Privacy Policy

Information We Collect

Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our Site, we and our third-party service providers automatically collect certain technical information, including:

• Browser type, version, and language settings
• Operating system and device type
• IP address and approximate geographic location (city/region level)
• Pages visited, time spent on pages, and navigation paths
• Referring URLs (the page you came from before visiting our Site)
• Date and time of your visit
• Internet service provider

Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies

We and our third-party partners use cookies, web beacons, pixel tags, and similar technologies to collect information about your interactions with our Site. Cookies are small text files stored on your device. We use the following types:

• Essential cookies — required for the Site to function, including dark/light mode preference storage.
• Analytics cookies — placed by Google Analytics to help us understand how visitors use our Site.
• Advertising cookies — placed by Google AdSense and its partners to serve relevant advertisements.
• Preference cookies — used to remember settings you have selected, such as display theme.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. See Section 7 — Your Privacy Choices for details.

Information You Provide Directly

We collect information you voluntarily provide, which currently includes:

• Newsletter subscriptions — your email address when you sign up for our newsletter via Zoho Campaigns.
• Contact form submissions — your name, email address, and any message content submitted through our contact page.

We do not currently operate user accounts, registration systems, or payment processing. If this changes, this policy will be updated accordingly.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics 4 (GA4), a web analytics service provided by Google LLC ("Google"), to help us understand how visitors use our Site. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about Site usage and to report on activities and trends.

Information collected by Google Analytics may include:

• Pages viewed and session duration
• Traffic sources and geographic location (aggregated)
• Device type, browser, and operating system
• User behavior flows through the Site
• Events such as link clicks and scroll depth

Google Analytics collects this data on our behalf and is prohibited from using it for its own advertising purposes. Data collected through GA4 is subject to Google's Privacy Policy.

Advertising (Google AdSense)

We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on our Site. Google AdSense is an advertising service provided by Google LLC. When ads are served on our Site, Google and its advertising partners may use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to:

• Serve ads based on your prior visits to our Site and other websites
• Measure ad performance and attribution
• Limit the number of times you see a particular ad
• Understand aggregate ad impressions and clicks
• Report on ad activity to advertisers using hashed data

Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads based on your visit to our Site and other sites on the Internet. We do not control which specific ads appear on our Site — Google selects and serves ads based on its advertising policies and your browsing history.

Interest-Based Advertising

Google AdSense may serve personalized advertisements based on your interests. Google determines these interest categories based on your browsing history across websites that use Google's advertising services. This is sometimes called interest-based or behavioral advertising.

Ad Partner Data Practices

Third-party advertising partners, including Google, operate under their own privacy policies. We encourage you to review Google's Privacy Policy to understand how they collect and use data in connection with advertising.

Please note that opting out of personalized advertising does not mean you will stop seeing ads — it means the ads you see will be less tailored to your interests.

Email Newsletter (Zoho Campaigns)

We operate an email newsletter through Zoho Campaigns, a service provided by Zoho Corporation. If you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address for the purpose of sending you Chicago sports news updates and site announcements.

By subscribing, you agree to receive emails from Lakefront Sports. Zoho Campaigns may collect data about email opens, link clicks, and delivery status to help us understand newsletter performance. This data is governed by Zoho's Privacy Policy.

We will never sell, rent, or share your email address with third parties for their own marketing purposes.

How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Site operation — to deliver, maintain, and improve our Site and its content.
• Analytics — to understand how visitors find and use our Site, so we can improve the reader experience.
• Advertising — to display advertisements that help fund our independent journalism.
• Newsletter delivery — to send sports news updates to subscribers who have opted in.
• Communications — to respond to contact form inquiries and reader messages.
• Legal compliance — to comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes.
• Security — to detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent or harmful activity.

We rely on the following legal bases to process your information (where applicable law requires such a basis): your consent; our legitimate interests in operating a sports media publication; and compliance with legal obligations.

Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal information. We may share information in the following limited circumstances:

• Google LLC — for analytics (Google Analytics) and advertising (Google AdSense). See Sections 2 and 3 above.
• Zoho Corporation — for newsletter delivery and email list management. See Section 4 above.
• Other service providers — we may engage vendors who assist in operating the Site (e.g., hosting providers). These vendors are contractually obligated to use your information only to provide services to us.
• Legal requirements — we may disclose information if required by law, court order, or government request, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Lakefront Sports, our readers, or the public.
• Business transfers — in the unlikely event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such change via a notice on our Site.

Beyond the circumstances listed above, we will not share your personal information with any third party without your explicit consent.

Your Privacy Choices

California Privacy Rights (CCPA / CPRA)

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and its amendment, the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), provide you with specific rights regarding your personal information.

Your California Rights

• Right to Know — You have the right to request that we disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the purposes for which it was collected, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
• Right to Delete — You have the right to request that we delete personal information we have collected about you, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Correct — You have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information we hold about you.
• Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing — We do not sell or share your personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as defined under the CCPA. We do not have actual knowledge that we sell or share personal information of consumers under 16 years of age.
• Right to Non-Discrimination — We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.

Categories of Personal Information Collected (Last 12 Months)

• Identifiers (IP address, email address for newsletter subscribers)
• Internet or electronic network activity (browsing behavior, pages viewed)
• Geolocation data (approximate location derived from IP address)
• Inferences drawn from the above to create a profile about your preferences (by Google, for advertising)

To exercise your California privacy rights, contact us at [email protected] with the subject line "CCPA Privacy Request." We will verify your identity and respond within 45 days as required by law.

EU & EEA Privacy Rights (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Union or European Economic Area, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides you with certain rights regarding your personal data. Our Site is primarily intended for U.S. audiences, but we respect the privacy rights of all visitors.

Your GDPR Rights

• Right of Access — Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to Rectification — Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Right to Erasure — Request deletion of your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
• Right to Restrict Processing — Request that we limit how we use your data.
• Right to Data Portability — Request your data in a machine-readable format.
• Right to Object — Object to our processing of your data for direct marketing or on the basis of legitimate interests.
• Rights Related to Automated Decision-Making — We do not engage in automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal effects concerning you.

Legal Basis for Processing

Where GDPR applies, our legal bases for processing personal data are:

• Consent — for newsletter subscriptions and advertising cookies (where consent is obtained).
• Legitimate Interests — for analytics and Site security, where our interests do not override your fundamental rights.
• Legal Obligation — where processing is required to comply with applicable law.

To exercise any of your GDPR rights, contact us at [email protected]. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.

International Transfers

Our Site is hosted in the United States. If you access it from the EU/EEA, your information may be transferred to and processed in the U.S. We rely on our third-party providers (Google, Zoho) to implement appropriate transfer mechanisms, including Standard Contractual Clauses, where required.

Data Security

We take the security of your information seriously. We implement reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect your information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. These measures include:

• HTTPS encryption for all data transmitted between your browser and our Site
• Limiting access to personal data to only those who need it to operate the Site
• Using reputable, industry-standard third-party services for data storage and email

However, no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information. In the event of a data breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you as required by applicable law.

Children's Privacy

Our Site is intended for general audiences and is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information as quickly as possible.

If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us immediately at [email protected].

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technologies, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page.

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we protect your information. Your continued use of the Site after any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

We aim to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 30 days.