What we collect

Browsing requires no account. We collect two kinds of information:

1. Analytics data (automatic). We use Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager, to understand how the site is used — which pages are visited, roughly where visitors come from (country/region, not your identity), what device and browser you use, and how you move through the site. This helps us fix problems and decide what to build next. It sets cookies and collects an approximate location derived from your IP address. We have enabled IP anonymisation, which shortens your IP address before it is stored so it cannot be tied back to you.

2. Anything you send us through the contact form or by email (only if you choose to). If you use the form on our contact page to submit an event, list a deal, list your business or service, advertise, or report a correction, we collect what you enter — typically your name, email, and the details of your submission (and any business name, date, location or link you add). If you email us instead, we receive whatever you put in that email. Either way, we use this information only to action your request and reply to you.

Contact-form submissions are stored in a private Google Sheet that only we can access, using Google Apps Script to receive them. The form connection is one-way (write-only): it can add your submission but cannot read anything already in the sheet. This data is handled by Google as part of Google Workspace under Google's own privacy policy. We keep submissions only as long as needed to handle your request and to keep a reasonable record of listings, and you can ask us to delete yours at any time.

What we do not do

• We do not run ads or use advertising cookies.
• We do not sell, rent or trade your information. Ever.
• We do not use our analytics to identify you personally — it tells us patterns, not names.
• We never ask for financial details, payment information or government ID numbers. If anything claiming to be HFX.today asks you for these, it is not us.

Analytics & cookies

We use Google Tag Manager to load Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Google Tag Manager is a container that loads our analytics tag; Google Analytics is the tool that measures site usage. Both are provided by Google.

These set cookies in your browser (for example _ga) that help distinguish one visit from another so counts aren't wildly inflated. The data is processed by Google on our behalf; Google's handling is governed by its own privacy policy, and you can read how Google uses data from sites that use its services at this page.

How to opt out. You can install Google's official Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, use your browser's "Do Not Track" or cookie controls, or browse in private/incognito mode. Blocking these cookies does not affect any feature of this site — everything works either way.

Live data on this site

Some pages show live public information — weather, news headlines, transit data. To display it, your browser fetches directly from those public sources (for example Environment Canada weather models, or a publisher's public RSS feed). Those requests go from your browser to them; we are not in the middle recording it.

External links

This site links out heavily — to news publishers, employers, landlords, event organisers and government sites. Once you click through, you are on their site and their privacy policy applies, not ours.

Hosting

This site is hosted on Netlify. Like every web host, their servers keep standard technical logs (such as IP address and request time) for security and operations. That is infrastructure-level logging we do not read, analyse or use.

Children

This is a general-audience local information site. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

Your rights

Under Canadian privacy law (PIPEDA) you may ask what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. In practice the only information we hold directly is whatever you have sent us through the contact form or by email; the analytics data sits in Google Analytics in aggregated, mostly anonymised form. You can remove the analytics cookies yourself at any time using the opt-out options above. Email us for anything else and we will action it.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, the date at the top changes. We will not quietly start collecting more than we do today.

Contact

Questions, or want something deleted? Get in touch →