Privacy Policy

Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Scope
2. Definitions
3. Information We Collect
4. How We Use Your Information
5. How We Use Artificial Intelligence
6. Advertising and Third-Party Advertising Partners
7. News Content and Third-Party Sources
8. Cookies, Local Storage, and Technical Tracking
9. How We Store Your Information
10. Third-Party Services and Disclosure of Information
11. Data Security
12. Your Privacy Rights and Choices
13. Children's Privacy
14. International Data Transfers
15. Data Retention
16. Account Deletion
17. Changes to This Policy
18. Contact Us and Grievance Redressal

1. Introduction and Scope

NewsOS provides a curated, personalized news reading experience by aggregating news content from licensed third-party news providers and using artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor news streams based on user-selected topics and reading interactions. NewsOS adds value through automated news aggregation, topic categorization, content curation, multi-factor ranking, and personalized recommendation. The App does not author original journalism, does not allow users to publish public content, and does not operate a public social network.

This Policy applies to all users of the App and describes our data practices in compliance with applicable global privacy standards, including:

• India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 ("DPDP Act")
• The European Union and UK General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR / UK GDPR")
• The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CCPA/CPRA"), and other applicable U.S. state privacy laws

2. Definitions

• "Personal Data" / "Personal Information": Any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
• "Processing": Any operation performed on Personal Data, including collection, recording, organization, storage, retrieval, analysis, disclosure, or deletion.
• "User" / "you" / "your": Any individual who registers for an account or uses the App.
• "Data Fiduciary" (DPDP Act): NewsOS, as the entity determining the purpose and means of processing Personal Data.
• "Data Principal" (DPDP Act): The individual to whom the Personal Data relates (the user).
• "Third-Party News Provider": Licensed external content providers (currently, Currents API) from which the App retrieves news articles and metadata.
• "Advertising Partners": Third-party advertising networks, exchanges, and mediation platforms (including AppLovin) that provide advertising delivery and measurement services when advertising functionality is enabled.
• "Service Providers": Trusted third-party vendors that process data on our behalf under contractual confidentiality and security obligations (such as cloud hosting and authentication services).

3. Information We Collect

We practice data minimization and collect only the information necessary to provide, secure, and personalize the Service.

3.1 Account Information

When you register using Google Sign-In, we receive and store:

• Your name (as provided by Google)
• Your email address (as provided by Google)
• Your profile picture URL (as provided by Google)
• A unique internal User ID generated by our system

We never collect, see, or store your Google account password. Authentication is handled entirely through Google's secure OAuth flow.

3.2 Usage and Interaction Information

To dynamically personalize your feed, we record interactions with content in the App, including:

• Topics and categories selected during onboarding or updated in profile settings
• Article reading interactions, including dwell time and engagement duration
• Articles saved to your Bookmarks list
• Likes, dislikes, or dismissed articles
• Search queries entered in the App's search bar
• Language preferences (e.g., English or Hindi)

3.3 Device and Technical Information

We automatically log technical data required for networking, rate limiting, and security:

• IP address (used for approximate geographic localization and security auditing)
• Device identifiers (such as Google Advertising ID / GAID, where permitted by device settings)
• Operating system version, device model, and App release version

3.4 Sensitive Information & Advertising Protections

NewsOS does not intentionally provide sensitive personal information to advertising partners for advertising purposes. NewsOS does not provide advertising partners with authentication credentials, passwords, private communications, financial account information, or precise geolocation for advertising purposes.

4. How We Use Your Information

We process collected information for the following legitimate purposes:

• Service Delivery: Authenticating accounts, serving news articles, and saving user bookmarks.
• AI Personalization: Calculating user interest vectors to rank and recommend relevant news stories.
• Advertising Delivery & Measurement: Serving and measuring non-intrusive advertisements when advertising services are enabled.
• Security & Abuse Prevention: Detecting automated scraping, API abuse, fraud, and unauthorized access.
• Customer Support: Assisting with support requests, bug reports, and account inquiries.

5. How We Use Artificial Intelligence

NewsOS utilizes machine learning and dense vector embedding representations to deliver a personalized reading experience:

• Semantic Interest Vectors: User topic preferences are transformed into mathematical vector embeddings.
• Content Recommendation: Articles are matched against interest vectors using pgvector cosine similarity, balanced with freshness scoring and category diversity.
• Privacy Safeguard: Recommendation vectors represent abstract topic semantics. Your name, email, and personal identity are completely isolated from vector computations and are never used as model training data.

6. Advertising and Third-Party Advertising Partners

To support our free news service, NewsOS incorporates a provider-agnostic ad-slot architecture designed to display native or sponsored ad placements periodically between news articles in the feed (for example, an ad slot after every 7 news articles).

NewsOS may use third-party advertising partners, including AppLovin, to deliver and measure advertisements when advertising services are enabled in the App.

6.1 AppLovin and Mediation Partners

If AppLovin's advertising services are enabled, AppLovin may collect, process, and share certain device, app, advertising, and technical information as described in its Privacy Policy at https://legal.applovin.com/privacy/.

Depending on the advertising configuration, device settings, applicable privacy choices, and advertising services enabled, AppLovin and its demand and mediation partners may process information such as:

• Device & Advertising Identifiers: Google Advertising ID (GAID), Android ID, or other resettable device identifiers where permitted
• Network & Geolocation Data: IP address, carrier, network connection type, and coarse location (country/city level inferred from IP)
• Device Technical Characteristics: Device make and model, operating system version, device settings, screen resolution, and language
• Ad Performance & Interaction Metrics: Ad impressions, views, clicks, video completion rates, and interaction timestamps

6.2 Purposes of Advertising Processing

When advertising services are enabled, third-party advertising partners process this data for purposes including:

• Delivering relevant advertisements (contextual or personalized where legally permitted and consented to)
• Ad measurement, impression verification, viewability reporting, and attribution
• Frequency capping (ensuring you do not repeatedly see the exact same advertisement)
• Fraud detection, bot prevention, and invalid traffic filtering
• Aggregated performance reporting to advertisers and developers

6.3 Third-Party Measurement and Open Measurement

When applicable advertising and measurement functionality is enabled, third-party measurement providers, including providers using the IAB Tech Lab Open Measurement framework, may process information for purposes such as measuring and verifying advertising performance.

6.4 Non-Sharing of Sensitive Personal Data

NewsOS does not sell your Personal Data. NewsOS does not provide advertising partners with authentication credentials, passwords, private communications, search queries, saved bookmarks, or precise geolocation for advertising purposes.

6.5 User Privacy Choices and Opting Out of Targeted Advertising

Users may manage applicable advertising and privacy choices through their device settings and through privacy controls made available by AppLovin, where applicable, as described in AppLovin's Privacy Policy (https://legal.applovin.com/privacy/):

• Android Device Settings: Go to Settings > Google > Ads and select Delete advertising ID or Reset advertising ID, or enable Opt out of Ads Personalization.
• Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA): Manage mobile app advertising choices via https://youradchoices.com/appchoices.
• Network Advertising Initiative (NAI): Learn about industry opt-out tools at https://optout.networkadvertising.org/.

7. News Content and Third-Party Sources

News articles presented within the App originate from licensed third-party news data providers (currently Currents API):

• NewsOS curates, categorizes, and organizes articles for personal news reading; we do not author, edit, or take editorial responsibility for the underlying reporting of third-party publishers.
• All article headlines, descriptions, images, and publisher trademarks remain the intellectual property of their respective publishers.
• When you open an external article link, you leave NewsOS and navigate to the third-party publisher's site, governed by that publisher's independent privacy policy and terms.

8. Cookies, Local Storage, and Technical Tracking

8.1 In-App Local Storage

Within the mobile application, we use secure local storage (AsyncStorage) solely to persist your authentication session token, preferred language, and UI theme. We do not use web tracking cookies inside the mobile application.

8.2 Website Surfaces

On our website (newswhatmatters.com), standard technical server logs and essential session storage may be utilized to deliver web pages, maintain security, and verify domain ownership (such as /app-ads.txt).

9. How We Store Your Information

Your information is stored in production-grade relational and vector database systems (PostgreSQL with pgvector) and low-latency cache layers (Redis). All data in transit is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS, and database volumes are secured with access controls and encryption at rest where appropriate.

10. Third-Party Services and Disclosure of Information

We share limited information with third parties only as necessary to provide the Service:

• Google OAuth: To authenticate user identities.
• Cloud Infrastructure Providers: For secure cloud hosting, database management, and Redis caching.
• Third-Party News Providers: Technical requests to retrieve news feeds from Currents API (no personal user identity is passed).
• Advertising Partners (AppLovin): Device and technical information when advertising services are enabled, as described in Section 6.
• Legal Requirements: In response to valid legal process, court orders, subpoenas, or to protect public safety and rights.
• Business Transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or corporate reorganization, subject to this Privacy Policy.

11. Data Security

We implement comprehensive technical and organizational safeguards, including:

• HTTPS/TLS 1.2+ encryption for all client-server communications
• JWT authentication with time-bounded access tokens and secure refresh token handling
• Strict network isolation and firewall rules protecting PostgreSQL and Redis instances
• Automated rate limiting to prevent brute-force attacks and abuse
• Principle of least privilege for internal server access and API keys

12. Your Privacy Rights and Choices

Depending on where you reside, you have specific legal rights regarding your Personal Data:

12.1 India (Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023)

• Right to Access: Obtain a summary of Personal Data processed and identities of Data Fiduciaries.
• Right to Correction & Erasure: Correct inaccurate data or request complete deletion of Personal Data.
• Right of Grievance Redressal: File complaints with our Grievance Officer for prompt resolution within statutory timeframes.
• Right to Nominate: Nominate an individual to exercise data rights in the event of death or incapacity.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Revoke consent at any time without retroactive invalidation.

12.2 European Economic Area and United Kingdom (GDPR / UK GDPR)

• Right of Access & Portability: Obtain a machine-readable copy of your personal data.
• Right to Rectification & Erasure: Correct inaccurate information or request "Right to be Forgotten".
• Right to Object & Restrict: Object to processing based on legitimate interests or restrict processing.
• Right to Withdraw Consent & Lodge Complaint: Revoke consent or lodge a complaint with your local Data Protection Authority.

12.3 California and U.S. Residents (CCPA / CPRA)

• Right to Know: Request disclosure of categories and specific pieces of Personal Information collected.
• Right to Delete: Request deletion of your Personal Information.
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale / Sharing: NewsOS does not sell personal information for monetary value. You may opt out of cross-context behavioral advertising through device ad settings or by submitting an opt-out request.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: You will never receive discriminatory treatment for exercising privacy rights.

13. Children's Privacy

NewsOS is a general-audience news application intended for individuals aged 13 and older (or the minimum age of digital consent in your jurisdiction). NewsOS is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. Before enabling AppLovin advertising, NewsOS will apply appropriate age/child protections required by applicable law and AppLovin's policies. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information without parental consent, please contact us at newsossupport@gmail.com, and we will promptly delete the data.

14. International Data Transfers

Your information may be processed and stored on secure servers located outside your country of residence. When transferring data internationally, we ensure adequate protection standards and contractual safeguards consistent with applicable data protection laws.

15. Data Retention

• Account & Profile Data: Retained for the duration of your active account to maintain bookmarks and preferences.
• Interaction History: Seen article history is retained for up to 7 days to maintain feed freshness and is automatically pruned thereafter.
• Account Deletion: When you delete your account, all associated user profiles, bookmarks, reading history, and vector embeddings are permanently purged from active databases.

16. Account Deletion

You can delete your account and all associated personal data at any time:

• In-App: Open Profile > Settings > Delete Account.
• Online: Visit our Account Deletion Page or email us at newsossupport@gmail.com with the subject "Delete My Account".

17. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our technology, legal obligations, or advertising partnerships. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this document will indicate the date of the latest revisions. Continued use of the App following posted updates constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

18. Contact Us and Grievance Redressal

For any questions, concerns, rights requests, or grievance redressal regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact our team:

• Email: newsossupport@gmail.com
• Grievance Officer: Grievance Redressal Officer, NewsOS
• Address: NewsOS Operations, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
• Response Window: We strive to acknowledge and resolve all privacy requests within 30 days.