Privacy Policy

Tidings is a local-first RSS reader independently maintained by an individual developer. By design, the developer touches as little of your data as possible: nearly everything lives on your device rather than on developer servers. This policy explains what the app and website handle, and what they do not.

Operator & scope

This policy applies to the Tidings macOS app and the tidings.info website. The individually filed website name is 回到阅读, under ICP filing 陕ICP备2026018279号-1. Tidings is not a company or staffed organization; the individual developer handles privacy requests through the email listed below.

Local-first storage

Your subscriptions, fetched articles, read and starred states, and all app settings are stored on your device by default. There's no default cloud copy of this data, and our servers don't keep it.

How AI features handle data

When you turn on AI features (translation, summaries, AI Radar / daily briefings, asking AI questions, or chatting about an article), the relevant data such as article content is sent directly from your device to the OpenAI-compatible provider you've configured yourself.

• Tidings doesn't proxy these requests, doesn't store their contents along the way, and never uses your data to train any model.
• The app stores your API key locally and uses it to call your chosen provider directly. The credential is sent to that provider to authenticate the request and may associate the request with your provider account, but it is not sent to Tidings developer servers. Protect the key and use only trusted HTTPS endpoints.
• Once data leaves your device, it's handled by the provider you chose under that provider's own terms. Please read and follow their privacy policy and terms of use.

iCloud Sync (Pro, optional)

If you subscribe to Pro and intentionally enable iCloud Sync, the app syncs feeds, categories, and non-secret settings through your Apple iCloud account. API keys, custom authentication headers, local file paths, article cache, read state, AI results, and AI Radar history are excluded. Apple handles iCloud data under its own terms. Disabling sync stops future synchronization but does not automatically delete data already written to iCloud; use Apple's iCloud data controls or contact support for guidance.

Purchases & payment

Pro is purchased through Apple In-App Purchase. Apple handles the payment flow and your payment details, and Tidings never sees your card information. To determine and restore entitlement locally, the app stores StoreKit records returned by Apple, including product, transaction and original-transaction identifiers, status, and relevant dates. These records stay on your device by default.

No third-party ad tracking

Tidings integrates no third-party ad networks and does not track you for advertising across sites or apps.

About this website

This website uses no advertising cookies, third-party analytics SDKs, or download-event tracking. Changing language writes a functional locale cookie, retained for up to one year, solely to remember your Chinese or English preference. Hosting and network infrastructure may still process standard request logs such as IP address, request time, browser type, and path to deliver and secure the site and diagnose failures; those logs are used only for operations and security and retained only as necessary. If you email support, we process your address and message to respond.

Retention & deletion

You control local reading data. Clear Cache removes full-text cache, AI summaries, translations, subtitles, and diagnostic reports; it does not remove subscriptions, read and starred state, or AI Radar history. Use the relevant delete controls. Removing the application alone may not delete its macOS user data; for complete deletion, quit Tidings and remove the application data macOS stores for Tidings, or contact support for guidance. Disabling iCloud Sync does not automatically delete an existing cloud copy. Support email and infrastructure logs are kept only as needed to handle requests, protect the service, maintain necessary records, and meet legal obligations.

Security

We use technical and organizational safeguards appropriate to the product and data, including local credential protection, process isolation, and restricted configuration exports. No storage or transmission method is completely secure, so protect your device, system account, and third-party provider credentials.

Your choices & rights

You may leave AI and iCloud features disabled, decline or revoke permission for a specific AI provider, delete local data, and contact us to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information we hold through support correspondence. We may need to verify identity, and legal exceptions may apply.

Children

Tidings is not designed for children. Because it can display open-web content from feeds chosen by the user, its App Store age rating may be higher than that of a typical reading utility. Users below the age of independent consent where they live should use it with a guardian's permission and guidance, especially when configuring a third-party AI provider. Contact us if you believe a minor provided personal information to the developer.

Policy changes

We may update this policy when features, law, or operations change. We will update the date on this page and, where reasonably practical, provide additional notice of material changes.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this policy or how we handle your data, reach us by email: fxapps@163.com.