Last updated: October 28, 2026
This page explains what information PorkBusters collects when you visit porkbusters.org, why we collect it, and what you can do about it. We are a small, independent content site that covers federal spending, and we collect as little as we reasonably can.
The Short Version
- We do not ask you to create an account to read this site.
- Our web server keeps standard technical logs, as nearly every website does.
- This site and some third-party services we may use set cookies.
- Embedded videos and social posts can let those platforms collect data about you.
- Tools on this site run in your browser where stated, so what you enter stays on your device.
- We do not sell your personal data.
- You can ask us what we hold about you and ask us to delete it.
The sections below give the details.
Information Collected Automatically
Server logs
When you load a page, your browser sends certain information to our web server. The server records it in log files. A typical entry includes:
- Your IP address
- The date and time of the request
- The page or file requested
- The referring page, if your browser shares it
- Your browser type, version and operating system
- Whether the request succeeded or produced an error
We use these logs to keep the site running, fix broken pages, understand load on the server, and detect abuse such as spam bots or attempted attacks. We do not use server logs to build profiles of individual readers.
Hosting and security services
Like most websites, this site may run on a hosting provider and use a content delivery or security service. These providers handle your connection to the site and may process your IP address and request data on our behalf to deliver pages quickly and block malicious traffic.
Information You Choose to Send Us
If you contact us, we receive whatever you include in your message, such as your name, email address and what you wrote. We use it only to read and reply to your message. We do not add you to a mailing list because you contacted us.
If we add features such as comments or an email newsletter, we will update this policy to explain what those features collect before they go live.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that a website stores in your browser. Similar technologies include local storage and tracking pixels. On this policy page, “cookies” covers all of them.
Cookies this site uses
We may use a small number of cookies needed for the site to work properly, for example to remember a display preference or whether you have already responded to a cookie notice. These cookies do not identify you personally.
Analytics cookies
We may use an analytics service to understand how readers use the site in aggregate: which articles people read, how they arrive, roughly where in the world they are, and what device they use. This helps us decide what to cover and spot pages that are not working.
Analytics providers usually set their own cookies and receive information such as your IP address, browser details and pages viewed. Where the service allows it, we configure it to limit the data collected, for example by shortening IP addresses. We use analytics reports to look at trends across all readers, not to watch individual visitors.
Advertising cookies
To keep the site free and independent, we may show ads from third-party advertising partners. These partners may use cookies to:
- Show ads and limit how often you see the same one
- Measure whether ads were viewed or clicked
- Show ads based on your interests, using data collected across many websites
Advertising partners operate under their own privacy policies and control the data their cookies collect. Where the law requires your consent before personalized ads are shown, we will ask for it, and you can choose non-personalized ads or decline.
Managing cookies
You stay in control of cookies:
- Browser settings. Every major browser lets you view, block and delete cookies. Blocking all cookies may stop some site features from working.
- Consent tools. If we show a cookie notice, you can use it to accept or reject non-essential cookies and change your choice later.
- Ad settings. Large advertising platforms offer their own settings pages where you can turn off personalized ads.
- Global Privacy Control. Where applicable law recognizes browser privacy signals such as Global Privacy Control, we aim to honor them as an opt-out of sale or sharing for targeted advertising.
Embedded Content From Other Sites
Articles on this site may include embedded content such as YouTube videos, posts from social networks, or documents and charts hosted elsewhere. Embedded content behaves exactly as if you had visited the other site directly.
That means the platform hosting the content may:
- Collect data about you, including your IP address
- Set its own cookies
- Track your interaction with the embedded item
- Link that activity to your account if you are logged in to that platform
We do not control what these platforms collect. Their own privacy policies apply. If you want to limit this, log out of those platforms before browsing or use your browser’s privacy features to block third-party content.
Tools That Run in Your Browser
Some pages may offer interactive tools, such as calculators or data explorers for budget figures. Where we say a tool runs in your browser, the calculations happen on your own device. The numbers or text you enter are not sent to our server and we do not store them.
If a tool ever needs to send data to a server to work, we will say so on the tool’s page.
How We Use Information
We use the information described above to:
- Deliver pages and keep the site working
- Protect the site against spam, fraud and attacks
- Understand which content readers find useful
- Show advertising that helps fund the site
- Reply to messages you send us
- Meet legal obligations
We do not use your information to make automated decisions that have legal or similarly significant effects on you.
Sharing Your Information
We do not sell your personal data. We do not rent or trade it either.
We share information only in these situations:
- Service providers that help us run the site, such as hosting, security, analytics and advertising partners. They receive only what they need to do that job.
- Legal requirements, if we are required to disclose information by law or valid legal process, or to protect the rights and safety of this site, its readers or others.
- A change in ownership. If the site is ever sold or transferred, reader data would move with it, and this policy would continue to apply until any change is announced.
Some privacy laws treat the use of advertising cookies across websites as “sharing” for targeted advertising. If that applies to you, you can opt out using the cookie choices described above or by contacting us.
How Long We Keep Data
We keep data only as long as we need it for the purposes above:
| Type of data | How long we keep it |
|---|---|
| Server logs | Usually a few weeks, unless needed longer to investigate a security issue |
| Messages you send us | As long as needed to deal with your message, then deleted when no longer useful |
| Analytics data | According to the retention setting of the analytics provider, which we keep as short as practical |
| Cookies | From the end of your browsing session up to the expiry set by the site or the third party, unless you delete them sooner |
| Data entered in browser-based tools | Not kept by us at all |
Third-party partners keep data according to their own policies.
Your Rights
Depending on where you live, privacy laws may give you rights over your personal data. We extend the following to all readers where we reasonably can:
- Access. Ask what personal data we hold about you.
- Correction. Ask us to fix inaccurate data.
- Deletion. Ask us to delete your data.
- Objection and restriction. Ask us to stop or limit certain uses of your data.
- Portability. Ask for a copy of your data in a usable format.
- Withdraw consent. Change your mind about cookies or anything else you agreed to, at any time.
- Opt out of targeted advertising. Ask us not to share data for cross-site advertising.
To make a request, contact us through the contact page on this site. We may need to ask for information to confirm the request is yours, and we will not treat you differently for exercising these rights. We will reply within the time limits set by the law that applies to you.
Keep in mind that we usually cannot link server logs or cookie data to a specific person, so we may hold very little that can be tied to you. If your request concerns data held by an analytics, advertising or embedded content provider, you may need to contact that provider directly, and we will point you in the right direction where we can.
You also have the right to complain to the data protection authority where you live.
Children
This site is written for a general adult audience interested in public policy. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from them. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Security
We take reasonable steps to protect the information we handle, including serving the site over an encrypted connection and limiting who can access server data. No website can guarantee perfect security, but we keep what we collect small, which also limits what could ever be exposed.
International Visitors
The services we use may store and process data in countries other than your own, including the United States. Where the law requires it, those transfers rely on appropriate safeguards provided by the service involved.
Links to Other Websites
Our articles often point readers to outside sources such as government budget documents, congressional records and news reports. Once you leave this site, the other site’s privacy policy applies, not this one.
Changes to This Policy
We will update this page when our practices change, for example if we add a newsletter, comments, or a new analytics or advertising partner. The “Last updated” date at the top shows when the policy was last revised. If a change significantly affects how we use your data, we will make it clear on the site.
Contact
Questions about this policy or requests about your data can be sent through the contact page on this site. We read every message and will get back to you.