Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Reading the Site doesn’t require an account, and we don’t ask you for personal information to browse. We collect information only when you give it to us:

• Artist and business submissions: your name, email address, hometown, bio, pronouns, Instagram handle and links, music or video links, photos, and anything else you choose to write in the submission form.
• Video clips: videos and related details you upload through our clip page.
• Nominations: the nominator’s name and the nominee’s name, email address, and Instagram handle.
• Email you send us: your address and whatever you include in the message.
• Staff and writer accounts: login details for people who write for or manage the Site.

Like most web servers, our hosting provider may keep standard technical logs, such as IP address, browser type, and pages requested, for security and troubleshooting.

2. How We Use Information

• To review submissions and, if selected, publish articles, photos, and videos about you or your work;
• To post that content to our Facebook Page and Instagram account, including tagging the Instagram handle you gave us;
• To email you about your submission, a nomination, or a reply to your message;
• To operate, secure, and improve the Site.

We don’t sell your personal information.

3. Public Content

If we publish an article, photo, or video that includes what you submitted, it becomes public on the Site and on social media. Your email address is used to contact you and isn’t published.

4. Service Providers

We use outside services to run the Site. They process information on our behalf and have their own privacy policies:

• Render, for hosting;
• Neon, for the database that stores submissions and articles;
• Resend, for sending email;
• Cloudinary, for storing and processing uploaded video;
• Anthropic, an AI service we use to help draft and edit articles and captions, which may receive submitted text and photos for that purpose;
• Pexels, for stock photography;
• Meta (Facebook and Instagram), where we publish content and read and reply to comments on our own posts.

5. Facebook and Instagram

We publish to our own Facebook Page and Instagram account and may read and reply to comments on our posts. We use Meta’s tools only for our own accounts and don’t collect information about other Facebook or Instagram users beyond what appears publicly on our posts. Meta’s own privacy policy governs what Meta collects when you use its services.

6. Cookies

The Site uses a cookie only to keep staff and writers logged in. We don’t use advertising or tracking cookies. Content embedded from other services, such as social media posts, may set their own cookies.

7. Keeping Your Information

We keep submissions and published content for as long as we need them to run the Site, and we take reasonable steps to protect them. No method of storing or sending data is completely secure, so we can’t guarantee absolute security.

8. Your Choices and Deleting Your Data

You can ask us to see, correct, or delete the information you gave us, or to remove something we published about you. Email info@thisiznyc.com from the address you used and tell us what you’d like done. We’ll respond promptly. Content already shared on Facebook or Instagram may need to be removed there as well, and posts and Reels on Instagram can only be deleted by us in the app.

9. Children

The Site isn’t directed to children under 13, and we don’t knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has sent us information, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date above shows when it last changed, and continued use of the Site means you accept the update.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to info@thisiznyc.com.