Privacy Policy
Gistline ("the app") turns the day's trending news into short, structured explainer cards — a picture from the reporting, a one-line gist, the background, a timeline, what different sides are saying, what's still unverified, and links to the sources — so you can understand what's happening at a glance, with the world at your fingertips. This policy explains what data we collect, why, and the choices you have. We keep it deliberately short — we collect little, and we explain all of it below.
1. Who we are
The Gistline developer ("we", "us") is responsible for the personal data described in this policy.
2. Information we collect
Account information
- Email address — only if you sign in with an email verification code. We use it only to sign you in; we never send marketing email.
- Anonymous ID — if you use the app without an email, your account is identified by an anonymous, device-generated identifier instead. No email or name is required.
- Nickname and avatar — a display name you choose and an avatar selected from our preset set. No photo uploads are involved.
Usage data
- Which explainer cards you read and how long you stay on them, plus feature-usage events, collected as batched analytics. We use this to improve content ranking and the product itself.
- Device model, operating-system version, and app version, used only for compatibility and product analytics — not for fingerprinting.
- Points, level, and reading-streak data generated by your activity in the app.
What other users can see
If you are signed in and earn points, you may appear on the weekly leaderboard, which shows other users your nickname (or an automatically generated name), avatar, level, weekly points, rank, and whether you have Gistline Plus. This is the only user data ever shown to others — your email address is never shown, and anonymous use never appears on the leaderboard.
Notifications
If you turn on the daily notification, we store the push token Apple issues for your device, your time-zone offset, the hour you picked, and whether notifications are on — only to send you that one notification at your chosen time. You can turn it off at any time in the app (Me) or in iOS Settings.
Shared links
A link you share contains only the story, the reading language, and the channel you shared it through — never who you are. When someone opens it, we log the visit (including their IP address) to count how often shared stories are opened.
Subscriptions
Paid subscriptions are handled entirely by Apple In-App Purchase. We store only the Apple-signed transaction record — transaction identifier, product identifier, and expiry date — so we can unlock your subscription. We never see or store your payment card or billing details; Apple processes all payments. If we give you Plus as a promotion (for example, a sign-up offer), we record that grant and its end date on your account.
Feedback and reports
When you submit feedback or report content in the app, we store what you submit so we can review and respond.
IP addresses
Our servers see your IP address as part of normal operation. We use it only for rate-limiting and abuse prevention, and for coarse-grained regional statistics (region/city and internet service provider — never precise GPS location). We do not use it to build profiles of you. IP addresses stored with analytics events are deleted after 180 days; our web servers also keep standard access logs for security and troubleshooting.
3. What we do not do
- We do not sell your data. To anyone. Ever.
- We show no third-party advertising.
- We do no cross-app tracking. The app does not track you across other companies' apps or websites, and therefore does not trigger Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt.
- The app does not ask for access to your contacts, photos, camera, microphone, or location.
- Card pictures are served from our own server, so news websites never see your device or IP address when you view a card.
4. Third-party processors
We rely on a small number of service providers to run the app:
| Provider | Purpose | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | In-app purchases; delivering notifications you turned on | Purchases: handled under Apple's own terms and privacy policy. Notifications: your device's push token and the notification text |
| Resend | Sending login verification code emails | Your email address (only when you request a sign-in code) |
| DeepSeek | Artificial intelligence model that writes and translates explainer cards | News headlines and public news material only — never any user personal data |
| Tavily | News search to gather public source material | News topic keywords only — no personal data |
| OpenAI | Automated safety check of cards and pictures before they are shown | The card text and the picture's web address only — no personal data |
5. Where your data is stored
Our servers are hosted in the United States (Tencent Cloud, Silicon Valley region), and we run the database on them ourselves. If you use the app from another country, your data is transferred to and stored in the United States.
6. Data retention and deletion
- You can delete your account yourself at any time in the app: Me → Delete account. This immediately removes your personal data from our production database.
- Analytics events (including IP addresses) are deleted after 180 days; anonymous identities that never sign in and go dormant are purged after 30 days.
- Push tokens are deleted with your account, and marked unusable as soon as Apple tells us the app has been removed from your device.
- Database backups follow a rolling retention schedule and expire naturally after at most 6 months; deleted data disappears from backups on that schedule.
7. Children
The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
8. Your rights
You may request access to, or deletion of, your personal data at any time — either through the in-app options described above or by emailing support@gg2.guru. You can turn notifications off at any time. We will respond to verified requests.
9. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update this page and revise the effective date at the top. Material changes will be reflected here before they take effect.
10. Contact
This app is operated by the Gistline developer. For any privacy question or request, email support@gg2.guru.