This policy explains how The Harrison Independent handles information when you visit theharrisonindependent.org or contact our staff. The Harrison Independent is an independently operated publication, not Roblox or the Harrison County government.
Visiting the Website
You do not need an account to read our reporting. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, processes technical information needed to deliver and protect the website. This can include your IP address, requested page, browser information, and request time. Cloudflare may process security and diagnostic information under its privacy policy.
The site loads fonts from Google Fonts, which means your browser sends requests to Google when loading those fonts. See Google Fonts' privacy information for details. Reading the site does not set any cookies; cookies are used only if you sign in to a poll (see below).
Roblox Sign-In and Reader Polls
Voting in a reader poll is optional and requires signing in with Roblox. Roblox handles
the login on its own website. We never ask for your Roblox password, two-step
verification codes, or .ROBLOSECURITY cookie.
When you sign in and vote, we receive and store:
- Your numeric Roblox user ID, used to identify your account and allow one ballot per poll.
- Your Roblox username, shown back to you while you are signed in and kept with your ballot. We request Roblox’s
openidandprofilepermissions and nothing else. - Your poll selections and the times your ballot was created and last changed.
We use this information to enforce response limits, let you change your ballot, and investigate suspected duplicate or automated voting. We do not ask for your real name, home address, or government identification, and we do not access your Roblox friends, inventory, or other account data.
A poll ballot is not anonymous. Your responses are associated with your Roblox user ID internally. Public results are shown only in aggregate, never as a list of accounts and their selections, and individual responses are limited to staff who administer the poll. Poll results are shown to readers after they vote. Reader polls are not official Electoral Commission ballots.
Candidate Questionnaires
Candidates may receive a private invitation link for our “Into the Campaign Of…” series. These forms do not require Roblox sign-in. We store the candidate name and office entered by our editor, submitted answers, an optional image link, and submission and update times with Cloudflare. Answers are private to the editor until selected for publication; submitting the form gives permission for answers to be quoted or edited for length and clarity. We do not automatically publish submissions or fetch linked images.
Anyone holding an invitation link can read and revise that response, so keep it private. Contact our staff if a link is lost or shared with the wrong person so it can be revoked. Editorial access requires Roblox sign-in and is restricted to our authorized editor's numeric Roblox user ID. We retain questionnaires while preparing and checking coverage; contact us through the private-request process below for access, corrections, or deletion. Published quotations may remain part of our reporting.
Cookies and Sessions
Signing in sets two essential cookies. A short-lived cookie (10 minutes) protects the login process while you are at Roblox. A session cookie (7 days) keeps you signed in to the polls or staff portal. Both are marked HttpOnly, Secure, and are not used for advertising or tracking. You can sign out at any time on the polls page, which removes the session cookie. Blocking cookies will prevent sign-in.
Sharing Information
We do not sell personal information. Service providers may process information to host and protect the website, authenticate accounts, and store poll responses (poll data is stored with Cloudflare). Roblox handles information on its own services under the Roblox Privacy Policy. We may disclose information when legally required or when necessary to address fraud, abuse, or threats to the service.
Retention and Security
We retain information only for as long as needed for the purpose for which it was collected. Identifiable poll responses are kept while a poll is open and for a reasonable period afterward so results can be checked and reported, and can be deleted on request. Aggregate results that do not identify participants may be retained as part of our reporting.
No website or storage system can guarantee absolute security. Please do not send passwords, security cookies, or other account secrets to our staff.
Contact and Privacy Requests
To ask a privacy question or request access, correction, or deletion of information we hold about you, contact The Harrison Independent's editorial staff through our Discord server and request a private conversation. Do not post account details or other sensitive information in a public channel. Discord handles information on its platform under its privacy policy.
We may need to verify that a request relates to your account before acting on it. If information must be retained for security or legal reasons, we will explain the limitation. Removing an identifiable poll response will not necessarily remove previously published aggregate results.
Changes to This Policy
Changes will be published on this page with an updated date. Material changes to how Roblox sign-in or polling information is handled will be explained here before that information is collected for a new purpose.