BrightSide privacy policy.

This Privacy Policy explains how BrightSide may collect, use, store, and share information when you visit or use https://Brightsidez.com and any related pages, story feeds, saved-story tools, account features, support pages, communications, or online services that link to this Privacy Policy.

BrightSide is a constructive positive-news experience that helps people find hopeful reporting, save and react to stories, and build a local or account-backed BrightSide history.

Using BrightSide before clicking Accept on the first-visit Cookies, Terms, and Privacy notice is not treated as consent to optional analytics. That notice is BrightSide's only consent surface. Choosing Essential Only keeps optional analytics off.

BrightSide uses limited information needed to operate, improve, protect, and understand use of the site.

Some activity may be stored locally in your browser, including Bright Points, saved stories, reactions, preferences, behavior events, and retained history from previously available Mood or Quick Lift features.

Local or account-backed likes, dislikes, saves, favorite themes, and rank progress can support features you request. Retired Mood and Quick Lift history is preserved for continuity but is no longer collected by the current public experience or used to rank core news.

Supabase provides account authentication, database storage, and cross-device account continuity. Vercel hosts and delivers the application and may process operational request and security logs.

BrightSide does not sell your personal information, does not knowingly collect information from children under 13, and does not knowingly collect sensitive personal information.

We may collect information you voluntarily provide when you create an account, submit a form, request support, sign up for a newsletter if available, send feedback, report a bug, suggest a source, or otherwise communicate with us.

This information may include your name or display name, email address, messages, support requests, feedback, story-source suggestions, feature ideas, or other information included in voluntary communications.

Please do not send sensitive personal information unless it is necessary for the purpose of your message.

BrightSide stores requested product state in your browser, including Bright Points, saved stories, story reactions, preferences, session state, and local activity history. Existing Mood check-ins and completed cue or lift records may remain in that history after those public features are retired.

Local browser data helps BrightSide remember your progress and personalize the experience without requiring an account. Local data may be lost if you clear your browser data, change devices, use another browser, or use a different local origin.

If account sync is enabled, some local data may be merged into your account after signup or login.

Necessary storage supports login, security, privacy preferences, saved stories, and other features you request. Optional first-party analytics storage measures visits and story activity only after you accept the first-visit Cookies, Terms, and Privacy notice.

BrightSide may load Google Analytics only after you accept that notice and only while BrightSide's GA4 switch is enabled. Advertising storage, Google Signals, and ad personalization remain disabled. Vercel and Supabase may still process limited operational information needed to host, secure, and authenticate the service.

Most browsers allow you to block, delete, or manage cookies and local storage. If you disable or clear them, some parts of BrightSide may not function as intended.

When you visit BrightSide, technical information may be collected automatically by our server, hosting provider, analytics tools, security systems, or browser-based app features.

This may include IP address, browser type, device type, operating system, referring URLs, pages visited, time and date of visits, approximate location based on IP address, interaction data, error logs, and diagnostic information.

This information helps us operate BrightSide, troubleshoot issues, understand traffic, improve the user experience, and protect the site.

If accounts are enabled, BrightSide may collect and store account-related information such as email address, display name, saved stories, Bright Points, streaks, preferences, reactions, and other account-linked activity. Historical Mood check-ins and completed actions may remain associated with an existing account.

Current account-backed sync is intended to help you keep Bright Points, saved stories, reactions, favorite themes, and preferences across devices. It does not create new Mood check-ins or retired Quick Lift completion records.

Anonymous local mode may remain available, but local-only data does not provide the same cross-device continuity.

If local-to-account sync is enabled, BrightSide may merge local browser activity into your account after signup or login so your saved stories, points, preferences, and related activity can continue across sessions or devices.

If you accept the first-visit Cookies, Terms, and Privacy notice, BrightSide may send first-party events such as page visits, story reads, source opens, saves, shares, searches, support clicks, return visits, and completed product actions to its Supabase database. BrightSide may also send a smaller allowlisted set of page, story, source, save, coarse reaction, share, continuation, and recoverable-error events to Google Analytics when the separate GA4 switch is enabled.

Activity from before the initial choice is not backfilled. BrightSide does not provide a persistent in-app analytics-choice control; browser cookie and storage controls remain available.

Clearing browser storage does not automatically erase reporting already received or aggregated. Account data and features you explicitly request remain separate from optional anonymous analytics.

The current public experience does not produce new Mood or Quick Lift analytics events. Historical reporting definitions and previously received records may be retained.

If enabled, BrightSide may display a sitewide announcement bar or centered notification containing operational news, product updates, service information, or another message selected by BrightSide. Notifications are not person-level targeted.

BrightSide may use necessary browser storage to remember that you dismissed an announcement and to enforce its configured display frequency. This preference does not require optional-analytics consent and remains until the announcement expires, its configuration changes, or you clear browser storage.

Notification impressions, dismissals, or link clicks are not sent to optional first-party analytics or Google Analytics unless that measurement is disclosed through this Policy and you have clicked Accept on the first-visit Cookies, Terms, and Privacy notice. Choosing Essential Only keeps that optional measurement off.

A notification may link to a BrightSide page or an approved external destination. External destinations control their own content, availability, terms, privacy practices, cookies, and tracking.

BrightSide links to third-party publishers and services. Publisher sites control their own articles, images, ads, paywalls, cookies, privacy policies, and tracking practices.

We do not control third-party websites or services. Please review their privacy policies and terms before using them.

We may use information to operate and maintain BrightSide, provide public pages and app features, personalize recommendations, prompts, rankings, story discovery, and return paths, sync account data if enabled, improve story quality, troubleshoot bugs, protect against abuse, respond to messages, manage newsletter signups, analyze product performance, and comply with legal obligations.

Current recommendation and personalization signals may include likes, dislikes, saves, shares, story reads, searches, favorite themes, rank progress, account activity, and other news interactions. Retained Mood or Quick Lift history does not control core-news ranking, source treatment, support, or access.

We may use story and source interaction data to improve source quality, reject low-fit stories, detect broken images, tune story pools, improve search results, improve related-story recommendations, and reduce commercial, misleading, broken, or low-quality story placements.

We may also use aggregated or de-identified information to understand trends, improve source quality, improve story recommendations, and evaluate product growth.

We do not sell your personal information.

We may disclose information if required by law, legal process, court order, government request, or when necessary to protect BrightSide, prevent abuse, investigate violations, protect rights, prevent fraud, or address security threats.

We keep information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law.

Local product data and your privacy choice may remain until you clear them or BrightSide changes how local storage works. The optional anonymous analytics cookie can last up to one year, subject to future retention review. Account data may remain while your account is active or as needed for legal, security, backup, or operational purposes.

When information is no longer needed, we may delete, anonymize, or securely retain it as part of backups or legal/business records.

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to help protect information.

However, no electronic transmission, server, website, database, or online system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We cannot promise that unauthorized third parties will never defeat security measures or improperly access, collect, use, or modify information.

Your use of BrightSide is at your own risk.

BrightSide is not intended for children under 13.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 13, we will take reasonable steps to delete it.

If you are under 13, do not use BrightSide or submit any personal information to us.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights regarding your personal information, such as requesting access, correction, deletion, restriction, objection, or a copy of certain information.

We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request. We will respond in accordance with applicable law.

You can manage cookies and local storage through your browser settings; clearing necessary product storage may remove local progress or preferences.

BrightSide's optional-analytics choice is presented on the first visit rather than through a persistent in-app control. Browser cookie/storage controls remain available, and account records require a separate verified deletion request.

Some browsers include a Do-Not-Track setting.

Because there is no uniform standard for Do-Not-Track, BrightSide does not currently use that signal as a consent choice.

When a browser exposes Global Privacy Control, BrightSide keeps optional analytics off by default unless the visitor explicitly accepts BrightSide's single first-visit Cookies, Terms, and Privacy notice.

If you are a California resident, you may have additional rights under California privacy laws, including rights to know, access, delete, correct, and receive information about certain sharing or disclosure practices.

We do not sell personal information.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising applicable privacy rights.

BrightSide is operated from the United States.

If you access BrightSide from outside the United States, you understand that your information may be processed and stored in the United States or in other locations where our service providers operate. Privacy laws in those locations may differ from the laws where you live.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.

When we update it, we will revise the Last updated date on this page. Your continued use of BrightSide after an updated Privacy Policy is posted means you acknowledge the updated policy.

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to request access, correction, or deletion of information, contact us through https://Brightsidez.com or the contact method provided on the site.

Before a broader public launch, BrightSide should provide a clearer public contact method and complete a formal legal review of this Privacy Policy and related policies.