Clocking.News

Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 21, 2026

Clocking.News Inc. ("Clocking.News," "we," "us," or "our") operates the news-aggregation website at clocking.news (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, and the choices you have.

The short version: we do not sell your data, we do not run ads, and we do not embed third-party analytics or cross-site trackers. Everything we collect is first-party — used only to run the Service and to rank and personalize the news you see. That is a deliberate design choice, and this policy spells out exactly what it means.

Who we are

Clocking.News is a news-aggregation service. We thread original breaking stories together with follow-up coverage drawn from roughly 760 news sources, and we rank that coverage transparently. We link out to the original publishers — we show headlines, short descriptions, and links, and we do not host publishers' full articles. When you click through to read a full story, you leave our Service and are subject to that publisher's own privacy practices.

What we collect and why

We collect only what we need to operate the Service. Here is the complete list.

Account information (signed-in readers)

We use passwordless "magic link" sign-in. When you sign in, we collect and store:

  • Your email address — used to send your sign-in link and to identify your account.
  • A session — so you stay signed in across visits.
  • Short-lived sign-in-link timestamps — used to make magic links expire and to protect against abuse of the sign-in flow.
  • Your settings — taste-tuner answers, ZIP code (if you set one, for the Local feed), reading mode, and an optional username.
  • Your tier flag — whether the account is free or Pro (it gates how much of your history you can view).
  • A derived taste profile — a small summary computed from your taste-tuner answers and reading signals (the categories, lean, headline heft, and pace you prefer), used only to rank your own feed. The Algorithm page describes exactly how it works.

We do not store a password, because there isn't one.

Reading and interaction signals

To rank stories and personalize what you see, we store the following first-party signals. When you are logged out, your reading is anonymous — impressions and page views are recorded without any identity or personally identifiable information (PII) attached.

  • Headline clicks — which headlines you click (collected only while signed in, tied to your account; signed-out clicks are not collected).
  • Likes and dislikes — your likes and dislikes on headlines (tied to your account when signed in).
  • Comments — the plain-text comments and the username you choose (tied to your account).
  • Impressions — which headlines scrolled into view, plus dwell time (tied to your account when signed in; anonymous when logged out).
  • Page views — the pages viewed on the Service (always anonymous — a path and a timestamp, never tied to an account).

We use these signals to rank and thread stories, to personalize your view of the news based on what you engage with, and to understand usage internally (our own product analytics). All of this processing is internal — we do not feed these signals to any outside analytics provider, advertising network, or data broker.

Comments

If you are signed in and have chosen a username, you can post plain-text comments. Comments and your chosen username are visible to other readers. We (the operator) can remove any comment at our discretion — see the Terms of Service for the acceptable-use rules that govern comments.

Our first-party, no-third-party-tracking stance

We want to be unambiguous about this, because it is a genuine differentiator:

  • We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data. Ever.
  • We do not use Google Analytics or any other third-party analytics service.
  • We do not run ad networks or advertising trackers, and we have no ads on the Service today.
  • We do not embed cross-site tracking cookies, pixels, or fingerprinting scripts.
  • We do not share your reading behavior with third parties for their own purposes.

The analytics we do perform are entirely first-party and stay within our own systems. If this ever changes — for example, if we introduce advertising or a third-party service — we will update this policy and make the change clear before it takes effect.

Cookies

We use a small number of first-party cookies, and only functional ones:

  • An authentication / session cookie — keeps you signed in.
  • Sign-in flow helpers — during sign-in, the auth library sets its standard CSRF-token cookie (protection against forged sign-in requests) and callback-URL cookie (remembers where to return you after sign-in), and a resend cookie carries the email address you are signing in with — integrity-protected but not encrypted — to the "check your email" page so the resend button knows where to resend; it expires within an hour. The actual rate-limiting of sign-in links happens server-side, not in a cookie.
  • A feed-mode cookie (wire_mode, kept up to a year) — remembers whether you last chose For You or the Raw Feed.
  • An operator desk cookie — only set for site operators signing into the internal admin area; ordinary readers never receive it.

Your light/dark theme choice is NOT a cookie: it lives in your browser's localStorage and is never sent to us.

We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking cookies, or third-party cookies. You can clear or block cookies in your browser settings. If you block the auth/session cookie, you will not be able to stay signed in.

How we share information

We do not sell your data and we do not share it for others' marketing. We may share information only in limited circumstances: with service providers who help us operate the Service (such as email delivery for sign-in links, and hosting), acting on our behalf under confidentiality obligations; where required by law or an enforceable governmental request; to protect the rights and safety of Clocking.News, our readers, or the public; or in connection with a business transfer such as a merger or sale of assets, subject to the protections in this policy. Public content you post (comments and your username) is, by nature, visible to others.

Data retention

We keep information only as long as it is useful for the purposes described here. Account data (email, session) is retained while your account is active; sign-in-link timestamps are short-lived by design; reading and interaction signals are retained to support ranking, personalization, and internal analytics; anonymous logged-out signals carry no identity and cannot be tied back to you; comments remain until you or we remove them. When you delete your account, we delete or de-identify the personal data associated with it, except where we must retain something to meet a legal obligation, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements.

Your rights and choices

You can access the personal data we hold about you, correct inaccurate information (such as your username), and delete your account and its associated personal data. To exercise any of these, email us at privacy@clocking.news. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the GDPR or CCPA/CPRA; we honor applicable rights and do not discriminate against you for exercising them.

Children's privacy

The Service is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, contact privacy@clocking.news and we will delete it.

Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information — including passwordless sign-in, expiring sign-in links, and limiting data collection to first-party signals. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we work to protect your information and to limit what we collect in the first place.

Third-party links

The core purpose of the Service is to link you out to original publishers. When you follow a link to a publisher's site, you leave Clocking.News and that publisher's own privacy policy governs. We are not responsible for the content or privacy practices of sites we link to.

Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes — especially any change that would broaden what we collect or introduce third-party tracking or advertising — we will update the "Last updated" date and take reasonable steps to notify you before the change takes effect.

Contact

Questions, requests, or concerns about privacy? Email us at privacy@clocking.news.

Clocking.News Inc.