Privacy Policy

Week-Ender subscription. If you subscribe, we store your email address to send the Week-Ender. Every email has an unsubscribe link.

Photo downloads. When you download a photo from Find Your Photo, we ask for your email address (one download per email per day). We store it so we can share new albums with you.

Contest votes. Votes in the Top Dog contest are tied to your email address — one vote per email per day — so the count stays honest. We store the email with your vote.

Contact form. When you write to us through Contact Us, we store the name, email, and message you type so we can answer you.

Event and contest submissions. When you submit a community event or nominate a dog, we store the details you type (and any photos or flyers you attach) so our editors can review them. Contact info is optional.

Anonymous counters. The site keeps simple per-day counts of page visits, and ads record aggregate view and tap counts so local sponsors can see how they are performing. These counters are anonymous — they contain no name, email, device, or location data. We use no tracking cookies.

• Your name, email, or phone number (unless you enter it).
• Precise GPS coordinates — the website never asks for your location.
• Your address book, calendar, or messages.
• Third-party ad-tracking identifiers.
• Any cross-site or cross-app browsing history.

• Deliver the news, alerts, and events you came for.
• Send the Week-Ender and occasional announcements you signed up for.
• Run fair community contests like Top Dog.
• Give local sponsors anonymous, aggregate ad-performance metrics.
• Improve the site based on which stories and features people read.

If you purchase advertising, payment is processed securely by Stripe. We never see or store your card number — Stripe handles the entire transaction.

To keep the site fast and reliable, we rely on a small number of trusted services. Data shared with each is limited to what the feature needs.

• Resend — delivers the Week-Ender and our other emails to your inbox.
• Stripe — processes advertising payments.
• OpenAI — powers short AI story summaries and audio narration. Story text is sent to generate them; no personal data is shared.
• Open-Meteo — anonymous weather forecast requests for Edenton, NC.
• Emergent — hosts the website backend and image storage.

Every email we send has an unsubscribe link — one click and you are off the list. You can also ask us to remove your email address, contest votes, photo-download records, or any event or contest submissions you made — email us at contests@edentonsociallight.com.

Edenton Social Light is a general-audience news site. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them.

Data in transit is encrypted with HTTPS/TLS. Newsroom access is protected with password authentication and time-limited tokens. We keep only what we need, for as long as we need it.

If we update this policy, we will change the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, if the change is material, we will note it on the front page.

Questions? Email contests@edentonsociallight.com.