Privacy Policy (previous version)

Updat3 ("we," "us," or "our") operates the Updat3 news platform available at www.updat3.ai and any associated applications (collectively, the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding that information.

By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

2.1 Information you provide directly

• Email address — when you create an account or sign in with email and password.
• Name — if you provide it during sign-up or via a connected OAuth provider.
• Email address for situation alerts — if you follow a situation to get an email when new stories are added. This works without an account; alerts start only after you click the confirmation link we send, and every alert contains a link to stop them.
• Messages you send us — for example an email to our support address, or an issue report you choose to send from a story page. These arrive in our email inbox and contain whatever you write, plus the story link the report form fills in.

2.2 Information from third-party sign-in

If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, and profile picture from Google as part of the OAuth flow. We use this information solely to create and manage your account.

2.3 Information we collect automatically

• Saved stories — stories you bookmark are stored and associated with your account.
• Topic and region preferences — settings you configure on your account page.
• Abuse protection — to rate-limit requests and to count one upvote per visitor, we store a salted one-way hash derived from your IP address, never the address itself.
• Email delivery records — when we send you a digest or alert we keep a record of what was sent and when, so the same email is not sent twice.
• Server logs — our hosting and database providers record technical request logs (such as IP address, browser type, the page or API route requested, and timestamps). We use them for security monitoring and debugging. They are not sold.

2.4 Product analytics

We use Vercel Web Analytics to understand how the Service is used, so we can tell which features help readers and which do not. It records page views and a small set of product events — for example that a story was opened, that a search returned no results, that a bookmark was saved, or that someone started or finished signing up — together with coarse context such as which part of the site the action came from, a result-count range, or whether the reader was signed in.

These events are deliberately limited. They never include your name, email address, account ID, password or login token, the words you search for, anything you type into a feedback or report form, or the text of the stories you read. Counts and lengths are recorded as ranges, not exact values. Vercel Web Analytics does not use cookies, and we do not use it to build advertising profiles or share it with advertisers.

• To create and maintain your account.
• To personalise your news feed based on your topic and region preferences.
• To send email digests and situation alerts you have opted into (you can unsubscribe at any time).
• To detect and prevent fraud, abuse, and security incidents.
• To improve the Service — the product analytics described in Section 2.4 tell us which features are used and where readers get stuck.
• To read and act on issue reports and other messages you send us.
• To comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We do not use your data to serve you third-party advertising.

Your account data is stored in Supabase, a cloud database provider. Data is stored in the United States. If you use the Service from outside the United States, your information is transferred to and processed in the United States. Supabase uses industry-standard encryption at rest and in transit (TLS).

We implement reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information. However, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

You are responsible for keeping your password confidential. If you believe your account has been compromised, contact us immediately at updat3news@gmail.com.

Updat3 is currently free. We do not sell subscriptions, and we do not collect or process payment card or bank details.

If we introduce a paid plan in the future, we will update this policy before taking any payment to explain which payment processor is used and what information it receives.

The Service uses the following third-party providers who may process your data as part of delivering the Service:

• Supabase — database and authentication infrastructure.
• Vercel — hosting, edge delivery and the product analytics described in Section 2.4.
• Google OAuth — optional sign-in method.
• Resend — delivery of account, digest and alert emails.
• Cloudflare — DNS for updat3.ai and forwarding of email you send to our updat3.ai addresses.
• OpenAI — AI-powered news summarisation (article text is sent to OpenAI's API; we do not send personally identifiable information to OpenAI).

Each of these providers has its own privacy policy and data processing terms. We encourage you to review them.

We use browser cookies and local storage for: keeping you signed in; remembering display settings such as theme and text size; remembering that you have dismissed the first-visit introduction or already read a story; and, if you start signing up, remembering which page you signed up from so we can count sign-ups by page. That last item holds only a page label, stays in your browser, and is cleared once your sign-up completes or after 7 days.

We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies. Our product analytics (Section 2.4) does not use cookies.

You can clear cookies through your browser settings at any time, which will log you out of the Service.

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information:

• Access — request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction — request that inaccurate data be corrected.
• Deletion — request that we delete your account and associated data.
• Portability — request your data in a machine-readable format.
• Opt-out of email — unsubscribe from digest emails at any time via the link in any email or through your account settings.

You can download a copy of your data and delete your account yourself from your account page. To exercise any other right, email us at updat3news@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days.

The Service is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have inadvertently collected such information, please contact us and we will delete it promptly.

We retain your account data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal information within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal or compliance purposes.

Server logs are kept by our hosting and database providers for a limited period under their own retention settings, and are used only for security and debugging. Messages you email us stay in our inbox until we delete them.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the effective date at the top of this page. For material changes, we will notify you by email or via a notice on the Service. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

Updat3
Privacy requests: updat3news@gmail.com
Everything else: updat3news@gmail.com