Privacy Policy

Effective date: 25 March 2026

Articyl ("we", "our", "us") is a cloud-hosted personal content hub that lets you save web articles, subscribe to RSS feeds and podcasts, listen to articles with AI narration, organise and track your reading, and optionally deliver content to your devices. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding that data.

1. Data Controller

Articyl is the data controller responsible for your personal data. If you have questions or wish to exercise your rights, contact us at support@articyl.com.

2. Information We Collect

Account Data

When you register, we collect your email address and a securely hashed password. We do not store your password in plain text. If you sign in with Google, we receive your email address and basic profile information from Google; we do not receive or store your Google password.

Passkey / WebAuthn Data

If you register a passkey (biometric or security key), we store a credential identifier, public key, and a device name you provide. We do not have access to your biometric data — authentication happens entirely on your device, and only a cryptographic proof is sent to our servers.

Saved Articles

When you save an article, we store the URL, the extracted article content (title, text, and images), and metadata such as read/archived/starred status, reading position, word count, and the date saved. Images referenced in the article are downloaded from the original source and cached on our servers so that the article remains readable even if the original content is removed.

Highlights and Notes

When you highlight text in an article, we store the selected text, its position within the article, and any note you attach (up to 2,000 characters).

Collections and Tags

We store the collections and tags you create to organise your articles, including their names, descriptions, and colours.

RSS Feed and Podcast Subscriptions

If you subscribe to RSS feeds or podcasts, we store the feed URL, feed title, site URL, and polling metadata (last polled time, error state). For podcast feeds, we also store episode metadata such as title, description, publication date, and audio URL. When you stream a podcast episode, the audio is proxied through our servers, meaning the podcast host sees our server's IP address rather than yours. You can import and export your subscriptions in OPML format.

AI Narration

If you use AI narration to listen to an article, the article text is sent to a third-party text-to-speech provider (currently OpenAI) for audio generation. The generated audio is cached on our servers so that repeated listens do not require additional processing. We do not send any personally identifiable information to the narration provider — only the article text.

Reading Analytics

We track your reading activity to provide statistics and achievements, including: articles read per day, total words read, reading streaks, and badges earned. This data is visible only to you on your profile.

Delivery Preferences

If you configure email delivery, we store your destination email address, preferred document format (PDF or EPUB), paper size, and font preferences so we can format and send articles to your device. We also store a history of deliveries including status, file size, and timestamps.

Digest Email Settings

If you enable digest emails, we store your preferred schedule (daily, weekly on a chosen day, or after a set number of articles) and your last delivery timestamp.

Inbound Email

If you use the email-to-article feature, we generate a unique inbound email token for your account. We store your sender whitelist rules (approved sender addresses) and process incoming email content to extract article links. The email content is not retained after processing.

Push Notification Subscriptions

If you enable browser push notifications, we store a push endpoint URL, encryption keys, and your per-category notification preferences (e.g. delivery completed, feed updates, announcements). You can disable notifications at any time.

Shared Articles

If you share an article, we generate a short public link. The shared article content is accessible to anyone with the link. You can revoke or regenerate share links at any time.

Browser Extension Data

The Articyl browser extension requests broad host permissions (<all_urls>) solely to allow you to save articles from any website. When you click "Save" in the extension, the current page URL is sent to our servers for content extraction. The extension does not collect browsing history, track your activity, or transmit any data without your explicit action.

Subscription and Tier Data

We store your account tier (e.g. Free, Basic, or Pro) and, if applicable, your trial expiry date to determine which features are available to you. If you subscribe via a payment provider, we store a subscription identifier to link your account to your subscription status. Payment details (card number, billing address) are collected and processed entirely by the payment provider and are never stored on our servers.

Cookies and Local Storage

The Articyl web application uses cookies to maintain your authenticated session. The browser extension stores an authentication token in local browser storage to keep you logged in. We do not use cookies for advertising or cross-site tracking.

Operational Data

We collect server-side logs, request traces, and performance metrics to diagnose errors, monitor service health, and improve reliability. This data may include your IP address, request timestamps, browser user-agent string, and last-active timestamp. We do not use this data to build user profiles or for marketing purposes.

3. How We Use Your Information

• Provide the service: fetch, store, and display articles you save; maintain your reading position, highlights, notes, collections, and tags.
• Content extraction: when you save an article, our servers fetch the URL on your behalf to extract its content. This means the third-party website hosting the article may receive a request from our servers, exposing our server's IP address to that website.
• AI narration: when you request narration, we send the article text to a third-party text-to-speech provider to generate audio, which is then cached on our servers for playback.
• RSS feed and podcast polling: we periodically fetch your subscribed feeds and podcasts to import new articles and episodes automatically. Podcast audio is streamed via our servers.
• Reading analytics: we calculate reading statistics, streaks, and badges from your reading activity to display on your profile.
• Search: we index article content, highlights, notes, and tags to provide full-text search across your library.
• Real-time updates: we maintain a persistent connection (WebSocket) between your browser and our servers to deliver real-time updates when articles are saved or modified.
• Push notifications: if enabled, we send browser notifications for events such as completed deliveries, feed updates, and system announcements.
• Document delivery: generate PDF or EPUB documents and send them to your configured destination email address, either on demand or on your chosen digest schedule.
• Inbound email processing: if enabled, we process emails sent to your unique inbound address to extract and save article links.
• Embedded content: when an article contains links to third-party content (such as tweets or YouTube videos), we may fetch metadata from those services to display rich embeds.
• Site icons: we fetch and cache website favicons from third-party services to display alongside your saved articles and feed subscriptions.
• Authentication: verify your identity when you log in, whether by password, Google, or passkey.
• Service improvement: analyse operational data (server logs, request traces, and performance metrics) to diagnose errors and improve reliability.

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, we process your personal data on the following legal bases:

• Performance of a contract: processing your account data, saved articles, highlights, notes, reading position, collections, tags, feed subscriptions, podcast episodes, narration, delivery preferences, digest settings, and subscription tier is necessary to provide the Articyl service you signed up for.
• Legitimate interest: collecting operational data (logs, traces, metrics) and reading analytics to maintain service security, diagnose errors, improve reliability, and provide you with reading statistics. We have assessed that this does not override your privacy rights.
• Consent: where required by law, we will obtain your consent before processing (for example, before sending push notifications or non-essential communications).

5. Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored in a database secured with industry-standard practices. Passwords are hashed using a one-way cryptographic algorithm. Passkey credentials use public-key cryptography — your private key never leaves your device. All communication between your browser, the extension, and our servers is encrypted via HTTPS.

6. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services:

• Article fetching: when you save an article, our servers make an outbound HTTP request to the article's URL to fetch its content. The third-party website may log this request.
• OpenAI (narration): when you use AI narration, the article text is sent to OpenAI's text-to-speech API to generate audio. No personally identifiable information is included in the request. OpenAI's use of data is governed by OpenAI's Privacy Policy.
• Stripe (payments): if you subscribe to a paid plan, payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe. We do not store your card details — only a subscription identifier to track your plan status. Stripe's use of your data is governed by Stripe's Privacy Policy.
• Google Sign-In: if you choose to sign in with Google, your authentication is handled by Google's OAuth service. Google's use of your data is governed by Google's Privacy Policy.
• Favicon services: to display website icons alongside your saved articles and feeds, we fetch favicons from Google's favicon service and DuckDuckGo's icon service. These services receive the domain name of the website whose icon is being requested.
• Twitter and YouTube (embeds): when an article contains links to tweets or YouTube videos, we fetch metadata from Twitter's syndication API and YouTube's oEmbed API to render rich previews. These services receive the URL of the linked content.
• Email delivery: we send generated documents and digest emails via a third-party SMTP provider. The provider processes your destination email address and the email content in transit.

7. Browser Extension Specifics

The Articyl browser extension:

• Only activates when you explicitly click the extension icon or use it to save an article.
• Sends only the current page URL to our servers when you initiate a save.
• Stores your authentication token locally in the browser to keep you logged in.
• Does not run background scripts that monitor or track your browsing.
• Does not collect, store, or transmit any data beyond what is described above.

8. Data Retention and Deletion

We retain your data for as long as your account is active. You can delete individual saved articles, highlights, collections, tags, feed subscriptions, and shared links at any time from within the application. Deleted items are soft-deleted and may be retained in our database for a limited period before permanent removal.

You can delete your account and all associated data at any time from the account settings page. Account deletion permanently removes all your saved articles, highlights, notes, collections, tags, feed subscriptions, analytics, notification preferences, delivery history, and authentication credentials. If you have an active paid subscription, it will be cancelled automatically.

9. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Request deletion of your account and data.
• Request a portable copy of your data.
• Export your saved articles as PDF or EPUB documents and your RSS subscriptions as OPML.
• Object to or restrict certain processing of your data.
• Withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent.

If you are in the EEA or UK, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at support@articyl.com.

10. Internal Access

A limited number of authorised administrators may access user data for the purposes of providing support, enforcing our terms of service, and maintaining the platform. Administrative actions (such as account changes and system announcements) are logged.

11. International Data Transfers

If you access Articyl from outside the region where our servers are hosted, your data may be transferred internationally. We take appropriate safeguards to ensure your data is protected in accordance with this policy and applicable data protection laws.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with a revised effective date. Continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

13. Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy or your data, please contact us at support@articyl.com.