Privacy Policy

Last updated: May 6, 2025

This Privacy Policy explains how our Smoky Mountains community forum (“we”, “us”, or “the Site”) collects, uses, and protects your personal information. By using this Site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. This policy applies to all users of our forum, including residents and tourists interested in the Smoky Mountains, and it is governed by U.S. law. We are committed to safeguarding your privacy and complying with applicable laws such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

In our data practices, we adhere to the following principles:contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}:

• Transparency: We clearly state what data we collect and why.
• Data Minimization: We collect only the personal information that is necessary for legitimate purposes.
• Consent and Choice: When required, we will ask for your consent before collecting or processing sensitive data (for example, providing opt-ins for cookies where applicable).
• Security: We apply appropriate security measures to protect your personal data and require any partners or service providers to do the same.
• User Rights: We respect your rights over your personal data, including the rights to access, correct, or delete information as described below.

Information We Collect

Information You Provide to Us: When you create an account or interact on the forum, we collect personal information you voluntarily provide. This includes your username, password, and email address during registration, and any profile details you choose to add (such as avatar, bio, location). We also collect the content you post on the forum (messages, comments, photos, and other contributions). Please remember that any information you post publicly on the forum is visible to other users and visitors.

Information Collected Automatically: When you use the Site, our systems and third-party services may automatically collect certain data about your device and usage of the forum. This data may include your IP address, browser type and version, device type (e.g., mobile or desktop), operating system and version, referring website, pages you visit on our Site, the time and date of your visits, and other statistical information. We collect IP addresses and device identifiers for purposes such as preventing abuse, diagnosing service issues, analytics, and enforcing our moderation policy. We may also derive approximate location information from your IP address (e.g., city or region) to understand where our community is coming from, but we do not collect precise GPS location from your device.

Cookies and Similar Technologies: We use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons, pixels, and local storage) to provide and improve our services. Cookies are small text files placed on your device that help the Site remember your preferences and recognize you on subsequent visits. For example, we use cookies to keep you logged in, to remember your forum settings (like theme or language choices), and to gather aggregate data about user engagement. In addition to our first-party cookies, we and authorized third parties (such as analytics providers and advertising partners) use cookies and tags to collect data associated with your browsing of the Site. For details on our use of cookies and how you can control them, see the Cookies and Advertising section below.

How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information for the following purposes:

• To Operate the Forum: We process your account information and forum activities to provide you with our community services. This includes displaying your posts and profile to other users, facilitating discussions (e.g., posting your questions or replies), and providing customer support when you have issues with your account.
• To Communicate with You: We use your contact information (email) to send you important account or transaction-related messages, such as account activation emails, password reset links, notifications about replies or private messages (if you have such notifications enabled), or administrative announcements. You can adjust your notification preferences in your account settings.
• To Enforce Our Policies and Ensure Safety: We use personal data (like IP addresses and posted content) to monitor for violations of our Moderation Policy, to detect and prevent fraud, spam, and abusive behavior, and to investigate suspicious activities or security incidents. For example, we may use your IP to block abusive users or multiple accounts, and we may review content or messages that are reported by other users for rule violations.
• To Personalize Your Experience: We may use information about you to customize your experience on the Site. For instance, we might highlight new forum posts or sections that are relevant to your interests, or remember which forum threads you have already read. (Note: We do not use personal information for automated profiling or decisions that produce legal or significant effects on you without human intervention.)
• For Analytics and Improvements: We analyze how users interact with our Site to improve the forum’s functionality, performance, and user experience. We might use Google Analytics or similar analytics tools to understand overall traffic patterns, popular content, and user engagement. These analytics services may use cookies and collect aggregated data (such as which pages are most visited or how long users stay on the site). This information helps us troubleshoot issues, optimize the Site’s layout and features, and plan new features that better serve the community. (Any analytics data shared with third-party providers is in aggregate form or pseudonymized; we do not share your identifiable personal details for analytics purposes.)
• For Advertising and Monetization: We display third-party advertisements on our forum to support our operations (see the “Cookies and Advertising” section below for details). We may use and share certain data (such as cookies and device identifiers) with our advertising partners to allow for the serving of relevant ads, frequency capping, ad performance measurement, and fraud detection.
• To Comply with Legal Requirements: We may use or disclose your information as necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal processes or governmental requests. For example, if we receive a lawful subpoena or court order, we may be required to provide the requested data. We also may use your data to enforce our own legal rights or agreements (such as to defend against legal claims or to enforce our Terms and Moderation Policy).

How We Share Your Information

We value your privacy. Except as described here, we do not share your personal information with third parties. In particular, we do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to outside parties for their own marketing purposes:contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}. We may share information in the following circumstances:

• Service Providers: We use trusted third-party companies to help us run the Site and provide our services (for example, web hosting providers, data storage or backup services, email delivery services for sending notification emails, or analytics providers like Google Analytics). These service providers may process personal data on our behalf and under our instructions. We only share the data that is necessary for them to perform their functions, and they are contractually obligated to keep your information confidential and use it only for the agreed-upon purpose.
• Advertising Partners: We partner with advertising networks and ad-serving providers (such as Mediavine) to display ads on our forum. These third-party ad partners may receive certain data from our Site through cookies or similar technologies (as explained in the “Cookies and Advertising” section). For example, when ads are displayed, our advertising partners may collect your device identifiers and browsing information (like cookie data, IP address, and browser info) to provide personalized ads and measure their effectiveness. We do not share your name or contact details with advertisers; however, as described below, advertising cookies may allow our partners to infer information about you to tailor ads. Please see the detailed Mediavine advertising disclosure below for more information.
• Public and Other Users: Content that you post on public areas of the forum (such as discussion threads, replies, or public profile information) will be visible to anyone who visits the Site. Other registered users will also be able to see certain information about you, such as your username, avatar, join date, and post history. Do not share personal information in your public posts that you are not comfortable making public. We are not responsible for how other users might use information you make public in the forum.
• Legal Compliance and Protection: We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) comply with a legal obligation (for instance, responding to law enforcement requests or court orders); (b) protect and defend our rights or property, or the safety of our users or the public (for example, investigating and addressing illegal activities or violations of our rules); or (c) protect against legal liability. If we ever receive a request relating to your personal data, we will evaluate it carefully and only provide data if we believe it is legally required.
• Business Transfers: If we ever decide to reorganize or transfer all or part of our forum (for example, if the forum is sold, merged into another organization, or undergoes a restructure), your personal information may be transferred to the new owner as part of that transaction. If such a transfer occurs, your information would remain subject to this Privacy Policy (unless you are notified of changes). We will notify users via the Site or email of any such change in ownership or control of personal information.

Cookies and Advertising

We use cookies and similar technologies as described earlier, and we want you to understand how they work and your choices. When you first visit our Site, you may see a notification about cookie usage and be given the option to consent where required. By continuing to use the Site, you agree to our use of cookies as described in this policy.

First-Party Cookies: These are cookies set by us (the forum). For example, when you log in, we set a cookie to keep you logged in during your session. We also use cookies to remember your preferences (such as your chosen forum layout or other settings) and to gather analytics data (with services like Google Analytics). The data we collect via first-party cookies may include things like how often you visit, which pages you view, and actions you take (e.g., voting in a forum poll), which helps us improve the site. You can disable these cookies via your browser settings; however, core features of the forum (like staying logged in or viewing certain content) may not work properly if cookies are disabled.

Third-Party Cookies: Our Site allows certain third parties to set cookies or use other technologies on your device. The primary third-party cookies on our forum come from our analytics provider(s) and our advertising partner (Mediavine). For instance, we use Google Analytics, which sets cookies to collect information about how visitors use our site. Google may use this data for its own analytics purposes; you can read Google’s own Privacy Policy to learn how it works. You can opt out of Google Analytics tracking by using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. Additionally, our advertising partners use cookies to serve ads and perform ad targeting as detailed below.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.:contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The "help" feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

• IP Address
• Operating System type
• Operating System version
• Device Type
• Language of the website
• Web browser type
• Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit the National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit the Digital Advertising Alliance website and the Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at the Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit the Mediavine Partners page.:contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

Managing Cookies and Ad Preferences: You have a choice in how cookies are used. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies or alert you when a cookie is being placed on your device. Please note, disabling cookies may affect the functionality of this forum (for example, you might not be able to log in or use certain features if cookies are turned off). For advertising cookies, as described above, you can opt out of personalized ads by using the NAI and DAA opt-out tools provided in the Mediavine section. If you delete your cookies or use a different browser/device, you may need to opt out again. Additionally, some browsers and browser extensions allow you to signal a “Do Not Track” (DNT) preference; however, our Site does not currently respond to DNT signals, in part because there is no consistent industry standard for compliance. We do honor the specific opt-out mechanisms described above for advertising.

Your Rights and Choices

Access and Correction: You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you and to request corrections of any inaccuracies. You can access and update much of your account information by logging into your profile settings on the forum. For any information not accessible through the profile or for additional requests, you may contact us to assist with access. We will provide you a copy of your personal data in our records (to the extent required by law), and correct or update any inaccuracies you report.

Deletion (Right to be Forgotten): You may request that we delete your personal information. If you would like to close your forum account or have us remove personal data associated with your account, please contact us with your request. Upon verification of your identity and review of your request, we will delete or anonymize the personal information we hold about you that we are not legally required or otherwise permitted to retain. Note that content you have posted publicly (e.g., forum posts) may remain visible to other users after account deletion, but it will typically be disassociated from your profile (for example, posts might display an anonymous username like “FormerUser”). We also may retain certain information in backup archives for a limited period or as required to establish or defend legal claims.

Withdrawal of Consent: If we rely on your consent to process any personal data (for example, for optional features or email newsletters), you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. You can unsubscribe from non-essential communications by following the instructions in those messages or adjusting your account settings if available. For cookies, you can manage your preferences as described above. Note that withdrawing consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Objection and Restriction: In certain situations, you have the right to object to or ask us to restrict our processing of your data. For example, if you believe we are processing your information based on our legitimate interests and it impacts your rights, you can object. Or you can request that we temporarily limit processing if you are verifying the accuracy of your data or have another valid reason. We will review such requests and comply when required by law.

Data Portability: To the extent required by applicable law, you may have the right to request a copy of your personal data in a machine-readable format (for example, a CSV file) so that you can transfer it to another service. Where this right applies, you can ask us for such exports of your data, and we will provide it to you electronically.

California Privacy Rights: If you are a California resident, you are entitled once a year to request a notice describing what categories of personal information we have shared with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. However, we do not share personal information with third parties for independent direct marketing without consent, as noted above. Separately, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) (and its amendment, the CPRA) gives California residents specific rights, including the right to know what personal information a business has collected about you in the past 12 months, the categories of sources of that information, the business or commercial purpose for collecting or sharing it, the categories of third parties with whom it is shared, and the specific pieces of information collected. You also have the right to request deletion of your personal information, and the right to opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of your personal information. (Under CCPA, “sale” can include certain data sharing for advertising. We do not sell personal information for money; the only sharing involving your data is with advertising partners as described in this policy, which may be considered a “sharing” of data for targeted advertising.) If you are a California resident and wish to exercise any of your rights under CCPA, please contact us with your request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights (meaning we will not deny you our services or provide a different level of service just because you exercised your rights).

GDPR and International Users: If you are in the European Economic Area (EEA) or another region with data protection laws, you have rights under the GDPR (or equivalent laws) as described above (e.g., access, deletion, etc.). You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority if you believe we have infringed your rights. Before it reaches that point, we encourage you to contact us so we can address any concerns directly. For users in the EEA, we act as the “data controller” of your personal information collected through the Site. Our legal bases for processing your data include: to fulfill our contract with you (providing the forum service per our Terms), to comply with legal obligations, and our legitimate interests (such as maintaining the security of the Site and improving our services). Where we rely on consent, we will obtain it separately (for example, via a cookie consent banner for EEA users when required). We may transfer your data to the United States (because our servers are located in the U.S.). When we transfer data from the EEA or UK to the U.S., we do so under appropriate safeguards to ensure your data is protected, such as standard contractual clauses or other lawful mechanisms, as necessary.

Exercising Your Rights: To exercise the rights outlined above, please contact us as described in the “Contact Us” section below. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests (for example, to ensure that the person requesting data access or deletion is actually the data subject or an authorized representative). Verification might involve confirming information we already have on file (such as you responding to an email verification or providing certain account details). We will respond to your request within the timeframe required by law (for example, within 30 days for GDPR requests, or 45 days for CCPA requests, with extensions if permitted). There is usually no fee for exercising your rights, but if a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on it (permitted by law). We will explain our reasoning in such cases.

Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. In general, for registered users, we keep your account information and content for as long as your account is active or as needed to operate the forum. If you choose to delete your account (or it is deleted due to inactivity or other reasons), we will remove or anonymize personal data associated with your profile, but content you have posted may be retained in an anonymized form to preserve the integrity of forum discussions. Backup copies of data may persist for a period of time but are also subject to deletion schedules.

We periodically review the data we store and delete or de-identify information that is no longer needed. For example, web server logs and security logs may be retained for a shorter period (such as a few months) unless we need to keep them longer for site safety or legal reasons. If we are under a legal obligation to retain certain data (such as transaction records or communications related to legal disputes), we will retain that data for the legally required period. When personal data is no longer necessary, we ensure it is securely deleted or anonymized so that it can no longer be associated with an individual.

Security of Your Information

We take the security of your personal data seriously. We implement a variety of technical and organizational security measures to protect your information from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include using encryption for data transmissions (our forum is served over HTTPS/TLS to encrypt data in transit), encrypted storage of sensitive information (for example, passwords are stored in hashed form, not plain text), regular software updates and security patching, and firewalls and monitoring to prevent and detect unauthorized system access. We also limit access to personal data to those team members or service providers who need it to perform their duties and who are bound by confidentiality obligations.

Please note, however, that no website or Internet transmission is completely secure. We cannot guarantee that security measures will prevent every potential breach of data. Users are also responsible for securing their own credentials for our Site (for instance, please choose a strong password and keep it confidential, and notify us immediately if you suspect any unauthorized access to your account). In the unlikely event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you and any applicable regulators as required by law.

Children’s Privacy

Our forum is intended for a general audience interested in the Smoky Mountains and is not directed to children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, please do not register for an account or submit any personal data to us. Parents or guardians should supervise their children’s online activities and may use content filtering tools available from online services and software manufacturers to help provide a child-friendly online environment.

In the event we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take prompt steps to delete that information from our records. If you believe a child under 13 may have provided us personal information, please contact us so that we can take appropriate action. (For residents in certain jurisdictions, like the EU, stricter age limits may apply under local law—if we become aware we have collected data from a minor under the applicable age of consent, we will similarly delete such data.) We do not knowingly permit children under 16 to participate in any prize drawings, forums, or other activities on the Site that involve the collection of personal data without parental consent when required by law.

External Links and Third-Party Services

The forum may contain links to external websites or embedded content (for example, a user might share a YouTube video or a link to a news article about the Smoky Mountains). Please be aware that we do not control third-party websites or services and this Privacy Policy does not apply to them. Clicking on those links or using those third-party services may allow them to collect or share data about you. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of any external sites you visit. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of sites we do not own, even if links to them are provided on our forum for the convenience of users.

Additionally, if you use any third-party integrations with our forum (for example, logging in via a social media account, or using a third-party mobile app to access the forum), those services may collect certain information about your use of our Site under their own policies. For instance, if we enabled “Login with Google/Facebook” and you choose to use it, those companies might receive information about your login. (Currently, our forum uses a standard account system and does not require third-party login, but we mention this for transparency.) Always review the privacy options and settings provided by third-party services to understand what data may be shared.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or for other reasons. When we make changes, we will post the updated policy on this page and update the “Last updated” date at the top. If the changes are significant, we may also notify you by email (if you have an active account) or by placing a prominent notice on the forum. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information. Your continued use of the Site after any modifications to this Privacy Policy will signify your acceptance of the updated terms, to the extent permitted by law.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal information, please contact us. You can reach the forum administrator by using the contact form on our website (see the “Contact Us” link in the footer) or by emailing our support team at the address provided on the Site’s contact page. We will do our best to respond promptly and address your inquiry.

Thank you for reading our Privacy Policy. We value your trust and are committed to protecting your privacy as you enjoy the Smoky Mountains community forum.