Privacy Policy

The Hickory Ledger (“this site,” “we,” “us”) is a golf course reference encyclopedia. This policy describes, plainly, what data this site collects and why.

What we don’t do

• No newsletter and no email list.
• No user accounts, logins, or profiles.
• No sale of personal data, to anyone, ever.
• No comment system or social features.

There is nothing to sign up for on this site, so there is very little of yours for us to hold.

Advertising and third-party cookies

This site is supported by display advertising served through Google AdSense. Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies — including the DoubleClick DART cookie — to serve ads based on a visitor’s prior visits to this site and other sites on the web.

• Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on a visitor’s visit to this site and/or other sites on the internet.
• Visitors may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
• Third-party vendors, including Google, may also use cookies to serve ads based on a visitor’s past visits to this site.

We do not control the cookies Google’s ad network sets. Google’s own policies govern that data; see Google’s Privacy & Terms for details.

Analytics and server logs

This site uses Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google, to understand which pages people read and how they arrive here. Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser and collects information including your IP address, browser and device type, the pages you view, how long you spend on them, and the referring site or search query that brought you here. That information is transmitted to and stored by Google.

We use this data only in aggregate, to decide what to write about next. We do not attempt to identify individual visitors, and we do not combine analytics data with any other information about you.

Google’s own policies govern what Google does with it; see Google’s Privacy & Terms and How Google uses information from sites that use our services.

You can opt out of Google Analytics entirely by installing Google’s official opt-out browser add-on, or by blocking cookies for this site in your browser settings. Nothing on this site requires analytics cookies to function — every page works normally with them blocked.

Separately, and regardless of analytics, the hosting infrastructure that serves these pages generates standard technical request logs (IP address, browser/user-agent string, pages requested, timestamps) for operational and security purposes — the same logs any web server or CDN keeps by default. These logs are not sold, shared, or used for advertising beyond what is described above.

Cookies this site sets directly

This site does not set cookies of its own for accounts, sign-in, or preferences. The cookies present in your browser after visiting come from the two Google services described above: the advertising vendor and Google Analytics.

Children’s privacy

This site is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from them.

Changes to this policy

If what this site actually does changes, this page will change to match it. There is no separate changelog — the current version of this page is the current policy.

Questions

For any question about this policy or about data this site may hold, reach out via the contact page.