Privacy Policy

Effective Date: September 2026

NewsGator is built from the ground up to respect your privacy. We do not track you, we do not sell your personal data, we do not include third-party advertising SDKs, and we collect zero analytics.

1. Overview

NewsGator is a privacy-first news reader and intelligence tool. It offers two operational modes:

Standalone Mode: Operates entirely on your Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac). Ingestion, article extraction, clustering, and summarization run on-device or via Apple Private Cloud Compute.
Server Mode: Operates by connecting directly to your own self-hosted NewsGator server or a server administered by you or your organization.

2. Data Collection and Usage

We do not collect any personal data. Specifically:

No User Accounts Required: Standalone mode requires no email address, password, or third-party login.
No Analytics or Telemetry: NewsGator does not track screen views, read times, clicks, or gestures. No telemetry or crash reports are transmitted to any developer server.
No Advertising: There are no advertising trackers, behavioral profiling, or advertising networks bundled in NewsGator.

3. Standalone Mode & Apple Intelligence

When running in Standalone mode:

AI Processing: Artificial intelligence inference (summarization and clustering) is executed using Apple Foundation Models framework. The app attempts Apple Private Cloud Compute first and falls back to the on-device system model. No article text is sent to third-party AI companies (e.g., OpenAI, Google, Anthropic).
CloudKit Sync: Your subscribed feeds, saved reading states, and clustered stories sync securely across your personal Apple devices using your private Apple iCloud account via Apple CloudKit. This data is stored in your personal iCloud container and is inaccessible to the developers of NewsGator.

4. Optional Server Mode

If you explicitly configure NewsGator to connect to a self-hosted server:

All network communication occurs strictly between your app and the custom server URL you provide.
Authentication tokens and credentials are encrypted and stored in your device's native Keychain.
We (the creators of NewsGator) have no access to your self-hosted server, its logs, or your reading habits.

5. Direct Source Reading

When you choose to read the full source of an article, NewsGator loads the original publisher's website. That interaction is directly between your browser and the news publisher, subject to the respective publisher's privacy policy and terms.

6. Security

All network requests for RSS feeds, newsletters, and CloudKit operations use industry-standard HTTPS/TLS encryption. Sensitive credentials in Server mode are secured in the Apple Keychain.

7. Contact & Questions

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or NewsGator, you can reach out via email or through our public GitHub repository:

Support Email: support@newsgator.app
GitHub Issues: https://github.com/Tekka90/NewsGator/issues