribers: We retain your email address and related data for as long as you remain subscribed. You may unsubscribe at any time (see Section 9), after which your data will be removed from our active mailing list.
• Comments: Comments and their associated metadata (name, email, IP address) are retained indefinitely so that we can recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically.
• Analytics data: Aggregated and anonymized analytics data may be retained indefinitely. Personally identifiable analytics data is subject to the retention policies of our analytics provider.

8. Embedded Content

Articles on this site may include embedded content such as videos, images, and social media posts from third-party websites. This embedded content behaves as if you had visited those websites directly. These third-party sites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional tracking, and monitor your interaction with the embedded content, including if you have an account and are logged in to those services.

9. Your Rights and Choices

You have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Unsubscribe from our newsletter: Every newsletter email includes an unsubscribe link. You may also email us at hello@grherald.com to request removal.
• Request your data: If you have an account on this site or have left comments, you can request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you.
• Request deletion: You can request that we erase personal data we hold about you. This does not include data we are required to keep for legal, administrative, or security purposes.
• Manage cookies: You can control cookies through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@grherald.com.

10. Children’s Privacy

This website is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 13, please contact us at hello@grherald.com so we can promptly delete it.

11. Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

12. Media and Images

If you upload images to this website (for example, as part of a comment), you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Other visitors to the site may be able to download and extract location data from uploaded images.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Your continued use of the website after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

14. Contact

If you have questions or concerns about this privacy policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

The Grand Rapids Herald
Email: hello@grherald.com