Privacy policy

Big Bear News is an independent local news site for Big Bear Valley, California, operated by SAUERAPPLE LLC, doing business as Big Bear News ("we," "us"). This policy explains what personal information the site collects, how it is used, and the choices you have. Questions go to hello@bigbear.news.

The site is free, and we keep data collection to the minimum:

• Newsletter email. If you sign up for the newsletter, we store the email address you give us and your delivery preference (for example, weekly). That is the only personal information we ask you for.
• A cookieless page count — for everyone. Each time a page loads, we record the page's address, a coarse device type (phone, tablet, or desktop), the site you arrived from, and any campaign tags in the link. There is no cookie, no identifier, and nothing that links one page view to another or to you. Our analytics provider derives an approximate location from your IP address, as any service you make a request to can. If your browser sends Global Privacy Control, even this is not recorded.
• Detailed usage analytics — only if you opt in. These stay off until you accept them in the consent banner. If you accept, we can also see return visits, how far through a story you read, and which links you follow. If you decline, or never choose, none of it is recorded.
• Subscriber reading, if you opt in and subscribe. If you accept analytics and you are a newsletter subscriber — you signed up on the site, updated your preferences, or arrived from a link in our email — we associate your analytics with a one-way hash of your email address, so we can see which stories and letters subscribers read. The address itself is never sent to our analytics provider, and the hash cannot be turned back into it. Declining analytics, sending Global Privacy Control, or clearing your site data breaks the link, and you can ask us to delete it at hello@bigbear.news.
• Basic technical logs. Like almost every website, our hosting provider processes standard request data (such as IP address, browser type, and timestamps) to serve pages, keep the site secure, and diagnose errors. These logs are short-lived.

We do not knowingly collect sensitive personal information, and we do not ask you to create an account to read the news.

Local businesses may sponsor non-civic placements; their payments are between us and them, and no additional reader data is collected as a result.

• To send the newsletter you asked for, and nothing else.
• To count how many people read each page, in aggregate, so we know what is worth covering — and so we can tell what share of readers accept analytics at all.
• If you opt in, to understand in more detail how the site is used — including which stories subscribers read — so we can improve it.
• To keep the site running, secure, and free of errors.

We do not use your information for targeted advertising, and we do not sell or rent it.

We honor Global Privacy Control (GPC). If your browser or a browser extension sends a GPC signal, we treat it as an automatic decline, and it overrides everything else on this page: the consent banner never appears, no analytics load, no usage events are recorded, and the cookieless page count above is skipped too. Nothing at all is recorded. GPC is the modern successor to the older "Do Not Track" (DNT) signal; because we serve no targeted advertising and sell no data, you receive the same protection regardless of which your browser sends.

We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies. The cookieless page count sets nothing in your browser. Only if you accept analytics do our tools set a first-party identifier in your browser to count returning visits; if you decline or send GPC, none is set. You can clear or block these in your browser settings at any time without losing access to the site.

We rely on a small set of vendors to run the site. They process data only to provide their service to us, under their own privacy and security terms:

• Vercel — website hosting and delivery, including request logs.
• Supabase — the database that stores newsletter sign-ups.
• Resend — sends the newsletter to subscribers.
• PostHog — usage analytics. It receives the cookieless page count for every visitor, and the browser analytics tool loads only after you opt in.
• Sentry — error monitoring so we can find and fix bugs.

We do not sell or share your personal information with third parties for their own marketing.

We keep your newsletter email only for as long as you stay subscribed; when you unsubscribe, we stop sending and remove your address from the active list. Anonymous analytics and technical logs are retained for a limited period for security and product-improvement purposes, then aged out.

• Unsubscribe anytime. Every newsletter has a one-click unsubscribe link at the bottom, and you can manage your preferences from the preferences page.
• Change your analytics choice anytime. Analytics run only if you accept them in the consent banner, and you can change your mind below. Enabling Global Privacy Control in your browser turns them off automatically.

  Your current choice: not set. Change your cookie choices.

• Reach a human. Email hello@bigbear.news to ask what we hold about you, or to request that we correct or delete it.

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (as amended by the CPRA) gives you the right to know what personal information a business collects about you, to request that it be deleted or corrected, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.

We do not sell or share personal information, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioral advertising — so there is nothing to opt out of on that front. To exercise your right to know, delete, or correct, email hello@bigbear.news and we will verify and respond as the law requires. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of these rights.

The site is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us information, email hello@bigbear.news and we will delete it.

We use reasonable administrative and technical measures to protect the limited information we hold. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to keep your data safe and to collect as little of it as possible.

We may update this policy as the site evolves or the law changes. When we do, we will revise the "last updated" date above, and we will note material changes here. Continued use of the site after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Questions about privacy, or a request about your data? Email hello@bigbear.news. You can also read our terms of use and how we use AI.