Privacy Policy
Version 2026-10-18 · Last updated 18 October 2026
The short version
- Reading SelectPulse needs no account, and we don't track you.
- If you create an account, we keep your email address, birth month and year, country, your poll votes, your saved stories and your email-brief choice.
- We have no ads and no analytics or tracking tools, and we never sell your information.
- You can download or delete your data at any time on your Account page.
1. Who we are
SelectPulse is a news app and website run by in Australia ("we", "us"). For anything about your privacy, email . People in India can use this address as our grievance contact.
2. What we collect, and why
| Information | Why we need it | How long we keep it |
|---|---|---|
| Your email address | To sign you in with one-time codes and send messages about your account. We send the daily email brief only if you're an adult and you've opted in. | Until you delete your account |
| Your birth month and year, and your country | To check you're old enough for an account and to apply the protections that fit your age and country. | Until you delete your account |
| Your agreements and choices: which Terms of Use and Privacy Policy you accepted, and each time you turn the email brief on or off, with the date | To show we have your agreement, as privacy and email laws require. | Until you delete your account |
| Your poll votes and saved stories | To count your vote once, show you results and keep your saved list. | Until you delete your account or we remove the story |
| Account dates: when you joined, last signed in and were last active | To keep accounts secure and spot unused accounts. | Until you delete your account |
| Technical information: IP address, device or browser type, and the time of each request | Collected automatically by our hosting and sign-in providers to deliver the service, stop abuse and investigate security problems. | For the limited periods our providers set for their logs |
Your quiz answers stay on your device; they aren't sent to us. If you ask for a sign-in code but don't finish creating an account, we delete your email address automatically, usually within a day and always within a week.
We don't collect your precise location, contacts, photos or payment details. We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking tools, and we don't use cookies to track you. The website keeps you signed in by storing a sign-in token in your browser; the app keeps it in your iPhone's secure Keychain.
Our story-picking software looks at public posts on X. It doesn't use your personal information.
One decision about you is automatic: when you sign up, your birth month and country are checked against our age and country rules to decide whether you can have an account. If you think it got your case wrong, email us and a person will look at it. We don't make any other decisions about you by automated means.
3. Teenagers and children
Anyone can read SelectPulse. To create an account you must be at least 13. Accounts for people aged 13 to 17 have extra protection:
- no marketing emails, including the email brief;
- no ads, no profiling and no sale of their information (we don't do these for anyone);
- we collect only what's needed to run their account.
In India, people under 18 can't create an account yet, because the law requires a parent's verifiable consent and we can't collect that yet. If we learn that a child under 13, or a person under 18 in India, has an account, we delete it. Parents and guardians can contact us about a child's account at any time.
4. The email brief
The daily brief is optional and only for adults who tick the box to receive it. Every brief has an unsubscribe link, and we stop sending within 2 days of your request. You can also turn it off on your Account page. Messages about your account, such as sign-in codes, aren't marketing and are sent whatever you choose.
5. Who we share information with
We don't sell or rent your information, and we don't share it for targeted advertising. We use these service providers, which handle information only on our instructions:
- Supabase: our database and sign-in system. Your account information is stored in Supabase's Sydney, Australia region.
- Netlify: hosts the website and delivers it through a worldwide network of servers.
- : sends sign-in codes and the email brief. It's based in .
- Apple: distributes the iPhone app. Apple's own privacy policy covers the App Store.
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect people's safety or our legal rights. When you open a post on X, X's privacy policy applies to what you do there.
6. If SelectPulse is sold
If SelectPulse, or the business that runs it, is sold, merged or restructured, your information may pass to the new owner so the service can continue. The new owner must keep using it in line with this policy unless you agree otherwise. Where the law requires your consent for the transfer, we'll ask for it. We'll tell you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy, and you can delete your account at any time.
7. Where your information is stored
Your account information is stored in Australia. Some of our providers process information in other countries, including the United States, for example to deliver email and web pages. We use providers with data protection agreements that require them to protect your information in line with this policy.
8. How we protect it
- No passwords: you sign in with one-time codes that work once and expire after 10 minutes.
- Encryption: information is encrypted as it travels (HTTPS) and while stored by our database provider.
- Strict access rules: our database lets each person reach only their own information, and only the operator of SelectPulse can reach the database itself, using two-factor authentication.
- A locked-down website: the site runs only its own code, with no third-party scripts.
- Short sign-in tokens: sign-in tokens renew every 15 minutes, so signing out on all devices or deleting your account stops every session within 15 minutes.
No system is perfectly secure. If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we'll tell you and the relevant regulators as the law requires.
9. Deleting your information
When you delete your account, your account, profile, agreements, votes and saved stories are deleted from our database straight away. Copies in our database provider's backups are overwritten within 7 days. If your account is unused for 3 years, we may delete it after emailing you first.
10. Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask to see, download, correct or delete your information, and you can withdraw your consent to the email brief at any time. Most of this you can do yourself on your Account page; for anything else, email . It's free. We may ask you to email from the address on your account so we know it's you, and we respond within 30 days.
Australia
We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles. You can ask to access or correct your information, and complain to us about how we handle it.
India
Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, you can ask for a summary of your information and how we use it, ask us to correct, complete, update or erase it, withdraw your consent as easily as you gave it, and nominate someone to exercise your rights if you die or become unable to. Our contact for grievances is , and we respond within 30 days.
United States
Depending on your state, you may have the right to know what we hold about you, and to access, correct and delete it, and to opt out of the sale of your information, targeted advertising and profiling. We don't sell your information, share it for targeted advertising or profile you, and we honour Global Privacy Control signals. We won't treat you differently for using your rights, and you can use an authorised agent. If we turn down your request, you can appeal by replying to our decision with "Appeal" in the subject. We'll answer within 60 days, and if we still say no, we'll tell you how to contact your state attorney general. For California residents, in the last 12 months we've collected identifiers (email address, account ID), your age (birth month and year), general location (country), and your activity on SelectPulse (votes, saved stories, account dates), from you and your device, for the purposes in section 2. We haven't sold or shared any of it.
11. Complaints
Please contact us first at ; we aim to resolve complaints within 30 days. If you're not satisfied:
- in Australia, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au;
- in India, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India once its complaint process is open;
- in the United States, you can contact your state attorney general or the Federal Trade Commission.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we'll update the version and date at the top. For important changes, we'll tell you in the app, on the website or by email, and ask you to accept the new version where the law requires it.