Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 1, 2026 Effective date: June 1, 2026

In plain English: The Crown Network is a Cincinnati-focused sports, business, and culture publication. We use Google Analytics to understand how the Site is used. We don't have user accounts. We may show third-party display advertising on the Site, and we publish a newsletter you can subscribe to. The personal information we collect from you directly is your email address if you subscribe. Beyond that, we receive standard web-analytics data (IP, browser, pages viewed) when you visit, and short-lived technical logs when you submit a form so we can stop spam bots. If you watch an embedded YouTube video, Google's own tracking applies and we can't control that.

Who We Are

The Crown Network ("Crown," "we," "us," or "our") is a digital media network covering Cincinnati sports, business, and culture. The Crown is operated by 1831 Media, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. This Privacy Policy describes how we handle personal information collected through cincycrown.com (the "Site").

For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at:

• Email: contact@cincycrown.com
• Mail: The Crown Network, c/o 1831 Media, 1216 Central Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45202, USA

Information We Collect

In plain English: Your email if you subscribe to the newsletter. Standard analytics data when you visit (IP, browser, pages viewed). Technical info when you submit a form, so we can block spam. Cookies and identifiers set by Google Analytics and any advertising networks we use.

Information You Give Us

• Newsletter email address. If you sign up for our newsletter, we collect the email address you provide. Newsletter sign-ups are processed by inForm (https://inform.synergistic.io), a service operated by our sister/parent agency Synergistic.

Information Collected Automatically When You Visit the Site

We use Google Analytics 4 (measurement ID G-23NNQPVF2E) to measure traffic and understand how visitors use the Site. Google Analytics may collect:

• IP address (truncated by Google before storage)
• Approximate geographic location derived from IP
• Device, browser, operating system, and screen information
• Pages viewed, time on page, scroll depth, and similar engagement events
• Referring URLs and on-site search terms you enter
• A pseudonymous client identifier stored in a Google Analytics cookie

In addition to default pageview measurement, we record a small set of named events so we can understand which content and features people use:

• newsletter_signup — fired when a newsletter sign-up succeeds (with the form's source label, e.g. "article-sidebar")
• contact_submit — fired when the contact form is sent successfully
• search — fired when you submit a search; carries the search term you typed
• video_play — fired when you open a video lightbox; carries the video and show title
• audio_play — fired when a podcast episode starts; carries the show and episode title
• platform_click — fired when you click out to a podcast platform (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, RSS); carries the platform name and show
• sponsor_click — fired when you click a sponsor / advertiser unit; carries the sponsor name and placement

These events do not contain your name, email, or other directly-identifying information. The search event is the only one that captures user-typed text.

Google processes this information on our behalf as our service provider. We do not use Google Analytics to build cross-site advertising profiles or to enable Google's advertising features, and we do not share search terms with advertising networks. See Google's policies at https://policies.google.com/privacy and https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

Information Collected Automatically When You Submit a Form

When you submit our newsletter form (or any future form), our spam-prevention layer briefly captures:

• IP address
• User-Agent string (browser and operating system identifiers your browser sends)
• Referer (the URL you came from)
• Submission timing and honeypot signals (used to distinguish humans from automated bots)

This information is used solely to detect and block abuse. Submissions are rate-limited to 5 per minute per IP.

We also reserve the right to enable Cloudflare Turnstile, an invisible CAPTCHA, as an additional bot-prevention measure. If we enable it, Cloudflare's privacy practices will apply to the data Cloudflare receives.

Information Collected by Our Hosting Provider

Our Site is hosted on Vercel, which maintains standard server and request logs (such as IP addresses, request paths, and response codes) for infrastructure operations, security, and abuse prevention. We do not separately access or analyze these logs except in response to a specific incident.

Information Collected by Third-Party Advertising

The Site may display third-party display advertising. When ads appear, the advertiser and its ad-tech partners may set cookies or similar identifiers and receive information such as your IP address, browser type, the page you are viewing, and any prior interaction with their ads. They use this information to deliver, measure, and personalize advertising in accordance with their own privacy policies. Where required by law, we will provide an opt-out or consent mechanism through a clearly labeled "Your Privacy Choices" link.

What We Do Not Collect

To be clear about what is not happening on our Site:

• We do not have user accounts, logins, or passwords.
• We do not process payments or store payment information.
• We do not collect names, phone numbers, mailing addresses, or precise geolocation through the Site.
• We do not collect any "sensitive" categories of information (health, financial, biometric, immigration, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs, etc.).

Why We Collect This Information (and Our Legal Bases)

In plain English: Your email is used to send the newsletter you asked for. Analytics data is used to measure how the Site performs and improve content. Technical logs are used to keep spammers out. Advertising data is used by ad networks to deliver and measure ads.

Who We Share Information With

In plain English: A small set of vendors that help us run the Site, plus Google for analytics and advertising networks if their ads appear on a page you load.

We share personal information with the following categories of service providers and partners, and only to the extent necessary for the purposes described above:

• Vercel Inc. Hosting and infrastructure. Receives standard server logs (including IP addresses) as part of serving the Site.
• inForm (operated by Synergistic). Newsletter signup processing and email delivery. Receives the email address you submit plus the spam-prevention signals listed above.
• Sanity, Inc. (Sanity.io). Content management and image CDN (cdn.sanity.io). Sanity stores our editorial content and media. No personal information from Site visitors flows to Sanity. Sanity only handles content authored by our editorial team.
• Google LLC. Provides Google Analytics. Google acts as our service provider for analytics and processes information on our behalf under Google's terms.
• Adobe Inc. Provides our brand typefaces via Adobe Fonts (Typekit). Receives standard request data (IP, User-Agent, Referer) when your browser fetches font files from use.typekit.net.
• Third-party advertising networks. When ads are displayed on the Site, the networks and demand-side platforms involved receive the information described in "Information Collected by Third-Party Advertising." A current list of ad-tech partners (when applicable) will be available through the cookie consent interface or by request.
• Cloudflare, Inc. May handle traffic if and when Turnstile or other Cloudflare services are enabled.

We may also disclose information when required by law, valid legal process, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Crown, our users, or the public.

Embedded YouTube Videos

In plain English: When you play an embedded YouTube video on our Site, you are effectively interacting with YouTube. Google's tracking applies. We have no visibility into or control over that data.

Articles on cincycrown.com may include videos embedded from YouTube (youtube.com / youtu.be). When you play one of these videos, YouTube and Google may set cookies, gather device and usage data, and apply their own tracking and advertising practices. We do not control, receive, or have access to that data. YouTube's handling of your information is governed by:

• Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
• YouTube Terms of Service: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms

If you do not want YouTube to receive information about you, please do not play embedded videos.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

In plain English: Google Analytics sets cookies to measure traffic. Advertising networks may set cookies when ads appear. Your light/dark theme preference is stored locally in your browser. YouTube uses its own cookies if you play a video.

The Site uses the following categories of cookies and similar storage:

• Strictly necessary. Required for the Site to function, including transient cookies that may be set by our hosting and CAPTCHA providers for security and abuse prevention.
• Analytics. Set by Google Analytics 4 to distinguish unique visitors, measure sessions, and report on Site usage. Cookies in this category on our Site are _ga and _ga_23NNQPVF2E. You can opt out of Google Analytics on any device by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
• Advertising. Set by third-party advertising networks when ads are displayed. These are used to deliver, frequency-cap, and measure ads. You can manage advertising cookies through your browser settings and through industry tools such as https://optout.aboutads.info/ and https://www.youronlinechoices.eu/.
• Browser storage. We use the next-themes library to remember whether you prefer the light or dark version of the Site. This preference is stored in your browser's localStorage and is never transmitted to us.
• Fonts. Our typefaces (Halyard Display and Placa) are served by Adobe Fonts (Typekit) from use.typekit.net. When you load a page, your browser fetches the font stylesheet and WOFF files directly from Adobe. Adobe receives standard request data — IP address, User-Agent, and Referer — and may set first-party cookies on the use.typekit.net domain for performance measurement and abuse prevention. See Adobe's privacy policy at https://www.adobe.com/privacy/policy.html.
• YouTube cookies. If you play an embedded video, YouTube and Google will set their own cookies on your device.

On your first visit, the Site shows a cookie consent banner at the bottom of the screen. Google Analytics is not loaded — and no _ga cookies are set — until you click Accept. If you click Decline, no analytics cookies will be set on this device. You can revisit this decision at any time by clicking "Your Privacy Choices" in the footer.

We also honor Global Privacy Control (GPC). If your browser sends a GPC signal, we automatically record a "declined" preference for you without showing the banner, and we treat the signal as an opt-out of "sale" or "sharing" of personal information under California and other applicable state laws.

Your Privacy Rights

The rights available to you depend on where you live. Regardless of jurisdiction, you can always contact contact@cincycrown.com with any privacy request and we will respond in good faith.

California Residents (CCPA / CPRA)

In plain English: California residents can ask what we have on you, ask us to delete it, ask us to correct it, and opt out of certain advertising-related data sharing. We will not treat you differently for asking.

If you are a California resident, you have the right to:

• Know what categories of personal information we have collected about you, the sources, the purposes, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
• Access the specific pieces of personal information we hold about you.
• Delete the personal information we hold about you, subject to legal exceptions.
• Correct inaccurate personal information.
• Limit the use of "sensitive personal information." (We do not collect any.)
• Opt out of "sale" or "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. To exercise this right, use the "Your Privacy Choices" link in the footer or enable Global Privacy Control in your browser. We treat a valid GPC signal as an opt-out request.
• Not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.

Categories of personal information collected in the last 12 months (per CCPA categories): identifiers (email address, IP address, online identifiers / cookies); internet or other electronic network activity (User-Agent, Referer, pages viewed, engagement events); and inferences drawn from analytics (such as approximate geographic location). Categories of sources: directly from you, automatically from your device, and from our analytics and advertising providers. Categories of third parties receiving information: the service providers and advertising networks listed above.

To submit a request, email contact@cincycrown.com with the subject "California Privacy Request." We will verify your request using the email address you provide and any additional information reasonably necessary. You may also designate an authorized agent in writing. We respond within 45 days (extendable once by an additional 45 days where permitted).

EU / EEA / UK Residents (GDPR / UK GDPR)

In plain English: EU and UK visitors have a full set of data rights. We will request consent before setting analytics or advertising cookies on your device.

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the right to:

• Access your personal data
• Rectify inaccurate or incomplete data
• Erase ("right to be forgotten") your data
• Restrict processing
• Data portability: receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format
• Object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Withdraw consent at any time (for example, by unsubscribing from the newsletter or rejecting non-essential cookies)
• Lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority

To exercise any of these rights, email contact@cincycrown.com. We will respond within 30 days.

Other US States

If you reside in a US state with a comprehensive privacy law (such as Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, or others as adopted), you generally have rights similar to those described above for California residents. Contact contact@cincycrown.com to submit a request.

Canadian Residents (PIPEDA / Quebec Law 25)

Canadian residents, including Quebec residents under Law 25, may request access to and correction of personal information we hold about them, and may withdraw consent to processing. Contact contact@cincycrown.com.

Data Retention

In plain English: Newsletter email is kept until you unsubscribe. Analytics data is kept per Google Analytics retention settings. Spam-prevention logs are kept briefly.

• Newsletter email address: retained for as long as you remain subscribed. When you unsubscribe, we retain a minimal suppression record (typically a hashed or plain email) to honor your unsubscribe request going forward.
• Google Analytics data: retained per the user-data retention setting in our Google Analytics property, typically 14 months.
• Advertising identifiers: retained per the practices of each ad-network partner, as described in their privacy policies.
• Spam-prevention logs (IP, User-Agent, Referer, timing): retained for a short period, generally 30 days or less, and then deleted or aggregated.
• Hosting and infrastructure logs (Vercel): retained per Vercel's standard retention windows.

We do not retain personal information longer than necessary for the purposes for which it was collected.

Security

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to protect personal information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, or unauthorized access. These include TLS encryption in transit, rate limiting, honeypot and timing-based bot detection, and access controls on our vendor accounts.

No system is perfectly secure. If we become aware of a security incident affecting your personal information, we will notify you and the appropriate authorities as required by applicable law.

International Data Transfers

The Crown is operated from the United States, and our service providers (Vercel, Sanity, inForm / Synergistic, Google, Cloudflare, and YouTube) primarily process data in the United States and other countries. If you access the Site from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to, stored in, and processed in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your country.

For transfers from the EEA, UK, or Switzerland to the United States, our service providers generally rely on Standard Contractual Clauses or equivalent safeguards.

Children's Privacy

In plain English: Our Site is not for kids under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information.

The Site is intended for a general adult audience and is not directed to children under the age of 13. Consistent with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, please contact contact@cincycrown.com and we will delete it promptly.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

We honor Global Privacy Control (GPC) as an opt-out signal for any processing that California or other applicable laws define as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. The Site does not respond to legacy "Do Not Track" (DNT) signals, which lack a uniform industry standard.

Updates to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Material changes will be highlighted on the Site or communicated through other reasonable means. Continued use of the Site after an update means you accept the revised Policy.

How to Contact Us

For any question, request, or concern about this Privacy Policy or our handling of your personal information:

• Email: contact@cincycrown.com
• Mail: The Crown Network, c/o 1831 Media, 1216 Central Parkway, Cincinnati, OH 45202, USA