Your privacy

Privacy Policy

The Bayou Progressive

Last updated: October 12, 2026

At The Bayou Progressive, we believe access to reliable journalism should not come at the expense of your privacy.

We're an independent Louisiana news outlet committed to informing the public, encouraging civic engagement, and making political reporting accessible to as many people as possible.

We may collect limited information to operate our website, understand how people use our content, communicate with subscribers, and provide more relevant coverage. But we're not interested in collecting personal information we don't need, selling our readers' data, or tracking individual political beliefs.

This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, when it may be shared, and what choices you have.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect information in three ways: information you choose to provide, technical information generated when you use our website, and information you voluntarily authorize us to access.

Information you provide

When you subscribe to our newsletter, contact us, complete a form, or otherwise interact with the website, we may collect:

Your name, if provided
Your email address
Your general location, such as a city, parish, or ZIP code, if provided
Information you voluntarily include in messages or submissions
Your newsletter subscriptions or communication preferences

You are not required to subscribe to our mailing list or provide personal contact information to read our publicly available reporting.

Website usage information

When you visit our website, our hosting provider and any enabled analytics services may process certain technical information, including:

IP address
Browser type and device information
Pages visited and links clicked
Referral sources, such as search engines or social media
General geographic information derived from an IP address
Dates, times, and approximate duration of visits

We use this information to operate the site, maintain security, understand readership trends, and improve the experience for visitors.

Our goal is to understand how our journalism is reaching people, not to identify individual readers or create personal profiles of their political beliefs.

The Bayou Progressive may offer email newsletters, reporting updates, event announcements, and other communications related to our journalism.

If you subscribe, we will use your contact information to send the communications you requested.

We may also use an email service provider to manage subscriptions, deliver messages, and measure basic email performance, such as delivery, opens, and clicks.

We will not sell, rent, or provide our subscriber list to political campaigns, outside advocacy organizations, data brokers, or commercial advertisers for their independent use.

You can unsubscribe from promotional or newsletter emails at any time using the unsubscribe link included in those messages or by contacting us directly.

Unsubscribing will stop future subscription-based communications, although we may retain limited records necessary to honor your request.

3. Location Information and Localized Coverage

Louisiana is a diverse state, and political developments often have different consequences depending on where someone lives.

To make our coverage more useful, The Bayou Progressive may introduce features that allow visitors to customize their experience based on geographic location.

For example, location-based features could help us display:

Election results and candidate information relevant to your district
Coverage of local government and public policy
Upcoming community events, forums, and public meetings
News and reporting relevant to your parish or region

Where available, you may be able to select your city, parish, or region manually without sharing your device's precise location.

If we introduce browser-based location services, we will request your permission before accessing location information through your browser or device.

We will not require precise location access to read our reporting.

Our preference is to use the least specific location information necessary to provide a requested feature. For example, identifying your parish or electoral district generally does not require retaining your exact GPS coordinates.

We will not sell precise location information or use it to build individual political or advertising profiles.

You can decline or revoke browser location permissions through your browser or device settings. Location-based customization may be limited if you choose not to provide a location.

4. Cookies and Analytics

The Bayou Progressive may use cookies and similar technologies to keep the website functioning, remember reader preferences, measure traffic, and improve the user experience.

These technologies may help us understand which stories are reaching readers, how visitors navigate the site, and which platforms bring audiences to our reporting.

Some cookies may be necessary for site functionality, while others may be used for analytics or optional features.

Where required by applicable law, we will provide appropriate choices regarding nonessential cookies and tracking technologies.

You can also manage or block cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may affect features that depend on saved preferences.

5. Third-Party Platforms and Embedded Content

Our journalism appears in multiple formats, including written articles, video, audio, photography, and social media.

Some pages may contain embedded content from third-party services, including video players, social media posts, or other external platforms.

When you interact with embedded content, those providers may collect information or use cookies according to their own privacy policies. Depending on how a service is integrated, some information may be transmitted when the content loads, even before you interact with it.

The Bayou Progressive does not control the independent data practices of third-party platforms.

We encourage readers to review the privacy policies of those services and will seek to use privacy-conscious integration options where practical.

Links to outside websites are also subject to the privacy practices of those websites.

6. How We Use Information

We use information collected through the website for legitimate operational and editorial purposes, including:

Delivering our journalism and operating the website
Sending newsletters and requested communications
Improving site performance, accessibility, and usability
Understanding audience engagement and readership trends
Displaying relevant local coverage when readers request it
Promoting our reporting and public events
Responding to messages, questions, and feedback
Protecting our systems against spam, abuse, and security threats
Complying with applicable legal obligations

We do not use individual reading histories to assign political affiliations, infer voting preferences, or create personal political profiles.

We may use aggregated readership statistics to understand audience interests and determine where additional reporting or outreach would be valuable.

7. When Information May Be Shared

We do not sell our readers' personal information or subscriber lists.

Limited information may be processed by third-party service providers that help us operate the website, host content, distribute newsletters, analyze website performance, or maintain security.

These providers may process information as necessary to deliver their services, subject to their applicable agreements and privacy practices.

We may also disclose information when legally required, when reasonably necessary to protect the security and integrity of the website, or when responding to a valid legal process.

We do not provide political campaigns or advocacy organizations with identifiable information about which readers viewed particular political articles.

8. Advertising and Sponsorships

The Bayou Progressive may accept advertising, sponsorships, or other forms of financial support to sustain our journalism.

Such relationships do not grant advertisers or sponsors access to our subscriber database or the personal information of individual readers.

If we introduce advertising technologies that collect personal information or track visitors across websites, we will update this policy and provide any notices or choices required by applicable law before those technologies are implemented.

Sponsored content and paid promotional placements will be identified as such, consistent with our commitment to editorial transparency.

9. Data Security and Retention

We take reasonable steps to protect the personal information entrusted to us, including limiting access to individuals and service providers who need the information to perform legitimate functions.

No website or digital system can guarantee absolute security.

We retain personal information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, subject to legitimate operational needs and applicable legal requirements.

For example, subscriber information may be retained while a subscription remains active, while limited records of unsubscribed addresses may be retained to ensure those individuals are not contacted again without permission.

Information that is no longer needed will be deleted or de-identified where reasonably practical.

10. Your Privacy Choices

We believe readers should have meaningful control over the information they share with us.

Depending on the nature of the information involved and applicable law, you may request that we:

Tell you what personal information we maintain about you
Correct inaccurate contact or subscription information
Delete personal information that is no longer necessary
Update your communication preferences
Remove you from our mailing lists

You may also control cookies and location permissions through your browser or device settings.

We will review privacy-related requests in good faith and respond in accordance with applicable law. Certain information may need to be retained for legitimate security, administrative, or legal purposes.

11. Children’s Privacy

The Bayou Progressive provides general-audience journalism and does not intentionally direct its services to children under the age of 13.

We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13 without any consent required by applicable law.

If we learn that we have improperly collected such information, we will take appropriate steps to delete it.

12. Changes to This Policy

As The Bayou Progressive grows, we may introduce new features, services, or technologies that affect how information is collected and used.

We will update this policy to reflect material changes to our privacy practices and revise the date at the top of this page.

Where legally required, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent before implementing new uses of personal information.

13. Contact Us

If you have questions about this policy, would like to request information about your personal data, or wish to raise a privacy concern, please contact:

The Bayou Progressive
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Email: contact@bayouprogressive.com

Our commitment: We believe journalism should empower readers, not exploit their personal information. We're committed to collecting only what we need, being transparent about how it is used, and respecting the privacy of the people who trust us with their attention.