Privacy Policy
The You Times writes a morning newspaper for one reader: you. To do that we need to know a little about you. This policy explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, and how you can see, change or delete it.
What we collect
Information you give us
- Account details: your name, email address and, if you set one, a password (stored only as a secure hash by our authentication provider).
- Reading preferences: the topics you pick, the words you use to describe what you want to read, your profession and career stage, and the stories you mark as more or less interesting.
- Location: your country and, optionally, your city, used for local news and the weather. If you let your browser share your location, the nearest city is worked out on your own device; your exact coordinates are never sent to us.
- Delivery settings: your time zone, the time you want your paper, and the email address it should be sent to.
- Calendar link (optional): if you paste a private iCal address, we store it encrypted.
Information from Google
If you choose Sign in with Google, Google shares your name, email address and profile picture with us. If you choose to connect Google Calendar, see Google user data below.
Information collected automatically
Our servers keep standard technical logs (such as IP address, browser type and the time of a request) for security and troubleshooting. We use our own cookies to keep you signed in and to protect sign-in flows. On our public pages we also count visits and sign-ups, and use advertising pixels from Meta and Reddit (in Europe only if you accept them); see Analytics and advertising below.
Payments
Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number; we keep only a customer reference, your plan and its status.
How we use it
- To write, typeset and deliver your personal morning paper.
- To choose and rank stories based on the preferences and feedback you give us.
- To show your weather and, if you connect a calendar, your day’s meetings.
- To run your account, process payments and send service emails (such as your paper or a password reset).
- To keep the service secure, prevent abuse and fix problems.
- To understand how people find and sign up for The You Times, and to measure our advertising.
Analytics and advertising
We keep a simple record of how people move through our public pages only: the home page, sign-up and sign-in, account setup, the page you return to after checkout, and these legal pages. It notes, for example, that a page was opened, an account was made, a setup step was finished or a checkout began, together with the plan and its price. It never holds your name, your email address or anything you type. Before you sign in, your browser is told apart by a random identifier kept on your device; after you sign in, the record is tied to your account.
On those same public pages we use the Meta Pixel (Facebook and Instagram) and the Reddit Pixel. If your browser is set to a European time zone (the EU, the EEA, the UK or Switzerland), they are not loaded at all until you press Accept in our cookie banner. Elsewhere they run unless you decline, and we treat your browser’s Global Privacy Control signal, if it sends one, as declining. They tell Meta and Reddit when someone visits, signs up, starts setup, starts checkout or starts a subscription or trial (with the plan’s price); Meta also hears which sign-up buttons were pressed and which setup steps were finished. This lets us see whether our ads work and show them to people likely to be interested. Meta and Reddit may set their own cookies and link this to your account with them, under their own privacy policies: Meta, Reddit.
The pixels never run inside your paper, your settings, your shared paper links or any page whose address carries a private link, and we never send them your paper, your reading preferences or your calendar.
Your choices: decline in the banner, change your answer here at any time, block or clear these cookies in your browser, use a content blocker, or change your ad settings with Meta and Reddit. The service works the same either way.
Google user data
Connecting Google Calendar is optional. If you connect it, we ask for one permission: read-only access to your calendar (calendar.readonly). We cannot create, change or delete anything in your calendar.
What we access: the title, start and end time and location of events on your primary calendar for the day of each edition.
How we use it: solely to print your meetings for the day in your paper and to mention them in the short morning note at the top of it. To write that note, the event details for that day are sent to our AI writing provider, which processes them only to produce the note for you and does not use them to train its models.
Storage: your Google access tokens are stored encrypted. Event details are kept only as part of the edition they appear in, which you can delete along with your account.
Sharing: we do not sell Google user data, use it for advertising, or share it with anyone except as described above. No person at The You Times reads it unless you ask us to for support, it is needed for security, or the law requires it.
Revoking access: disconnect the calendar in Settings at any time, which deletes the stored tokens. You can also remove access from your Google Account permissions page.
The You Times’ use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
How long we keep it
We keep your information while your account is open. When you delete your account, we delete your profile, preferences, calendar connection and papers, normally within 30 days, except for records we must keep by law (such as payment records) and short-lived backups that expire on their own schedule. The visit and sign-up counts described under Analytics and advertising are kept without your name or email, to keep our totals right.
Your choices and rights
- Change your name, topics, location and delivery settings in Settings at any time.
- Disconnect your calendar in Settings at any time.
- Turn off email delivery and read your paper on the site instead.
- Delete your account in Settings → Account. This removes your data as described above.
Depending on where you live (for example, the EU, UK or California), you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal information, or to object to how we use it. Write to privacy@theyoutimes.com and we will respond within 30 days. We will not treat you differently for exercising these rights.
Security
We use encryption in transit (HTTPS), encrypt sensitive values such as calendar tokens and links at rest, and limit access to personal data to what is needed to run the service. No system is perfectly secure, but we will tell you promptly if a breach affects your information.
Children
The You Times is not meant for anyone under 13 (or the minimum age in your country), and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you believe a child has signed up, contact us and we will delete the account.
International transfers
Our providers may process your information in countries other than your own, including the United States. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top. If a change is significant, we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect.
Contact us
For any question about privacy or your data, email privacy@theyoutimes.com.