Policies

Mission Statement

The Howard Courier brings real journalism to Howard County, Maryland. Our mission is bring unbiased news and information to the entire Howard County community. We endeavor to partner with and listen to members of the community for the benefit of all of us.

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Howard Courier Advertising Policy

Howard Courier uses Google AdSense, an advertising service that provides opportunities for web publishers to sell advertising space to merchants. Maryland Newspapers LLC and Howard Courier have incorporated Google Advertising Policies in their entirety, listed below.

CONTENT POLICES

Illegal Content

We do not allow content that:

  • is illegal, promotes illegal activity, or infringes on the legal rights of others.

Intellectual Property Abuse

We do not allow content that:

  • infringes copyright. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). You can file a counter-notification via this form.
  • sells or promotes the sale of counterfeit products. Counterfeit goods contain a trademark or logo that is identical to or substantially indistinguishable from the trademark of another. They mimic the brand features of the product in an attempt to pass themselves off as a genuine product of the brand owner.

Dangerous or Derogatory Content

We do not allow content that:

  • incites hatred against, promotes discrimination of, or disparages an individual or group on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization.Examples: Promoting hate groups or hate group paraphernalia, encouraging others to believe that a person or group is inhuman, inferior, or worthy of being hated
  • harasses, intimidates, or bullies an individual or group of individuals.Examples: Singling out someone for abuse or harassment, suggesting a tragic event did not happen or that victims or their families are actors or complicit in a cover-up of the event
  • threatens or advocates for physical or mental harm to oneself or others.Examples: Content advocating suicide, anorexia, or other self-harm; threatening someone with real-life harm or calling for the attack of another person; promoting, glorifying, or condoning violence against others; content made by or in support of terrorist groups or transnational drug trafficking organizations, or content that promotes terrorist acts, including recruitment, or that celebrates attacks by transnational drug trafficking or terrorist organizations
  • exploits others through extortion.Examples: Exploitative removals, revenge porn, blackmail

Animal Cruelty

We do not allow content that:

  • promotes cruelty or gratuitous violence towards animals.Examples: Promoting animal cruelty for entertainment purposes, such as cock or dog fighting
  • promotes the sale of products obtained from endangered or threatened species.Examples: Sale of tigers, shark fins, elephant ivory, tiger skins, rhino horn, dolphin oil

Misrepresentation Content

Misrepresentation representation

We do not allow content that:

  • misrepresents, misstates, or conceals information about the publisher, the content creator, the purpose of the content, or the content itself.
  • falsely implies having an affiliation with, or endorsement by, another individual, organization, product, or service.Examples: Impersonating Google products, misusing company logos

Unreliable and harmful claims

We do not allow content that:

  • makes claims that are demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process.Examples: information about public voting procedures, political candidate eligibility based on age or birthplace, election results, or census participation that contradicts official government records
  • promotes harmful health claims, or relates to a current, major health crisis and contradicts authoritative scientific consensus.

    Examples: Anti-vaccine advocacy, denial of the existence of medical conditions such as AIDS or Covid-19, gay conversion therapy

  • contradicts authoritative scientific consensus on climate change.

Deceptive practices

We do not allow:

  • enticing users to engage with content under false or unclear pretenses.
  • attempting to steal personal information or trick users into sharing personal informationExample: Social engineering like phishing
  • promoting content, products, or services using false, dishonest, or deceptive claims.Examples: “Get Rich Quick” schemes
  • coordinating with other sites or accounts and concealing or misrepresenting your identity or other material details about yourself, where your content relates to politics, social issues or matters of public concern.

  • directing content about politics, social issues, or matters of public concern to users in a country other than your own, if you misrepresent or conceal your country of origin or other material details about yourself.

Manipulated media

We do not allow content that:

  • deceives users through manipulated media related to politics, social issues, or matters of public concern.

Enabling dishonest behavior

We do not allow content that:

  • helps users to mislead others.Examples: Creating fake or false documents such as passports, diplomas, or accreditation; sale or distribution of term papers, paper-writing or exam-taking services; information or products for passing drug tests
  • promotes any form of hacking or cracking and/or provides users with instructions, equipment, or software that tampers with or provides unauthorized access to devices, software, servers, or websites.

    Examples: Pages or products that enable illegal access of cell phones and other communications or content delivery systems or devices; products or services that bypass copyright protection, including circumvention of digital rights management technologies; products that illegally descramble cable or satellite signals in order to get free services; pages that assist or enable users to download streaming videos if prohibited by the content provider

  • enables a user, or promotes products and services that enable a user, to track or monitor another person or their activities without their authorization.Examples: Spyware and technology used for intimate partner surveillance including but not limited to spyware/malware that enables a user to monitor another person’s texts, phone calls, or browsing history; GPS trackers specifically marketed to spy or track someone without their consent; promotion of surveillance equipment (e.g. cameras, audio recorders, dash cams, nanny cams) marketed with the express purpose of spying

    This does not include (a) private investigation services or (b) products or services designed for parents to track or monitor their underage children.

Sexually explicit content

We do not allow content that:

  • includes graphic sexual text, image, audio, video, or games.Examples: Sex acts such as genital, anal, and/or oral sex; masturbation; cartoon porn or hentai; graphic nudity
  • contains non-consensual sexual themes, whether simulated or real.Examples: Rape, incest, bestiality, necrophilia, snuff, lolita or teen-themed pornography, underage dating
  • promotes the creation or distribution of content that has been altered or generated to be sexually explicit or contain nudity.

    Examples: site or app that claims to generate deepfake pornography, instructions on how to create deepfake pornography, endorsing or comparing deepfake pornography services

Compensated sexual acts

We do not allow content that:

  • may be interpreted as promoting a sexual act in exchange for compensation.

    Examples: Prostitution; companionship and escort services; intimate massage; cuddling sites; compensated dating or sexual arrangements where one participant is expected to provide money, gifts, financial support, mentorship, or other valuable benefits to another participant such as “Sugar” dating

Mail order brides

We do not allow content that:

  • facilitates marriage to a foreigner.Examples: Mail order brides, international marriage brokers, romance tours

Adult themes in family content

We do not allow content that:

  • is made to appear appropriate for a family audience, but contains adult themes including sex, violence, or other depictions of children or popular children’s characters that are unsuitable for a general audience.

Child sexual abuse and exploitation

We do not allow content that:

  • Sexually exploits or abuses children or content that promotes the sexual exploitation or abuse of children. This includes all child sexual abuse materials.
  • Endangers children. Including but not limited to:
    • ‘Child grooming’ (for example, befriending a child online to facilitate, either online or offline, sexual contact and/or exchanging sexual imagery with that child);
    • ‘Sextortion’ (for example, threatening or blackmailing a child by using real or alleged access to a child’s intimate images);
    • Sexualization of a minor (for example, content that depicts, encourages or promotes the sexual abuse or exploitation of children); and
    • Trafficking of a child (for example, advertising or solicitation of a child for commercial sexual exploitation).

We will take appropriate action, which may include reporting to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and disabling accounts. If you believe a child is in danger of or has been subject to abuse, exploitation, or trafficking, contact the police immediately. If you have concerns a child is being or was being endangered in connection with our products, you can report the behavior to Google.

Behavioral policies

Dishonest declarations

Information provided by publishers to enable their use of or interaction with Google advertising systems:

  • must be materially accurate and complete, without misleading omissions; and
  • cannot be expressed in a deceptive or misleading manner.

    Examples: The personal information or payment details provided by a publisher are materially incomplete, obscured or inaccurate. Information provided about a publisher’s website (e.g., in the ads.txt file) or app (e.g., in the app-ads.txt file) is inaccurate. Ad requests that contain partial or inaccurate URLs or AppIDs.

Ads interfering

Google-served ads interfering with content or user interactions

We do not allow Google-served ads that:

  • overlay or are adjacent to navigational or other action items and may lead to unintended ad interactions,
  • severely interfere with consumption of content including overlaying the content or pushing the content off the display,
  • are placed on a “dead end” screen where the user is not able to exit the screen without clicking the ad.

Inventory value

Google-served ads on screens without publisher-content

We do not allow Google-served ads on screens:

  • without publisher-content or with low-value content,
  • that are under construction,
  • that are used for alerts, navigation or other behavioral purposes

Out of context ads

We do not allow Google-served ads:

  • in apps or web pages that run in the background,
  • that appear outside the display,
  • when the user’s attention is expected to be elsewhere and not on the screen hosting the ad.

It must be clear to the user with which publisher-content the ad is associated.

Google-served ads on screens with replicated content

We do not allow Google-served ads on screens:

  • with embedded or copied content from others without additional commentary, curation, or otherwise adding value to that content.

You are also required to comply with our Intellectual property abuse policy.

More ads or paid promotional material than publisher-content

We do not allow Google-served ads on screens:

  • with more ads or other paid promotional material than publisher-content.

 Unsupported languages

We do not allow content that:

  • is not primarily in one of the supported languages.

Privacy-related policies

Personalized advertising

You must not use Google’s platform products or Google ad code to select or target personalized ads, or to collect or use audience data such as cookie lists, based on:

  • past or current activity by users known by you to be under the age of 13 years;
  • past or current activity by users on sites or apps or areas of sites or apps directed at children under the age of 13 years;
  • past or current activity by users on adult, gambling, or government agency sites or apps; or
  • other inferred or actual sensitive information, including, without limitation:
    • health or medical history or information, such as from sites or apps that market to a specific health-related group,
    • negative financial status or other detailed information pertaining to a person’s finances, such as information indicating that a user has a low credit rating or high debt load,
    • racial or ethnic origins, such as from sites or apps that collect affirmative racial or ethnic identification from visitors,
    • religious beliefs or other beliefs of a similar nature, such as from sites or apps that collect people’s affirmative information on religion or religious beliefs,
    • the commission or alleged commission of any crime, such as information indicating that a user has a criminal record,
    • political affiliation, such as information indicating a user’s political opinion or political ideology,
    • trade union membership, such as a user’s visit to a trade union’s site or app, or
    • sexual behavior or orientation, such as sexual orientation inferred from a user’s visit to a particular site.

In the U.S. and Canada, the following categories of products or services cannot be targeted to audiences based on gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP code:

  • housing, such as housing listings for sale or rental, real estate services.
  • employment, such as ads for jobs, job recruitment sites, job listing sites. A subset of predetermined U.S. government advertisers promoting employment are permitted to target restricted audiences under specific conditions. If the targeting is based on a bona fide occupational qualification for a government job, which is defined under U.S. law as a qualification that is reasonably necessary for normal function of the job, these identified U.S. government advertisers may target restricted audiences.
  • offers relating to credit, banking products and services, or certain financial planning and management services. Examples: Credit cards and loans, banking and checking accounts, debt management products.

If you use Google’s platform products or Google ad code for personalized advertising:

  • you must have all rights necessary to use audience data such as cookie lists.
  • advertisers must attach notices to advertisements to make clear that they are interest-based (e.g., by using an “AdChoices” icon); and
  • all parties must comply with applicable Internet advertising industry guidelines (e.g., the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising of the Digital Advertising Alliance, or IAB Europe’s EU Framework for Online Behavioral Advertising).

Privacy disclosures

Publishers must:

  • have and abide by a privacy policy that clearly discloses any data collection, sharing and usage that takes place on any site, app, email publication or other property as a consequence of your use of Google products. The privacy policy must disclose to users that third parties may be placing and reading cookies on your users’ browsers, or using web beacons to collect information as a result of ad serving on your website.To comply with this disclosure obligation with respect to Google’s use of data, you have the option to display a prominent link to How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps.

Cookies on Google domains

Publishers must:

  • not set a cookie on Google’s domains or modify, intercept or delete cookies set on Google’s domains.

Identifying users

Publishers must:

  • not use device fingerprints or locally shared objects (e.g., Flash cookies, Browser Helper Objects, HTML5 local storage) other than HTTP cookies, or user-resettable mobile device identifiers designed for use in advertising. This does not limit the use of IP address for the detection of fraud.
  • not pass any information to Google data that Google could use or recognize as personally identifiable information; or that permanently identifies a particular device (such as a mobile phone’s unique device identifier if such an identifier cannot be reset).
  • not use our services to identify users or facilitate the merging of personally identifiable information with information previously collected as non-personally identifiable information without robust notice of, and the user’s prior affirmative (i.e., opt-in) consent to, that identification or merger. Irrespective of users’ consent, you must not attempt to disaggregate data that Google reports in aggregate.For more information, please refer to Guidance for complying with the Identifying Users Policy.
  • comply with the EU user consent policy.

Use of device and location data

If publishers collect, process, or disclose information that identifies or can be used to infer an end user’s precise geographic location, such as sourced from GPS, wifi or cell tower data then,

Publishers must:

  • disclose to the user, via an interstitial or just-in-time notice, the purposes for which their data may be used (including, ad personalization, analytics, and attribution, as applicable), including that the data may be shared with partners;
  • obtain express (i.e., opt-in) consent from end users before collecting, processing, or disclosing such information;
  • send such information to Google in an encrypted state or via an encrypted channel; and
  • disclose such information collection, processing, or disclosure in all applicable privacy policies.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

If you implement any Google advertising service on an app, a site or section of a site that is covered by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), you must:

  • notify Google of those sites or sections of sites covered by COPPA using the Google Search Console, tag the ad request using the AdMob SDK , or tag your site, app, or ad request for child-directed treatment;
  •  not use interest-based advertising (including remarketing) to target:
    • past or current activity by users known by you to be under the age of 13 years or
    • past or current activity on sites directed at users under the age of 13 years.

Requirements and other standards

Spam policies for Google web search

You must not:

Abusive experiences

You must not:

Malware or unwanted software

You must not:

  • place Google-served ads on screens that contain malicious software or “malware” that may harm or gain unauthorized access to a computer, device, or network.Examples: Computer viruses, ransomware, worms, trojan horses, rootkits, keyloggers, dialers, spyware, rogue security software, and other malicious programs or apps
  • place Google-served ads on screens that violate Google’s Unwanted Software policy.Examples: Failure to be transparent about the functionality that the software provides or the full implications of installing the software; failing to include Terms of Service or an End User License Agreement; bundling software or applications without the user’s knowledge; making system changes without the user’s consent; making it difficult for users to disable or uninstall the software; failing to properly use publicly available Google APIs when interacting with Google services or products

Better Ads Standards

You must not:

Authorized inventory

You must not:

  • place Google-served ads on a domain that uses ads.txt where you are not included as an authorized seller of the inventory in the ads.txt file.

For syndication partners, Parents must ensure Children promptly add an ads.txt file to Child domains with Parents as authorized sellers of Child Inventory.

Sanctions compliance

Google must comply with sanctions and export controls maintained by the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), United States Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry & Security and other applicable  sanctions. As a result, Google publisher products are not available to publishers in the following countries or territories:

  • Crimea
  • Cuba
  • So-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR)
  • Iran
  • North Korea
  • Syria

Google publisher products also may not be used for or on behalf of a party located in the above listed sanctioned countries or regions.

In addition, Google publisher products are not eligible for any entities or individuals that are restricted under applicable trade sanctions and export compliance laws. Google publisher products are not eligible for entities or individuals owned or controlled by or acting for or on behalf of such restricted entities or individuals.

Publishers must also comply with applicable sanctions and export regulations, which includes OFAC sanctions, and agree to not cause Google to violate these regulations. You cannot use Google publisher products for or on behalf of restricted entities or individuals. You cannot use Google publisher products for or on behalf of entities or individuals located in sanctioned countries or regions.

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General Privacy Policy

The Howard Courier Privacy Policy is quite simple. In our transactions with persons or groups we do not share any personal or group information that we obtain without the express written permission of persons or entities subject to release of information. Information will not be intentionally shared with any private person, business entity, or government agency, unless required to do so by a written court order. If the Howard Courier is issued a court order to release information, we will endeavor to contact the subject of the Government’s request prior to releasing the information. This Privacy Policy applies to all communications using all means of sharing, including the internet, telephone, mail, personal meetings, or any other mode of communication not listed here. This Privacy Policy in no way applies to the release of information obtained in the course of news coverage of events or interviews, including readily available information and investigative reporting. Subscription and marketing information (or any other information not gathered as a part of the news cycle will not be used by Howard Courier to initiate a news story; nor will information covered in this Privacy Policy be used as part of any news story.

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