Why subscribe?

Do you want access to unique, original analysis about some of the most widely-held and widely-shorted companies in the world?

Find it at The Dig, the new online newsletter from independent investigative reporter Francine McKenna.

Francine McKenna is a prolific writer and commentator on the accounting, audit, and corporate governance issues affecting public and pre-IPO private companies. You may know her work from her journalism or her blog, reTheAuditors.com (now francinemckenna.com) She tweets at @ReTheAuditors.

McKenna spent more than 20 years in public accounting and consulting, including for KPMG/BearingPoint in the U.S. and Latin America, and at PwC. She has been a lecturer in accounting for MBAs at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an adjunct professor of international business in the MBA program at American University’s Kogod School of Business. She has taught at many others including Ohio State University and Baylor University. She guest lectures often at business schools, law schools and for journalism programs at universities all over the world, at conferences and in other forums such as for regulators.

Since 2006, McKenna has been an investigative reporter and feature writer for publications including Dow Jones MarketWatch, Forbes, American Banker, Financial Times, Chicago Booth Review, Accounting Today, and Boston Review. At MarketWatch she monitored and reported on public company accounting, fraud and financial investigations, and the often questionable financial reporting practices of pre-IPO companies.

Subscribe to get full access to exclusive insights available now only in this newsletter. As a bonus, you’ll receive access to archival material from McKenna’s reTheAuditors.com blog—a database of invaluable commentary and data going back to 2006.

The Dig began sharing premium stories only with subscribers in early 2020. You can subscribe to the paid version which promises actionable information by clicking on a link in any story.

If you choose to subscribe to the paid version, the payment process will go through Stripe and the vendor will be shown on your credit card statement as The Digging Company LLC.

Thank you for supporting independent journalism!

Art is by Michael Doyle McKenna. Photograph is of Francine McKenna by the author.

© Francine McKenna, The Digging Company LLC, 2021

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Privacy Policy

Last Updated: April 1, 2020

1.     GENERAL.  The Dig is an online newsletter and website provided by The Digging Company, LLC and its owner and primary author, Francine McKenna (collectively the “Company” or “we” or “us” or “our”).  The Company is concerned about privacy issues and want you to be familiar with how we collect, use, and share information and how you can exercise the privacy rights available to you.  This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) covers the information that we may process about individuals who visit, use, subscribe to, or interact with The Dig.  If you have any questions, you may contact us at TheDig@Substack.com.

2.     WHO WE ARE.  The Dig provides unique content, including links to other stories, sources and online materials related to accounting, finance, securities issues and other issues of interest worldwide and is available at www.TheDig.Substack.com.  Some of that content is available at our website free of charge, while other content is available only to individuals, entities and institutions that subscribe to The Dig and pay a subscription fee or are otherwise granted the right to access this controlled content (“Subscribers”).  The Dig also provides information to entities and individuals who pay the Company to have their advertisements and other content displayed at The Dig or otherwise distributed to Subscribers (“Advertisers”).  Relevant online advertising is displayed to our Subscribers on the Newsletter and elsewhere.

3.     WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT.  The Company collects a variety of information, including personally identifying information, in its operations, including:

a.              Information that Subscribers and other individuals provide voluntarily to us, which may include contact information (such as name, address, telephone number, or email address) and contact preferences.  It may also include professional information, such as job title, department or job role, and the nature of an individual’s request or communication;

b.              Information that visitors to our website or others choose to provide to us when completing any ‘free text’ boxes in our forms (for example, for news tips);

c.              Information we or our third-party partners collect automatically, which, in some countries, including countries in the EU, may be considered personal data under applicable data protection laws, and may include IP address, operating system type and version, browser type and version, cookie ID, an individual’s activities on The Dig, and other information about the individual’s system and connection and how the individual interacts with The Dig and other websites.  This information may be collected as a part of log files and through the use of cookies or other tracking technologies; and

d.              Information from individuals when they interact directly with the Company

(collectively “Collected Data”).

4.     THE PURPOSE AND USE OF COLLECTED DATA.  The Company collects Collected Data only for a variety of legitimate purposes and uses Collected Data as follows:

a.              To send administrative information, e.g., to send information regarding our services and changes to our terms, conditions, and policies;

b.              To engage in analysis, auditing, research, and reporting related to the use of The Dig’s website and newsletter, as well as to deliver advertising that the Company believes may interest Subscribers based on their activity on The Dig and other websites over time. This may include these third parties setting and accessing cookies on Subscriber’s computers or other devices and may also include the use of pixel tags, web logs, web beacons, or other similar technologies;

c.              To manage accounts and provide customer support or other services;

d.              To select content and to ensure that content on The Newsletter is presented in the most effective manner for your device;

e.              As necessary or appropriate: (a) under applicable law; (b) to comply with subpoenas, warrants, or other legal process; (c) to respond to requests from public and government authorities; (d) to enforce the Company’s terms and conditions of use or other agreements; (e) to protect the Company’s operations or those of any of its affiliates; (f) to protect the Company’s rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of its affiliates, Subscribers or others; and (g) to allow the Company to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that the Company may sustain; and

f.               For the Company’s business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of promotional campaigns, and to evaluate and improve products, services, marketing, and client relationships.

5.     USE OF THE DIG BY MINORS.  The Dig is not intended for nor directed to individuals that are deemed to be children under applicable data protection or privacy laws, and the Company requests that such individuals not provide information to the Company.

6.     OPT-OUT CHOICES.  At any point you may opt out of receiving electronic communications from the Company or receiving interest-based advertising (including the use of cookies) by sending an email to TheDig@Substack.com.  Some of the Company’s partners and Advertisers have their own opt-out mechanisms that are linked from their sites or their online-posted privacy policies.  You should review the privacy policies of those companies for these opt-out links if you no longer wish to receive targeted advertising from a particular company, or multiple companies. (The Dig is not currently supported by paid advertising. 04/21/2020)

7.     DATA PROTECTION RIGHTS.  You have the following data protection rights:

a.            You have the right to request access to or that the Company change, update, or delete your personal information at any time;

b.           If the Company collected and processed your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent

c.            If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), you may also have the following rights:

i.               The right to object to processing of your personal information, restrict processing of your personal information, or request portability of your personal information. To exercise these rights email TheDig@Substack.com; and

ii.              The right to complain to a data protection authority about the collection and use of your personal information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. 

8.     LEGAL BASIS FOR PROCESSING PERSONAL INFORMATION OF EEA SUBSCRIBERS AND VISITORS.  The legal basis for collecting and using personal information as described above will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which it is collected.  However, the Company primarily relies on your consent to collect personal information.  As a result, the Company will obtain such consent in compliance with applicable laws.  If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which personal information is collected and used, please contact the Company at TheDig@Substack.com. For the purposes of EU data protection legislation, the Company is the controller of your personal information.

9.     SECURITY OF PERSONAL INFORMATION.  The Company uses reasonable organizational, technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect personal information.  The measures used are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing personal information and to help ensure that data is safe and secure.  However, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  If you have reason to believe that your interaction with the Company is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account has been compromised), please immediately notify the Company of the problem by contacting us at TheDig@Substack.com.

10.  RETENTION OF YOUR INFORMATION.  The Company Dig will retain personal information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy and where ongoing legitimate business needs to do so exist (for example, to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements, to enforce our agreements or comply with our legal obligations) unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

11.  INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS.  The Company is provided, supported, and hosted in the United States.  If you are using these from outside the United States, be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed by the Company and by third parties with whom the Company may share your personal information, in the United States and other locations where we have offices or employees or engage service providers.  These countries may have data protection laws that are different from the laws of your country of residence.  The Company will take appropriate safeguards to require that personal information will remain protected in accordance with this Policy if necessary.

12.  CONTACTING US.  If you have any questions about this Policy or the Company’s privacy practices, please contact us by email at TheDig@Substack.com.