Privacy Policy

What We Collect

Account information. When you create an account, we store your name, email address, and an encrypted password. This is used solely to authenticate you and personalise your experience.

Usage data. We track which stories you view, your topic preferences, and reading progress so we can surface relevant content and avoid showing you the same stories twice.

Analytics. We use Google Analytics to collect anonymised usage statistics such as pages visited, session duration, and device type. This data helps us understand how people use Perspecta and where we can improve. What Google receives depends on your answer to the cookie banner, and it is not all-or-nothing — see Cookies below.

Cookies. We use essential cookies for authentication and session management. Analytics cookies are set only if you accept the cookie banner. If you decline, we set no analytics cookies and store no identifier for you, but the Google Analytics tag still loads and sends a cookieless measurement signal — a page address, a referrer, and coarse device and country information, with no persistent identifier. Google aggregates and statistically models those signals; they cannot be tied to you, linked between your visits, or used to build a profile. This is Google's Consent Mode, and it is why our visitor numbers include people who declined.

How We Use Your Data

• Provide and personalise the Perspecta service
• Track reading progress and seen stories
• Generate aggregated, anonymous usage statistics
• Improve content curation and site performance

We do not sell your personal data to third parties. We do not serve advertising.

Third Parties

Google Analytics. Anonymised usage data is sent to Google on every visit: with cookies and a persistent identifier if you accepted, and cookielessly with no identifier if you declined. Google's privacy policy applies to their processing of it. You can change your answer at any time by clearing your browser's local storage for this site, which brings the banner back. We never grant Google permission to use this data for advertising or personalisation.

Hosting. Perspecta runs on dedicated servers rented from Hetzner in Germany, which host both the site and its database. Cloudflare sits in front of the site and terminates connections to it. Both providers process data on our behalf under standard data processing agreements.

Your Rights (GDPR)

If you are in the EU/EEA, you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you
• Correct inaccurate data
• Delete your account and associated data
• Withdraw consent for analytics cookies at any time by clearing your browser's local storage. Declining stops all cookies and identifiers; a cookieless, non-identifying measurement signal still reaches Google, which you can block entirely with a tracker-blocking extension or by blocking googletagmanager.com
• Data portability — request a copy of your data in a machine-readable format

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at [email protected].

API and Assistant Interface

Our public API (/api/v1) and our assistant interface (/api/mcp, which lets tools such as ChatGPT query Perspecta) are read-only and return no personal data — only headlines, summaries, coverage analysis and links to publishers.

The API requires a key. We record which key made a request and when it was last used, so we can enforce rate limits and contact a key holder about their integration. The assistant interface needs no account and no key; to rate limit it we record the requesting IP address and a per-minute request count. That counter holds nothing else, is not linked to any account, and is deleted automatically — only the current minute is ever read.

If you reach Perspecta through an assistant, your conversation stays with whoever provides that assistant. We receive only the search terms it sends us, and we do not receive your identity.

Data Retention

Account data is retained for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we remove your personal data within 30 days. Anonymised analytics data may be retained indefinitely.

Contact

For privacy questions or requests, email [email protected].