Privacy Policy
Effective Date: March 15, 2025
1320 South Monroe is a blog about the intersection of hospitality and commercial real estate, published by Mara Cole. I created this space to share hard-won insights about what makes a food business location work, and I take the trust of every reader seriously. This policy explains what information is collected when you visit this site, how it’s used, and the choices you have.
Information We Collect
We collect information in a few ways, always with transparency and a light touch.
Information you provide directly
- Comments: When you leave a comment on a post, we collect the data shown in the comment form (typically your name and email address), along with your IP address and browser user agent string. This helps us catch spam and keep the conversation genuine.
- Contact form: If you reach out through our contact page, we receive your name and email address so we can respond. We don’t use this information for marketing unless you explicitly ask to be added to an email list.
Information collected automatically
- Cookies: If you leave a comment, you may opt in to saving your name, email, and website in cookies. These last for one year and spare you from re-entering your details next time. We also use a temporary cookie to check if your browser accepts cookies; it contains no personal data and disappears when you close your browser.
- Analytics: Like most websites, we use a third-party analytics service (such as Google Analytics) to understand how people find and use the site. This collects anonymized data—pages visited, time on site, referring links—but never anything that identifies you personally. We’ve configured the analytics to respect privacy as much as possible.
How We Use Your Information
Your information is used only for the purpose it was given:
- To display your comment and foster discussion among readers.
- To reply to a direct inquiry you’ve sent us.
- To improve the site’s content and navigation based on aggregate visitor patterns.
We never sell, rent, or trade your personal information to anyone. Period. Having spent years in a small business where every customer relationship mattered, I treat your data with the same care I’d expect for my own.
Third-Party Services
We rely on a few trusted services to keep the site running smoothly. These may have their own privacy policies:
- Spam detection: Comments are screened through an automated spam detection service. This helps keep the blog free of junk, but the service may process your comment data according to its own policies.
- Analytics: As mentioned, analytics provide us with broad trends. The provider (e.g., Google) may use cookies and collect data under its own privacy framework. You can learn more and opt out by visiting Google’s privacy page.
- Hosting: Our website is hosted on a secure server, and the hosting provider may log standard technical information (IP address, browser type, etc.) for maintenance and security purposes.
We don’t control these third parties, but we’ve chosen them because they align with our commitment to responsible data handling.
How Long We Retain Your Data
- If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This lets us recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
- Information submitted through the contact form is kept for up to one year for customer service purposes, then deleted unless you become an ongoing correspondent.
- Analytics data is retained in aggregate form for as long as it’s useful for understanding long-term trends.
Your Rights Over Your Data
You have real control here. If you’ve left comments or sent a message, you can request an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you’ve provided. You can also ask us to erase any personal data we hold. This doesn’t include information we’re obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security reasons.
To make a request, just reach out using the contact information at the bottom of this page. I handle these personally and will respond within a reasonable timeframe—usually within a week.
Embedded Content from Other Websites
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g., videos, maps, images). Embedded content from other websites behaves exactly as if you had visited the other website. These sites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction if you have an account and are logged in to that website. We recommend checking the privacy policies of those external sites for more detail.
Children’s Privacy
This site is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under that age. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact us so we can remove it.
Changes to This Policy
From time to time, I may update this page to reflect changes in how the site operates or to clarify our practices. The effective date at the top will always indicate the latest version. I won’t make changes that retroactively reduce your rights without giving you a clear heads-up.
Contact
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how your information is handled, you can reach me directly:
Mara Cole
Email: [email protected]
I built this blog out of a genuine desire to help food and beverage operators find spaces where they can thrive—and that mission starts with a foundation of trust. Thank you for being here.