Who We Are

The Thinking Crowd is an independent political publication based in Freetown, Sierra Leone, operating at thethinkingcrowd.blog. For privacy enquiries, contact us via our Contact page.

What Data We Collect

We collect data in the following circumstances:

• Newsletter subscription: If you subscribe to The Weekly Crowd, we collect your email address. This is used solely to send you our newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in any newsletter email.
• Contact forms: If you submit a message via our Contact, Write For Us, or Advertise forms, we collect the information you provide — name, email, and message content. This is used solely to respond to your enquiry.
• Comments and Thinking Room posts: If you post in The Thinking Room or comment on an article, we collect the name (or pen name) and content you submit. Location is optional. We do not require an account or email to post.
• Analytics: We use standard website analytics (WordPress built-in or equivalent) to understand how many people visit our site, which articles are read most, and where our traffic comes from. This data is anonymised and aggregated — we cannot identify individual visitors from it.
• Cookies: Our site uses standard WordPress cookies for basic functionality. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies.

What We Do Not Do

• We do not sell your personal data to any third party
• We do not share your email with advertisers or sponsors
• We do not use your data for targeted advertising
• We do not build personal profiles of individual readers
• We do not collect payment information — all transactions go through secure third-party processors

Third-Party Services

The Thinking Crowd uses the following third-party services that may process data in accordance with their own privacy policies:

• WordPress.com / Automattic — our website hosting platform
• Substack — our newsletter platform. If you subscribe via Substack, their privacy policy applies to your subscription data
• Social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter/X. If you interact with our content on these platforms, their privacy policies apply

Data Retention

We retain newsletter subscriber data for as long as you remain subscribed. Form submission data is retained for up to 12 months for correspondence purposes. You may request deletion of your data at any time by contacting us.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of your data
• Unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time
• Withdraw consent for data processing at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us via our Contact page. We respond to all data requests within 14 days.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy as our publication grows and our services change. The date of the last update is shown at the top of this page. Continued use of our site after a policy update constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

Contact

For any privacy-related enquiries, contact us at thethinkingcrowd.blog/contact.