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Privacy policy

Last updated: 16 October 2026. This policy covers sidedigest.com, the SideDigest Chrome extension and the SideDigest iPhone and iPad app.

In short

SideDigest does not collect or store your personal information — no accounts, no names, no emails inside the extension, and we do not upload your topic choices or reading history to SideDigest servers.

The free version may load a sponsored banner from our ad host. That request can reveal your IP address, which may imply country or region for ad delivery — not to profile you. Optional article click-through via sidedigest.com records destination, source, topic, and item id when that service is available.

What we do not collect

Unless you choose to email us, SideDigest does not collect:

  • Your name, postal address, or phone number
  • Your email address (in the Chrome extension)
  • A list of articles you read or topics you follow in the cloud
  • Precise GPS location or street-level address
  • Payment details (handled by the Chrome Web Store when you purchase a future paid tier)

Limited information (country / region)

When the extension requests a sponsored banner from our ad service (adserv.amiplay.net), standard web requests may reveal your IP address. That IP can be used to infer country or broad region for lawful ad delivery and reporting.

  • We do not use this to identify you personally.
  • We do not sell personal data.
  • We do not combine this with your news feed preferences.

Sponsored banner ads (free version)

The free tier of SideDigest may show a Sponsored banner in the panel:

  • What you see: An image or muted video ad with an optional “Tap to unmute” control, plus a link to the advertiser when you click the creative.
  • How it loads: A labeled iframe may load from adserv.amiplay.net. If that host is unavailable, the banner area stays hidden.
  • When there is no ad: The banner area stays hidden (no empty placeholder).
  • Paid upgrade (planned): A one-time SideDigest Plus license is intended to remove ads entirely.
  • Advertisers: If you click an ad, you leave SideDigest and the advertiser’s site applies its own privacy policy.

Chrome extension — feeds & local storage

  • RSS feeds are fetched directly from publishers you enable (BBC, Guardian, NPR, and others listed in settings).
  • Topic selections, display mode, themes, currency favorites, and source priority are stored in Chrome sync storage on your profile — not on SideDigest servers as an account.
  • Weather data is requested from Open-Meteo for the area (not your GPS). Exchange rates come from Frankfurter. Those services receive standard API requests, not your identity from SideDigest.
  • Opening an article may go through https://sidedigest.com/out with destination URL, source id, topic, and item id. If that endpoint does not respond, the article opens directly.
  • Sudoku scores and calculator state remain on your device.

Website (sidedigest.com)

  • This website: Pages describing the extension, plus the support form described below. We do not run advertising on sidedigest.com at this time.
  • Analytics: If we add analytics later, we will update this policy.

SideDigest app for iPhone and iPad

  • No account, no tracking. The app does not collect, store on our servers, or share any personal information. It has no analytics, no advertising and no tracking, and it does not use the advertising identifier.
  • On your device only. Your settings (topics, theme, display mode, currencies) and recently loaded headlines are stored on your device so the app works faster and offline. Deleting the app deletes this data.
  • Network requests. The app loads public news feeds directly from publishers, weather from Open-Meteo, and exchange rates from Frankfurter. Like any internet request, those services can see your IP address. Weather uses a fixed area, not your GPS location.
  • Reading articles. Tapping a story opens the publisher’s own page in an in-app browser. That site’s privacy policy applies to what you do there.
  • Permissions. The app does not ask for location, contacts, camera, microphone, photos or notifications.

Children

SideDigest is intended for general audiences. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 on this website.

Changes

We may update this policy when features change (for example Plus licensing or new ad formats). The “Last updated” date at the top will change when we do.

Support form (sidedigest.com/support.php)

If you write to us through the support form, we receive the name, email address, topic, optional extension version and message you type, and we use them only to reply to you and to improve SideDigest. We do not add you to a mailing list or sell or share this information.

To block spam and abuse, the form also records, for a short time, a one-way hashed form of your IP address for rate limiting (stored on our server for up to 24 hours), and the delivered email includes your IP address and browser user-agent so we can investigate abuse. Messages are delivered by email to the SideDigest team and kept only as long as needed to answer you. To have a message deleted, contact us.

Contact

Questions about privacy or ads: use the support form.

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