Privacy

Last updated 6 November 2026

Responsibility for this policy

Focal Point’s editors operate this website and are responsible for this policy. They answer questions concerning it and may be contacted by email or by post:

tblunck27@deerfield.edu

Focal Point
c/o Deerfield Academy
7 Boyden Lane
Deerfield, MA 01342
United States

Summary

• Readers may read the magazine without an account. The site has no sign-up, comments, forms, newsletter or advertising.
• Focal Point’s own pages do not set cookies. Unless a reader turns it off, the site uses Vercel’s page-view and speed measurement, which Vercel states operates without cookies. The control for this measurement is provided below, under Page-view and speed measurement.
• The hosting provider, Vercel, and the content provider, Wix, receive the standard technical information that accompanies a request when a browser asks for a page, an image or a PDF.
• Focal Point does not sell information about readers and does not share it for advertising.

Information handled during a visit

Much of the information the site handles arises in the course of serving pages.

Requests to the website. Vercel hosts the site. Each time a browser requests a page, Vercel receives the reader’s IP address, the browser’s description of itself (the user agent), the address of the page, including search terms where a search has been made, and the time of the request. Vercel uses this information to deliver the page and to protect the site from abuse, and it makes request logs available to the editors for a limited time in accordance with its own retention rules. Focal Point does not use this information to identify readers. For further detail, please refer to Vercel’s privacy policy.

Search. Search terms are also passed to a second provider. When a reader searches, the site’s server sends the terms to Wix, which stores the magazine’s articles, in order to find matching articles. The search page instructs the browser to pass the site’s address, without the search terms, to the next page opened, and the terms are also removed from the page-view measurement described below.

Images and printed issues. Article images and the PDF editions are served from Wix’s file hosting. The browser therefore requests them from Wix directly, and Wix receives the reader’s IP address and browser details. Please refer to Wix’s privacy policy.

Page-view and speed measurement

In addition to serving pages, the site measures how they are used. To learn which articles are read and whether pages load quickly, it uses Vercel Web Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights, together with a count of clicks through to articles (which article was opened, and from which page). Vercel describes the tools as follows:

• Vercel states that the tools identify a visit by a hash created from the incoming request, without a cookie or other stored identifier, and that the hash is discarded after 24 hours.
• For each page view, Vercel records the time, the page address, the referring page, the reader’s approximate location (country, region and city), and the browser, operating system and type of device. Speed Insights records loading-speed measurements together with similar browser, device and country details.
• Vercel states that it does not tie these records to individual visitors or IP addresses, and that the tools provide aggregated statistics. The editors see Vercel’s summary figures.

Before a page address is sent, the site removes the portion after a question mark, which is where search terms appear.

Readers may also prevent the tools from running. The site does not load either tool if the browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, or if measurement is turned off here:

The reader’s choice is kept in the browser’s local storage under the name fp-analytics. It remains in the browser, Focal Point does not receive it, and it applies to that browser alone. Clearing the browser’s site data resets it.

Recipients of information

The information described above is received by the two providers that operate the site: Vercel (hosting and measurement) and Wix (article content, images and PDFs). Both process information in the United States and other countries in accordance with their own privacy policies. Apart from these providers, Focal Point shares information about readers when the law requires it.

Students and children

Focal Point is written for a general audience of students and adults. It is not directed to children under 13, and the site does not ask visitors for personal information. Anyone who believes that a child has sent personal information to the editors is asked to contact them by email or post, and the editors will delete it.

Some student information appears by design. Articles carry the names and class years of their writers, and some photographs show students, as in the printed magazine. To request a change to these details, please refer to our Corrections policy.

Requests from readers

Readers may also ask the editors about other information concerning them. Because the site has no accounts and the measurement tools show totals, the editors usually cannot locate information about an individual reader. Readers with a question or a request may nonetheless contact the editors by email or post using the details above, and the editors will aim to reply.

Security

Information that passes through the site travels over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), and the site maintains no database of reader information of its own. As with other websites, some security risk remains.

Changes

Should this policy change, the editors will post the revised version on this page together with its date.