Privacy

Arca Privacy Policy

Effective: November 4, 2026

This policy covers the Arca app, arcareader.app, Arca Digest, and support communications. We do not sell your personal information, share it with advertisers, or use it to track you across other apps and websites. Optional features have separate data flows described below.

Who is responsible

Arca is operated by QUATTRO TECH LLC, a New York limited liability company. Contact us about privacy at support@arcareader.app.

Business and mailing address: 308 Ferndale Rd, Buffalo, NY 14221, United States. Telephone: +1 (716) 771-8958.

Privacy at a glance

Your reading history and bookmarks stay on your device unless your device backup includes them. You can read without signing in. On iOS, usage analytics, Crash Reports and Purchase Diagnostics start off. Purchase Diagnostics is introduced in version 1.0 (118) and requires its own permission. Enhanced Voice sends the article you choose to our server; Standard voice does not. Digest uses the email address you provide. Each optional choice is separate, and you can change it later. If anything here is unclear, contact us and we will explain it.

Age range and optional features

The following age-range controls were introduced in iOS version 1.0 (116) and continue in later builds. Purchase Diagnostics is introduced in version 1.0 (118); earlier builds do not include that control.

In the iOS app, Arca uses Apple's age-range response to decide whether certain optional features are available. We do not ask for your date of birth or an identity document. Analytics, Crash Reports, Purchase Diagnostics, new Digest signup, Google sign-in, and learned feed personalization are available only when the response establishes that you are 18 or older. If you are younger, decline to share a range, or the response is unavailable or inconclusive, those features stay off. On iOS versions that do not support Apple's age-range feature, the same restrictions apply.

You can still read, choose sources and topics, search, bookmark articles, and use Standard voice. This is Arca's protective feature policy, not a minimum age for reading the app. An adult age-range result does not turn on analytics, Crash Reports or Purchase Diagnostics; each requires separate permission. We use the result for feature eligibility, not advertising or a server-side age profile.

A change in eligibility cannot recall information already sent. It does not cancel a store subscription or automatically unsubscribe an email address that was registered previously. Use the Digest unsubscribe link or contact us for help with existing records.

TestFlight beta testing

The current invitation round is for selected testers aged 18 or older who are located in the United States. That invitation policy is separate from the age-range controls inside the app.

Apple processes TestFlight participation, device and app testing information, crash reports, and feedback under its own TestFlight terms and privacy information. Apple shares beta testing information with us to help test and improve Arca. If you send feedback, it may include your email address, comments, screenshots, and technical details. TestFlight reporting is separate from Arca’s optional Crash Reports, Purchase Diagnostics and Anonymous Analytics controls. Turning off those Arca controls does not turn off Apple’s TestFlight processing.

We use beta feedback to diagnose problems and improve Arca, and retain it while needed for those purposes or applicable obligations. Contact support@arcareader.app about information held by us; use Apple’s controls for information held by Apple. See TestFlight and privacy and TestFlight terms.

Local data and device backups

Your bookmarks, article-reading history, reading streaks, recent searches, app preferences, cached articles, and downloaded podcast files are stored locally on your device. Arca does not upload these records to its servers as a reading profile. Optional analytics sends daily counts, Enhanced Voice sends the article you ask it to read, and Digest sends the email address and consent details you provide; enabling one does not upload the other local records. The Android app disables cloud backup and excludes its app data from Android 12 and later cloud-backup and device-transfer rules. On Apple devices, limited podcast playback and widget state can sync through your Apple iCloud account as described below; it is not sent to Arca's server.

Depending on your device settings, Apple device backups may include local Arca app data, such as bookmarks, reading history, preferences, and analytics settings or queued counts. This is separate from Arca's limited iCloud playback sync. Arca excludes its downloaded podcast audio, feed cache, and protected offline article files from Apple device backups. Deleting current app data does not directly edit an existing device backup; manage those backups through Apple's device and backup controls.

Analytics

Arca does not include a third-party analytics service. Only if you are eligible under the age-range rule above and turn on Anonymous Analytics in Profile → Privacy does Arca send us a random on-device identifier, the UTC date that identifier was created, an upload identifier, app version, and daily aggregate counts of active days, reader opens, saves, listening, podcast starts, paywall views, and completed subscriptions. This helps us understand whether the app is useful after an install. Although the setting is called Anonymous Analytics, its random identifier lets us associate counts from the same installation during the retention period; it is not a guarantee of legal anonymisation. Arca does not automatically link that identifier to your sign-in profile or Digest email. If you send an analytics reference to support, we can associate it with that support request.

Those counts do not include your name, email, Apple ID, advertising ID, article title, URL, publisher, reading preferences, device model, or a precise timestamp. We do not sell them, share them with advertisers, or use them to track you across apps or websites.

Anonymous Analytics is not available in the current Android build, and the Android app does not send these analytics events.

Crash diagnostics

In the iOS app, Crash Reports is off by default and requires eligibility under the age-range rule above. If you turn it on in Profile → Privacy and approve the explanation, reporting starts on the next app launch. Sentry can then send crash and watchdog-termination reports so we can diagnose reliability problems. Sentry runs only in non-debug builds on physical Apple devices; it is never started in a debug build or a simulator. These reports may include the app version, device and operating-system details, stack traces, and technical app-lifecycle breadcrumbs. Arca removes Sentry’s automatic user object before transmission, but diagnostic context can still contain a technical identifier derived from the device’s identifier for this app vendor. Removing the user object does not make the remaining diagnostics anonymous. Arca disables app-hang reporting, performance tracing, sessions, default personal data, screenshots, view hierarchies, logs, metrics, network breadcrumbs, failed network requests, session replays, and analytics events. Diagnostic reports are used only to fix app reliability and are processed by Sentry. Sentry also receives network information, including your IP address, when a report is transmitted. Project-level IP scrubbing is enabled to remove IP addresses from stored events. This does not prevent Sentry from receiving network information while delivering the report, and it does not retroactively remove data received earlier. Our current Sentry Developer plan retains newly received event data for 30 days. Deleting an issue removes its events from active access; Sentry backup copies follow a separate schedule that can extend to 90 days. Older reports follow the retention assigned when they were received, which may differ from the current plan. Copies in support correspondence, alerts, or exports can have a separate lifecycle; contact us so we can identify relevant records and explain their retention.

You can turn off Crash Reports in Profile → Privacy at any time to stop new diagnostic collection immediately. Turning it off cannot recall a report already transmitted or in flight. If you turn reporting back on, it starts on the next app launch. For a request concerning reports already received, contact us using the privacy-request instructions below. We will explain which records we can identify, any remaining retention, and the separate backup boundary.

Optional purchase diagnostics

Starting with iOS version 1.0 (118), Purchase Diagnostics is a separate choice in Profile → Privacy. It starts off and is available only when Apple's age-range response establishes that you are 18 or older. Turning on Crash Reports does not enable Purchase Diagnostics. If you approve the purchase-diagnostics explanation, reporting starts on the next app launch, in a non-debug build on a physical device.

When an explicit purchase or Restore operation fails, Arca may send Sentry a limited technical report. It includes app and iOS versions, when the report occurred, whether the operation was a purchase or Restore, recognized subscription categories, Apple verification and test-environment states, and capped counts describing the entitlement check. Arca sends at most one report for an operation and at most three per app launch. Successful operations, routine background entitlement refreshes and cancelled operations do not generate these reports.

These purchase reports do not contain receipts, signed transaction data, transaction identifiers, Apple account details, payment details, reading history, article text, raw error messages, screenshots, recordings or attachments. Arca uses a fresh reporting scope and a fixed field allowlist. Sentry receives network information, including your IP address, to deliver the report; this is not anonymous transport. The Sentry location, IP-scrubbing and retention information in the crash-diagnostics section also applies to these purchase reports.

You can turn off Purchase Diagnostics at any time to stop new reports. Changing either diagnostic permission stops reporting and discards queued diagnostics; any still-enabled diagnostic permission resumes on the next app launch. Deleting Arca's local account data withdraws both diagnostic permissions. These actions cannot recall reports already transmitted or in flight. For requests concerning reports already received, use the privacy-request instructions below.

Android support diagnostics

The current Android app does not include Sentry or another automatic crash-reporting service. If you choose Send Feedback or Contact Support, your email app opens a message that you control and that can include the Arca version, device manufacturer and model, and Android version.

Accounts on Android

The current Android app does not require or offer an Arca account or sign-in flow. Google Play processes Android subscription purchases, but Arca does not receive your payment-card or bank information.

Sign in with Apple

If you choose to sign in with Apple, Arca stores the user identifier Apple provides, and any name and email address you choose to share, on your device. Apple may provide a private relay email address instead of your usual address. These profile fields are used to show your local profile; sharing them is controlled through Apple's Sign in with Apple flow. We do not require an account to use the app, and these profile fields are not sent to the Arca+ server.

Sign in with Google

If you are eligible under the iOS age-range rule and choose to sign in with Google, Google's sign-in service processes the authentication and provides Arca with your Google user identifier, display name, and email address. Arca stores those profile fields on your device to display your local profile and does not send them to the Arca+ server. The Google Sign-In 9.2 SDK's privacy manifest conservatively declares Name, Email Address, Phone Number, Other Data Types, Coarse Location, User ID, Device ID, and Other Usage Data as linked to you for App Functionality and/or Analytics; it declares no tracking. Arca requests only the basic sign-in profile described above. You can sign out in Arca. On iOS, Profile → Delete Account & Data → Delete Arca App Data clears Arca's local Google profile and asks Google to disconnect the authorization when that service is reachable.

Arca+ daily edition

Arca's server creates one shared daily edition from public headlines, publisher names, links, and excerpts carried in the app's RSS feeds. That public story information is sent to OpenAI to generate the edition. Every subscriber receives the same cached edition; your reading history, searches, source preferences, bookmarks, and on-device ranking profile are not sent with the request.

For paid access, the Apple app sends an Apple-signed transaction and the Android app sends a Google Play purchase token so the server can verify that the subscription is active. Raw platform entitlement identifiers are used transiently for verification and are not stored in Arca's quota tables. For limited daily paid-feature quotas, the server persists a domain-separated one-way hash instead. Those quota rows contain only daily counts for the current and immediately previous UTC date. They are pruned on use, server startup, and a six-hour maintenance sweep, so a stale row may remain for up to six additional hours on a quiet server. They do not include article titles, URLs, text, bookmarks, searches, or preferences. Arca does not receive or store your payment card or bank information. Apple or Google Play processes the purchase.

Article intelligence

For approved built-in publishers, Arca may process public article evidence in the background to prepare shared, extractive story briefs. Arca uses substantial article text supplied in a publisher's RSS feed when available. When a permitted feed contains only a short excerpt, Arca may fetch the public publisher page only when the source policy and robots instructions allow it. Arca does not bypass paywalls or other access controls.

The extracted, normalized article body is kept for no more than 30 days from its first capture in a separate evidence store that is excluded from scheduled backups and snapshots. Re-reading or re-fetching unchanged text does not extend that deadline. After the body is deleted, Arca may retain public article metadata and the exact publisher sentences, body hashes, and offsets already selected for a validated brief so the source wording can remain auditable.

A locally operated Qwen language model may select those exact publisher sentences and propose cited metadata for a story shared by multiple sources. Deterministic Arca code validates the result and decides whether it can appear. The model is not given your account or installation identifier, reading history, searches, bookmarks, likes, saves, source preferences, or on-device ranking profile, and it does not control feed ranking. If validation fails or the evidence is insufficient, no brief is shown.

Enhanced article narration

Enhanced Voice runs only after you tap Listen on an article. Opening or reading an article does not start enhanced narration. To create the requested audio, Arca sends the article URL, extracted article text, and the applicable Apple- or Google Play-issued entitlement proof to Arca's server. The server verifies access and sends the article text to its configured speech provider. The current automatic configuration uses Arca-operated Kokoro speech processing, with Google Cloud Text-to-Speech as a fallback. This processing runs on servers, not on your phone. The speech provider does not receive your bookmarks, searches, source preferences, name, or digest email address.

On iOS, Cloud Narration is off until you approve an explanation of this upload and the speech providers before the first cloud request. You can choose Standard voice instead, which uses the device's speech service without sending the article to Arca's narration server. Change your choice in Profile → Privacy → Cloud Narration. Turning it off stops further cloud narration requests; it cannot recall information already transmitted. These iOS controls do not describe the current Android interface.

Generated narration may be kept in a shared operational cache with bounded storage so another request for the same article can reuse it. That cache entry keeps a copy of the article text the audio was made from, because the follow-along highlight has to be checked against the exact words that were spoken. It is stored under a one-way hash derived from the article address, provider version, and exact article text; it is not linked to your account or to any identifier of yours and is removed when the cache reaches its size limit.

Arca also keeps bounded, rotating operational records for narration requests. These can include the request time, provider details, character count, cache status, latency, duration, estimated cost, and outcome, but not the article title, URL, text, or a user or account identifier. Short-lived daily synthesized-character totals are keyed by a domain-separated one-way hash of the verified entitlement identifier and are used to enforce service limits. These records are not used for advertising or to build a reading profile.

On Android, completed Enhanced Voice audio and its timing data are also kept in the app's local cache for replay until Android evicts them or you delete Arca's local data or uninstall the app.

Arca Digest

New Digest signup in the iOS app requires eligibility under the age-range rule above. If you ask to receive Arca Digest, the app sends the email address you enter to Arca's server and its email-delivery provider so Arca can confirm the address and deliver the digest. We use Resend as the email-delivery provider. We keep the email address, signup source, consent wording, and confirmation, subscription, and unsubscribe status to operate delivery and respect your choices. Every digest email includes an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribing stops future Digest sends; it cannot recall mail already handed to the delivery provider. Unconfirmed signups and their confirmation links expire after seven days. A new signup requires a new confirmation link. We keep confirmed subscription records while you remain subscribed. After you unsubscribe, Arca removes the subscription and associated delivery records from active storage after 24 days, with up to six additional hours between cleanup runs; database backups then expire within five days. You can request earlier deletion using the privacy contact below. Delivery logs, webhook records, and local email-preview files expire after seven days, with up to six additional hours between cleanup runs.

Arca uses Resend’s Free plan. Resend retains email and log data for 30 days, with backups persisting for seven days. Earlier removal of a particular message requires a request to Resend. These provider copies are separate from Arca’s database. We use delivery-status records, including delivery failures and complaints, to operate email delivery and respect subscription choices.

Offline podcast downloads

Arca+ can save the audio file a podcast publisher includes in its RSS feed to your device for offline playback. Downloaded audio files and download settings are stored locally until you delete them or remove the app, subject to the device-backup and playback-sync distinctions described here. No audio file is uploaded to Arca's server. On Android, downloads and podcast playback state stay on that Android device. On Apple devices, limited podcast playback, download-list, and Up Next details can sync through Apple's iCloud key-value service so playback and audio widgets can continue across your Apple devices; audio files themselves are excluded from iCloud playback sync and device backups.

Network and sources

Arca fetches articles and podcasts directly from publishers' RSS feeds. When an approved source's feed contains only an excerpt, Arca may fetch the public publisher page, extract readable article content on your device, and keep that extracted content in a bounded local cache. On Apple devices, when you bookmark a permitted article that has already been extracted, Arca can keep a protected local copy for offline reading. These saved copies are excluded from iCloud backup. Unbookmarked extracted text remains in a bounded local cache. On Android, complete RSS text remains with the saved story, while extracted text stays available only while the bounded cache retains it. Arca does not bypass publisher access controls: unsupported, unavailable, and subscriber-only pages use the publisher link instead. The Arca+ server uses only public RSS story information to create the shared daily edition.

What we do not collect

Arca itself does not request device-location permission or collect precise location, contacts, photos, payment-card or bank details, or advertising identifiers. Subscription entitlement information is processed as described above. The Google Sign-In SDK used by the Apple app has the aggregate declaration described above; the current Android app has no sign-in SDK. There is no advertising in the app. Arca does not sell your data, track you across apps or websites, or use article-listening requests to advertise to you.

Website, support, and network information

When your device connects to Arca, a publisher, an image or podcast host, or a service provider, that recipient receives information needed to deliver the request, such as your IP address, requested resource, and device or browser network headers. Publishers and external sites handle information under their own privacy notices. Opening their pages may involve their cookies or tracking.

Arca uses Fly.io to host its app server and OpenAI’s Sites service to host its website, with Cloudflare infrastructure on the website delivery path. Arca processes IP addresses in a bounded in-memory rate limiter to protect the server against abuse. Its one-minute counting window is not a one-minute deletion deadline: idle entries can remain until replacement, capacity eviction, or process restart. Hosting providers may maintain their own operational and security records. We do not use advertising cookies or cross-site advertising trackers in Arca’s website code. Cloudflare sets the __cf_bm security cookie to distinguish automated traffic and protect the website; it expires after 30 minutes of inactivity. Cloudflare creates it separately for this site. See Cloudflare’s cookie explanation. Sites automatically records visitor traffic and provides aggregate visitor, page-view, and page-path analytics to help us understand use of the website. Its hosting service also processes visitor log, usage, device, and cookie information to deliver, secure, and operate the site. Fly.io’s standard app-log search retains logs for seven days. Sites-controlled analytics, operational records, and backups are separate from Arca’s database schedules. Their retention depends on the hosting and security purposes, the service/account lifecycle, applicable legal obligations, and backup handling; we do not promise a fixed deletion period for all hosting records. See the Sites data-processing terms. Contact us for a request concerning website information so we can identify the relevant records and seek provider assistance where needed.

If you contact support, we receive your email address, message, attachments, and any technical details you choose to send. The app’s support message can prefill app, device, and operating-system details, which become associated with your email when you send it. We use them to respond, investigate the issue, and keep necessary support records. Avoid sending passwords, payment-card details, or information unrelated to the issue.

Apple iCloud playback sync

Arca uses Apple's iCloud key-value service for podcast playback state, an audio and news widget snapshot, and the time of an account-data deletion request. The snapshot can include podcast and narrated-article titles, publisher or show names, durations, artwork addresses, download and Up Next metadata, current audio playback and its position, public story identifiers and metadata, unread counts, the shared daily edition, and the phone's last verified Arca+ entitlement state. It contains no audio files or article body text. Apple associates this data with your iCloud account; it is not sent to Arca's server as a reading profile.

Arca also sends its latest widget snapshot to a paired Apple Watch through Apple's device-to-device connection. The Watch keeps its own copy and can send podcast listening positions back to the iPhone. Bookmarks, full article-reading history, searches, source preferences, cached article bodies, and downloaded audio files are not part of this playback sync. The widget snapshot can include the current narration position; the separate per-article narration-resume history remains local. Apple device backups are separate and may include local app data as described above.

Retention and deletion

Arca's server retains shared daily editions and the public story information used to create them. Article-intelligence bodies follow the 30-day limit described above; validated publisher quotes, offsets, hashes, and public provenance may remain after the body expires. Enhanced narration uses bounded shared-cache storage and bounded operational-log rotation. One-way-hashed paid-feature quota counters keep the current and immediately previous UTC date and are pruned on use, server startup, and a six-hour maintenance sweep; a stale row may remain for up to six additional hours on a quiet server. They do not contain the article title, URL, or text. Digest email and consent records follow the separate subscription and suppression handling above. Delivery and webhook records are pruned after seven days, with up to six additional hours between maintenance sweeps. Support records are kept while needed to resolve the request. When we close a routine case, we move its received and sent correspondence to the actual iCloud system Trash. Apple’s iCloud Mail service automatically deletes messages there after 30 days. Identifying and closing a case remains a manual step. Downloaded attachments, exported files, and separate backups are not removed by this mailbox action. For those separate copies, we consider what is needed to complete the request and deliver requested information, demonstrate how we handled it, and meet applicable obligations or a documented legal hold. We explain retained records when responding to a deletion request. Moving correspondence to Trash does not start a timer for separately downloaded files or backups. Apple or Google Play manages subscription and billing records.

Optional usage analytics has a maximum 30-day server-retention limit, including the configured backup window. Active use does not renew an installation record indefinitely. The revised iOS app replaces its analytics identifier after 22 days and requests deletion of the old identifier’s counts. The server checks the identifier’s creation date against its own clock and rejects dates outside its retention window. Older app versions must update before the server accepts more analytics. The revised implementation removes records from active storage before 25 days, leaving room for five-day backup expiry. Returning installations can then begin a new measurement period. This limit concerns server analytics; an offline device can retain queued counts until it reconnects or you turn analytics off.

Turning off Anonymous Analytics stops collection, clears the local queue, and asks our server to erase that installation’s analytics records. Arca keeps outstanding deletion references until the server acknowledges each deletion, including if you turn analytics on and off again. If your device is offline, Arca retries when you next open it with a connection. A separate security counter containing the installation hash, date, and contribution totals remains until that UTC day ends and the next maintenance sweep runs, up to six hours later, to prevent abuse of the delete control. Backup copies expire through the backup retention period rather than being edited immediately.

Database backups currently use daily snapshots retained for five days. This is separate from active-table deletion. When restoring a database backup, Arca clears restored analytics and Digest subscription records so a past deletion or unsubscribe cannot be undone; receiving Digest again requires a fresh signup and confirmation. Article-intelligence evidence has its separate storage rules above. Apple, Google, Sentry, Resend, and other providers retain their separate records under their applicable service terms and the relevant periods or criteria explained in this policy. Deleting Arca’s active records does not immediately erase those separate copies.

Deleting your Arca data does not cancel an Arca+ subscription. Apple keeps billing until you cancel in Apple subscription settings; Arca cannot cancel it for you. Use Profile → Delete Account & Data → Delete Arca App Data. The app explains the billing limit and offers Manage Subscription. This clears this device's local Arca data, signs you out, requests deletion of this installation's analytics, and records a deletion request in iCloud. It asks Google to disconnect an authorization when reachable and explains how to revoke it yourself if that fails. Deleting current app data does not directly edit an existing Apple device backup.

Other iPhones and iPads using the same iCloud account clear their Arca data only after receiving and processing the request. Delivery cannot be confirmed. Offline devices, devices with iCloud unavailable or disabled, and older Arca versions may not receive or act on it promptly; delete directly on those devices to remove their copies sooner. A late device also clears newer follows and queues. Genuinely new podcast listening progress recorded after the deletion is an exception: it is retained and can sync back.

A paired Watch acts on its iPhone's next update. It removes follows, Up Next, and listening progress from before the deletion. Downloads requested before the deletion are removed even if they finish later; new requests made afterwards are retained. Older downloads without a request time use their completion time; undated transfers still in progress are cancelled. Deleting the app alone does not necessarily remove these other-device copies, device backups, sign-in authorizations, or a Digest subscription. Use the Digest unsubscribe link separately.

On Android, Profile → Delete local app data removes saved articles, reading history, preferences, cached content, podcast state, and onboarding choices from that device. Deleting the Android app also removes its local data because Arca disables platform backup and excludes its data from device transfer. Neither action cancels a Google Play subscription or unsubscribes a digest email address. Manage the subscription in Google Play and use the unsubscribe link in a digest email.

Your choices and privacy requests

You can use the app without signing in, leave optional analytics off, unsubscribe from Digest, and use the local deletion and account controls described above. On iOS, Cloud Narration, Crash Reports and Purchase Diagnostics are separate choices in Profile → Privacy; turning one on does not enable the others, and Standard voice remains available without cloud narration. Providing an email address is necessary to receive Digest or an email support reply; entitlement verification is necessary for paid services.

Depending on the law that applies to you, you may request access to your personal information, correction, deletion, a portable copy, restriction of processing, or object to certain uses. Where processing depends on consent, you may withdraw it without affecting the lawfulness of earlier processing. Email support@arcareader.app, call the number above, or write to our business address and describe what you need. No special subject line or form is required. We may ask for proportionate information to verify the request and will respond within the applicable legal deadline. We explain any refusal or lawful retention requirement and applicable review or appeal options. We do not discriminate against you for exercising applicable privacy rights.

We cannot retrieve reading history or other local records that Arca has not received. Use the app’s local controls for that information and Apple's controls for device backups. For Digest, use the subscribed address so we can verify control of it. For optional iOS analytics, open Profile → Privacy → Copy Analytics References and include the copied references with your request so we can locate any retained records. This action copies the current installation reference and any pending deletion references; it is available only while the device holds a reference. If you send them to support, we can associate those references with your email and privacy request. Do not email passwords or full payment information.

You may complain to your local privacy regulator, including the UK Information Commissioner, the Irish Data Protection Commission or another relevant EEA authority, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or relevant provincial authority, the Australian Information Commissioner, or the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, as applicable.

Purposes and regional legal bases

Where EU or UK data-protection law applies, we rely on consent for optional usage analytics, crash diagnostics, purchase diagnostics, and Digest subscriptions. We also obtain your permission before sending an iOS narration request to our servers. We process information needed to provide features you request, including paid access and narration, to perform our agreement with you. Our interests in maintaining a secure service and responding to support requests support limited abuse prevention and support processing, where permitted and balanced against your rights. We may process records needed to meet legal obligations. We distinguish necessary service processing from optional analytics and diagnostics; an optional setting is not automatically necessary to provide the service. The safeguards and permissions required by applicable law also apply to children’s information. The fact that a news article is public does not remove the privacy rights of the people it discusses.

For readers eligible for learned personalization under the iOS age-range rule, Arca’s feed ranking uses preferences and activity on the device. Restricted readers can still choose sources and topics, but learned behavioral personalization stays off. Public-source AI creates shared editorial features; it is not given your personal ranking profile. Arca does not use these features to make decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects.

Service providers and international processing

We disclose the information needed for the services described above to providers of hosting, diagnostics, authentication, subscription verification, AI generation, speech, email delivery, and support. We may also disclose information when legally required, to protect people or the service, or as part of a business transfer subject to applicable privacy protections. We do not sell information or disclose it for cross-context behavioural advertising. Because Arca does not use that form of tracking, a browser Do Not Track signal does not change those practices.

Arca’s app server is hosted in the United States, and Sentry’s project uses its US service. Resend stores message content and delivery records in the United States, regardless of its sending region. Its published data-processing addendum applies on signup and includes EU standard contractual clauses and the UK Addendum. Sentry processes diagnostics under our data-processing agreement, which includes international-transfer safeguards where applicable. Other providers may process information in additional countries whose privacy laws differ from yours. Contact us for information about the safeguards applicable to your information and how to obtain a copy of relevant terms, subject to lawful redactions.

Teens and younger readers

Arca is a tech-news reader for a general audience, including teens and adults. You can use the reading features without signing in, joining Digest, or turning on usage analytics, Crash Reports or Purchase Diagnostics. If you are unsure about sharing information, ask a parent or trusted adult to help you understand the choice. Contact us if you need a simpler explanation or believe a child’s information has been handled inappropriately; we will investigate and take the action required by applicable law.

Changes to this policy

We will post updates on this page with a new effective date. For material changes, we will provide a prominent notice through the app or website, or another appropriate channel, and obtain new consent where required before applying a new consent-based use.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Reach out via the support page or email support@arcareader.app.