4thand4cast is a college football publication operated by Cathey Corp Media ("CCM," "we," "us," or "our"). This policy explains what information we collect when you use 4thand4cast.com, how we use it, and the choices you have. If you have questions, email [email protected].
What we collect
Email address (when you subscribe). If you sign up for our newsletter, we collect your email address to send you the newsletter and related communications. Subscriptions are processed through our newsletter provider, Buttondown. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send.
Account information (if accounts are enabled). If you create a 4thand4cast account, we collect the email address and password you provide. Passwords are stored as one-way hashes; we cannot recover the original password. You can delete your account at any time by emailing us.
Analytics. Like most websites, we collect basic request data through our hosting provider, Cloudflare. This typically includes the IP address making the request, the page requested, the referrer, and the user agent. We use this only to operate the site and understand traffic at an aggregate level.
Cookies. We use a small number of functional cookies and similar local-storage entries: theme preference (light/dark), holiday-decoration opt-out, and search-result preferences. These never leave your browser and are not used for tracking. Our advertising partner sets its own cookies, described under Advertising below.
Advertising
We show display ads served by Google AdSense to fund the site. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. Google and its partners also use cookies, device identifiers, and similar technologies to limit how often you see the same ad, measure ad performance, and detect fraud.
The information involved is your IP address, device and browser identifiers, cookie identifiers, and the pages you view here. Under some US state privacy laws, letting ad partners use this information for targeted advertising counts as a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. We never give advertisers your email address or account details.
- EEA, UK, and Switzerland: a consent message asks for your choice before advertising cookies are used for personalized ads. You can change it at any time with the Your Privacy Choices link in the site footer or the button below.
- United States: you can opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information for targeted advertising with the same Your Privacy Choices link or button.
- You can also turn off personalized Google ads at My Ad Center, opt out of personalized ads from many other vendors at aboutads.info, and read how Google uses information from sites that use its services at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
Open Your Privacy Choices No advertising privacy choices apply in your region.
We instruct our ad partner to block gambling, sports-betting, and other sensitive ad categories. Ads are not shown on account, sign-in, Pick 'Em, or legal pages.
How we use what we collect
We use email addresses to deliver the newsletter and respond to direct inquiries. We use account information to authenticate you and keep your followed-team preferences in sync. We use server-side request data to operate the site, prevent abuse, and improve performance. We do not sell or rent your email address or account information to third parties. Advertising partners receive device and browsing data as described under Advertising.
Who we share with
We share information with vendors only to the extent necessary to run the service:
- Buttondown — newsletter delivery, subscription management.
- Cloudflare — hosting, content delivery, basic request logging.
- Anthropic — used as our editorial content engine. User-submitted content is not sent to Anthropic.
- Resend (when team-update emails ship) — transactional email delivery for users who follow specific teams.
- Google — display advertising (AdSense) and the consent message for advertising cookies.
Each of these vendors operates under their own privacy terms. If law enforcement or a valid legal process compels disclosure of information, we will comply with that process while pushing back on overly broad requests.
Your rights and choices
You can:
- Unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time using the link in any email.
- Email us to delete your account or request a copy of your data.
- Opt out of holiday decoration via your browser's local storage settings.
- Disable cookies in your browser, with the caveat that some functional features (theme persistence) won't work.
If you live in California, the EU, the UK, or another jurisdiction with comprehensive privacy laws, you have additional rights — including the right to access, correct, delete, and port your data, and the right to object to certain processing. Email us and we'll process the request.
Children
4thand4cast is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, email us and we will delete it.
Security
We use industry-standard practices: TLS for all transit, hashed passwords, scoped service credentials. No system is perfectly secure; if we discover a breach affecting your information, we will notify you in line with applicable law.
Retention
We keep newsletter and account data while your subscription or account is active. If you unsubscribe or delete, we remove the related data within 30 days, except where law requires longer retention.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as the product evolves. Material changes will be announced in the newsletter and reflected by an updated "Effective" date at the top of this page.
Contact
Cathey Corp Media — [email protected].