Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 1, 2026

This policy explains what information Cincinnati Soccer Talk (“CST,” “we,” “us”) collects when you use cincinnatisoccertalk.com, how we use it, and the choices you have. The site is hosted by IONOS. Questions: feedback@cincinnatisoccertalk.com.

Information you provide

Contact and sponsorship forms: your name, email address and message. We use it to respond, manage your inquiry (including any ongoing sponsorship discussion and related business records), and protect against spam and abuse. Form messages are delivered to our email account, provided by Google Workspace.
Email subscriptions: if you subscribe to new posts, your email address is handled by Jetpack (Automattic) to send you updates. Every email has an unsubscribe link.
Patreon members: memberships are handled by Patreon. Through Patreon we can see your name, email address, membership tier and status, pledge amount, join date and payment history (dates, amounts and status). Patreon processes the payment itself.
Donations and sponsorships paid through Stripe: Stripe processes one-time donations and sponsor subscriptions and invoices. Through Stripe we can see your name, email address, business name (if provided), subscription details, and payment and refund history (amounts, dates and status). Stripe handles your card or payment account details; we see at most the payment method type and, for cards, the brand and last four digits.

Patreon’s and Stripe’s own privacy policies apply to the information they collect.

Automatic collection

Analytics: we use Google Analytics and Jetpack Stats (Automattic). These tools collect information such as pages visited, approximate location, device and browser type, and how you arrived at the site. We use analytics primarily to understand overall readership and site usage. See how Google uses information from sites that use its services and Automattic’s privacy notice.
Security and spam protection: Jetpack and Akismet (Automattic) process IP addresses and form submissions to block attacks and spam.
Server logs: IONOS records standard technical data (such as IP address, browser and time of request) to keep the site running and secure.

Advertising and cookies

We use Google AdSense to show ads. Google and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to serve and measure ads, including ads based on your visits to this site and other sites on the internet.

You can turn off personalized ads at Google Ad Settings.
You can opt out of some third-party vendors’ use of cookies for personalized advertising at aboutads.info.

Cookies are small files stored by your browser. This site and the services above use cookies and similar technologies for analytics, advertising and security. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking cookies may affect some features, embedded content, or your saved preferences.

Consent choices (EEA, UK and Switzerland)

Visitors from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are shown a consent message provided by Google, a Google-certified consent management platform. It offers three choices: Consent, Do not consent and Manage options. Manage options lets you review each purpose and ad partner and object to processing based on legitimate interest.

Your choice is stored in your browser and passed to Google’s advertising and analytics services through Google consent mode.

To change or withdraw your choice at any time, use the Privacy and cookie settings link in the site footer. The link appears only where the consent message applies. Visitors elsewhere can use the ad opt-outs above and their browser settings.

Embedded content and links

Articles may include embedded content from other sites, such as X (Twitter), YouTube and our podcast player (Libsyn). Embedded content behaves as if you visited that site, and those sites may collect data about you. We also link to other sites, including Patreon and podcast apps; we aren’t responsible for their privacy practices.

Sharing

We do not sell contact-form information, subscriber email lists, or supporter information. We share information with the service providers named in this policy so they can run their part of the site, and when required by law. Advertising and analytics providers collect information directly from your browser as described above.

Retention

Contact and sponsorship messages stay in our email account for as long as we need them for correspondence and business records.
Subscriber emails: Jetpack uses your address to send updates until you unsubscribe. To have your subscriber record deleted, email us.
Patreon and Stripe records are kept by those services under their own retention rules; payment records may be retained for tax and accounting purposes.
Google Analytics: user-level and event-level data is kept for 2 to 14 months depending on the data type, with the user-level period renewed on new activity. Aggregated reports are not subject to these limits.
Jetpack Stats data is kept by Automattic under its own practices; CST does not configure its retention.
Server logs are kept by IONOS according to its own practices.
Backups: copies of site data may remain in our backups until those backups are replaced or deleted.

Your rights

You can ask us to access, correct or delete personal information you’ve given us by emailing feedback@cincinnatisoccertalk.com. Some records, such as payment records, may need to be kept for legal or accounting reasons. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under local law, and we will respond to requests as required.

Children

This site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child has sent us information, contact us and we will delete it.