Privacy Policy

Effective Date: February 9, 2025
Last Updated: February 9, 2025

Western Montana News (“we,” “us,” or “our”) operates the website westernmt.news (the “Site”). We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data in a transparent and secure manner. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, share, and protect information obtained from visitors and users of our opinion and news Site. By using the Site, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

1. Information We Collect

  1. Personal Information You Provide
    • Account Registration or Newsletter Sign-Up
      When you create an account or subscribe to our newsletter, you may provide personal information such as your name, email address, and other contact details.
    • Comments and User Contributions
      When you post comments or other content on our Site, we may collect the information you post, including any personal data you include.
  2. Automatically Collected Information
    • Log Data
      Our servers automatically record certain information when you visit the Site, including your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, and pages viewed.
    • Cookies & Similar Technologies We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance user experience, remember your preferences, and gather usage analytics (see Section 4 for more details).
  3. Third-Party Information
    • We may receive information about you from third-party services integrated into our Site, such as social media platforms, payment processors (if any), or analytics providers.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various purposes, including:

  1. Providing and Maintaining the Site
    • To deliver the articles, news, commentary, and other content that you request.
  2. Communication
    • To respond to inquiries, send newsletters or notifications about new content, and provide marketing messages in accordance with your preferences and applicable law.
  3. User Experience and Personalization
    • To tailor the content you see based on your preferences, browsing history, or other information you provide.
  4. Analytics and Improvement
    • To analyze usage and trends in order to improve our Site’s layout, features, and functionality.
  5. Legal Compliance
    • To comply with legal obligations, respond to legal processes, or enforce our rights.

3. Sharing and Disclosure of Your Information

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We may share or disclose information in the following circumstances:

  1. Service Providers
    • We work with service providers and other trusted third parties that perform certain functions on our behalf (e.g., email service providers, analytics providers). These third parties only have access to the personal data necessary to carry out their respective services.
  2. Legal Requirements
    • We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with legal obligations, protect our rights or property, or prevent illegal activity.
  3. Business Transfers
    • In the event of a merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of some or all of our assets, user information may be disclosed or transferred as part of the transaction.
  4. Consent
    • We may share your information with your explicit consent for any other purpose not listed in this Privacy Policy.

4. Cookies & Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

  • Recognize you when you return to the Site.
  • Store your preferences and settings.
  • Measure and analyze the performance of our Site.
  • Deliver relevant content and targeted advertisements, if applicable.

Most browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings preferences. However, disabling cookies may limit certain functionalities of the Site. For more detailed information on our cookie practices, please see our [Cookie Policy or relevant section] (if maintained separately).

5. Third-Party Content and Links

Our Site may contain links to external websites or embedded content (e.g., videos, social media widgets) that are operated by third parties. These third-party sites have their own privacy policies, which may differ from ours. We encourage you to review their privacy policies to understand how they handle your information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such third-party services.

6. Data Retention and Security

  1. Data Retention
    • We only keep your personal data as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.
  2. Security Measures
    • We employ reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no method of data transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Your Rights and Choices

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, such as:

  • Access and Correction
    You may request access to, or correction of, the personal data we hold about you.
  • Erasure
    You may request that we delete your personal data under certain circumstances.
  • Objection & Restriction
    You may object to the processing of your data or request that we restrict certain processing.
  • Data Portability
    You may have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
  • Opt-Out
    You can opt out of receiving certain communications from us (e.g., newsletters or marketing emails) at any time by using the unsubscribe link in the email or contacting us directly.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the details in the Contact Us section. We will respond to your request consistent with applicable laws.

8. Children’s Privacy

Our Site is not directed toward individuals under the age of [13/16, depending on jurisdiction], and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us. We will take steps to remove such information and terminate the child’s account, if applicable.

9. International Data Transfers

If you are accessing our Site from outside the country in which we are located, your information may be transferred to and processed in a jurisdiction that may not have equivalent data protection laws. By using our Site, you consent to any transfer and processing in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection regulations.

10. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our data practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. When we make material changes, we will notify you by posting the updated policy on our Site with a new effective date. Your continued use of the Site after any changes indicates your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests related to this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

By using westernmt.news, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.