Privacy Policy

The premise of this policy

MMJ GAZETTE is a news site you can read without creating an account, without giving a name, and without telling us anything about yourself. That is deliberate. We are also conscious of something specific to this site: the fact that a person reads about medical cannabis can itself be sensitive information, depending on where they live and who is asking. This policy explains what we collect, what we do not, and how to reach us about any of it. Questions go to support@mmjgazette.com with “Privacy request” in the subject line.

What we collect automatically

Like nearly every website, our servers keep standard technical logs when a page is requested: the IP address the request came from, the date and time, the page requested, the referring page if the browser sent one, and a user-agent string describing the browser. We use these logs to keep the site running, to spot abuse and outages, and for aggregate statistics such as which articles are read most. Logs are retained for a limited operational period and then deleted or reduced to aggregate form; they are not used to build profiles of identified readers.

We may use analytics tooling to understand readership in aggregate: how many visitors, which pages, roughly which regions. Analytics data is used to decide what to cover more of, not to identify individuals. Cookies and similar technologies used for this are described in our cookie policy, including how to refuse them.

What you give us directly

If you email us, we receive whatever you choose to send: your email address and the content of your message. We use it to reply and, where relevant, to report a story. Correspondence from patients and sources is treated as confidential; we do not publish or share the content of reader emails without permission, except where the law requires it. We ask you not to send medical records or program documents unless we have specifically requested them for a story you are participating in. If you have sent us something sensitive and want it deleted, ask, and we will delete it unless we are legally required to keep it.

If we operate a newsletter or comment feature, the data involved (an email address for the newsletter; a display name and comment text for comments) is used only for that feature, and every newsletter includes a working unsubscribe link.

What we do not do

• We do not sell personal information. Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone.
• We do not require registration to read the site.
• We do not collect health information about readers, and we do not want it. Reading an article about a condition tells us nothing about you, and we keep it that way by not tying reading behavior to identities.
• We do not knowingly collect information from children. This site covers a substance that is age-restricted everywhere it is legal, and the site is not directed at minors. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

Advertising and third parties

The site is supported by advertising and affiliate links, as described in Ownership and Funding. Third-party advertising services may set cookies or receive standard technical data when ads load; where an advertising partner processes data about visitors, that processing is governed by the partner’s own privacy policy, and the cookie controls in our cookie policy apply. We do not pass advertisers your email address or the content of your messages to us. When you click an affiliate link, the destination site knows the visit came from us; it does not learn who you are from us, because we do not know.

We use a small number of service providers to operate the site (hosting, email, analytics). They process data on our behalf, under their own security obligations, and not for their independent marketing use so far as our agreements can control it.

Legal requests

We comply with valid legal process. Where the law allows, our practice is to notify a person before disclosing their information in response to a demand, and to resist requests that are overbroad. The most protective thing we can tell you is structural: we hold very little, so there is very little to hand over.

Your rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict the use of personal data we hold about you, and to complain to a supervisory authority. Because we hold so little, most requests are simple: usually the answer is your email correspondence with us, which we will show you or delete on request. Write to support@mmjgazette.com and we will respond within the time your local law requires, or within thirty days, whichever is shorter. We will never penalize anyone for exercising a privacy right.

Security and retention

We use reasonable technical measures, including encrypted connections to the site, to protect what we hold. No system is perfectly secure, and we will be honest with readers if an incident ever affects their data. We keep personal data only as long as it serves the purpose it was collected for, then delete it.

Changes

If this policy changes materially, the updated version will be posted here with a revised date. Continued use of the site after a change means the current posted version applies. This policy was last reviewed in 2026.