Privacy Policy

Last updated: February 26, 2026

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how NewsBalance ("we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, and protects information when you use our website and services (collectively, the "Service"). NewsBalance is a news analysis and media literacy platform that uses artificial intelligence to synthesize, compare, and analyze publicly available news reporting from multiple publishers — helping readers see how different sources cover the same events.

We are not a news publisher. We do not produce original journalism. Our content consists of AI-generated commentary, comparative analysis, and synthesis of publicly available reporting from established news organizations.

By accessing or using our Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use our Service.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

We may collect information you voluntarily provide to us, including:

• Newsletter subscriptions: Your email address (required) and name (optional) if you subscribe to our newsletter. We also record the timestamp of your consent to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and the source page from which you subscribed (e.g., homepage, sidebar).
• Contact forms: Any information you submit through our contact page, including your name, email address, and message content.
• Account information: If you create an account, we may collect your name, email address, and password (stored in encrypted form).

2.1B Payment Information

If you purchase a paid subscription, payment information is collected and processed directly by our payment processor, Stripe, Inc. We do not collect, store, or have access to your full payment card number, CVV, or banking details. The information we receive from Stripe includes:

• Your email address (which you provide at checkout)
• Subscription plan type and billing cycle
• Payment status (active, canceled, etc.)
• Stripe customer and subscription identifiers
• Transaction amounts and dates

For information about how Stripe handles your payment data, please see Stripe's Privacy Policy.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

When you visit our website, we may automatically collect certain technical information, including:

• Log data: Your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, pages viewed, and date/time stamps of access.
• IP address truncation: We are implementing IP address truncation in our server access logs (last octet zeroed for IPv4; last 80 bits zeroed for IPv6) to reduce the precision of location data we retain. We use the term "truncation" rather than "anonymization" because truncated IP addresses remain pseudonymous and do not meet the GDPR definition of fully anonymized data.
• Device information: Device type, screen resolution, and general location data (city/country level, not precise location).
• Cookies and similar technologies: We use essential cookies to enable basic website functionality. See Section 6 for details.

2.3 Information We Do NOT Collect

We want to be transparent about what we do not do:

• We do not collect financial information, payment card numbers, or banking details.
• We do not collect government identification numbers (SSN, passport numbers, etc.).
• We do not collect precise geolocation data (GPS coordinates).
• We do not collect biometric data.

Note: While we do not directly track your activity across other websites, our third-party advertising partners (including Google) may do so through their own cookies and tracking technologies. Please see Sections 6 and 6A for more information and your opt-out options.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Service operation: To deliver and maintain our news analysis and media literacy service.
• Communication: To send newsletters (if subscribed), respond to inquiries, and provide important service updates.
• Subscription fulfillment: To process and manage paid subscriptions, including billing, renewals, and cancellation requests, through our payment processor Stripe.
• Analytics and improvement: To understand how our Service is used and improve its quality, performance, and user experience.
• Legal compliance: To comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes.
• Security: To detect, prevent, and address technical issues, fraud, and security threats.
• Advertising: To display advertisements through third-party advertising networks, including Google AdSense. Our advertising partners may use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads that may be relevant to your interests. See Sections 6 and 6A for details.

4. How We Do NOT Use Your Information

We are committed to the following restrictions on data use:

• We do not sell, rent, lease, or trade your personal information directly to third parties for their commercial purposes.
• We do not use your personal information to train artificial intelligence or machine learning models. All AI processing within our platform uses locally hosted models and is performed solely on publicly available news content, not user data.

Please note that our Service is supported by advertising. While we do not directly sell your personal data, our third-party advertising partners (including Google) may collect information about your browsing activity on our site through cookies and similar technologies to deliver relevant advertisements. For more details, please see Sections 6 and 6A below.

5. Our AI and Data Processing Practices

Transparency about our technology is important to us. NewsBalance uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to analyze and synthesize news content from multiple publishers. We want to be clear about how this technology works:

• Local processing: All AI processing is performed using locally hosted models on our own infrastructure. No user data or news content is sent to third-party AI services for processing or model training. Article text is never transmitted to OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta, or any other external AI provider.
• Source ingestion: We access news articles exclusively through publicly available RSS feeds and public URLs — the same channels publishers provide for Google News, Apple News, and other aggregation services. Our system does not use authentication, login credentials, cookies, or session-based access to bypass any access controls. We access only the publicly served version of content available to any first-time visitor.
• What is processed: Our AI systems process only publicly available news articles and media content from news publishers. This processing is used to identify common narratives, factual discrepancies, and provide comparative analysis and balanced summaries.
• Transient processing and data deletion: Original article text is processed transiently for the purpose of generating AI-synthesized summaries. After processing is complete, original article text is deleted from our systems. Only our original AI-generated summaries and analysis persist. No publisher's original content is stored long-term or made available to users.
• What is NOT processed: User personal data, browsing history, user-generated content, and private communications are never processed by our AI systems.
• No AI training: We do not train, fine-tune, or develop any AI or machine learning models using publisher content. Our pre-trained language model is used solely for inference (generating summaries from factual inputs). Information processed through our platform is not used to train external AI models, nor is it shared with any third-party AI providers.
• No data mining: We do not extract structured data for resale or commercial exploitation. Our semantic analysis (clustering via mathematical embeddings) is performed solely for the editorial purpose of grouping related coverage. These embeddings are numerical vectors that cannot be reverse-engineered back into article content.
• Source attribution: We cite all original news sources that inform each summary, providing transparent attribution to the original publishers and linking readers to the full original articles.
• AI limitations: AI-generated content may contain errors, omissions, inaccuracies, or reflect biases present in source material. Our platform is a tool for media literacy, not a substitute for reading original reporting.

6. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

• Essential cookies: Required for basic website functionality such as page navigation, session management, and security features. These cannot be disabled.
• Preference cookies: Used to remember your settings and preferences (such as theme selection or reading preferences).
• Analytics cookies: Used to understand aggregate website usage patterns and improve our Service.
• Advertising cookies: Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to our website and other websites. These cookies may collect information about your browsing activity on our site and other websites over time. See Section 6A for more details.

Consent management (in progress): We are in the process of implementing a Google-certified Consent Management Platform (CMP) compliant with the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF v2.3) for visitors in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, and Switzerland. Until the CMP is live, behaviorally targeted advertising is not served to EEA/UK/CH visitors. We will update this policy when the CMP is deployed.

You can also manage cookie preferences in your browser settings. Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the functionality of our Service. Most browsers allow you to block third-party cookies specifically, which will limit advertising-related tracking while preserving site functionality.

6A. Advertising

Our Service is supported by advertising revenue. We work with third-party advertising networks and partners to display advertisements on our website. These advertising partners include Google AdSense, programmatic ad exchanges, and other advertising technology providers.

What Our Advertising Partners May Collect

Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies, web beacons, pixels, and similar technologies to collect and use the following information:

• Your IP address and general geographic location (city/country level).
• Browser type, operating system, and device information.
• Pages you visit on our website and the content you interact with.
• Referring URLs and how you arrived at our website.
• Information about your browsing activity on other websites that participate in the same advertising networks (cross-site tracking performed by the ad network, not by us).

Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visit to our site and/or other sites on the Internet.

How Advertising Data Is Used

This information may be used by our advertising partners to:

• Serve advertisements that may be relevant to your interests.
• Measure the effectiveness and reach of advertising campaigns.
• Limit the number of times you see a particular advertisement.
• Detect and prevent advertising fraud.

Your Advertising Choices

You have several options to manage advertising-related tracking:

• Google Ads settings: You may opt out of personalized advertising by Google by visiting Google Ads Settings.
• NAI opt-out: Visit the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page at optout.networkadvertising.org to opt out of interest-based advertising from participating companies.
• DAA opt-out: Visit the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out page at optout.aboutads.info.
• Browser settings: You can configure your browser to block third-party cookies or all cookies. Note that this may affect website functionality.

Important: We do not have direct access to or control over the cookies and tracking technologies used by our advertising partners. Each advertising partner operates under its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of our advertising partners for more information about their data practices. You can learn more about how Google uses data at Google's partner sites policy.

7. Data Sharing and Third Parties

We may share information in the following circumstances:

• Advertising partners: As described in Section 6A, our third-party advertising partners (including Google) may collect information about your browsing activity through cookies and similar technologies placed on our website. This data collection is performed by the advertising partners directly and is governed by their respective privacy policies. We do not directly share your personal information (such as your name or email address) with advertisers.
• Service providers: We may use trusted third-party service providers who assist in operating our website (e.g., hosting providers, email delivery services). These providers are contractually bound to use your information only for the purposes of providing services to us and are prohibited from using it for their own purposes.
• Payment processor: If you purchase a paid subscription, we share your email address, subscription plan, and billing information with Stripe, Inc., our payment processor, solely for the purpose of processing and managing your subscription. Stripe processes your payment card details directly and is contractually bound to handle your data in accordance with their privacy policy and applicable law. See Stripe's Privacy Policy.
• Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law, subpoena, court order, or government request, or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request.
• Business transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to the same privacy protections described in this policy.

Other than as described above, we do not share, sell, or otherwise transfer your personal information to third parties for any other purpose.

8. Data Security

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. These measures include:

• Encryption of data in transit using TLS/SSL protocols.
• Encryption of sensitive data at rest.
• Regular security assessments and vulnerability monitoring.
• Access controls limiting data access to authorized personnel only.
• Secure hosting infrastructure with regular backups.

While we strive to protect your personal information, no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security, but we commit to promptly notifying affected users in the event of a data breach that may compromise their personal information. Where required by law (such as within 72 hours under the GDPR), we will also notify the relevant data protection authorities.

9. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. Specifically:

• Newsletter subscriptions: Retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion.
• Contact form submissions: Retained for up to 12 months, then securely deleted.
• Log data: Retained for up to 90 days for security and troubleshooting purposes, then automatically purged.
• Account data: Retained until you delete your account or request deletion.
• Payment and subscription records: Retained for the duration of your active subscription plus seven (7) years thereafter, as required for tax and accounting compliance.
• Consent records: Records of your consent to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (including timestamps) are retained indefinitely as proof of consent for legal compliance purposes.

10. Your Rights

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

• Right of access: You may request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
• Right to rectification: You may request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete personal information.
• Right to erasure: You may request that we delete your personal information, subject to certain legal exceptions.
• Right to restrict processing: You may request that we limit how we use your personal information.
• Right to data portability: You may request a copy of your personal information in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Right to object: You may object to our processing of your personal information for certain purposes.
• Right to opt out of communications: You may unsubscribe from marketing communications at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information provided in Section 15. We will respond to your request within 30 days (or sooner where required by applicable law).

11. California Privacy Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA):

• Right to know: You have the right to know what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell or share.
• Right to delete: You have the right to request deletion of your personal information.
• Right to opt out of sale/sharing: While we do not directly sell your personal information, our use of third-party advertising cookies (including Google AdSense) may constitute "sharing" of personal information under the CPRA. You have the right to opt out of this sharing. You can exercise this right by using the opt-out mechanisms described in Section 6A or contacting us directly.
• Right to non-discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA/CPRA rights.
• Right to correct: You have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal information.
• Right to limit use of sensitive information: We do not collect sensitive personal information as defined by the CPRA.

CCPA opt-out: To opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information, visit our Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information page or use the link in the site footer. You can also email contact@newsbalance.ai with the subject line "Do Not Sell or Share." We also honor the Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signal as a valid opt-out request.

12. US State Privacy Rights

In addition to California, residents of other US states with comprehensive privacy laws — including Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Oregon, Montana, Delaware, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee, Minnesota, Indiana, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and others as they take effect — may have similar rights regarding their personal information, including the right to access, delete, correct, and opt out of targeted advertising and the sale or sharing of personal data.

To exercise any privacy rights available under your state's law, please contact us using the information in Section 16. We will process your request in accordance with the applicable state privacy law.

13. European Privacy Rights (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or equivalent legislation. In addition to the rights listed in Section 10:

• Legal basis for processing: We process your personal data based on legitimate interests (operating and improving our Service), consent (newsletter subscriptions and non-essential cookies), and legal obligations.
• Consent management (in progress): We are implementing a Google-certified CMP compliant with IAB TCF v2.3 to obtain consent before placing non-essential cookies for EEA/UK/CH visitors. Until the CMP is live, behaviorally targeted advertising is not served to these visitors. This policy will be updated when the CMP is deployed.
• International transfers: If we transfer data outside the EEA, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.
• Data breach notification: In the event of a personal data breach, we will notify the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours where feasible, and affected individuals without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to their rights and freedoms.
• Right to lodge a complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

14. Children's Privacy

Our Service is not directed to individuals under the age of 13 (or 16 in the EEA). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to remove that information from our servers promptly. If you believe we may have collected information from a child, please contact us immediately.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date at the top. For significant changes, we may also provide additional notice (such as a banner on our website or an email notification to registered users). Your continued use of our Service after any changes constitutes acceptance of the revised Privacy Policy.

16. Contact Information

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

• General inquiries: info@newsbalance.ai
• Privacy requests: privacy@newsbalance.ai
• Subscription and billing: info@newsbalance.ai
• Publisher inquiries and opt-out: publishers@newsbalance.ai or /publishers/opt-out
• Contact page: /contact

We will make every effort to respond to your inquiry within 30 days.