Privacy Policy

Regional Pulse News ("we", "us", "our") operates the website at regionalpulsenews.com and the Regional Pulse News mobile application. This privacy policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your choices.

Information we collect

Information you provide

• Subscription information: If you subscribe, your payment is processed by Stripe. We do not store your credit card number. Stripe provides us with your email address, subscription status, and billing history. See Stripe's privacy policy.
• Feedback: If you submit the feedback form, we receive whatever information you include in your message. Feedback is processed by Formspree. See Formspree's privacy policy.
• Contact emails: If you email us, we receive your email address and message content.

Information collected automatically

• Analytics: We use Umami, a privacy-focused analytics service, to count visits and see which pages are popular. Umami does not use cookies, does not track you across other websites, and does not collect personal information. It records anonymous, aggregate data such as pages viewed, how long each page was open for reading, referring site, browser and device type, and country. See Umami's privacy policy.
• Google Analytics: We also use Google Analytics to count visits, so we can tell new visitors from returning ones. It uses a cookie for that, with advertising features and Google signals switched off, and it receives the same kind of anonymous data as Umami. In Europe (EU, UK, Switzerland) Google only sets that cookie if you tap Allow on the prompt; otherwise it receives a cookie-free signal that a page was viewed. If your browser asks sites not to track you, neither Umami nor Google Analytics counts you. See Google's privacy policy.
• Local storage: We store your theme preference (light/dark mode), region selection, and filter settings in your browser's local storage. If you subscribe, we also store a signed subscription token there so the site remembers you. This data stays on your device and is only sent to our servers when you use a subscriber feature.
• Hosting logs: Our hosting providers (Vercel and Render) may automatically log IP addresses, request timestamps, and browser information as part of standard web server operation.

How we use your information

• To provide and maintain the news aggregation service
• To process subscriptions and manage your account
• To respond to feedback and support requests
• To understand usage patterns and improve the service
• To display relevant advertising to non-subscribers

Advertising

Free users see advertisements between news articles. Subscribing removes all ads. We do not sell your personal data to advertisers.

Third-party services

We use the following third-party services:

• Stripe for payment processing
• Umami for cookie-free, anonymous usage analytics
• Google Analytics for visit counts (cookie in Europe only if you allow it)
• Formspree for feedback form processing
• Vercel for website hosting
• Render for backend hosting
• Google Translate for article translation links

Each of these services has its own privacy policy governing their handling of data. We encourage you to review them.

Data retention

Subscription data is retained as long as your subscription is active and for a reasonable period afterward for billing and legal purposes. Analytics data is anonymous and is kept in aggregate by Umami. You can request deletion of your data by contacting us.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you
• Request correction or deletion of your personal data
• Cancel your subscription at any time through the customer portal
• Opt out of analytics by blocking the Umami script with a content blocker, or by turning on "Do Not Track" in your browser

Children's privacy

Our service is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe we have collected data from a child, please contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated date. Continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance.

Contact

For privacy-related questions or requests, contact us at hello@regionalpulsenews.com.