Privacy Policy
Effective 23 September 2026.
This policy explains what The California Magazine collects when you use this website, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have.
What we collect
Information you give us:
- Your email address, when you subscribe to a newsletter.
- Your name, email address, company, and any message you write, when you submit an advertising enquiry.
- Correspondence you send us, including news tips and correction requests.
Information collected automatically when you visit:
- Your IP address, browser type, operating system, and referring page.
- Which pages you viewed and how long you spent on them.
- What you click on a page.
- Device identifiers stored in cookies and local storage by our analytics providers, Google Analytics and PostHog.
Apart from those analytics identifiers, we store one item in your browser's local storage: whether you have dismissed the subscription banner. It stays on your device, is never transmitted to us, and clearing your browser data removes it.
Why we collect it
- To deliver newsletters you asked for.
- To respond to enquiries and correspondence.
- To understand which articles are read, so we can decide what to report next.
- To sell and measure advertising.
- To detect and prevent abuse of our forms.
We do not use your data to make automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your personal information for money. We share it only with providers who process it on our behalf, under contract, for the purposes above:
- Our hosting and content delivery provider, which processes server logs.
- Our analytics providers, which process usage data: Google (Google Analytics), and PostHog Inc. (PostHog, on its US cloud), which records page views, clicks and basic device and browser information to show us how the site is used. PostHog does not record sessions on this site.
- Our email service provider, which processes newsletter subscriptions.
- Our market data provider, TradingView, which receives a request from your browser when the market prices strip loads on a page.
- Our advertising partners, which may set cookies and receive identifiers in order to serve and measure ads.
Sharing identifiers with advertising partners for targeted advertising may be treated as a sale or sharing of personal information under California law. You can opt out at any time — see below.
We also disclose information where we are legally required to, and to protect our rights or the safety of others.
Cookies and similar technologies
We use cookies and similar identifiers for analytics and advertising. There is no consent banner: Google Analytics and PostHog set their analytics cookies, and PostHog also uses local storage, when you visit. Most browsers let you refuse or delete cookies through their settings. Refusing them does not prevent you from reading the site. Where your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a valid opt-out of the sale and sharing of personal information.
How long we keep it
- Newsletter subscriptions: until you unsubscribe, plus a short suppression record so we do not email you again.
- Advertising enquiries: for as long as the commercial relationship is live, and for two years afterwards.
- Analytics data: retained by Google Analytics on a rolling basis, currently fourteen months, and by PostHog for the retention period of our PostHog plan.
- Server logs: a rolling thirty days.
Your rights in California
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act gives you the right to:
- Know what personal information we have collected about you, and where it came from.
- Request a copy of that information.
- Request that we delete it.
- Request that we correct information that is inaccurate.
- Opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information.
- Limit the use of sensitive personal information — we do not collect any.
- Not be discriminated against for exercising any of these rights.
To exercise any of these, write to privacy@thecaliforniamagazine.com or use the opt-out page. We will verify your identity by asking you to confirm from the email address on the account, and we will respond within 45 days.
Opt-out page: Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.
You may designate an authorised agent to make a request on your behalf. We will ask for written proof of that authorisation.
Your rights elsewhere
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you have equivalent rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, and objection under the GDPR, and the right to complain to your supervisory authority. Our legal bases are consent for newsletters, and legitimate interests for analytics, security, and responding to correspondence.
Children
This site is written for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us information, write to us and we will delete it.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS. Access to subscriber and enquiry data is limited to staff who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we do not claim otherwise.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the effective date above. Material changes will be announced on the site before they take effect.
Contact
Privacy questions and requests: privacy@thecaliforniamagazine.com.