Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026

1. Introduction

HotpotNews ("we", "our", or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website hotpotnews.com.

2. Information We Collect

Information you provide

  • Email address when subscribing to our newsletter or participating in reader surveys
  • Name and email when contacting us or submitting story pitches
  • Account details and Google Account authentication tokens when signing in or contributing via Google Reader Revenue Manager

Information automatically collected

  • Log data (anonymized IP address, browser type, device identifiers, referring pages, read timestamps)
  • Cookies, web beacons, and local storage preferences (theme, bookmark sync, reading streaks, ad personalization choices)

3. How We Use Your Information

  • To deliver editorial newsletters and reader survey updates (with explicit consent)
  • To process voluntary contributions and entitlements via Google Reader Revenue Manager
  • To serve relevant, non-intrusive advertisements that support our free journalism
  • To respond to editorial inquiries and corrections requests
  • To analyze aggregated traffic patterns and improve content relevance
  • To comply with applicable laws, copyright safeguards, and platform security requirements

4. Google AdSense & Third-Party Advertising

We use third-party advertising companies, specifically Google AdSense, to serve advertisements when you visit our website. These companies may use information about your visits to this and other websites (collected via cookies, web beacons, or IP addresses) in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you.

  • Third-Party Vendor Cookies: Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to HotpotNews or other websites on the Internet.
  • Advertising Cookies (DoubleClick): Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to our users based on their visits to our site and/or other sites across the Internet.
  • Opt-Out of Personalized Advertising: Users may opt out of personalized advertising at any time by visiting Google Ads Settings. Alternatively, you can opt out of third-party vendor use of cookies for personalized advertising by visiting AboutAds.info or the Network Advertising Initiative.
  • Google Partner Data Usage Disclosure: For detailed transparency into how Google collects, shares, and uses data when you use partner sites, please review How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.

5. Data Sharing & Infrastructure Providers

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. We only share data with trusted infrastructure providers strictly necessary to operate our news platform:

  • Google (AdSense, Reader Revenue Manager & Google Pay): Ad serving and reader subscription processing subject to Google's Privacy Policy.
  • Cloudflare: Provides edge delivery, DDoS mitigation, and Cloudflare Turnstile anti-spam verification without selling user data.
  • Transactional Email (Resend): Delivers account verification and requested newsletter issues.

6. Cookies & Consent

We use essential cookies for authentication and preferences, analytics cookies to monitor readership, and advertising cookies to deliver contextual and personalized ads.

You can manage or withdraw your consent preferences at any time via our interactive Cookie Policy or through your browser settings.

7. Your Rights (GDPR & CCPA / CPRA)

  • Access, rectify, or delete your personal data
  • Opt out of the processing of personal information for targeted advertising
  • Unsubscribe from newsletter distributions with one click
  • Lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority

8. Contact Us

For privacy inquiries or data rights requests, contact our Data Protection Officer at privacy@hotpotnews.com.