Legal
Privacy
You can read everything here without telling us who you are. We only learn your email address if you choose to create a Today+ account, and that is the only thing we ever hold that could identify you.
What we collect
When the app first opens it generates a random device identifier. It isn’t derived from your phone, your SIM or your advertising ID, and it isn’t linked to you — it is a random string that lets the app come back and be recognised as the same installation.
Against that identifier we record what you do in the app:
- Which stories you open, and how long you spend on one before coming back
- Stories you save or share
- Topics and publishers you follow, block, or ask for more or less of
That is the whole of it for reading, and it exists for one purpose: ordering your For You feed. A reader who never opens the app has nothing stored beyond the identifier itself.
Our servers also see your IP address, as every web server does. We use it only to stop one source flooding the service with requests, and we do not store it alongside your reading.
If you create a Today+ account
Today+ is optional and free. If you create one, we store your email addressand a Google account identifier, and we link it to the devices you sign in on — that link is what carries your topics and blocks between your phone and this site.
Your password is never seen by us. Sign-in is handled by Google’s Firebase service, which holds your credentials on our behalf.
If you turn on notifications
We store a notification token for your device, which is what lets Google’s messaging service reach it. We only send when seven or more outlets are covering the same story. Turning notifications off in the app deletes that token.
What we don’t collect
No name, phone number or location. No contacts, photos or files. No advertising identifier. We do not track you across other apps or websites, and there are no analytics or advertising SDKs in the app. We do not ask for your email unless you create an account, and never for anything else. If that changes, this page changes first.
Reading happens on the publisher’s site
We show headlines, the publisher’s own summary and their image. Tapping a story opens the publisher’s own page in your browser. At that point you are on their site, under their privacy policy, and whatever they collect is between you and them — we are not involved and cannot see it.
Who else sees it
We don’t sell your data, share it with advertisers, or send it to publishers. Your reading sits on our own server.
Two things do involve Google. If you create a Today+ account, Google’s Firebase service handles the sign-in and holds your email address and password on our behalf — we never see the password. If you turn on notifications, Google’s messaging service delivers them. Both process data on Google infrastructure, which may be outside the UK. Nothing else leaves our server.
How long we keep it
Reading signals are kept while they are useful for ranking and are removed as they age. Your follows and blocks are kept until you change them. Delete the app and the identifier on your device goes with it; reinstalling generates a new one, which is why a reinstall starts your For You feed from scratch.
A Today+ account is kept until you delete it. Deleting it removes your email address and the links between your devices; what remains is what an ordinary reader has — reading signals against a device identifier, with nothing identifying attached.
Your choices
- Blocking a publisher removes them from your feed entirely.
- Unfollowing a topic stops it influencing your ranking.
- Deleting the app ends collection and orphans everything held against the identifier.
- Turning notifications off deletes the token for your device.
- Deleting your Today+ account removes your email address and the links between your devices.
- You can ask us to delete what is stored for your device. Email support@todaysheadline.app — if you have no account, we will ask for the device identifier shown in the app’s settings, because that is the only handle we have.
Children
Today’s Headline is a general news service and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect anything from a child.
Your rights in the United Kingdom
Under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 you have rights over personal data we hold about you, including access and erasure.
If you have a Today+ account, email us from the address on it and we can act on that. If you don’t, the only handle we have is your device identifier, shown in the app’s settings — we hold nothing else that could identify you, so we will need it to find your records.
If you think we have handled your data badly, tell us at support@todaysheadline.app — and if we don’t put it right, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Changes
If we start collecting something new, we will update this page and change the date at the top before it takes effect — not after.