Privacy Policy

What we collect and why

We process your email address, account identifier and language preference to create and manage your account. Account details are required for features such as saving articles and asking follow-up questions; public articles can be read without an account.

If you sign in with Google, we request your basic profile and email information. We use your Google account identifier, email address and email verification status to authenticate you and connect your account. We do not request access to Gmail, Google Drive or your contacts.

We store URLs, topics and questions you submit, generated articles and illustrations, discussions and reader feedback to provide the features you use. Our infrastructure also processes technical information, such as IP addresses, request details and error logs, to deliver and protect the service.

We use cookies and browser storage for authentication, language preferences, drafts and related functionality.

How we use and share data

We process account details and submitted content to provide the service you request. We rely on our legitimate interests to secure, maintain and troubleshoot the service, and to evaluate reader feedback. We also process information where necessary to meet legal obligations.

Amazon Web Services provides hosting, authentication and storage. Google provides optional sign-in. OpenAI processes the content needed to generate articles, illustrations and discussion responses, including submitted topics, URLs, questions and relevant conversation context. Avoid submitting sensitive personal information.

Saved private content is available through your account. Authorized administrators can access it for support and service operations. If you create a sharing link, anyone with the link may access the shared content within the link’s limits.

We do not sell personal data. We may disclose information where required by law.

Our AWS backend is configured in Ireland. Providers may also process information elsewhere, including outside the European Economic Area. This draft does not claim EU-only processing.

Retention and deletion

Account details and saved private content remain until you delete the relevant content or your account. Account deletion runs in the background and removes your account, associated private articles and versions, images, shares, discussions and account-linked feedback. It does not delete your Google account or copies another person has already saved.

After account deletion completes, a minimal security record is scheduled to expire after 48 hours. Temporary Google-linking records expire after 10 minutes and feedback receipts after seven days. Physical database removal can happen later because expiry cleanup is asynchronous.

Support audit records have no automatic expiry, and the application does not configure a fixed expiry for operational logs. Feedback not linked to an account has no automatic expiry and is not removed by deleting an unrelated account. These records can remain after account deletion.

OpenAI retains data separately under its API data controls. Stored background responses are retained for at least 30 days; abuse-monitoring logs are ordinarily retained for up to 30 days, with exceptions for legal and safety needs. Deleting content here does not trigger deletion of OpenAI’s stored responses.

Your choices and rights

You can delete saved articles and request account deletion in Account settings. You can revoke Google access through your Google Account settings; revoking access does not itself delete your Beyond The Headlines account.

Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct, erase or receive a portable copy of your personal data, and to restrict or object to certain processing. You may also complain to your local data protection authority.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the service changes. The published policy will show its effective date, and we will notify users of material changes where required.