This page explains how The Talbot Patriot and its publisher, Talbot Patriot LLC (“we,” “us,” the paper), collect, use, share, and protect information when you visit talbotpatriot.com, talbotpatriot.grok.me, or any page we operate (the Site).

It is written for a small local news site. The structure follows The Talbot Spy / Spy Community Media and, for Easton readers, The Star Democrat — then cuts every practice we do not actually run. If we add a newsletter list, a card processor, or a third-party ad network, we will name it here before we turn it on.

Who we are

The Talbot Patriot is an independent, online news site for Talbot County, published by Talbot Patriot LLC, Easton, Maryland. Peter Gorman is owner and editor of record. Desk names on stories (Helen Voss, Marcus Hale, and others) are beat labels, not separate employees. See About and AI disclosure.

Privacy questions and requests: talbotpatriot [at] proton.me or the Contact form at /contact.

What this policy covers

It covers the Site, the Contact form, letters and event notices, advertising inquiries, founding-gift correspondence, public comments, and the Morning Patriot subscribe card. That card sends your email to Buttondown for the weekday briefing list.

It does not cover other websites we link to, county or state records we cite, or YouTube / Granicus meeting video we embed. Those services have their own policies.

Information you give us

You may send us name, town, and email, and any phone number you choose to include. You may send the text of a letter, comment, correction, obituary notice, event listing, advertising inquiry, or news tip. If you offer a founding gift or book an ad: billing name, business name, and the amount or package. We do not take card numbers on the Site today. If a processor is added, it will be named here.

You do not have to create an account to read the Site.

Information collected automatically

The host keeps ordinary server logs: IP address, approximate region, browser type, device type, pages requested, date and time, and the page you came from if the browser sends a referrer. We use this to keep the Site up, find broken pages, and see which stories are read — not to build a file on a reader.

If you dismiss the “Add the Patriot” install chip, the browser may remember that choice in local storage. That is not an account.

What we do not collect today

No reader login. No precise GPS. No payment-card numbers on our pages. No SMS short code. No Google Analytics, measurement pixel, or ad-network tag. No generated photographs of real people used as news pictures. See AI disclosure.

The Morning Patriot card on story pages is a subscribe form. It is not a contact form.

How we use information

We use what you send to publish, edit, or decline letters, obituaries, events, and corrections; to answer advertising and gift questions; to send the Morning Patriot weekday briefing if you subscribe; to send the monthly one-page progress note to a founding donor who asked for it; to correct the record; to defend the paper if a submission is used as a claim against us; and to keep the Site running.

A letter we accept runs with the writer’s name and town. A signed comment we accept runs with the writer’s name. We will not publish the email address from that form. We will not publish a phone number or a private street address unless you asked us to (for example, an event venue).

Stories are drafted with assistance from Grok from named public records and published reporting. Reader tips go to the editor. Desk bylines are beats, not separate people. See AI disclosure.

How we share information

We do not rent, sell, or share personal information with other people or non-affiliated companies for their direct marketing unless you tell us to.

We do not give a subscriber list, Contact-form addresses, or unpublished mail to an advertiser because they bought a slot. Direct sponsors receive a labeled unit on the page. They do not receive the mailbox.

We may share information with the processors listed below; if the law requires it; to protect a person from a credible threat or to protect the paper’s rights; or if Talbot Patriot LLC is sold or merged, so the paper can continue.

A letter or comment you ask us to publish is public.

Who carries the Site and the mail

• xAI / Grok Build hosts the Site and its server logs.
• Proton AG holds talbotpatriot [at] proton.me.
• The Contact form and story-comment intake forward fields to that mailbox (FormSubmit.co or a successor).
• Buttondown holds Morning Patriot subscriber addresses and sends the weekday briefing. Their policy is at buttondown.com/legal/privacy.
• If a page embeds public YouTube or Talbot County / Granicus video, that host may set its own cookie.

We hire them to move pages and mail, not to sell a reader list.

Comments, tips, and letters

Signed comments may sit in your browser until a newsroom backend exists. They are not a vote count. A published comment may show the name you gave. It will not show your email.

News tips are for the editor. We will not publish your name as a source unless you agree or the law requires it.

Sending a tip through /contact or Proton mail does not create a confidential-source relationship, an attorney-client relationship, or a duty to publish. Do not send highly sensitive or legally privileged material through an ordinary form until an editor has agreed on a safer method.

Submitting a tip does not make you a staff reporter and does not put you on a mailing list.

Advertising

Paid units are labeled Advertisement. Named placements, one sponsor per slot: one Front-page sponsor (homepage Top Stories and the Sections rail on the homepage and section indexes, not on story pages), four Desk sponsors (Civic Affairs, Arts & Makers, State & Region, and Bayside Bleachers — Bleachers uses the homepage well bar and its section page), one article page sponsor in the Sections rail on stories, and one Calendar sponsor.

Those units are first-party cards we place. They are not a behaviorally targeted network. If a network is added, its name and an opt-out will appear here before it runs.

Advertising does not buy coverage.

Cookies — do we need a banner?

The banner law people mean is the EU ePrivacy Directive, not a U.S. statute. Strictly necessary storage (the page loads, a form can send, an install-chip dismissal is remembered) does not need a banner.

As of September 14, 2026: no Google Analytics, no pixel, no ad-network tag. Comment text may sit in the browser because you wrote it. YouTube or Granicus, when embedded, can set their own cookies; we treat that as third-party content.

Because we do not run a non-essential first-party tracker, we do not put a sitewide Accept / Reject bar on every page. A fake bar that does not block scripts is worse than no bar.

If we add an analytics product, a paid ad network, or a video embed that loads before you click Play, we will name the vendor here and add a consent control that actually blocks that script, at least for visitors we can reasonably treat as EU/UK. Until then, no banner. You can block cookies in the browser. The Site will still load.

Not on this date

These are not live. They will be named here before they switch on:

• A card processor or reader login.
• Google Analytics, Plausible, Fathom, or any measurement pixel.
• A third-party ad network or cross-site targeted advertising.
• A sitewide cookie banner.
• Website Terms at /terms.

Children

The Site is general-audience local news. School coverage is about the system, not a children’s club. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. We do not run a contest or game that asks a minor for contact information. If a parent believes we have a child’s email or name in the mailbox, write talbotpatriot [at] proton.me and we will delete it.

How long we keep it

Published letters and corrections stay with the story. Unpublished submissions and ad inquiries stay in the editor’s mailbox as long as they are useful to answer you or to show we handled a complaint — then deleted or boxed with the paper’s files. Server logs follow the host’s ordinary rotation. We do not keep a marketing database of readers, because we do not have one.

Security

We use a password-protected Proton mailbox and a hosted static site. No method of transmission on the open internet is perfectly secure. Do not send a Social Security number, a bank account, or a card number through the Contact form. If Maryland’s Personal Information Protection Act requires notice of a breach of specified personal information, we will give it.

Your choices

Write talbotpatriot [at] proton.me and we will:

• Confirm whether we have mail from you, and send a copy of what we can find.
• Correct a name or town on a letter we still control.
• Delete an unpublished submission when there is no legal reason to keep it.
• Add a correction note on a published page when the facts require it. We do not silently erase a letter that already ran.

Journalistic and legal exceptions apply to a published story and to a record we must keep. We do not sell personal information. If our practices ever met the definition of a sale, share, or targeted advertising under a statute that applies to us, we would update this page and offer the required choice before using information that way.

Europe, the UK, and GDPR

Talbot Patriot LLC is established in Maryland, United States. We do not have an office, employee, or representative in the European Union or the United Kingdom. We do not price in euros, ship to the EU, or run EU-targeted ads.

GDPR Article 3 does not apply to a site merely because a person in Europe can type the URL. It applies if we offer goods or services to people in the Union or monitor their behavior there. This paper is Talbot County news. We do not monitor EU readers for advertising.

If you write us from the EEA or the UK, we will still answer a request to see, correct, or delete unpublished mail, as house practice — not because we have appointed an EU representative or claimed GDPR controller status. We have not.

Maryland

Maryland’s Personal Information Protection Act requires reasonable security for specified personal information and notice if that information is breached. We follow that statute for anything that reaches the mailbox.

The Maryland Online Data Privacy Act applies to organizations that processed personal data of at least 35,000 Maryland consumers in the prior year, or 10,000 consumers if more than 20 percent of revenue came from selling personal data. This paper does not meet those thresholds and does not sell personal data. We still publish this notice so a reader can find the editor.

Other sites

Links to Talbot County, the State of Maryland, YouTube, X, Granicus, or another newsroom are for the record. Their cookies and forms are not ours.

Changes

We may revise this policy. The date at the top will change. A newsletter list, a card processor, an ad network, a cookie banner, or a /terms page will be described here before we switch it on.

Legal disclaimer

This page describes how The Talbot Patriot handles information. It is not legal advice, a contract for services, or a warranty that the Site will be error-free or uninterrupted. Reading a story does not create an attorney-client or journalist-source relationship. Submitting a tip does not make you a correspondent and does not obligate us to publish.

We are not a 501(c)(3). Gifts to Talbot Patriot LLC are not tax-deductible and do not buy editorial control. Advertising is a business purchase, not a donation.

Officials, votes, scores, and quotes in our stories come from the public record cited on the page. See AI disclosure. If a fact is wrong, use Contact. A correction is the remedy; this policy is not.

Maryland law governs this Site and this notice, except where a mandatory consumer statute of another state applies to that state’s resident. Disputes about this notice are to be brought in the state or federal courts sitting in Maryland.

Contact details

The Talbot Patriot / Talbot Patriot LLC
Easton, Maryland, United States
Online only

Editor of record: Peter Gorman

Privacy, corrections, letters, events, obituaries, advertising, and news tips: talbotpatriot [at] proton.me

Contact form: /contact

On X: @TalbotPatriot

We do not publish a street address or a phone number on this Site. Do not send a Social Security number, bank account, or card number to the mailbox or the form.