Privacy Policy

Bellingham Sounds is operated by Bellingham Digital LLC, doing business as Bellingham Sounds ("we," "us," or "our"). We publish local music information through our website, calendar, editorial content, social channels, and printable materials. This policy covers personal information connected with those activities, submissions, correspondence, and our internal editorial and publishing tools. Where applicable data protection law uses that term, we are the controller of this information.

This policy is specific to Bellingham Sounds. It does not cover Noah Williams's personal website, another Bellingham Digital brand, or an independent venue, artist, ticket seller, or social platform.

This policy covers the features and publishing channels we offer, including Google Analytics audience measurement and Meta outreach measurement that operate only with their separate permissions. Our Cookie and Tracking Notice explains those tools, storage, and choices.

Information we collect and where it comes from

Submissions and correspondence. We receive the details you provide when submitting a show, venue, correction, editorial contribution, or message. These may include your name, optional reply email, organization or professional role, event dates and times, venue and artist information, public contact and social links, ticket and source links, descriptions, show notes, and bylines. We also receive subsequent correspondence and information needed to resolve a request. Keep private contact details and sensitive information out of publication fields.

Public and third-party sources. We collect relevant listing and editorial information from artists, venues, organizers, public announcements, public professional profiles, and people submitting information or corrections. We may receive information about you when someone identifies you as a performer, organizer, author, or public business contact. We do not treat a publicly listed email address as permission to subscribe its owner.

Website and security information. Hosting and infrastructure systems process connection information such as IP addresses, browser and device details, request times, requested addresses, referrers, error information, and security events to deliver and protect the service. These operational records are separate from optional audience analytics. Protected forms may use Cloudflare Turnstile, which processes browser, request, and challenge information, and rate limiting that uses derived identifiers to detect repeated requests. A hashed or derived identifier can still be personal information.

Newsletter records. When you subscribe, we collect your email address, signup source, confirmation and subscription status, consent records, preferences, and unsubscribe or complaint history. Necessary delivery information can include delivery status, bounces, timestamps, and message identifiers. We do not add opening pixels or individualized click tracking to our newsletters. Signup is separate from other forms and from cookie choices.

Optional analytics and advertising information. If you permit the relevant purpose, Google Analytics or Meta can receive page-view information for an approved general page, together with connection, browser and device information, identifiers, and timestamps. Google can also produce basic visit, session and engagement records and derive approximate location from connection information. Our integration does not send form values, subscriber addresses, private contacts, searches, event or artist details, URL query strings or fragments, or confirmation and unsubscribe tokens as measurement values. The purposes and choices are explained below.

Social interactions. If you follow, comment on, react to, or message our social accounts, we receive the content and account information the platform makes available to us. Platforms may also provide post performance and audience reports. A public comment remains public according to that platform's settings. Platform account reporting does not mean we have placed the platform's tracker on our website.

Privacy and legal requests. We collect the information needed to understand, verify where appropriate, respond to, and document a request or complaint. We seek only verification information proportionate to the request and its risks.

We do not request payment card numbers, government identification numbers, precise device location, or sensitive information through our general submission tools. Avoid including such information in free-text fields.

Why we use information

We use information to:

• research, review, edit, publish, archive, and correct music listings and editorial content;
• communicate about submissions, permissions, corrections, and other requests;
• operate, maintain, troubleshoot, and secure our website and publishing systems;
• respond to privacy and legal requests and document their resolution;
• confirm subscriptions, provide the newsletter requested, and respect unsubscribes;
• with the relevant permission, understand website use through Google audience analytics and measure outreach through Meta advertising tools; and
• meet legal obligations, investigate abuse, establish or defend legal claims, and protect lawful rights and safety.

Submitting a listing, contacting us, or following a social account does not subscribe you to email. We do not use private submissions or newsletter addresses to create advertising audiences. We do not make decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects about individuals solely through automated processing. We do not deliberately use music interests to infer sensitive traits such as health, religion, or sexual orientation.

Where European Economic Area or United Kingdom law applies, our bases include consent for optional tracking and requested newsletter marketing where required; legitimate interests in proportionate security, correspondence, editorial administration, and operating our publication; and legal obligations. We consider individuals' rights and reasonable expectations when assessing legitimate interests. Contract applies only where processing is necessary for an actual agreement with you. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of earlier processing based on that consent.

Public content and private contact information

Approved listing information, public show notes, credited names, and other editorial content can appear on the calendar, website, archives, newsletters, posters, Facebook, Instagram, and other identified publishing channels. Public content can be available worldwide, indexed by search engines, copied by others, and included in public source repositories and their histories.

Private reply emails, subscriber addresses, and internal correspondence are kept out of public publication fields. Information may also be held in restricted editorial records, drafts, revision histories, local Intake databases, publishing records, exports, and backups so we can review content and maintain the service.

Contact us about inaccurate, excessive, or inappropriate personal information in a listing. We assess correction and removal requests under applicable law, including any protections for legitimate editorial activity. A public source does not automatically remove every privacy obligation. Changes to our own publication cannot recall delivered emails or printed posters, or guarantee removal of independent copies, platform reposts, or search caches.

Providers and other recipients

Authorized people and service providers receive information as needed for their responsibilities. Categories include website hosting and infrastructure, form hosting, correspondence and email delivery, restricted storage and backups, publishing services, and professional advisers. Information may be accessible to a provider under its own terms and legal obligations as well as to us for the purposes described here.

In particular:

• Google receives information submitted through Google-hosted forms, under its own privacy practices as well as our use of the submission. Separately, with Audience analytics permission, Google Analytics receives the approved page-view and connection information described below.
• Meta and other social platforms receive public posts and account-related information for publication and interactions on their services. With Advertising permission, Meta also receives the approved page-view information and identifiers and may combine them with other information for its own services and advertising.
• GitHub supports publication and version history for approved public content and publishing workflows. Private subscriber and reply-contact records are excluded from public content.
• Hosting, email, and backup providers process stored records, messages, and operational information needed to supply those services.
• Cloudflare processes information for Turnstile security checks on forms that use that protection.
• Professional advisers and authorities may receive information where necessary for professional advice, a legal obligation, a valid legal request, or the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

Some recipients process information for their own purposes rather than acting only on our instructions. If you choose an external form or link, that provider receives ordinary connection information and whatever you submit. Our website's practices do not control your subsequent activity on an independent service.

Information may be disclosed as part of a genuine merger, acquisition, reorganization, or transfer of the business, subject to applicable protections. A transfer does not by itself authorize a new purpose requiring fresh notice or consent.

Cookies, analytics, advertising, and your choices

Necessary tools support requested functions and proportionate security. Optional Audience analytics and Advertising are separate purposes, each requiring your affirmative choice before its tools load. You can read the calendar without accepting either. Continuing to browse, submitting a listing, or subscribing to email is not consent to optional tracking.

Use the Cookie preferences 🍪 button beside Privacy & Legal in the footer to review or withdraw permission. The bar has separate Analytics and Advertising choices; Accept choices saves only the selected purposes, and Reject all turns both off. A browser choice applies to that browser and device; another browser or cleared storage may require a new choice. Incompatible earlier choices are not reused for a changed provider configuration.

Google audience analytics. With Audience analytics permission, Google Analytics 4 measures page views on a limited set of general pages. Our code sends an approved page address without a query or fragment and a fixed general page label. Google's tag can also generate basic first-visit, session-start and engagement events under the same analytics permission. We do not send a referrer value or add click, form, scroll, search, purchase, or individual show-view events. Google also processes connection and device information; these identifiers and associated activity are not necessarily anonymous. Google analytics tags and measurement pings remain blocked until permission is given. Audience analytics permission does not authorize Google advertising personalization. The integration excludes Google Signals, Google Ads links, User ID, remarketing audiences, and session replay.

Meta advertising and outreach measurement. With Advertising permission, the Meta Pixel receives a PageView event on approved general pages so we can measure outreach and campaign performance. Meta also receives connection and browser information and identifiers and may associate activity with an account or other information and use it for advertising and other personalization under its own policies and settings. The integration excludes automatic matching, customer-list uploads, retargeting lists, automatic click or form events, and server-side advertising events. Platform account Insights and social post publication are separate from website tracking.

We do not sell newsletter addresses or private submission contacts. Nevertheless, allowing an advertising partner to receive website activity and identifiers can constitute a sale, sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising, or targeted advertising under some privacy laws, even without payment. Advertising permission controls these website disclosures; we do not describe all advertising information as anonymous or exempt.

Browser signals. We honor a recognized Global Privacy Control signal by disabling Advertising for that browser, including an earlier enabled choice. Where the refusal can be saved, Advertising stays off after the signal disappears until a valid new choice is made. The signal does not grant Audience analytics permission or unsubscribe you from email. The older Do Not Track signal does not trigger a separate automatic response; the separate consent choices still apply.

Withdrawing permission stops future optional collection through our controls. It does not automatically erase information a provider already received, and we cannot directly remove every cookie on another company's domain. Contact us for a separate deletion request. Browser and platform settings may offer additional controls. Expanded advertising uses or materially different purposes require further review, notice, and any new permission required by law.

Email choices

Newsletter subscription is optional. Website signup requires email confirmation before activation, and each newsletter includes an unsubscribe route. Our Newsletter Policy explains permission, delivery information, unsubscribing, and how to obtain help. Cookie choices and email preferences are separate.

We may respond directly to a message or request you initiate and send a necessary nonmarketing communication about that matter. Sending a submission or receiving a response does not authorize unrelated promotional email.

Retention and deletion

We determine retention according to the record's purpose and sensitivity, whether editorial review or follow-up is complete, unresolved complaints, your choices, operational recovery needs, applicable legal duties, and relevant limitation periods. There is no single deletion period covering every system or record.

• Submissions, private contacts, and correspondence are retained according to whether review or follow-up is pending, a complaint is unresolved, or a legal or security reason requires a limited record.
• Security and operational records are retained according to the period needed to investigate abuse, troubleshoot, maintain service integrity, and meet applicable duties.
• Subscription information is retained while needed for the requested newsletter. Limited consent evidence and suppression information may remain afterward to demonstrate permission and honor an unsubscribe.
• Optional-tool choices and measurement records, when collected, are retained according to the purpose, consent evidence needed, and the verified settings of the relevant service. Detailed user or event records and aggregate reports can have different retention rules; cookie lifetime and report retention are separate settings.
• Public editorial content and archives can remain available while serving an ongoing publication or historical purpose, subject to applicable rights and correction or removal review.
• Backups, drafts, exports, and recovery copies can retain information beyond its presence in an active public record. Their retention depends on recovery needs, the relevant system's rotation or deletion process, and any necessary legal preservation.

Deleting an active record does not instantly delete every backup, public repository revision, or independent copy. When resolving a request, we consider these locations and any restrictions needed to avoid returning deleted information to ordinary use. A legal hold, dispute, or investigation can require retaining particular information longer. Contact us for an assessment of the records relevant to your request.

Security and international processing

We use administrative and technical safeguards appropriate to the information and risks, including restricted access to private operational records. No website, email system, or storage method is completely secure. Do not send highly sensitive information through general forms.

Our operations are based in the United States. Information may be processed there and in other countries where our providers operate, whose laws may differ from those where you live. Foreign courts and authorities may have lawful access. Where applicable law restricts a transfer, the required safeguards depend on the recipient, destination, and arrangement. Contact us for information about the arrangement relevant to your information. We do not claim that every provider is certified under a particular transfer framework.

Your rights and how to make a request

You can contact us to request access, correction, or deletion, withdraw consent, or raise a privacy concern. Depending on your location, the law's applicability, and lawful exceptions, you may also have rights to information about collection and disclosure, a portable copy, restriction, objection, and opt-out of sale, sharing, targeted advertising, or certain profiling. Some rights depend on the purpose and legal basis for processing. We do not unlawfully discriminate against someone for exercising protected rights.

Use Privacy requests and legal contact. Describe the request and the information or interaction concerned. No account is required. An authorized agent may act where applicable, with appropriate evidence of authority. We verify identity proportionately when necessary; we do not require sensitive identity documents simply to receive a request.

We respond within applicable legal deadlines, explain any lawful extension, and give reasons if we cannot fulfill a request. Rights can be limited by others' rights, legal obligations, security needs, or protected expression. Where permitted, we may retain a minimal record to document the response or respect your choices.

To seek review of a decision, reply to it or contact us using the same route with the subject Privacy request appeal. This route also allows you to ask us to reconsider when a formal statutory appeal right does not apply. You may complain directly to the privacy regulator, attorney general, or supervisory authority with jurisdiction over your concern, without first contacting us. EEA and UK residents can complain to their applicable data protection authority; Canadian residents can contact the applicable federal or provincial privacy commissioner.

Children

Bellingham Sounds serves a general local music audience. An "all ages" listing describes an event's admission rules. Our submission tools and newsletter signup are not intended for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their personal information through these tools. Where local law requires a higher age for an individual's own consent, that requirement also applies. We do not knowingly sell or share children's information for behavioral advertising. If we learn that a child has supplied information contrary to these practices, we take appropriate steps to remove it or meet applicable parental-consent requirements. Contact us if you believe a child's information has been provided. Additional protections can apply to older minors under applicable law.

Changes to this policy

We update this policy when our practices or legal requirements change and identify the effective date above. We provide additional notice of material changes and obtain fresh consent where required. Posting a revised policy or continuing to browse does not itself authorize a new use requiring consent.