What’s News?

Privacy Policy

Last updated: August 29, 2026

Scope

This policy applies to the What’s News? iOS app, including pre-release builds distributed through Apple TestFlight. What’s News? provides short, source-linked news summaries based on topics selected by the user.

Information we process

• Account information: an email address and technical account identifier used to create and authenticate the account through Amazon Cognito.
• Interests and consent choices: topics the user chooses to follow, update frequency, whether an interest remains only on the device or is synchronised, and any versioned consent needed for sensitive-topic synchronisation.
• App activity: saved, hidden and read states, preferences, account export and deletion requests, and the technical records needed to deliver the service.
• Operational and security data: limited pseudonymous logs, result codes, timestamps, counters and diagnostic data used to keep the staging service secure and reliable. Raw email addresses, topic text, access tokens and OpenAI responses are not intended to be written to application logs.
• Notifications: a device token and notification preferences may be processed only if remote notifications are enabled in a future build and the user grants permission. Remote notifications are disabled in the current TestFlight staging configuration.

Information we do not request

The app does not request precise location, contacts, photos, health records or an advertising identifier. It does not contain advertising or third-party behavioural analytics SDKs.

How AI-assisted discovery works

News discovery and summary generation run on Hypatia’s backend. OpenAI may process a shared canonical topic, language, region and time window to perform web search and generate a concise draft. OpenAI is not sent the user’s name, email address, account or device identifier, push token, precise location, click history or personal profile. Requests use non-persistent API settings, and Hypatia does not store raw OpenAI response bodies or copies of source pages. Each displayed story must retain links to its supporting sources and an AI disclosure.

Purposes and legal grounds

Account, topic and app-state data are processed to provide the service requested by the user and operate account controls. Security and limited operational records are processed to protect the service and diagnose failures. Where a feature requires consent, such as synchronising a sensitive topic or enabling notifications, that feature remains off until the user provides the required choice and may be disabled again.

Service providers and transfers

Hypatia uses Amazon Web Services for authentication, API, database, queues, secrets and operational logging in the EU (Frankfurt) region, and OpenAI as an AI and web-search service provider for backend discovery. Apple processes TestFlight distribution and device-level services under Apple’s own terms. These providers may process limited service data under their applicable contractual and legal safeguards. Selecting a source link opens the publisher’s website, which is governed by that publisher’s own privacy policy.

Retention and deletion

Account-scoped app data is retained while the account is active and is removed when account deletion completes, subject to limited security, legal and backup obligations. Current staging operational logs are configured for seven days. Expiring operational jobs and counters use automatic time-to-live controls. Shared source catalogues and non-identifying rights or provenance audits are not account data and may remain after account deletion. Raw source pages and raw OpenAI responses are not retained by the application.

User controls and rights

The app provides controls to export account-scoped data, clear local article cache and request account deletion. Local-only interests remain on the device. Depending on applicable law, users may also have rights to access, correct, erase, restrict, object to, or receive a copy of personal information processed by Hypatia. To exercise a right or ask a privacy question, contact info@hypatia.site.

Children

What’s News? is not directed to children, and Hypatia does not knowingly create accounts for children through the TestFlight programme.

Changes

This policy may be updated as the pre-release service changes. Material changes will be reflected on this page with a new update date.