Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-05-26

What we collect

  • Account info you provide when signing in with Google (name, email, profile photo).
  • Your saved posts, followed topics, subscription tier, and language preference.
  • Anonymous usage telemetry from your browser (referrer, user agent, viewport size) via Firebase Hosting / App Hosting logs.
  • If you subscribe to Pro or Max, your email address is used to send the daily digest you opted into.

What we don't collect

  • We don't ask for or store payment card details directly — subscriptions are managed via your app store or a hosted checkout provider when available.
  • We don't sell or share personal data with third parties for advertising profiling.

Cookies and similar technologies

We use a session cookie issued by Firebase Authentication to keep you signed in. We don't set advertising cookies, and we don't currently use any third-party ad network. The promotional placements we show are served by merge.news itself and involve no cross-site tracking.

Advertising

For users on the Free tier, merge.news shows a single first-party promotional placement — our own offers (such as upgrading to Pro or Max) or a direct sponsor. These are served by merge.news, with no third-party ad network and no cross-site tracking. Pro and Max subscribers see no promotions.

How we use your data

  • Display the feed, your saved articles, and topics you follow.
  • Send the daily digest email when you're on Pro or Max and have at least one followed topic.
  • Send push notifications to your mobile device when you opt in via the mobile app.
  • Aggregate anonymous metrics to improve performance.

Third-party services we use

  • Google Firebase / Google Cloud — authentication, database, hosting, and functions that run the product.
  • SendGrid (Twilio) — delivers transactional and digest emails on our behalf.
  • Expo — delivers mobile push notifications when you opt in (mobile app).
  • Lemon Squeezy — will process subscription checkout and payments when Pro/Max launch (we never see your full card details).

These providers process the minimum data needed to perform their function (e.g. your email address to deliver a digest) and are bound by their own privacy terms.

Retention

Account data is retained until you delete your account. Saved posts and follows are retained until you remove them. Email/push delivery logs are kept for up to 90 days for operational debugging.

Your rights

You can request a copy of your data, correct it, or delete your account at any time by contactinghello@merge.news. Deletion removes your user document and all subcollections (saved posts, collections, push tokens) within 30 days.

Children

merge.news isn't directed to children under 13. We don't knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has provided personal data, contact us and we'll delete it.

Contact

Questions? Reach out at hello@merge.news.