Privacy is not a feature. It's our foundation.

The Short Version

Most privacy policies are long documents designed to obscure what companies actually do with your data. We'll keep ours simple:

• We never see the URLs you visit. All content classification happens on your device using local machine learning.
• We never see the articles you read. We only process content characteristics (like "news" or "opinion"), not specific sources.
• We never build a detailed profile on you. We collect basic demographics (age range, broad region) to improve recommendations and power aggregate insights — but never precise locations, browsing history by site, or anything that identifies you personally.
• We never sell your personal data. We do sell aggregated, anonymized trend reports to enterprises — but these contain zero individual user data. Think "32% of users increased global news consumption" not "John Smith read BBC."

What We Actually Collect

On Your Device (Never Transmitted)

The following data is processed and stored only on your device. It never leaves your browser:

• URLs you visit
• Page content and text
• Your complete browsing history
• Time spent on specific sites
• Reading patterns by source

What We Sync (Anonymized Metrics Only)

To show you your FBI Score and trends over time, we sync only these aggregate metrics:

• Content type percentages (e.g., "42% news, 28% opinion")
• Topic category distribution (e.g., "Tech 35%, Business 20%")
• Geographic scope percentages (e.g., "North America 60%")
• Perspective balance ratio (e.g., "65% supportive, 35% critical")
• Total reading time (aggregated, not per-site)
• Number of sources (count only, not names)

Profile Data You Provide

To improve your experience and power our aggregate insights, we collect:

• Age range (e.g., "25-34")
• Broad location (e.g., "Northeast US" or "Western Europe" — not precise addresses)
• Industry or interests (optional, for personalized recommendations)

This data helps us benchmark your FBI Score against similar users and powers the anonymized trend reports we sell to enterprises.

How On-Device Processing Works

Mindspan uses a lightweight machine learning model that runs entirely in your browser. Here's what happens when you browse:

• Content Classification: Our ML model analyzes page content to determine type (news, opinion, research, etc.) without transmitting the content itself.
• Topic Extraction: Natural language processing identifies topics from text locally, then discards the original text.
• Perspective Analysis: Sentiment and framing analysis runs on-device to determine critical vs. supportive viewpoints.
• Aggregation: Results are aggregated into percentages and ratios before any data leaves your device.

Account & Service Data

If you create an account, we collect minimal information to provide the service:

• Email address: For account authentication and important notifications only. We don't send marketing emails unless you opt in.
• Payment information: Processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card details.
• Usage analytics: Anonymous, aggregated product analytics (like "how many users opened settings") to improve the product. No personal identifiers.

Aggregated Trend Data

We offer an enterprise product called Mindspan Intelligence that provides aggregated, anonymized trend reports about media consumption patterns. Here's how we protect your privacy while doing this:

• No individual data: Reports contain only aggregate statistics across thousands of users. Example: "News consumption up 12% among 25-34 year olds in the Northeast" — never "User #4521 read 40% more news."
• Strict anonymization: Data is aggregated to cohorts of 1,000+ users minimum before any analysis. Individual patterns cannot be reverse-engineered.
• Demographic segments: We use age ranges, broad regions, and general interests to create useful cohorts — but never precise locations, names, or identifiable profiles.
• Opt-out available: You can exclude your anonymized data from aggregate reports in settings. Your FBI Score and features work exactly the same either way.

This is how we sustain the business while keeping our free tier free — by providing valuable market insights without compromising individual privacy.

Third Parties

We use a minimal set of trusted services:

• Stripe: Payment processing. They have their own privacy policy.
• Cloudflare: Security and performance. No personal data shared.
• Plausible Analytics: Privacy-focused, cookie-free website analytics. No personal data collected.
• Enterprise customers: Receive aggregated trend reports only. No individual user data is ever shared.

We do not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or any tracking-based advertising services. We do not sell, share, or trade your personal data with any third party.

Your Rights

You have complete control over your data:

• Access: View all data we have about you in your account settings.
• Export: Download your data anytime in standard formats.
• Delete: Permanently delete your account and all associated data.
• Opt out: Disable sync entirely and use Mindspan in fully local mode.

Because most of your data never leaves your device, deletion is as simple as uninstalling the extension. Your local browsing data is never transmitted to us, so there's nothing for us to delete.

Changes to This Policy

If we make significant changes to this policy, we'll notify you via email and in-app notification at least 30 days before they take effect. We'll never change our core privacy principles — on-device processing and no URL tracking are fundamental to who we are, not features we can remove.