Last updated October 01, 2026
This Privacy Notice for Hill Top Hospitality, LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our“), describes how and why we might access, collect, store, use, and/or share (“process“) your personal information when you use our services (“Services“), including when you:
- Visit our website at https://www.sierrafoothillsinsider.com (Sierra Foothills Insider) or any website of ours that links to this Privacy Notice
- Submit a story through our Collaborate form, submit an event for our calendar, or subscribe to our newsletter
- Engage with us in other related ways, including any marketing or events
Questions or concerns? Reading this Privacy Notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. We are responsible for making decisions about how your personal information is processed. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at melissa.bowers@hotelvistasierra.com.
Summary of key points
This summary provides key points from our Privacy Notice, but you can find out more details about any of these topics by clicking the link following each key point or by using our table of contents below to find the section you are looking for.
What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our Services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the features you use, such as our story and event submission forms and our newsletter. Learn more about personal information you disclose to us.
Do we process any sensitive personal information? Some of the information may be considered “special” or “sensitive” in certain jurisdictions, for example your racial or ethnic origins, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs. We do not process sensitive personal information.
Do we collect any information from third parties? We do not collect any information from third parties.
How do we process your information? We process your information to provide and administer our Services, review and publish the stories and events you submit, send the newsletter you subscribe to, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. We process your information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so. Learn more about how we process your information.
In what situations and with which parties do we share personal information? We may share information in specific situations and with specific third parties, such as the service providers that host our website, deliver our email, and send our newsletter. We do not sell your personal information or share it for advertising. Learn more about when and with whom we share your personal information.
How do we keep your information safe? We have adequate organizational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Learn more about how we keep your information safe.
What are your rights? Depending on where you are located geographically, the applicable privacy law may mean you have certain rights regarding your personal information. Learn more about your privacy rights.
How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way to exercise your rights is by submitting a data subject access request, or by contacting us. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
Want to learn more about what we do with any information we collect? Review the Privacy Notice in full.
Table of contents
1. What information do we collect?
2. How do we process your information?
3. When and with whom do we share your personal information?
4. Do we use cookies and other tracking technologies?
5. How long do we keep your information?
6. How do we keep your information safe?
7. Do we collect information from minors?
8. What are your privacy rights?
9. Controls for Do-Not-Track and Global Privacy Control
10. Do United States residents have specific privacy rights?
11. Do we make updates to this notice?
12. How can you contact us about this notice?
13. How can you review, update, or delete the data we collect from you?
1. What information do we collect?
Personal information you disclose to us
In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us.
We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you submit a story or an event, subscribe to our newsletter, or otherwise when you contact us. We do not offer user accounts, comments, or purchases on our Services.
Personal Information Provided by You. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:
- names
- phone numbers
- email addresses
- contact preferences
- the stories, event details, photos, and documents you choose to send us
Story submissions (Collaborate form). When you submit a story, we collect your name, email address, phone number, the text of your story, any photos or documents you upload, and your agreement to our Submission Guidelines. Submissions are stored and reviewed by our editor and may be published as articles on our Services. If your story is published, your name appears as the byline.
Event submissions (Submit an Event form). When you submit an event, we collect the event details you provide (such as the event name, date, time, location, description, cost, and ticket link), an optional photo, whether you organize the event, and your name, email address, and phone number. If our editor approves the event, the event details and photo are published on our calendar.
Both forms are stored in our website’s database and emailed to our own mailboxes. We do not store your IP address with your submission.
Newsletter. If you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address only. Our newsletter is sent through Kit (formerly ConvertKit), and we use double opt-in, meaning you must confirm your subscription from a link sent to your email. Kit records whether our emails are opened and which links are clicked. You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in every email.
Sensitive Information. We do not process sensitive information.
All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.
Information automatically collected
In Short: Some information — such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and browser characteristics — is collected automatically when you visit our Services.
We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include your IP address, browser type, the pages you view, and the date and time of your visit. This information is kept by our hosting provider and is needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services. We do not use analytics or advertising tools.
Like many businesses, we also use cookies and similar technologies. You can find out more about this in our Cookie Notice: Cookie Notice (Opt-out preferences).
The information we collect includes:
- Log and Usage Data. Log and usage data is service-related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information our servers automatically collect when you access or use our Services and which we record in log files. This log data may include your IP address, browser type and settings, the date/time stamps associated with your visit, pages and files viewed, searches, and error information.
2. How do we process your information?
In Short: We process your information to provide and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent.
We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:
- To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user. We may process your information to provide you with the requested service.
- To review and publish your submissions. We process the stories and events you submit so our editor can review them, contact you about them, and publish them as articles or calendar listings.
- To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We may process your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the requested service.
- To send you marketing and promotional communications. If you subscribe, we process your email address to send you our newsletter. You can opt out of our marketing emails at any time. For more information, see “What are your privacy rights?” below.
- To protect our Services. We may process your information as part of our efforts to keep our Services safe and secure, including fraud monitoring and prevention.
- To comply with our legal obligations. We may process your information to comply with our legal obligations, respond to legal requests, and exercise, establish, or defend our legal rights.
3. When and with whom do we share your personal information?
In Short: We may share information in specific situations described in this section and/or with the following third parties.
We may need to share your personal information in the following situations:
- Service Providers. We use the following service providers to operate our Services: our US-based hosting provider, which hosts our website and its database; SMTP2GO, which delivers form-submission emails; Microsoft 365, which hosts our mailboxes; Kit, which sends our newsletter; and Complianz, our consent management tool, which runs on our website.
- Publication. If we publish a story or event you submit, the published content (including your name as the byline for a story, and the event details and photo for an event) is visible to anyone who visits our Services.
- Google Maps. Our event pages include an embedded Google Map. When the map loads, Google may receive your IP address and may set cookies. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms page.
- Add to calendar links. Event pages offer “Add to calendar” links for Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCal. Clicking one takes you to that service; nothing is shared with it unless you click. Links to our Instagram and LinkedIn pages are plain links and do not load content from those services.
- Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
4. Do we use cookies and other tracking technologies?
In Short: We use a small number of cookies to run our Services, remember your consent choices, and support our newsletter and maps.
We use cookies and similar technologies to gather information when you interact with our Services. These help us maintain the security of our Services, save your preferences, and assist with basic site functions. Specifically:
- Consent cookies. Our consent management tool, Complianz, sets cookies to remember your cookie choices.
- Newsletter cookie. The Kit plugin sets a cookie (ck_subscriber_id) to remember that you are a subscriber.
- Google Maps. Google may set cookies when an embedded map loads on an event page.
- Administrator cookies. WordPress sets login cookies for our site administrators only.
We do not use advertising or analytics cookies, and we do not permit third parties to use tracking technologies on our Services for advertising. Our fonts are hosted on our own server. We honor Do-Not-Track and Global Privacy Control signals as described in “Controls for Do-Not-Track and Global Privacy Control.”
Specific information about how we use such technologies and how you can refuse certain cookies is set out in our Cookie Notice: Cookie Notice (Opt-out preferences).
5. How long do we keep your information?
In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice unless otherwise required by law.
We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). In particular:
- Story and event submissions are kept as long as needed to review and publish them. Published submissions are kept as long as the article or calendar listing is online, unless you ask us to delete them.
- Newsletter data is kept until you unsubscribe. After that, Kit may retain your email address to make sure you are not emailed again.
- Server logs are kept according to our hosting provider’s standard retention.
When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.
6. How do we keep your information safe?
In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.
We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorized third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.
7. Do we collect information from minors?
In Short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.
Our Services are not directed to children under 18 years of age. We do not knowingly collect, solicit data from, or market to children under 18 years of age, nor do we knowingly sell such personal information. Our Submission Guidelines require anyone submitting a story to be at least 18. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at melissa.bowers@hotelvistasierra.com.
8. What are your privacy rights?
In Short: You may review, change, or request deletion of your personal information at any time, depending on your country, province, or state of residence.
Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, which may be express and/or implied consent depending on the applicable law, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section “How can you contact us about this notice?” below.
However, please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal nor, when applicable law allows, will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
Opting out of marketing and promotional communications: You can unsubscribe from our marketing and promotional communications at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the emails that we send, or by contacting us using the details provided in the section “How can you contact us about this notice?” below. You will then be removed from the marketing lists. However, we may still communicate with you — for example, to respond to service requests, or for other non-marketing purposes.
Deleting your submissions: You can ask us to delete a story or event you submitted, including a published one, by contacting us using the details provided in the section “How can you contact us about this notice?” below.
Cookies and similar technologies: You can change your cookie choices at any time through our consent tool. Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove cookies or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our Services. For further information, please see our Cookie Notice: Cookie Notice (Opt-out preferences).
If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at melissa.bowers@hotelvistasierra.com.
9. Controls for Do-Not-Track and Global Privacy Control
Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. Some browsers and extensions also send a Global Privacy Control (“GPC”) signal.
We honor both DNT and GPC signals. If your browser sends either signal, our consent tool treats it as a choice to opt out of non-essential cookies, and those cookies are not set. California law requires us to let you know how we respond to web browser DNT signals; this paragraph describes our response.
10. Do United States residents have specific privacy rights?
In Short: If you are a resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, or Virginia, you may have the right to request access to and receive details about the personal information we maintain about you and how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, get a copy of, or delete your personal information. You may also have the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information. These rights may be limited in some circumstances by applicable law. More information is provided below.
Categories of personal information we collect
The table below shows the categories of personal information we have collected in the past twelve (12) months. The table includes illustrative examples of each category and does not reflect the personal information we collect from you. For a comprehensive inventory of all personal information we process, please refer to the section “What information do we collect?“
| Category | Examples | Collected |
|---|---|---|
| A. Identifiers | Contact details, such as real name, alias, postal address, telephone or mobile contact number, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, and account name | YES — name, email address, and telephone number |
| B. Personal information as defined in the California Customer Records statute | Name, contact information, education, employment, employment history, and financial information | YES — name and telephone number |
| C. Protected classification characteristics under state or federal law | Gender, age, date of birth, race and ethnicity, national origin, marital status, and other demographic data | NO |
| D. Commercial information | Transaction information, purchase history, financial details, and payment information | NO |
| E. Biometric information | Fingerprints and voiceprints | NO |
| F. Internet or other similar network activity | Browsing history, search history, online behavior, interest data, and interactions with our and other websites, applications, systems, and advertisements | YES — limited to server log data and whether our newsletter emails are opened and links clicked |
| G. Geolocation data | Device location | NO |
| H. Audio, electronic, sensory, or similar information | Images and audio, video or call recordings created in connection with our business activities | YES — photos you upload |
| I. Professional or employment-related information | Business contact details in order to provide you our Services at a business level or job title, work history, and professional qualifications if you apply for a job with us | NO |
| J. Education Information | Student records and directory information | NO |
| K. Inferences drawn from collected personal information | Inferences drawn from any of the collected personal information listed above to create a profile or summary about, for example, an individual’s preferences and characteristics | NO |
| L. Sensitive personal Information | Sensitive personal information as defined by applicable law | NO |
We may also collect other personal information outside of these categories through instances where you interact with us in person, online, or by phone or mail in the context of:
- Receiving help through our customer support channels; and
- Facilitation in the delivery of our Services and to respond to your inquiries.
We will use and retain the collected personal information as needed to provide the Services or for:
- Categories A, B, and H – As long as needed to review and publish your submission, and for published submissions as long as the article or listing is online, unless you request deletion; for newsletter subscribers, until you unsubscribe
- Category F – Newsletter open and click data until you unsubscribe; server logs according to our hosting provider’s standard retention
Sources of personal information
Learn more about the sources of personal information we collect in “What information do we collect?“
How we use and share personal information
Learn more about how we use your personal information in the section, “How do we process your information?“
Will your information be shared with anyone else?
We may disclose your personal information with our service providers pursuant to a written contract between us and each service provider. Learn more about how we disclose personal information in the section, “When and with whom do we share your personal information?“
We have not disclosed, sold, or shared any personal information to third parties for a business or commercial purpose in the preceding twelve (12) months. We will not sell or share personal information in the future belonging to website visitors, users, and other consumers.
Your rights
You have rights under certain US state data protection laws. However, these rights are not absolute, and in certain cases, we may decline your request as permitted by law. These rights include:
- Right to know whether or not we are processing your personal data
- Right to access your personal data
- Right to correct inaccuracies in your personal data
- Right to request the deletion of your personal data
- Right to obtain a copy of the personal data you previously shared with us
- Right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights
- Right to opt out of the processing of your personal data if it is used for targeted advertising (or sharing as defined under California’s privacy law), the sale of personal data, or profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects (“profiling”)
We do not sell personal data, use it for targeted advertising, or use it for profiling. We honor Global Privacy Control signals as an opt-out preference signal, as described in “Controls for Do-Not-Track and Global Privacy Control.”
Depending upon the state where you live, you may also have the following rights:
- Right to access the categories of personal data being processed (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Minnesota)
- Right to obtain a list of the categories of third parties to which we have disclosed personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in California, Delaware, and Maryland)
- Right to obtain a list of specific third parties to which we have disclosed personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Minnesota and Oregon)
- Right to obtain a list of third parties to which we have sold personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Connecticut)
- Right to review, understand, question, and depending on where you live, correct how personal data has been profiled (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Connecticut and Minnesota)
- Right to limit use and disclosure of sensitive personal data (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in California)
- Right to opt out of the collection of sensitive data and personal data collected through the operation of a voice or facial recognition feature (as permitted by applicable law, including the privacy law in Florida)
How to exercise your rights
To exercise these rights, you can contact us by submitting a data subject access request, by emailing us at melissa.bowers@hotelvistasierra.com, or by referring to the contact details at the bottom of this document.
Under certain US state data protection laws, you can designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We may deny a request from an authorized agent that does not submit proof that they have been validly authorized to act on your behalf in accordance with applicable laws.
Request verification
Upon receiving your request, we will need to verify your identity to determine you are the same person about whom we have the information in our system. We will only use personal information provided in your request to verify your identity or authority to make the request. However, if we cannot verify your identity from the information already maintained by us, we may request that you provide additional information for the purposes of verifying your identity and for security or fraud-prevention purposes.
If you submit the request through an authorized agent, we may need to collect additional information to verify your identity before processing your request and the agent will need to provide a written and signed permission from you to submit such request on your behalf.
Appeals
Under certain US state data protection laws, if we decline to take action regarding your request, you may appeal our decision by emailing us at melissa.bowers@hotelvistasierra.com. We will inform you in writing of any action taken or not taken in response to the appeal, including a written explanation of the reasons for the decisions. If your appeal is denied, you may submit a complaint to your state attorney general.
California “Shine The Light” law
California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us by using the contact details provided in the section “How can you contact us about this notice?“
11. Do we make updates to this notice?
In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated “Revised” date at the top of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this Privacy Notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.
12. How can you contact us about this notice?
If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may email us at melissa.bowers@hotelvistasierra.com or contact us by post at:
Hill Top Hospitality, LLC
13535 Bowman Rd
Auburn, CA 95603
United States
13. How can you review, update, or delete the data we collect from you?
Based on the applicable laws of your country or state of residence in the US, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, details about how we have processed it, correct inaccuracies, or delete your personal information. You may also have the right to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal information. These rights may be limited in some circumstances by applicable law. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please fill out and submit a data subject access request.