Privacy Policy — THE SIGNAL JOURNAL

1. Introduction

THE SIGNAL JOURNAL ("we," "us," or "our") operates the website www.thesignaljournal.com (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our Service.

2. Information We Collect

Personal Data

When you register for an account, we collect your name, email address, and authentication credentials. If you sign in via Google OAuth, we receive your name, email, and profile picture from Google.

Usage Data

We automatically collect information about how you interact with the Service, including articles you read, reading time, bookmarked articles, liked articles, and your selected interest categories. This data is used to support account features such as saved stories and reading history.

Device & Log Data

We may collect your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring URLs, and access timestamps for security and analytics purposes.

3. How We Use Your Information

To provide and maintain the Service
To provide account features such as saved stories and reading history
To track your reading goals and statistics
To send important service-related communications
To detect, prevent, and address technical issues or abuse
To improve and optimize the Service

4. Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active. Reading history is limited to your 10 most recent articles. You may request deletion of your account and associated data at any time by contacting us.

5. Data Sharing

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties. We may share data with service providers who assist in operating the Service (e.g., hosting, authentication), subject to confidentiality obligations.

6. Cookies & Local Storage

We use browser local storage to persist your authentication token, theme preference, and region selection. We do not use third-party tracking cookies.

7. Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including encrypted authentication tokens (JWT), HTTPS-only communication, and verified Google OAuth sign-in. However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure.

8. Your Rights

You have the right to:

Access the personal data we hold about you
Request correction of inaccurate data
Request deletion of your data
Withdraw consent for data processing
Export your data in a portable format

9. Children's Privacy

The Service is not intended for individuals under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page and updating the "Last updated" date.

11. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at editorial@thesignaljournal.com.