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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 7 September 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how BriefTea collects, uses and protects your personal data. It covers both the BriefTea mobile app and our website at brieftea.com. It is written for UK data protection law (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).

1. Who We Are (Data Controller)

The data controller for BriefTea is Pankaj Singh, registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO registration number ZC199588). For any privacy question or request, contact us at support@brieftea.com.

2. Information We Collect

Account data: your email address (if you create an account), your name (if provided), and an account/user ID. If you sign in with Google or Apple we receive basic profile information from that provider. You can also use the app as a guest.

Usage data: articles you view, like, bookmark or read; reading time and streaks; category preferences; searches you make in the app; quiz answers and poll votes; and notification interactions (for example which notifications you open).

Device and technical data: device type and model, operating system and app version, a device identifier, and push notification tokens.

We do not collect: financial information, government identifiers, biometric data, precise location, or your browsing history outside the app.

3. How We Use Your Data, and Our Legal Bases

  • To provide the app and your account (bookmarks, history, preferences, syncing across devices) — legal basis: performance of a contract with you, and our legitimate interests in running the service.
  • To personalise your feed and recommend articles — legitimate interests.
  • To send push notifications about news — your consent (you can turn notifications off at any time).
  • To measure and improve how the app works, and to diagnose technical problems — legitimate interests.
  • To keep the app secure and prevent abuse — legitimate interests.
  • To comply with our legal obligations — legal obligation.

Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object (see "Your rights").

4. AI and Editorial Content

Our news summaries are generated with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed before publication; they are written in our own words, with attribution to the original publisher. Images are either licensed stock photographs (for example from Unsplash, Pexels or Freepik) or AI-generated illustrations created with AI image tools; AI-generated images are labelled as such. Our AI content generation does not use your personal data.

5. Who We Share Data with

We do not sell your personal data. We use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf under their standard data-processing terms:

  • Google Firebase / Google Cloud — hosting, sign-in, database and analytics (United States).
  • Mixpanel — product analytics (United States).
  • Sentry — crash and error reporting (United States).
  • Apple Push Notification service and Firebase Cloud Messaging — to deliver notifications.

We may also disclose data where required by law or legal process, and in connection with a business transfer (you would be notified).

6. International Data Transfers

Our providers store and process data in the United States. These transfers are made under the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (the "UK-US data bridge"), under which our main providers are certified, or under other lawful safeguards such as the ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement.

7. Data Storage, Security and Retention

Data is stored with Google Firebase (US region), encrypted in transit and at rest. We restrict access to authorised administrators, use multi-factor authentication for administrative access, and maintain security monitoring.

We keep your account and usage data while your account is active. You can ask us to delete your data at any time and we will do so (see "Your rights"). We keep aggregated or pseudonymised analytics for longer to understand trends, and we keep data where the law requires us to.

8. Your Rights (UK GDPR)

You have the right to: access the personal data we hold about you; have it corrected; have it deleted ("right to be forgotten"); restrict or object to how we use it; receive it in a portable format; and withdraw consent (for example by turning off notifications). To exercise any of these, email support@brieftea.com and we will respond within one month. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk), though we would appreciate the chance to resolve your concern first.

9. Children

BriefTea is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13; if you believe we have, contact us and we will delete it. If you are aged 13 to 17, please use the app with the guidance and consent of a parent or guardian.

10. Cookies and Similar Technologies

The mobile app does not use browser cookies. It uses device storage and analytics tools (Firebase, Mixpanel and Sentry) for the purposes described above. We do not use advertising networks or cross-app advertising tracking.

Our website, brieftea.com, sets no cookies at all. The first time you visit we ask whether we may store a small amount of information in your browser for analytics. Declining is exactly as easy as accepting, and you can change your mind at any time using the "Cookie choices" link in the footer of every page.

If you accept, we use:

  • Mixpanel. We send a page-view event containing a randomly generated visitor id, the page you viewed, the website that referred you, and your IP address, which Mixpanel uses to derive an approximate city and which we do not store as a precise location. We do not send your name, email address or any account data from the website.
  • Browser storage, using local storage rather than cookies: bt_lp_id, a random pseudonymous visitor id that lets us count returning readers without identifying you, and bt_last_src with bt_last_src_ts, which remember for 30 days which link or platform brought you to us so we can tell which of our posts actually work.

If you decline, none of that happens. No visitor id is created and nothing is sent to Mixpanel. The only thing we store is your choice itself, under bt_consent, so that we do not ask again on every page.

Whatever you choose, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics, a privacy-preserving page-view counter. It stores nothing on your device, sets no cookie and builds no cross-site profile, so it does not require your consent and it keeps working if you decline.

None of this identifies you personally, and none of it is used for advertising or shared with advertising networks. Known search-engine and link-preview crawlers are excluded and are never asked, stored or sent.

Clearing site data for brieftea.com in your browser removes these identifiers and your saved choice. In the mobile app you can disable analytics sharing in iOS Settings, under Privacy and then Analytics, and turn push notifications off in the app's own settings.

The app attributes original publishers (for example BBC, Reuters, The Guardian). Where a link takes you to an external website, that website's own privacy policy applies and we are not responsible for it.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If a change is material we will notify you in the app and, if you have an account, by email, and we will update the "Last updated" date above.

13. Data Breaches

If a breach affects your personal data and is likely to result in a high risk to you, we will tell you without undue delay, and we will report to the ICO within 72 hours where required by law.

14. Contact

Privacy questions and data requests: support@brieftea.com (please use the subject line "Privacy Request").

Data controller: Pankaj Singh. ICO registration number: ZC199588.