Privacy Policy
The short version: the website sets no cookies of its own. Page views are counted by Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and keeps no profiles, and only if you accept when asked. English articles offer a read-aloud recording that is served from this site like any other file. The Briefing, our newsletter, is sent through Twilio SendGrid, which counts opens and clicks: block remote images in your mail app and the open is not counted, and one click on Unsubscribe in any issue stops The Briefing. We do not sell your data.
Who is responsible
The data controller is Leetone Enterprises LLC, publisher of Flag & Clock (called Paddock Notes until October 2026), based in Denver, Colorado. Postal address: 6312 S Fiddlers Green Cir, Suite 300E, PMB 5307, Greenwood Village, CO 80111, United States. The editor is Eli Lemberg. For any privacy question or request, write to [email protected]. We have not appointed a representative in the EU or the UK.
On the website
Hosting. The site runs on Cloudflare. For every request Cloudflare sees your IP address, the page requested, the time and your browser, and uses them to deliver the page and block abuse; it keeps those request logs under its own retention schedule. It also asks browsers to report failed connections to it for a week. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in running and protecting the site.
Analytics. We count page views with Cloudflare Web Analytics, and only if you say yes. Every visitor is asked once a year, before the script loads; until you choose, and if you decline, nothing loads. Your choice is kept in your own browser, not with us, and you can change it at any time: change your analytics choice, or use the Privacy settings link in the footer of every page. A change to no takes effect from the next page you open. When it runs, the script sends Cloudflare the page address, the referring page, load timings, and your browser, operating system and device type. Your country is derived from your IP address; Cloudflare says it does not use the IP address or browser details to fingerprint or identify you. The script sets no cookies, reads nothing from your browser's storage and does not follow you to other sites. Raw data is kept for 7 days, then reduced to about a tenth of its volume, which we can see for six months. Legal basis: your consent.
The read-aloud recording. Each English article offers a synthetic-voice reading as an MP3 file stored on this site. It is served by Cloudflare like the page itself, under the hosting terms above, and nothing is downloaded until you press play. No other company is involved. Translated articles do not offer it.
Cookies. The site sets none of its own; we checked every page type on 7 October 2026. One caveat: if Cloudflare challenges a connection it thinks is automated, it may set a short-lived security cookie (cf_clearance or __cf_bm). We have not seen it happen.
Your browser's storage. A few flags live in your own browser so the site remembers your choices and does not nag you. They hold no identifier and are never sent anywhere.
| Key | What | Why | How long | How to clear |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pn_consent | Your analytics choice, yes or no, and when you made it | Not ask again | 365 days, then asked again | Privacy settings in the footer |
| pn_prompt_subscribed | You subscribed via the pop-up | Never open it again | Until cleared | Browser site data |
| pn_prompt_dismissed_at | When you closed the pop-up | Keep it closed | 14 days | Browser site data |
| pn_prompt_shown_session, pn_prompt_dismissed_session | Pop-up shown or closed in this tab | One pop-up per visit | This browser session | Close the browser |
| pn-splash-seen-v4 | Homepage cover animation played | Play it once per visit | This browser session | Close the browser |
The Briefing
Signing up. The form asks for your email address and nothing else. It goes to Twilio SendGrid, which keeps our list, sends our email and records the date added. We do not record your IP address or the page you signed up on. A welcome email follows at once, the next issue on Monday. Legal basis: your consent, withdrawn by unsubscribing.
Who gets it. Each issue goes to two SendGrid lists: the Flag & Clock list, people who subscribed on this site (at paddocknotes.net before the rename), and the GoodCarBadCar newsletter list, readers who receive the GoodCarBadCar newsletter, a sister title from the same publisher. We send it to that list because the two titles share a publisher; if you did not ask for The Briefing, one click on Unsubscribe stops it. Every issue carries this explanation at its foot. Unsubscribing from The Briefing stops The Briefing only; a GoodCarBadCar subscription is unchanged.
Opens and clicks. SendGrid places a one-pixel image in each issue. When your mail app loads it, SendGrid records that your copy was opened, with the time, your IP address and your mail app. Links pass through SendGrid, so a click is recorded the same way, with the link. We read the counts per issue and per list to decide what to write and what to lead with; we do not look up individual readers, though SendGrid holds the events per address. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in knowing whether an issue is read; you can object, see Your rights. To stop the open count, set your mail app to block remote images. To avoid the click record, go to flagandclock.com instead of clicking.
Leaving. Every issue ends with an Unsubscribe link. One click stops The Briefing. If you have lost it, write to [email protected].
How long. Your address stays on the list until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete it. An unsubscribed address goes on SendGrid's suppression list for The Briefing, so it is not mailed again. We delete the contact record, and our Drive working copy of it, when you ask us to; until then SendGrid's own retention applies to the open and click events.
We do not sell, rent or trade your address, and we use it only for Flag & Clock email. Working copies of the list and of unsubscribe files are kept in Leetone's Google Drive.
Who receives data
Cloudflare, Inc. (San Francisco) hosts the site, runs the analytics if you accept them, and relays your address to SendGrid. Twilio Inc. (SendGrid, United States) keeps the list, sends the email and records opens and clicks. Both act as our processors under their published data processing terms. Google LLC holds the Drive working copies.
Flag & Clock is published from the United States, so your data is processed there. Cloudflare and Twilio each state that they are certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension, and fall back on the EU standard contractual clauses where that does not apply.
Your rights
In the EU, the EEA and the UK, the GDPR and the UK GDPR give you the right to a copy of your data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict its use, to receive it in a portable form, to object to processing we base on our legitimate interests, and to withdraw consent at any time. We make no automated decisions about you.
You can object to direct marketing at any time. Unsubscribing from The Briefing is an objection, and it takes effect at once.
An objection to the open and click counting alone, rather than to The Briefing, is met today by unsubscribing: SendGrid offers no per-reader switch for the counting, and blocking remote images stops the open count on your side.
You can also complain to the data protection authority in your country, or to the Information Commissioner's Office in the UK.
Wherever you live, write to [email protected] for access, correction or deletion. We answer within one month, and may ask you to write from the address concerned.
California. We do not sell or share personal information as the California Consumer Privacy Act defines those terms, and the commitments above apply to you. The site does not respond to Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals and does not track you across other sites. No third party collects information about your activity on other sites through this site.
Children
Flag & Clock is not directed at anyone under 16. If a child has subscribed, write to us and we will remove the address.
Data licensing and reuse
The results ledger and every dataset Flag & Clock publishes are open. Our rights in their selection, arrangement and original contributions, including the derived figures we calculate, are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. You may copy, quote, chart, redistribute and build on them, commercially or not, as long as you credit Flag & Clock and link the page you took the figure from. The full notice, with a ready-made attribution line, is at /data/LICENSE.txt.
Every figure traces to a source. Results and standings come from the official timing and championship documents of each series, and those underlying facts belong to no one; what we license is our record of them and the arithmetic we add. When a number matters, cite the underlying document as well as us.
Articles, hub text and illustrations are not covered by that licence. They are copyright Leetone Enterprises. Quote a passage with attribution and a link, as you would any publication. Republishing whole pieces, syndication, print, bulk feeds, and the use of our articles or illustrations to train AI models need a licence: write to [email protected]. Our robots.txt carries the same signal for automated systems: search and AI answers with attribution are welcome; training on the articles is not.
Changes to this policy
We update this page when our practice changes and date each version.
- 14 October 2026. The read-aloud player no longer comes from ElevenLabs. Each English article's audio is now a file on this site, so pressing play contacts no third party; the ElevenLabs section, processor and transfer notes are removed.
- 7 October 2026. Analytics now loads only if you accept when asked, and the ElevenLabs player only when you press Listen; both are described. Adds the browser storage table, Google Drive, the GoodCarBadCar list, legal bases, retention, US processing, your rights under the GDPR and UK GDPR, California and children.
- 6 October 2026. Names the controller and Cloudflare; discloses the newsletter's open and click tracking.
- 30 April 2026. First version.
What will change
New subscribers will confirm by email before being added to the list, from November 2026. Each change is logged above when it ships.