Privacy policy

Last updated November 4, 2026

The Telltale is a free monthly paper for boaters, sailors, and the waterfront, in print and at thetelltale.ca. It's run by rec-safe, with a local publisher for each edition. This policy explains what information we collect, why, who sees it, how long we keep it, and the choices you have. "We" and "us" mean The Telltale: rec-safe and each edition's publisher and editors.

When you visit the website

Each time a page on thetelltale.ca is opened, including when someone scans one of the paper's QR codes or clicks an ad online, we record:

your IP address (the internet address your device connects from),
the general location that address belongs to: its city, province or state, and country, looked up from the address itself (never from your device's GPS),
the page you opened and the time,
the website that sent you there, if your browser tells us,
your browser and device type, as your browser reports them, and
for editors who are signed in, which editor it was.

We use this to see how many people read The Telltale and where, which pages and issues they read, and how many people scan or click each ad, and to keep the website safe from abuse. The location is approximate: usually your city or one nearby. We look it up on our own server using a database from DB-IP; your address isn't sent to them or anyone else to do it.

Advertisers and editors see only counts of scans and clicks for their ads, never who made them.

What you send us

You don't need an account to read The Telltale. When you fill in one of our forms, we keep what you give us:

The monthly email: your email address and the edition you chose.
Spot the Burgee, our contest: your name, email address, your answer, the edition and month, whether we may show your first name and last initial if you win, and whether you want the monthly email. See the contest rules.
Submissions (stories, news, events, photos, jokes, recipes, and tips): what you send, your name and email address, and the name you'd like credited.
Ad orders: your business's name, the contact's name, email address, and phone number, your ad's words, pictures, logo, and website, and, if you ask for copies of the paper, where to leave them.
"Contact the editor" on an edition's page: your name, email address, and message, which we email to that edition's editors so they can reply.
Requests to run The Telltale in your area: your name, email address, phone number if you give it, the area, and what you tell us about yourself.
Editors' sign-ins: an editor's name and email address, and, if they set one up, a passkey (we keep only its public part).

To stop spam, each time a form is sent we also note the time, the IP address, the browser, the page it came from, and the email address given. We use a scrambled form of the IP address to limit how many times one network can send a form in an hour.

What you send for the paper (a story, a photo, an ad) is meant to be printed and put online, with the credit you ask for. Your email address and phone number are never printed or shown.

Our monthly email

We email you only if you sign up, and only after you click the link in the confirmation email we send. Every email has a link to stop them, which works right away. We also email you when you need it: to confirm a sign-up, to tell a contest winner, to reply about a submission or an ad, or to send an editor a sign-in link. Our emails are sent by Postmark.

Cookies and your browser

We don't use advertising cookies, and we don't use outside analytics or tracking services. The website uses:

A session cookie (tt_session), which lets our forms check that they were sent from our website, and keeps editors signed in. It ends when you close your browser.
For editors only: a cookie that keeps them signed in on their own device for 60 days (tt_remember), and one that remembers a choice in the studio.
Your browser's own storage, to remember whether you like to read an issue as the printed pages or for mobile. It stays on your device; we never see it.

Our pages use fonts from Google Fonts, so your browser gets them from Google, which receives your IP address and browser details when it does. See Google's privacy policy.

QR codes and ads link to advertisers' own websites. Once you're there, their privacy policies apply, not ours.

How we use it

To put the paper together, print it, and publish it online.
To send the monthly email to people who asked for it.
To run Spot the Burgee: check entries, draw and contact the winner, and keep to the rules of one entry a month, in one edition, and one win a year.
To consider, edit, and publish what you send, and to reply to you.
To take and run ad orders, invoice for them, and arrange copies of the paper.
To understand our readership and how our ads do, and to plan new editions.
To keep the website working and safe, and to stop spam and abuse.
When the law requires it.

We use your information only for these reasons, or with your consent. We never sell or rent it, and we don't share it with anyone for their own marketing.

Who sees it

rec-safe, which runs The Telltale, sees everything described here, including the visit log.
Each edition's publisher and editors see what's sent to their edition: its email subscribers, contest entries, submissions, ad orders, and messages, plus counts of their ads' scans and clicks. They don't see the visit log.
The services that run our website and email: Amazon Web Services, which hosts our server and database, and Postmark, which delivers our email. They handle information only to provide their service to us.
The public sees only what's printed or published: the paper and its contents, credits, and a contest winner's first name and last initial if they agreed.
Others, only if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety or our rights, or as part of a sale or transfer of The Telltale or an edition, with this policy still applying.

Where it's kept

Our website and database run on Amazon Web Services servers in the United States (northern Virginia), and Postmark is in the United States. So if you're in Canada, your information is stored and handled in the United States, where the courts, police, and national security agencies may be able to get it under US law.

How long we keep it

The visit log: we keep it indefinitely, so we can compare readership month to month and year to year.
The monthly email: while you're signed up. If you stop it, we keep your address marked as stopped, so we don't email you again by mistake.
Contest entries: as long as we need them to keep to the contest rules, including the one-win-a-year rule, and for our records.
Submissions, ads, and requests: as long as they're useful for the paper, its records, and billing. What's printed stays part of that issue, in print and online.
The form log: as long as it's useful against spam.

Your choices and rights

You can read The Telltale without giving us anything but the visit details above.
You can stop the monthly email at any time with the link in any of them.
You can ask us, at info@thetelltale.ca, what information we have about you, and ask us to correct it or delete it. We'll answer within 30 days. We may need to confirm it's you, and we'll tell you if the law lets or requires us to keep something.
You can withdraw your consent to something, such as showing your name as a contest winner, by telling us.
If you're in Canada and not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. If you're in the United States, the laws of your state may give you other rights; ask us and we'll honour them.

Children

The Telltale is for a general audience. We don't knowingly collect information from children under 13. Spot the Burgee is open to people 13 or older, with a parent's or guardian's agreement for anyone under the age of majority. If you think a child under 13 has sent us information, tell us and we'll delete it.

Keeping it safe

The website uses encrypted connections (HTTPS). Only rec-safe and each edition's editors can sign in to see the information above, and only for their own edition. Editors sign in with a link sent to their email address or a passkey, so there are no passwords to steal. No website is perfectly secure, but if something ever goes wrong in a way that puts your information at real risk, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll post the new version here with a new date. If a change matters to how we use information you've already given us, we'll ask you first where the law requires it.

Questions

To ask about your information, or about this policy, email us at info@thetelltale.ca. You can also write through the "Contact the editor" form on your edition's page at thetelltale.ca, or send us a note and choose "Something else".