Headlines

Privacy Policy

Effective date: August 29, 2026

Overview

Local Headlines ("we", "our", "the app") is a news aggregation service available as a website and mobile application. We are committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and your rights.

Data We Collect

We do not ask you for personal data.

Local Headlines does not require an account, registration, or sign-in. We never collect your name, email address, or phone number.

The one exception is website analytics, which processes technical data such as your IP address — but only if you accept the analytics banner. See the Analytics section below.

Data Stored on Your Device

The app stores the following preferences locally on your device:

  • Selected location and topic filters
  • Article read history
  • Swiped article history and preference scores
  • Brief location selection
  • Last active tab

This data never leaves your device and is not transmitted to our servers. You can clear it at any time by deleting the app or clearing your browser data.

Network Requests

The app makes requests to our server to fetch news articles, tags, and curated briefs. These requests do not include personal identifiers. Your reading preferences (such as liked tags) are sent as query parameters solely to personalize the article order in your current session and are not stored on our servers.

Analytics

Our own usage counters

The interactive parts of the app (such as card mode) record anonymous usage events — which screens are opened and which features are used — under a random session identifier generated in your browser or app. This identifier is not linked to you, the data stays on our own servers, and it is never shared with third parties or used for advertising.

Google Analytics

On the website we also use Google Analytics 4, a service provided by Google Ireland Limited, to count visits and see which pages people read. It tells us how many people use the site and how they arrived, not who they are.

No cookies are set unless you accept. When you first visit, a dialog asks whether you agree, and until you do, Google Analytics runs in a restricted mode: it stores nothing in your browser and cannot recognise you on a later visit. Your choice is remembered in your browser's localStorage. To change it later, clear this site's browser data and the dialog will appear again.

Being open about what happens before you choose: the Google Analytics script is loaded on every page, and in the restricted mode it still sends Google a basic record of the page view — the page address, the page you came from, your device and browser type, and your IP address, which Google uses to derive an approximate location and does not retain. No identifier is attached, so these records cannot be linked to each other or to you, and Google uses them only to produce estimated visitor totals for us. If you would rather this did not happen at all, a browser that blocks trackers, or an ad blocker, will stop the script from loading.

If you accept, Google Analytics additionally sets cookies in your browser containing a random identifier, which lets us count returning visitors and follow a path through the site. Google acts as our data processor; data may be processed outside the EU under Google's standard contractual clauses. We do not use any of this for advertising — advertising, ad personalisation and ad data sharing are switched off permanently, whatever you choose — and we do not sell or share it. Google's own handling is described in the Google Privacy Policy.

The mobile apps do not include analytics.

Third-Party Services

Local Headlines aggregates publicly available news articles from third-party RSS feeds. When you choose to read an original article, you will be directed to the publisher's website, which is governed by their own privacy policy.

Cookies

We store your preferences (listed above) in your browser's localStorage, which requires no consent because the site cannot work as intended without it.

The only cookies we set are the Google Analytics cookies described under Analytics, and only after you accept them. Decline and the site sets no cookies at all.

Declining does not stop the analytics script from loading; it stops it from storing anything. The Analytics section above describes exactly what is still sent in that case.

Your Rights

Under the GDPR you can ask what data we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, withdraw your consent to analytics at any time, or complain to a supervisory authority — in the Netherlands, the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. Because we collect no account data, requests about analytics data are the practical case; email support@localheadlines.net.

Children's Privacy

Local Headlines is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect any personal information from children.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected on this page with an updated effective date.

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