Privacy Policy
Last updated 13 August 2026
News Bytes is made by Infectious Byte Inc. This policy describes exactly what the app stores, where it goes, and who can read it. It is written against what the app actually does, not a template.
The short version. We store your email, the topics you follow, and when you want your briefing. We don't sell it, don't show ads, don't track you across other apps, and don't record which stories you read or listen to. The topics you follow are visible only to you, but the topics themselves are shared, because each one is researched once for everyone who follows it.
What we collect
Account
You sign in with Apple or Google. From that we receive your email address and, if your provider shares it, your name. If you use Apple's Hide My Email, we only ever see the relay address Apple gives us. We never see or store your password.
Topics you follow
The topics you type in, such as "Formula 1" or "semiconductor policy", are stored against your account, along with the date you added each one. This is the list the app reads to build your morning briefing.
Settings
- Delivery time: the hour and half-hour you chose.
-
Time zone: the name of your device's zone, such as
America/Chicago, refreshed each time you open the app so a 7am briefing stays 7am when you travel. This is a zone name, not your location. - Audio: whether you want the spoken version.
Device
If you turn notifications on, we store a push notification token for that device so we can send them. Nothing is stored until you enable notifications in Settings, which is also the only place the app ever asks.
What we don't collect
- No reading history. The app doesn't record which stories you open, which sources you tap through to, or what you listen to. There is nowhere for that to be written.
- No analytics or advertising SDKs, no advertising identifier, and no tracking of you across other companies' apps or websites.
- No location, contacts, photos, microphone or calendar access. The app doesn't request these permissions.
- No payment information; there is nothing to buy.
- No crash-reporting or session-recording SDK.
How topics are shared
Read this part. A topic is researched once a day for everyone who follows it, not once per person. Two people who ask for "F1 news" and "the latest on Formula 1" get the same briefing, produced once. That is what keeps the app free to run, but it means the topic record itself is shared: any signed-in News Bytes user's app can read it, along with the label it was first created with and how many people follow it.
Nothing in that shared record points back to you. It holds the topic and the news, and no account identifier. Which topics you personally follow is stored separately, under your account, and is readable only by you.
Still: if you are the first person to follow a topic, the words you typed become the label everyone else sees for it. Don't put anything in the topic box you wouldn't want to appear as a shared label, such as a person's name.
Who processes it for us
We use Google Firebase to run the service: authentication, the database, server functions, file storage and push notifications. Your data is stored on Google Cloud servers in the United States. Google processes it on our instructions and does not use it for its own purposes. Firebase privacy information.
To find the stories, our server sends the topic text (and nothing else) to Google's Gemini API, which searches the web and returns articles with the outlets that published them. No account identifier, email or device information is sent with it, and the request is made once for the topic rather than once for each person following it.
The spoken briefing is produced by Google Cloud Text-to-Speech from the same public news summary. It contains nothing about you.
Apple and Google handle sign-in, and deliver notifications to your device.
We don't share your data with anyone else, and we never sell it.
Where the news comes from
Briefings are assembled from published reporting, and every story links out to the outlets that reported it. A story we can't ground in real reporting is discarded rather than published. Tapping a source takes you to the publisher's own site, where that publisher's privacy policy applies, not ours, and what you tap is not recorded anywhere.
How long we keep it
Your account data stays until you delete it. Briefings belong to the topic rather than to you, and are kept as a dated archive so a topic isn't researched twice for the same day.
Deleting your account
In the app: Settings → Delete account. This permanently removes your sign-in record, your email, your delivery time and time zone, your notification tokens, and the list of topics you follow.
The topics and briefings themselves are not deleted, because they aren't yours; other people follow them, and they contain no information about you. Your account simply stops being counted among their followers.
Deletion is immediate and cannot be undone.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export or delete your personal data, and to object to how it's processed. Most of this is available directly in the app; for anything else, email us and we'll action it within 30 days.
We don't sell personal information, and we don't share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, as those terms are used under California law.
Children
News Bytes isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data. News topics are chosen by you and can return coverage of any subject that is in the news, including subjects a younger reader may find distressing. If you believe a child has given us information, email us and we'll delete it.
Changes
If this policy changes materially, we'll update the date at the top and note the change in the app before it takes effect.
Contact
Infectious Byte Inc.
jesus.ed.sanchez@gmail.com