Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 15, 2026 • Applies to: Rhythm. Balanced News

At Rhythm. ("we", "us", or "our", available at https://rhythm.optivoic.com), respecting your privacy and protecting your personal data is a core commitment. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, process, disclose, and safeguard information when you use our balanced news aggregation platform.

1. User Accounts & Supabase Authentication

Rhythm. offers optional user accounts to save bookmarks, organize custom reading lists, and personalize user profiles:

Passwordless Magic Link: We utilize Supabase Authentication. When signing in, you provide your email address to receive a secure, one-time authentication link. We do not store passwords.
Public vs. Private Profile Fields:
- Public Information: Your chosen Username and Profile Avatar Photo are public by default to enable community interactions.
- Private Information: Your Email Address, Bio, and Saved Bookmarks are private by default and protected by strict PostgreSQL Row Level Security (RLS) policies. Private fields are only visible to you unless you explicitly choose to share them.
Guest Storage: If you browse without creating an account, your reading list, muted keywords, and theme preferences (dark/light mode) remain stored strictly on your device via HTML5 Local Storage.

2. Microsoft Clarity & Behavioral Telemetry

We partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, scroll depth, and session replay to improve and optimize our product and user experience.

Website usage data is captured using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of articles and online activity.
Additionally, we use this information for site optimization, fraud/security purposes, and reporting.
Microsoft may collect or receive personal data from users to provide and improve Microsoft products and Microsoft Advertising.
For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement ↗.

3. Google Analytics & Tag Manager

We use Google Analytics (gtag.js) and Google Tag Manager to understand visitor demographics, reading preferences, and page performance.

Google Analytics uses cookies to gather anonymous aggregated usage metrics (such as page response times, referring URLs, and device types).
Opting Out: You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits by disabling cookies in your browser or by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on ↗.
You may also customize your advertising preferences via Google My Ad Center ↗.

4. Search Engine Indexing (Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster & IndexNow)

We utilize Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and the IndexNow protocol to notify search engines in real time of new content, sitemap updates, and page accessibility. These tools analyze crawl performance and search indexing health without tracking individual personal reader profiles.

5. Cookies & Browser Storage

Rhythm. uses cookies and local browser storage essential for:

Maintaining your authenticated session state and security tokens.
Saving your visual interface preferences (Dark Mode / Light Mode).
Preserving your selected perspective filter and time-of-day edition view.
Caching article bookmarks for offline viewing.

6. Third-Party Publisher Content & External Links

Rhythm. indexes publicly available RSS feeds and publisher APIs from independent news organizations across the political spectrum (Center-Left, Center, Center-Right).

When you click an article headline or external source pill, you navigate directly to the original publisher's website (e.g., Reuters, BBC News, NPR, The Hill, Reason, The Guardian). Third-party publishers maintain their own independent privacy practices and cookie policies, which Rhythm. does not control.

7. Data Security & Retention

We implement industry-standard security safeguards, including HTTPS SSL encryption, Content Security Policies (CSP), HTTP security headers, API rate limiting, and Supabase Row Level Security (RLS) to safeguard your account against unauthorized access or disclosure.

8. Contact Us & Rights

Under applicable data protection laws (including GDPR and CCPA/CPRA), you have the right to request access to, correction of, or deletion of your account and personal data. If you have questions regarding this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at privacy@optivoic.com.