Windsor Watchers · Privacy and security

Privacy and security

This page explains, in plain language, how Windsor Watchers handles a tip. We do not claim anonymity, and we do not claim that any system is impossible to break.

What this desk is, and is not

Windsor Watchers is a Windsor News public service desk. This site is not legal advice and is not a police service. It is not an anonymous police tip program, and it cannot offer that kind of anonymity protection. We will not publish your name, phone number, or the contents of a tip as a news story without a separate conversation and your agreement, except where the law requires us to disclose information. We cannot promise anonymity if a court or other lawful order requires disclosure.

Windsor Watchers cooperates fully with police and with any lawful order. We pass tips to the right police service, and we never stand in the way of an investigation.

A local anonymous police tip program temporarily paused acceptance of new tips on 28 October 2026 after a cybersecurity incident involving a third-party tip platform. As of 10 November 2026, this desk had not seen an official notice that the local program has resumed. That pause is why this desk is being careful about how it stores tips. It is not a claim that we replace that program.

What is running now

The text-a-tip line, (226) 774-2258, is working. Texts go to the desk. There is no auto-reply. Your number is visible to us. The online tip form is not open yet, and nothing on this site collects a tip through a web form.

Who can see a tip

Only the Windsor Watchers desk, meaning the Windsor News editors who handle tips, can open a stored tip, using the offline private key. We may pass relevant facts to the police service that covers that place. We cooperate with lawful orders. We review every tip and may choose not to publish or pass on any of it. We will not publish your name, phone number, or the contents of a tip as a news story without a separate conversation and your agreement, except where the law requires disclosure.

How a stored tip is protected

When a text tip reaches our system, the message, your number and any photo links are encrypted with a public key before they are stored. The matching private key is held only by Windsor Watchers, kept offline, not on the website and not on the server that receives the tip. The server stores only the encrypted copy. Email alerts carry no tip content. The desk Gmail inbox receives a short notice with a reference number, without the tip content. Our tip system does not keep its own request logs. The tip line checks Twilio request signatures and refuses requests that fail the check. When the online form opens, a form tip will be encrypted in your browser before it is sent.

This protects the stored copy of a tip from someone who obtains only the stored file or the alert email. It is not end-to-end encryption, and it is not unbreakable. It does not make a tip anonymous. It does not protect a tip from this desk once we have opened it. It does not protect a tip if the offline key is stolen. It does not hide a name, a number or a photograph that you include. It does not stop a lawful order that reaches what we hold, or that requires us to decrypt what we can decrypt. The network that carries the request may still see that a connection was made, even if we do not store IP addresses.

How a text tip is different

A text to (226) 774-2258 is not end-to-end encrypted. The path from your phone, and the company that provides the number, can see the message. We will not say otherwise. Twilio, which provides the number, keeps its own records under its own policies. Our encryption protects our stored copy and keeps the message body out of Gmail. It is still not end-to-end encryption, because the text was readable in transit.

How long we keep a tip

Stored encrypted tips are deleted automatically after 90 days, unless a legal hold requires us to keep a specific item longer. Once a tip has been opened on the offline machine, we keep that readable copy only as long as we still need it for reporting or for a legal hold, then delete it.

If you set a reward code, we keep only that code and the tip reference number, with no tip content, until the case is closed or a reward claim is settled, then we delete it. Stored encrypted tips are still deleted automatically after 90 days, unless a legal hold requires us to keep a specific item longer.

If something goes wrong

If we learn that stored tips, a key, or a mailbox may have been exposed, we would pause new intake if needed, change keys if the private key may be at risk, delete what should be deleted, and say what we know and what we do not know yet. If a tip included a way to reach you, and we have already opened it, we would try to tell you. If you did not leave a contact method, we may have no way to warn you privately. We will not post a comforting line that we cannot stand behind.

Other information on this site

Official crime counts, wanted notices and police contact numbers come from official public sources and are not tip data. Reader support payments use the existing Windsor News Stripe links. If you give to a local charity from the Support page, that money goes to the charity, not to us. The main Windsor News privacy page still applies to the news site as a whole.

Updated 10 November 2026.