Privacy Policy
Utah News ("we", "us", "the app") is operated by App Launchers, LLC. This policy explains what data the Utah News iOS app and our backend services collect, how we use it, and the choices you have. Section 10 also covers people who advertise, sponsor or ask about advertising on utah.news. By using the app, or those advertising pages, you agree to this policy.
1. What we collect
- Account data. If you sign in with Apple, we receive a stable Apple-issued user identifier, and (when you choose to share them) your display name and email. Sign-in is optional — you may also continue as an anonymous guest, in which case we store only an opaque device identifier.
- Location. If you grant location permission, we use your coordinates to surface local news for your area, to show how far away an incident is, and to send geofenced alerts. Your most recent coordinates are sent to our backend only when you have an active push subscription for a city area. They are stored with your device's push registration, which is also tied to your account when you are signed in.
- Device and push tokens. We store the Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) token for your installation so we can send the alerts you have subscribed to.
- Submissions and contributions. When you voluntarily submit a story tip, URL, photo, or audio, we store the content and metadata you provide. You can request deletion at any time via the in-app "Delete Account" action or by emailing support@utah.news.
- Feedback on utah.news. If you send feedback or report a problem on utah.news, we store what you write, the email address if you give one (used only to reply, deleted after 180 days), and a daily-rotating keyed hash of your network address (used to limit abuse, deleted after 30 days). A story report is checked by our correction system, which may send its text to xAI for verification.
- Live broadcasts. If you choose to go live, we receive the camera video and microphone audio you broadcast, the title you write, your device model and your network (IP) address, which we need to deliver the stream, and, if you allow location, the place you are broadcasting from (used to label the broadcast "Live in" your city). A public broadcast is shown to other Utah News readers as it happens; a private one only to people who have its link. Broadcasts are not published as recordings: we keep a copy for 24 hours after a broadcast ends so that reports can be reviewed, then delete it. If a reader reports a broadcast, we store the report's reason with the reporter's account, or with a device identifier for a reader who is not signed in.
- App usage events. The app sends a small set of usage events to our own servers — never to a third-party analytics service: the app was opened; an article or video was opened or shared; the steps of first-run setup (a city was chosen, setup was finished or snoozed, which permissions you granted, and how many news topics you picked — not which ones). The topics you follow stay on your device. An article event carries the article's identifier, not its text, and we never record your search queries. When you are signed in, these events are linked to your account and are deleted with it (in-app "Delete Account"); when you are not signed in, they carry no account identity. Crash reports reach us only through Apple's standard developer tooling, and only if you have chosen to share them with developers in iOS Settings.
2. What we do not collect
- Contacts, microphone audio, camera images, calendar entries, or photo-library content unless you explicitly grant access for a specific feature (AI Journalist interviews, witness reporting, live broadcasting, calendar surfacing).
- Advertising identifiers (IDFA). The app does not request the App Tracking Transparency dialog and does not share data with third-party advertising networks.
- Payment card numbers. Reading Utah News is free, and the app offers no in-app purchases or subscriptions. Businesses that advertise or sponsor on Utah News may pay us by card through Stripe, which collects card details directly, or by check or bank transfer arranged with our staff. We never see or store full card numbers (Section 10).
3. How we use your data
We use the data above only to operate the app: deliver local news for your area, send push alerts you have subscribed to, accept and process your editorial submissions, and improve reliability. We do not sell or rent personal data. We share it only with service providers that process it for us to run the service: Apple for push delivery; the companies that host our website and servers and carry our network traffic (hosting, network and content-delivery providers); our email provider; and Stripe for advertiser payments. We also disclose it where the law or valid legal process requires, or where necessary to protect someone's safety or to establish or defend a legal claim. All third parties we use are subject to confidentiality and data-protection agreements.
Only when a reader chooses to use Report a Story or AI Journalist, data needed for the requested feature may be processed by xAI for realtime voice, by OpenAI through AIProxy for text and vision, and by Google Gemini. Depending on what the reader chooses to provide, this data may include voice audio, transcript text, photos the reader attaches, and—only when the reader grants the relevant permission and asks about them—nearby contacts and calendar entries. This data is not used for advertising. Processor retention is governed by each processor’s applicable service terms; Utah News retains any resulting submission as described in Section 7. Readers can decline this processing by not using Report a Story or AI Journalist, and can revoke Microphone, Camera, Photos, Contacts, or Calendar permissions at any time in Settings.
4. Children (COPPA / GDPR-K)
Utah News is intended for users 13 and older. The app does not offer kids-mode features, parental controls, or family accounts, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us information, please contact support@utah.news and we will delete it.
5. European users (GDPR)
If you access the app from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the right to access, correct, port, or delete personal data we hold about you, and to object to or restrict processing. Our lawful basis for processing is your consent (location, contributions), our legitimate interest in operating the service (push delivery, basic analytics) and in answering advertising inquiries, and, for advertisers and sponsors, the contract we perform with you (accounts, orders and payments). To exercise any of these rights, email support@utah.news from the address associated with your account.
6. California residents (CCPA / CPRA)
We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under California law. California residents have the right to know, delete, correct, and limit the use of sensitive personal information. Email support@utah.news to make a verifiable request.
7. Data retention and deletion
We retain account data while your account is active. Anonymous guest device records are retained for up to 12 months of inactivity and then purged. You can delete your account from Settings → Delete Account in the app at any time (a guest uses Settings → Delete Guest Data). Deletion erases your account record and Sign in with Apple access, push token, location history, preferences and linked activity, the story tips and AI Journalist contributions you submitted, and the photos, audio and video you uploaded with them. Some shared content stays with your name and account link removed: discussion and Neighbor Board posts (shown as "[deleted]"), witness reports and their photos (marked anonymous), records of your live broadcasts, and links or reports you submitted. Published stories stay. The video copy of a live broadcast is deleted 24 hours after the broadcast ends, whether or not you delete your account. Advertiser accounts and advertising inquiries are separate from your app account. They are kept as Section 10 describes, and deleting your app account does not delete them.
8. Security
All traffic between the app and our backend uses HTTPS / TLS. We do not bundle non-exempt encryption (ITSAppUsesNonExemptEncryption is declared false in the app's Info.plist). Our backend runs on infrastructure with restricted SSH access and per-service credentials.
9. Changes to this policy
We will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page when we make material changes, and summarise any significant change there. If a change significantly affects advertisers or sponsors, we also tell them as our Advertiser Terms describe for notices.
10. Advertisers, sponsors and inquiries
This section covers people who use utah.news/advertise: advertisers and sponsors, and anyone who contacts us through "Talk to Utah.News". Our Advertiser Terms govern what you buy.
Advertiser accounts. When we set up an advertiser account for you, or you create or claim one, we keep:
- the account's legal name and the display name you want shown, the kind of buyer you are (business, nonprofit, agency, government, individual or other), your trade category, contact email, phone number, website and billing address, and, for an agency, the client it acts for;
- if you can sign in, the email address you sign in with; who owns the account; and who on our staff set it up;
- the advertisements and sponsor names you submit, including images, text and links, and our review decisions;
- your quotes, orders and Sponsorship Agreements, including a copy of any agreement you sign on paper, the conflict declaration you make and our staff's screening notes;
- your payment records and delivery reports.
We use this to run your account, review your materials, bill you, report delivery, answer you, and meet our legal and tax obligations. Before a person on our staff reviews your materials, we may check them with automated tools, including AI, that run on our own systems, and we do not use your materials to train AI models (Advertiser Terms section 12).
The display name on an advertisement or sponsorship is public while it runs, and it is the only name we show with it. Your legal name is shown only if you choose it as your display name. We may also list a running sponsor's name on our advertising pages.
We keep account details while the account is open. After it closes, we keep them for as long as we keep the business records that name the account. We keep review, delivery, agreement and payment records for seven years after the related term ends, or longer if the law or an open dispute requires it.
"Talk to Utah.News" inquiries. Today, "Talk to Utah.News" asks you to email us at support@utah.news. Only our staff read those emails. We use an inquiry only to reply to you and to prepare a proposal, and we do not add you to a mailing list. Inquiry emails stay in our support mailbox, which our email provider hosts, until we delete them. We do not delete them on a fixed schedule, and you can ask us to delete yours at any time (see "Your choices" below).
When we switch on the inquiry form on that page, an inquiry sent through it is kept as follows. We keep what you enter: your name, organization, the kind of buyer you are, email, phone, website, trade category, the cities or areas and products you ask about, dates, duration, budget range and message. We also keep the page you sent it from and the time. Only our staff can read it.
To limit repeat and automated submissions, we keep a code made from your email address and a code made from the network address the inquiry came from. The codes are made with a secret key, and we do not store the addresses themselves. We use the codes only to limit how many inquiries can be sent. We delete them once they are 90 days old: our staff run the deletion, and our monitoring shows any code kept longer.
How long we keep an inquiry sent through the form depends on its status:
- an inquiry still open (not yet won, lost or marked as spam) becomes due for removal 24 months after we received it, even if we are still talking to you;
- an inquiry we closed as won or lost becomes due 24 months after we closed it;
- a submission we mark as spam becomes due 30 days after we mark it.
Removal is done by our staff, normally within about a week after the inquiry becomes due. It deletes your name, organization, email address, phone number, website, everything you wrote in the free-text fields, the page you sent it from and our staff's notes about it. We keep only the reference number, the dates, the status, a record of the actions we took, and the general choices you made, such as product, city, buyer type and budget range. If your inquiry becomes an advertiser account or agreement, the details you gave are copied to that account and follow the rules above.
Payments. Advertisers and sponsors pay us by card through Stripe Checkout, which Stripe, Inc. operates, or, where we agree in writing, by check or bank transfer. Stripe collects your card or other payment details directly, under its own privacy policy (stripe.com/privacy). We never see or store full card numbers.
For a card payment, we send Stripe the amount, a description of the purchase, our reference numbers and the email address of the person paying. We receive back the payment's status (paid, refunded or disputed), amount, currency, time and Stripe's reference numbers. Stripe may also use payment data to prevent fraud and to meet its own legal obligations.
For a check or bank transfer, our staff record the amount, the date, the check number or transfer reference, and where our deposit record is filed. We do not enter bank account or routing numbers into our advertising systems. Deposit records are kept with our financial records.
Readers. Advertisers and sponsors receive only aggregate counts, such as how many times their unit was shown and tapped. We never give them information about individual readers. We never use readers' personal information to target advertising.
Your choices. To see, correct or delete your advertiser or inquiry data, email support@utah.news. Our staff handle each request by hand. We correct details on request, and we tell you what we can delete and what we must keep, and why. We keep the business, payment and tax records described above for the periods stated, or longer if the law or an open dispute requires.
11. Contact
Privacy questions, deletion requests, and complaints: support@utah.news.