Privacy Policy.

Top of St. Louis is an editorial publication. We are not in the business of harvesting data to sell or to retarget you across the internet. We collect the minimum needed to run the site, understand how readers use it, and deliver the newsletter to people who ask for it. Nothing more.

This policy covers what we collect, why, how long we keep it, who else touches it, and how to get it deleted. If you have questions after reading, email [email protected].

When you read the site: standard server logs (IP address, user agent, referrer, requested URL, timestamp) and aggregate analytics events (page views, time on page, referrer source). Analytics are processed through a self-hosted tool, we do not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, or similar third-party trackers.

When you subscribe to the newsletter: your email address, the time you subscribed, the source of the signup, and basic engagement data (opens, clicks).

When you submit a correction or contact form: whatever you write in the form, your name if you provide it, your email address.

We do not operate third-party advertising cookies. We do not fingerprint your browser for cross-site tracking. We do not sell email lists. We do not profile readers for targeted advertising, and we do not participate in the behavioral-ad ecosystem.

Our own advertising, when it runs, is contextual, based on the page you are reading, not who you are.

Three third-party systems are involved in delivering the site. Our hosting provider serves the website and has access to server logs for operational purposes. Our email platform (Brevo) handles newsletter delivery; when you subscribe, your email is stored under a processing agreement that restricts its use to delivering our mail. Review platforms (Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google) supply the restaurant data we display, fetched through their official APIs and shown per their attribution terms.

We use a handful of first-party cookies: a session cookie for logged-in users, a consent cookie to remember your cookie preferences, and an analytics cookie used to deduplicate visits across pages in a single session. No third-party advertising cookies. No cross-site trackers.

You can ask us what data we have about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Most requests are processed within seven days. Email [email protected] from the address you want us to act on.

California, Colorado, Virginia, and EU residents have additional rights under state and regional privacy law. The above applies to all of them in practice.

Server logs are rotated out after 30 days. Newsletter subscriber data is kept until you unsubscribe; unsubscribed addresses are kept for another 30 days to prevent accidental re-enrollment, then deleted. Correction-form submissions are kept until the correction ships, plus 90 days for an audit trail.

If we change this policy, the updated date at the top changes, and substantive changes are noted in the next newsletter before they take effect.