Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 19, 2026

1. Introduction Welcome to our daily news application ("theBrief," "we," "our," or "us"). We are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have a safe, transparent experience. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our mobile application.

2. Information We Collect To provide you with a tailored, bite-sized daily news feed, we collect the following types of information:

  • Account Information: When you create an account, we may collect your phone number, email address, and authentication credentials.

  • Profile Data: We collect your preferences to curate your news feed. This includes your selected interests (e.g., Health, Business, Tech), your chosen metropolitan area (user_metro) to deliver local briefs, and your timezone.

  • Subscription Data: We track your account tier (Free or Premium) to determine the volume of content generated for your daily feed.

  • Automatically Collected Data: We automatically collect standard usage information, such as device type, operating system, crash reports, and how you interact with the app (e.g., swipe interactions) to improve app performance and user experience.

3. How We Use Your Information We do not sell your personal data. We use the information we collect strictly to operate and improve the app:

  • Personalization: To merge and deliver Global, National, Local, and Interest-based news stories directly to your daily feed.

  • Functionality: To enforce Free and Premium tier content limits.

  • Communication: To send you essential account updates, security alerts, or subscription notifications.

  • App Improvement: To debug crashes, analyze usage trends, and improve our backend content generation.

4. Third-Party Services We utilize trusted third-party service providers to operate our app. These services may collect information sent by your device as part of a service request:

  • Google Firebase: We use Firebase (Firestore, Cloud Functions, Authentication) to store your user profile, authenticate your account, and host the news databases.

  • App Stores: We utilize Apple App Store and Google Play Store services for managing in-app purchases and Premium subscriptions.

5. Data Retention and Account Deletion We retain your personal information only for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services.

  • Your Right to Delete: You have the right to request the complete deletion of your account and associated personal data at any time.

  • How to Delete: You can delete your account directly within the app's settings menu or by contacting us. Upon deletion, your user profile, metro selection, and interest preferences will be permanently erased from our active databases.

6. Security of Your Information We use administrative, technical, and physical security measures—including strict database security rules—to help protect your personal information. While we have taken reasonable steps to secure the personal information you provide, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable.

7. Children’s Privacy Our application is not intended for children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by updating the "Effective Date" at the top of this policy and, where required by law, by providing a prominent notice within the app.

9. Contact Us If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at: