Privacy Policy
Overview
Bring Me Weed ("we," "us," or "our") operates bringmeweed.net — a cannabis dispensary directory and discovery platform serving New York City and Long Island. We take your privacy seriously.
This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you visit our Site, how we use and protect that information, and the choices you have with respect to your data. By using the Site, you agree to the practices described in this policy.
This policy applies exclusively to bringmeweed.net. It does not apply to the websites of dispensaries, brands, or event organizers that we link to — those businesses have their own privacy policies which we encourage you to review.
Information We Collect
Accounts, Suggestions & Business Claims
Browsing does not require an account. Submitting a brand or dispensary listing request, suggesting a business, or claiming a listing requires an account. We collect your name, account email, password, account preferences, and the confirmations you provide. WordPress stores a password hash; we do not display your password or include it in emails.
For a listing submission, we collect your relationship to the business, business details, official website, public profile information and images, contact name, and any review notes. Representatives also provide their role and mobile number. We retain submission status, reviewer decisions, website-verification evidence, and notification records to operate and review the service.
Your login email identifies your account. A separate email on the business website domain may be used to verify a claim. One account may manage multiple businesses after each claim is verified. We also collect claim identity and role details, license information, verification events, and any authorization document you submit. Do not send government ID numbers, financial information, or other sensitive information that we have not requested.
Public and Private Information
Approved listing information can be public, including the business name, address, website, business phone/email, profile text, opening hours, amenities, license details, social links and images. Your account email, private contact name, role, mobile number, review notes and verification documents are not displayed as listing profile fields. If you enter a personal email or phone into a field marked public business contact, that value may be published.
Listing images are processed through the website media library and may be accessible by their file URLs, including before a listing is approved. Upload only images intended for public display. Claim authorization documents use a separate administrator-restricted storage and access process; they are not listing photos.
Newsletter Preferences
We collect your email and subscription preferences when you subscribe to The Weekly Burn. Newsletter consent is optional when creating an account. Creating an account, suggesting a listing, or claiming a business does not by itself subscribe you to the newsletter.
Information Collected Automatically
When you visit and interact with the Site, our systems automatically collect certain technical and behavioral information to help us understand how the Site is being used and to maintain its performance:
- Technical and security information — Directory engagement records use a salted IP hash. Account security and verification also use identifiers and short-lived rate-limit records to prevent abuse. Hosting and security logs may contain IP addresses; the directory hashing mechanism does not apply to all infrastructure logs.
- Approximate city location — Your IP address is used once per visit to resolve your approximate city and state (for example, "Brooklyn, NY") via a third-party geolocation service. Only the resulting city string is stored — the IP itself is discarded immediately after this lookup and is never written to our database.
- Search zip code — If you use our dispensary locator and enter a zip code, that zip code is logged to help us improve directory coverage and understand which neighborhoods are most actively searching for dispensaries near them.
- Browser and device type — Your browser's user agent string is collected in truncated form (up to 255 characters) to help us understand what devices and browsers visitors use.
- Referring page — The URL of the page that linked you to ours is collected in truncated form (up to 500 characters).
- Dispensary listing interactions — We log which dispensary listings you viewed, and whether you clicked "Visit Website," "Get Directions," or "Call." These interaction events are associated only with your anonymized (hashed) identifier — never with your name, email address, or any other personal information.
- Newsletter engagement — If you are a subscriber to The Weekly Burn, our email delivery system may collect standard engagement data such as email open events and link clicks within newsletters.
How We Use Your Information
We use account and submission information to authenticate you, send verification codes and service notices, review suggestions, check official websites, process claims, contact you about corrections, prevent impersonation and manage ownership disputes. Submission receipts and review/claim messages are operational emails, separate from the optional newsletter. A community contributor receives review updates and a public listing link, not an ownership invitation. Representatives can choose a management account before starting a separate claim.
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
- Newsletter delivery — Your email address is used exclusively to send you The Weekly Burn newsletter, which you subscribed to.
- Directory analytics — Aggregated and anonymized interaction data (views, clicks, zip codes) helps us understand which dispensaries and neighborhoods are most useful to visitors, and guides our efforts to expand and improve the directory.
- Site performance — Technical information (browser, referrer, city) helps us monitor Site health, identify errors, and optimize the user experience.
- Abuse prevention — Hashed identifiers and rate-limiting data are used to detect and prevent spam, bot activity, and abuse of our platform.
We do not sell, rent, trade, or otherwise share your personal information with third parties for their own marketing purposes. Information shared with service providers (described in Section 05) is limited to what is necessary to deliver our services and is governed by data processing agreements.
Cookies
We use a minimal number of cookies to provide core functionality of the Site. We do not use advertising cookies, third-party tracking cookies, or cross-site behavioral tracking.
| Cookie Name | Purpose | Duration | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
bmw_wb_subscribed |
Remembers that you have confirmed your newsletter subscription, granting access to gated Weekly Burn issue content. Set after email confirmation. | 1 year | First-party functional |
| WordPress session cookies | WordPress authentication cookies keep account holders signed in, including readers and business representatives. Additional functional cookies or browser storage remember age confirmation, location preferences and interface choices. | Session / variable | First-party functional |
You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings at any time. Deleting the bmw_wb_subscribed cookie will remove your gated content access — you will need to confirm your subscription again to restore it.
Third-Party Services
Account and operational messages use our hosting and email-delivery services. Optional newsletter subscriptions are managed with Mailchimp. Maps, address lookup and directions use Mapbox and, where applicable, OpenStreetMap services; these requests can include a searched business address, map area, or location you choose to provide. Service providers process information required for their functions. Business websites linked from listings have their own privacy practices.
We use the following third-party services to operate the Site. Each service may process certain data about you as described below:
Used for: City-level geolocation. Once per unique visit, your IP address is sent to ip-api.com to resolve an approximate city and state (e.g., "Queens, NY"). This helps us understand which geographic areas our visitors come from. Only the resolved city string is stored — the IP is not retained by us after the lookup. Please review ip-api.com's terms for their own data handling practices.
Used for: Serving typefaces (DM Sans, Inter) for Site design. Fonts are loaded from Google's CDN servers. Google may log your IP address as part of this request per their own Privacy Policy.
Used for: Content management system (CMS) and page builder underlying the Site. WordPress manages accounts, password hashes, authentication cookies, submitted content and review records. Elementor renders the website and its forms. Our hosting and email providers process information needed to deliver and secure these services.
We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or other third-party advertising or behavioral tracking tools on this Site.
Data Retention
Analytics & Engagement Events
Anonymized engagement events (views, clicks, zip searches) are retained for a default period of 180 days, after which they are automatically purged from our database by a scheduled weekly cleanup process. The Site administrator may configure a shorter or longer retention period within a range of 30 to 730 days.
Account, Submission & Claim Records
We retain account information, submitted listing information, decisions and verification/audit records to provide account access, maintain listings, investigate abuse and resolve ownership disputes. These records are not automatically deleted when a suggestion is approved or rejected. Contact us using Section 11 to request access, correction or deletion; we may need to verify your identity and retain information needed for security, disputes or applicable obligations.
Claim authorization documents are scheduled for deletion 30 days after an approved, rejected or cancelled claim was last updated. Pending-claim documents remain while review is ongoing. Other claim records and decision history may remain after a document is deleted.
Newsletter Subscriber Data
Your email address is stored in our email system for as long as you remain subscribed to The Weekly Burn. When you unsubscribe, your address is marked as "unsubscribed" — this status is retained as required by the CAN-SPAM Act and anti-spam regulations. To request complete deletion of your subscriber record, please contact us directly.
Server Logs
Our web hosting provider may retain standard server access logs (which can include raw IP addresses) for a limited period as required for security and operational purposes. These logs are managed by our hosting provider and are subject to their own data retention policies.
Security
We implement industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including:
- Directory IP hashing — Engagement records use a salted hash rather than the raw IP; hosting and security logs are separate.
- HTTPS encryption — All data transmitted between your browser and our Site is encrypted via TLS/SSL
- Rate limiting — Our tracking system limits events to 60 per IP per minute to prevent abuse
- Access controls — Admin access to analytics data requires WordPress administrator credentials
- Data minimization — We collect only the minimum data necessary to provide our services
No method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information using commercially acceptable means, we cannot guarantee absolute security. In the event of a data breach that may affect your rights, we will notify affected individuals as required by applicable law.
Children's Privacy
If you are a parent or guardian and believe that your child under 21 has provided us with personal information (such as an email address via our newsletter form), please contact us immediately using the information in Section 11. We will take prompt steps to delete that information from our records and restrict access to the Site for that individual.
Your Rights
Depending on your location, you may have certain rights with respect to your personal information. We are committed to honoring those rights.
All Users
- Unsubscribe — You may unsubscribe from The Weekly Burn newsletter at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any newsletter email.
- Cookie opt-out — You may delete or block cookies via your browser settings at any time.
- Contact us — You may contact us to ask about what data we hold about you, request corrections, or request deletion.
New York State Residents
You can contact us to ask about the information described in this policy or request access, correction or deletion. Any applicable legal rights depend on your circumstances and the laws that apply.
California Residents (CCPA / CPRA)
If you are a California resident and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA) applies to our processing of your information, applicable rights may include:
- Right to Know — The right to request disclosure of the categories and specific pieces of personal information collected about you
- Right to Delete — The right to request deletion of personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions
- Right to Opt Out of Sale — The right to opt out of the sale of personal information. We do not sell personal information.
- Right to Non-Discrimination — We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information in Section 11. We will respond within the time required by applicable law. Identity verification and legal exceptions may apply.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.
For material changes that significantly affect how we handle your personal information, we may provide additional notice — such as a notice in our newsletter or a banner on the Site — at our discretion.
We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. Your continued use of the Site after any changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.
Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:
Holbrook, NY 11741
Phone: 516-518-8091
Email: info@bringmeweed.net
Hours: Mon - Fri: 9am - 5pm
Sat - Sun: Closed
We will do our best to respond to all privacy-related inquiries within 5–7 business days. For time-sensitive requests (such as data deletion requests), please indicate the urgency in your message.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority in your jurisdiction if you believe we have not adequately addressed your concerns.