Privacy Policy

Effective date: November 6, 2026

1. What this policy covers

This policy describes privacy practices for the main Film Noir Confidential website at filmnoirconfidential.com. We do not collect newsletter signups, contact-form submissions, or orders through forms on this main site. Purchases reached through links take place on external services.

Our publication at shadows.filmnoirconfidential.com is hosted by Substack and is separate from this main-site policy. If you subscribe there, read Substack's Privacy Policy for its platform processing. This main-site policy does not describe additional subscriber information we may receive or use as publisher.

2. Information collected when you browse

We use Google Analytics 4 to understand visits and improve the site's content. Analytics can use cookies or similar identifiers and process pages viewed, interactions, referral sources, browser and device details, and approximate geographic location. Enhanced measurement is enabled; depending on the features you use, it can measure scrolling, outbound clicks, site searches, supported videos, and file downloads. Enabling a measurement feature does not mean every type of event occurs on this site.

Google signals collection and use of this property's analytics data for advertising personalization were switched off on November 6, 2026. These changes apply going forward; they do not erase previously collected information or turn off ordinary analytics measurement. User-provided data collection is disabled.

Network requests to Google involve your IP address; this does not mean the publisher receives a report of individual visitors' IP addresses. Read how Google uses information from sites using its services and Google's Privacy Policy.

Namecheap hosts the main website. Its hosting systems may process request information such as IP address, requested page, request time, and browser information to deliver and protect the site. See Namecheap's Privacy Policy. Namecheap provides access-log tools that can record requests and manage log archives.

3. Fonts and other service providers

This page loads Google Fonts from Google's servers. To deliver fonts, Google receives request information including IP address, browser details, and referring-page information. Google states that its Fonts API does not set or log cookies. See Google Fonts privacy information.

Some existing main-site pages also request resources from Google Maps and Font Awesome's hosted icon service. Resource requests can send network information such as IP address and browser details to those providers, even where a map is not displayed.

Provider categories include website hosting (Namecheap), analytics and font delivery (Google), other resource delivery described above, and email (Google/Gmail) when you contact us. Providers process relevant information to deliver their services. Our Analytics account also permits Google's modeling/business insights, technical support, and business recommendations uses; the account's Google products and services sharing setting is off.

Third-party services, including Google, may collect information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you use services included on this site. Their collection is subject to their own policies and your settings. Switching off our Analytics property's Google signals and advertising personalization does not mean that every third-party service stops collecting information.

4. If you email us

For privacy questions, email filmnoirconfidential@gmail.com. If you email us, we receive your email address, your message, and any information you choose to send. We use it to respond to your inquiry. Please avoid sending sensitive personal information that is not needed.

You can also email this address to request a review or correction of information you provided directly to us. Information held independently by external services is subject to those services' own request processes.

5. External links and purchases

Links may take you to Substack, social networks, streaming services, Linktree, or other websites. Those services have their own privacy policies and may collect information when you visit them. Review the external provider's policy before subscribing, purchasing, or providing personal information.

6. Cookies, browser choices, and tracking signals

You can use your browser settings to manage or delete cookies. These choices may affect some services and do not necessarily stop every kind of collection. Google also offers an Analytics opt-out browser add-on for supported browsers.

Our current main-site analytics code does not include a response that switches off Google Analytics when a browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals. These are different browser preferences. Turning off Google signals or advertising personalization is not the same as responding to either preference. You can use the browser controls and Google Analytics opt-out option described above.

7. How long information is kept

Google Analytics is configured for 14-month user-level and event-level data retention. The reset-on-new-activity option is enabled, so a returning visitor's user-identifier retention period can restart with new activity. Google's retention setting does not apply to standard aggregated reports; it does not mean every analytics record disappears 14 months after a visit. See Google's explanation of data retention.

We do not follow a fixed deletion schedule for correspondence. We may keep emails and reader messages in our archive, including messages we value as part of the publication's history. You may contact us to request review, correction, or deletion of information you sent; requests are considered in light of any applicable recordkeeping needs.

Hosting logs are managed through Namecheap's hosting systems and the hosting account's logging and archive settings. We have not verified a specific deletion period for those logs and do not promise one here. The Google Analytics retention setting above does not apply to hosting logs or email.

8. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the updated version on this page and update its effective date. We will identify material changes with a notice on this page.