Please be aware of “NEXTDOOR” mailings…………………

Some residents may have received a letter in the mail recently that you may have thought came from the Village of The Branch asking you to join a social media network called “Nextdoor.” I would like to alert you to a couple of facts:

  1. This network is no way endorsed by the Village and residents should exercise caution in joining any socila media network.
  2.  When one enters a Village of The Branch zip code, one sees references to block party discussions and recent auto break in conversations. Neither of those are factual or refer to anything real and are apparently jsut teasers to entice you to join.
  3. With only a very cursory amount of research, I learned that their privacy policy contains some things that might raise an eyebrow – things such as location tracking and linking to your other social media sites are areas to read carefully. While that may not be out of the ordinary for social media, some reports on their service are quite critical of their network.
  4. While you’re certainly welcome to join any social media networks you wish, please just ensure that you know what you’re signing up for and know that only our website, newsletter, or conversations with Board members are endorsed or supported by us.