Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

This document contains both the Terms of Service (Part I) and the Privacy Policy (Part II) governing MikeZoril.com (the “Site”). Together they form a single binding agreement between you and the Operator (the “Agreement”).

References to “we,” “us,” “our,” and the “Operator” mean the operator of the Site together with its owners, officers, employees, contractors, agents, and successors.

The Site is operated as a public-advocacy, journalistic, and civic-information project.

Commercial activities

The Site may now or in the future include commercial activity, including without limitation advertising, sponsorships, paid placements, affiliate arrangements, paid subscriptions or memberships, sponsored or underwritten newsletter content, sale of goods or services, events, consulting, licensing of content, and the processing of payments and donations. This Agreement is written to cover those activities if and when they occur, and we may engage in them at any time without amending this Agreement. Where we introduce a service involving payment, payment details are handled by third-party payment processors under their own terms, and we do not store full payment card numbers.

Part I — Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of These Terms

By accessing or using the Site, submitting any form, subscribing to any communication, or sending us any material, you agree to be bound by this Agreement. If you do not agree, do not use the Site.

The contact form and newsletter signup each display a notice, adjacent to the submit control, stating that submission constitutes agreement to this Agreement and linking to it. By completing either form you acknowledge that you had the opportunity to review this Agreement, including the arbitration provision and class action waiver in Section 14, before submitting.

2. Eligibility

The Site is intended for a general adult audience. You represent that you are at least 13 years of age and that your use of the Site complies with all applicable laws.

3. Nature of the Content; No Professional Advice

The Site publishes commentary, analysis, reporting, opinion, and public-record material concerning matters of public interest, including the conduct of government bodies and public officials.

Content on the Site includes statements of opinion, interpretation, and analysis, as well as summaries and characterizations of public records and public proceedings. Such material reflects the author’s views and interpretations, and reasonable people may disagree with them.

We make no representation or warranty that any content is complete, accurate, current, or free from error. Public records may be incomplete, superseded, misfiled, or subject to correction, and content may become outdated. Nothing on the Site is legal, financial, tax, medical, electoral, or other professional advice, and no attorney-client, fiduciary, advisory, or similar relationship is created by your use of the Site.

You are responsible for independently verifying any information before relying on it. If you believe any content is inaccurate, you may submit a correction request through the contact form, which we will consider in good faith; we are not obligated to publish a correction, retraction, or response.

4. Intellectual Property and Limited License

All content on the Site, including text, graphics, layout, compilations, and design, is owned by the Operator or its licensors and is protected by copyright and other laws.

We grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and view the Site for personal, non-commercial purposes. Brief quotation with attribution and a link is permitted. You may not otherwise reproduce, republish, distribute, sell, scrape, systematically download, or create derivative works from the Site or its content without our prior written permission.

You may not use the Site or its content to train, fine-tune, or develop any machine learning or artificial intelligence model, or for automated bulk extraction of any kind, without our prior written permission.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• use the Site for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law;
• submit false, fraudulent, defamatory, harassing, threatening, obscene, or knowingly misleading material;
• impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation;
• transmit malware, or attempt to probe, scan, disrupt, overload, or gain unauthorized access to the Site, its servers, its administrative areas, or any connected system;
• circumvent, disable, or interfere with security, bot-mitigation, rate-limiting, or access-control features;
• use any automated means to access, scrape, or harvest the Site or collect information about other users;
• submit material you lack the right to submit, or that violates any confidentiality obligation, court order, protective order, or third-party right; or
• use the Site to send unsolicited commercial messages.

6. Submissions and User Content

Material submitted to us — including tips, documents, records, correspondence, photographs, form submissions, and any accompanying commentary — may be used for journalistic, editorial, advocacy, commercial, and public-interest purposes.

By submitting any material, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, fully sublicensable and transferable license to use, reproduce, quote, excerpt, publish, distribute, display, adapt, and create derivative works from that material, in any medium now known or later developed, without compensation, attribution, or further notice to you.

You represent and warrant that you have the right to provide any material you submit, that doing so does not violate any law, contract, confidentiality obligation, court order, or third-party right, and that the material is accurate to the best of your knowledge.

Do not send confidential, privileged, sealed, or legally protected material. Communications through this Site are not confidential and do not create any attorney-client, source-protection, fiduciary, employment, or other privileged or protected relationship. Unless we have expressly agreed otherwise in writing and in advance, we may disclose the fact and content of your submission, including your identity. If you require confidentiality, contact us by another means and reach an explicit written agreement before transmitting anything.

We may decline to use, may edit, and may delete any submission at our sole discretion. We have no obligation to publish, act upon, respond to, investigate, preserve, or return any submission.

7. Third-Party Sites and Content

The Site contains links to and content from third parties, including social media platforms, government websites, news organizations, and document repositories. We do not control and are not responsible for the privacy practices, security, accuracy, availability, or content of any third party. Accessing third-party services is at your own risk and subject to their terms.

8. Advertising, Sponsorship, and Transactions

Where the Site displays advertising or sponsored content, or offers goods, services, subscriptions, or memberships, additional terms may apply and will be presented at the point of sale. Advertisers and sponsors do not control editorial content unless expressly disclosed. We are not responsible for the products, services, claims, or conduct of any advertiser, sponsor, affiliate partner, or third-party seller, and any dispute regarding their offerings is solely between you and that party.

9. Availability, Modification, and Termination

We may modify, suspend, restrict, or discontinue the Site or any part of it at any time, without notice and without liability. We may restrict or terminate your access at our sole discretion, including for any suspected violation of this Agreement, and may block any IP address or account.

10. Copyright Complaints

If you believe content on the Site infringes your copyright, submit a notice through the contact form identifying the copyrighted work, the material claimed to be infringing and its location, your contact information, a statement of good-faith belief that the use is unauthorized, and a statement under penalty of perjury that the information is accurate and that you are authorized to act. We will review and respond as we deem appropriate, and may remove material at our discretion.

11. Disclaimer of Warranties

The Site and all content are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including without limitation warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, accuracy, non-infringement, and uninterrupted, secure, or error-free operation. We do not warrant that the Site will be available, that defects will be corrected, or that the Site is free of harmful components.

12. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall the Operator, or any of its owners, officers, employees, contractors, agents, or successors, be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of data, use, goodwill, reputation, or profits, arising out of or relating to the Site, any content, or this Agreement, regardless of the theory of liability and even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, our total aggregate liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the Site or this Agreement shall not exceed the greater of the amount you paid us in the twelve months preceding the claim, or one hundred U.S. dollars ($100.00).

Nothing in this Agreement limits any liability that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law.

13. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Operator and its owners, officers, employees, contractors, agents, and successors from and against any claims, demands, losses, liabilities, damages, judgments, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to: your use of the Site; any material you submit; your violation of this Agreement or any applicable law; or your violation of any third-party right. We reserve the right to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification, and you agree to cooperate with our defense.

14. Dispute Resolution; Arbitration; Class Action Waiver

Informal resolution first

Before initiating any proceeding, you agree to contact us through the contact form and attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute informally for at least sixty (60) days.

Binding arbitration

Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to the Site or this Agreement that is not resolved informally shall be resolved exclusively by final and binding individual arbitration administered under the rules of a recognized arbitration provider, rather than in court, except that either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies.

Class action and jury waiver

YOU AND THE OPERATOR EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A TRIAL BY JURY AND THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY CLASS, COLLECTIVE, CONSOLIDATED, OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. Claims may be brought only in an individual capacity. The arbitrator may not consolidate claims or preside over any class or representative proceeding.

Time limit

To the fullest extent permitted by law, any claim must be brought within one (1) year after it arises, or it is permanently barred.

Governing law and venue

This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Wisconsin, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any matter not subject to arbitration shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in or serving Rock County, Wisconsin, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

Severability of this section

If the class action waiver is held unenforceable as to any claim, that claim shall proceed in court, and all other claims remain in arbitration.

15. Changes to This Agreement

We may modify this Agreement at any time in our sole discretion. Changes take effect when posted, and the “Last updated” date will be revised. We are not obligated to provide individual notice. Your continued use of the Site after a change constitutes acceptance.

Part II — Privacy Policy

16. Information We Collect

Information you provide directly

When you use the contact form, we collect the name, email address, subject line, and message text you enter. When you subscribe to The Zoril Report, we collect your email address and your affirmative confirmation that you wish to receive it. If you send us documents, records, tips, or other materials through any channel, we collect whatever those materials contain. If we offer paid or commercial services in the future, we may also collect billing name, billing and shipping address, transaction history, and related details necessary to fulfill and support those transactions.

Information collected automatically

Our hosting and security providers process technical request data — including IP address, browser and device characteristics, referring page, and timestamps — as a normal part of delivering and protecting the Site. For rate limiting and abuse prevention, we convert your IP address into a one-way cryptographic fingerprint; we do not retain the raw IP address in our own contact records.

Measurement information

Aggregate traffic measurement is always active through Cloudflare Web Analytics, which does not use tracking cookies and does not collect personal data. Google Analytics is enabled by default and may be switched off at any time. Meta Pixel technologies collect information only if you affirmatively enable them. See Section 18 for details and controls.

We may collect any additional information you voluntarily submit, and we may derive, infer, or combine information from any of the above sources.

17. How We Use Information

We use information collected through the Site for any lawful purpose, including without limitation to:

• receive, review, evaluate, and respond to messages and inquiries;
• operate, maintain, secure, test, debug, and improve the Site;
• deliver newsletters, updates, and other communications you have requested;
• prevent, detect, and investigate spam, fraud, abuse, harassment, and security incidents;
• research, analyze, and report on public matters, public records, and civic issues;
• sell, advertise, market, and promote goods, services, events, subscriptions, memberships, and sponsorships; process and fulfill orders, payments, and donations; and measure the performance of advertising, sponsorship, and promotional campaigns;
• personalize content, offers, and communications, and measure whether they are effective;
• create aggregated, anonymized, or de-identified information, which we may use and disclose for any purpose without restriction;
• establish, exercise, or defend legal claims; and
• comply with applicable law, legal process, and requests from public authorities.

We reserve the right to use information for any additional purpose compatible with those described above or otherwise permitted by law.

18. Cookies and Similar Technologies

Strictly necessary

We use limited cookies and similar technologies required to operate the Site, deliver and protect form submissions (including Cloudflare Turnstile bot protection), maintain administrative sessions, and remember your privacy choices. These are always active because the Site cannot function properly without them.

Cookieless analytics

Cloudflare Web Analytics provides aggregate page-view, visitor, and performance information without cookies and without personal data. It is always active.

Analytics — Google Analytics — on by default

Google Analytics is enabled by default and begins measuring when you visit the Site. It uses first-party cookies to measure traffic sources, pages visited, and form completions. You may switch it off at any time using the “Privacy & cookie choices” control in the Site footer; doing so stops further collection and clears its cookies.

Marketing — Meta Pixel — off by default

Meta Pixel does not load and collects nothing unless you affirmatively enable it. If you enable it, it uses Meta technologies to measure visits originating from Facebook advertising and to measure form completions. The contents of your contact form are not transmitted to Meta.

Your choices are recorded in a cookie named mz_privacy_choices and stored for approximately six months. You may change or withdraw your choices at any time using the “Privacy & cookie choices” control in the Site footer. Withdrawing consent stops future collection by the affected technology and clears its cookies; it does not undo processing that already occurred.

We do not respond to browser “Do Not Track” signals, as no common standard has been established. We may add, remove, or change measurement technologies at any time and will update this Agreement accordingly.

19. How We Disclose Information

We do not currently sell your personal information for money. We reserve the right to share personal information with advertising, sponsorship, and marketing partners in the future, including in ways that may be treated as a “sale” or “sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising” under certain state privacy laws. If we do so, we will provide any notice and opt-out mechanism those laws then require of us.

We may disclose information:

• to service providers and vendors who perform functions on our behalf, including hosting, content delivery, security, bot mitigation, email delivery, newsletter distribution, analytics, advertising measurement, payment processing, and order fulfillment (currently including Cloudflare, Resend, beehiiv, Google, and Meta);
• to advertisers, sponsors, underwriters, and their measurement providers, in connection with advertising or sponsored content, including in aggregate or de-identified form;
• to any person you direct us to contact, or where disclosure is inherent in your request;
• in connection with journalistic, editorial, advocacy, or public-interest publication, as described in Section 6;
• to comply with law, regulation, subpoena, court order, or other legal process, or to respond to lawful requests from public authorities;
• to enforce this Agreement, protect our rights, property, or safety, or those of others, and to investigate suspected fraud, abuse, or illegal activity;
• to professional advisors, including attorneys, accountants, and insurers;
• in connection with any merger, acquisition, reorganization, transfer of the Site, or similar transaction; and
• with your consent or at your direction.

We may disclose aggregated, anonymized, or de-identified information for any purpose without restriction. Third-party services operate under their own privacy policies, over which we have no control and for which we assume no responsibility.

20. Data Retention

We retain information for as long as we determine necessary or appropriate for the purposes described in this Agreement, including for recordkeeping, archival, journalistic, historical, security, and legal-defense purposes, or for such longer period as may be required or permitted by law. We have no obligation to delete or return any information except as required by applicable law, and we may retain copies in backups, archives, and email systems indefinitely.

21. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures — including encrypted transport, bot mitigation, rate limiting, and access controls — intended to protect information.

However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure. We do not warrant or guarantee the security of any information, and to the fullest extent permitted by law we disclaim liability for any unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, loss, or destruction of information. You transmit information to us at your own risk.

22. Your Choices and Rights

Regardless of where you live, you may:

• change or withdraw your cookie choices at any time using the footer control;
• unsubscribe from The Zoril Report using the link in any email;
• ask us to correct or delete information you have provided, using the contact form.

If you reside in a jurisdiction granting statutory privacy rights — such as rights to access, correct, delete, or port personal information, or to opt out of targeted advertising, sale, or profiling — you may exercise any such rights that apply to you through the contact form. We will honor rights that apply to us under applicable law and will not discriminate against you for exercising them.

We may take reasonable steps to verify your identity before acting on a request, and we may decline requests where an exception applies, including where information is retained for journalistic, editorial, archival, security, legal-defense, or legal-compliance purposes, or where a request is unfounded, excessive, or repetitive.

23. Children

The Site is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn that we have, we will delete it. A parent or guardian who believes a child has provided information may contact us through the contact form.

24. Jurisdiction and International Users

The Site is operated from the United States and intended for residents of Rock County and the State of Wisconsin. Information is processed and stored in the United States and other countries whose data protection laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction.

We do not target, market to, or knowingly offer services to individuals located outside the United States. If you access the Site from outside the United States, you do so on your own initiative, are responsible for compliance with local law, and consent to the transfer and processing of your information in the United States.

Part III — General

25. General Provisions

Entire agreement. This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and the Operator regarding the Site and supersedes all prior understandings.

Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, it shall be modified to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.

Assignment. You may not assign this Agreement. We may assign it freely, including in connection with any transfer of the Site.

Survival. Sections 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 20, and 25 survive any termination of your access.

26. Contact

Questions, requests, privacy inquiries, correction requests, and notices under this Agreement — including requests to exercise statutory privacy rights — must be submitted through the contact form on this Site.

The contact form is the exclusive channel for such communications. We do not accept them by any other method and may decline to act on communications received through other channels.

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