Who we are
Our website address is: https://heychicago.us.
We’re a Chicago-based website sharing the best things to do in the city, hidden gems, local events, and positive news stories.
Affiliate Disclosure
Some of our posts may contain affiliate links to products or services. This means that if you make a purchase through those links, we may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you.
As an Amazon Associate, Hey Chicago earns from qualifying purchases.
We only recommend products, places, and services that we genuinely trust and believe add value to our readers. Thank you for supporting our work and helping us keep Hey Chicago running!
Advertising Partners
Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)
HeyChicago.us works with Mediavine to manage third-party, interest-based advertising displayed on our website. Mediavine serves content and ads when you visit our site, which may use first- and third-party cookies.
- A first-party cookie is created by the site you’re visiting (heychicago.us).
- A third-party cookie is often used for advertising and analytics, created by domains other than the one you’re visiting.
These cookies, along with tags, pixels, and beacons, may be used to monitor how you interact with advertising content and to better target and optimize ads.
Your browser settings allow you to block or clear cookies. For more info on how to manage them, visit All About Cookies.
Please note: Disabling cookies won’t remove ads, but it may result in seeing non-personalized ads.
Data Mediavine may collect through cookies when serving personalized ads includes:
- IP address
- Operating system type & version
- Device type
- Browser type
- Language preferences
- Email address (in hashed form)
Mediavine Partners may also combine this data with other information they have collected independently to deliver targeted advertising across devices, browsers, and apps.
For more information, including how to opt-out of data collection and interest-based advertising, visit:
To view the list of Mediavine Partners and their data practices, visit Mediavine Partners.
What Personal Data We Collect and Why
Comments
When visitors leave comments on HeyChicago.us, we collect:
- The information shown in the comments form
- The visitor’s IP address and browser user agent (for spam detection)
Your email address may also be hashed and checked against the Gravatar service to display your profile picture. (See Gravatar’s Privacy Policy).
Media
If you upload images, avoid including embedded location data (EXIF GPS). Visitors may be able to extract this data from images.
Cookies
- Leaving a comment? You can opt-in to saving your name, email, and website in cookies (for convenience). These last one year.
- Login cookies last for 2 days; display settings cookies last one year. “Remember Me” keeps you logged in for 2 weeks.
- Publishing an article sets a temporary cookie (expires after 1 day).
Embedded Content from Other Websites
Articles may include embedded content (videos, social posts, images, etc.). This content behaves the same way as if you visited those sites directly, which may collect data, use cookies, or track your interaction.
How Long We Retain Your Data
- Comments and metadata are retained indefinitely.
- Registered users (if applicable) can see, edit, or delete personal information at any time (except usernames). Site administrators can also access and edit this data.
Your Rights Over Your Data
If you have an account or have left comments, you may request:
- An exported file of the personal data we hold about you
- Deletion of any personal data we hold about you (except data we must keep for legal, administrative, or security reasons)
Where We Send Your Data
Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
Contact Information
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please reach out:
📧 Email: hello@heychicago.us
đź“Ť Location: Chicago, IL