Privacy & Cookies
The Des Moines Historical Society (DMHS) respects your privacy. This notice explains how its website uses information, cookies, and optional third-party services. It applies to visitors in all locations.
Last updated: October 20, 2026.
Website operator and contact details
The website is operated by the Des Moines Historical Society, a Washington nonprofit historical society.
Des Moines Historical SocietyPO Box 98055
Des Moines, WA 98198-0055
Email: info@dmhs.org
Information we collect and why
- Basic website and security information: Our hosting environment can receive IP addresses, timestamps, URLs requested, browser and device characteristics, and error or security events as part of delivering pages, protecting the website, and diagnosing problems. Such records may be received even when optional analytics is rejected.
- Messages, membership, and requests: If you email DMHS or provide information through an inquiry, membership, volunteer, research, or other form that DMHS operates, the information you choose to supply may include your name, contact details, request, and correspondence. Site search on this website processes search terms locally using DMHS's own search index; it does not require Google Analytics or Matomo.
- Donations and payments: If you use a link to a donation, payment, or membership service, the separate provider may collect transaction and payment details under its own privacy terms. The files included in this website package do not establish which external payment-processing arrangements are currently active. DMHS does not need payment-card details to provide its public historical pages.
- Optional analytics: Only after analytics consent, Google Analytics 4 and Matomo can collect information about visits and interactions, including page views, approximate location or device/browser details, and online identifiers. Our website uses GA4 measurement ID G-FDDG1FEW6Q and Matomo at stats.dmhs.org. Advertising consent remains denied.
- Optional automated translation: Only after functional third-party consent, the GTranslate widget may load from cdn.gtranslate.net. Using it may send technical connection information, the page URL and content for translation to the provider or its supporting services. The external provider may set translation preferences.
Your choices and lawful processing
Strictly necessary website operation, security, and the storage of your privacy choice do not require optional-cookie consent. We request permission before loading optional analytics or GTranslate. Where European privacy law applies, consent is the basis for these optional technologies; essential processing may rely on other applicable grounds, such as legitimate interests or legal obligations. You may refuse without losing access to historical articles, photographs, museum information, site navigation, or site search.
Optional choices are remembered for six calendar months, or until the consent-policy version changes. You may revise or withdraw a choice at any time with Cookie Settings in any page's footer. On withdrawal, optional tracking stops, identifiers controlled by the website are cleared where technically possible, and the page is reloaded to remove optional libraries.
Cookie and technology details
| Category | Service / storage | Purpose and retention | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strictly necessary | dmhs_consent_v1 (browser localStorage) | Remembers three category preferences, choice timestamp, policy version, and expiration. Expires after six calendar months. Browser-controlled storage, not transmitted as an analytics event. | Active |
| Strictly necessary | Hosting/security server logs and possible session technologies | Serve and secure the website. Retention is determined by the hosting service's log and backup schedule, which must be checked with the host. These records are independent of analytics consent. | Active as needed |
| Analytics | Google Analytics 4, _ga and _ga_* (where set) | Visitor and page-use measurement. Cookie expiry and event-data retention depend on Google's browser and property settings; the exact GA4 property retention setting must be checked in its administrator console. | Off; opt-in |
| Analytics | DMHS Matomo, _pk_* (where set) | Visitor and page-use measurement. Identifiers and log retention depend on the Matomo tracker, privacy settings and scheduled log-deletion configuration; the administrator must verify the periods. | Off; opt-in |
| Functional third-party services | GTranslate, potentially googtrans or similar language settings | Optional language translation. Third-party cookies or storage may follow the provider's current settings and user actions. Not loaded before permission. | Off; opt-in |
Names and expirations of optional cookies can change when providers update their services. Essential resources also include externally delivered Bootstrap and, on interactive photo maps, an image-map-resizer library from jsDelivr. These are presentational or navigation dependencies rather than optional behavioral analytics in the supplied pages; fetching them discloses connection information to the CDN.
Service providers and international information transfers
Information may be processed by DMHS's hosting provider and, where authorized or necessary, Google Analytics (Google), Matomo hosted at stats.dmhs.org, GTranslate and its technology providers, and any payment/membership processor a visitor elects to use. Some recipients can process information outside your country, including the United States. Where law requires, applicable transfer safeguards and rights depend on the specific provider agreements and configurations. To ask about a specific recipient or transfer, contact DMHS.
Retention of personal information
DMHS keeps information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose collected, subject to applicable legal and recordkeeping obligations. The measurable period for our consent preferences is six months. For hosting logs, analytics records, backups, and external donation or membership systems, retention depends on administrative settings and contractual schedules that cannot be confirmed from the website's HTML source. DMHS should verify and publish the exact applicable periods once those settings have been reviewed. Research or membership correspondence is kept as needed to respond, administer the requested service, and meet any legal or archival records requirements; financial records may need longer statutory retention.
Privacy requests, opt-outs, and Global Privacy Control
You may ask DMHS about information associated with you, request access, correction or deletion where applicable, object to or restrict certain uses where the law provides those rights, or withdraw consent at any time. Depending on your location and applicable laws, you may have additional rights to appeal a decision or complain to a privacy regulator. To submit a request, contact submit a privacy request by email or write to the postal address above. Describe the request and provide sufficient information to locate the record; DMHS may need to verify your identity and will respond as applicable law requires.
DMHS does not deploy advertising or cross-context behavioral marketing trackers in this implementation. You may also request that DMHS not sell or share your personal information for covered advertising purposes, if applicable. When your browser sends a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, this website recognizes it and conservatively keeps analytics disabled while the signal is active. GPC is not a substitute for the affirmative consent required for optional cookies and third-party services under applicable European law.
Updates and further information
We may update this notice as providers, technologies, or laws change. A material change to the way optional technologies work will cause the website to request a fresh consent decision. Questions may be sent to info@dmhs.org.