Clad

Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 16, 2026

This Privacy Policy ("Policy") explains how CladFacts LLC ("CladFacts," "Clad," "we," "us," or "our") collects, uses, discloses, and safeguards information in connection with the website at cladfacts.com and any related services, features, email programs, and subscriptions we offer (together, the "Services"). It also describes the choices and rights you have regarding your information.

By using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the Services. This Policy is incorporated into and supplements our Terms of Use.

1. The short version

• You can read much of the Site without an account.
• We run no advertising, no third-party analytics, and no cross-site trackers, and we do not sell or "share" your personal information for advertising.
• If you create an account or subscribe, we collect what's needed to operate those features (e.g., your email, preferences, and subscription status).
• Payments are handled by Stripe; we never receive or store your full card number.
• Our published reports are generated with the help of AI from publicly available source material — we do not feed your personal account information into those AI systems.
• You can access, correct, export, or delete your account data at any time.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you provide

• Account (email registration). Your name, email address, and a password, which we store only as a salted, one-way hash — never in readable form.
• Account (social sign-in). If you sign in with Google, Apple, or X, that provider shares a limited profile with us — typically your name, email address, a provider account identifier, and (where available) an avatar. We do not receive your social-media password.
• Preferences and content choices. Your email preferences (newsletter, breaking-news alerts, digest frequency), the topics you follow, and the articles you save (bookmark).
• Subscriptions and billing. If you subscribe to a paid plan, our payment processor (Stripe) collects and processes your payment details directly. We receive and store limited billing records — such as a Stripe customer and subscription identifier, plan, subscription status, and current period end date — but not your full card number, CVC, or bank credentials.
• Reader flags. If you dispute a report's grade or political-lean rating, we store the comment you submit and the report it concerns. Please do not include sensitive personal information in flag comments.
• Communications. If you email support@cladfacts.com or otherwise contact us, we receive your message and any information you choose to include, and use it to respond and keep a record of the request.

2.2 Information collected automatically

• Session and authentication data. When you sign in we create a session record and set a secure, strictly-necessary cookie so you stay logged in.
• Technical and log data. Like virtually all websites, our infrastructure provider (Cloudflare) processes standard request data — such as IP address, browser/user-agent, device type, referring page, pages requested, and timestamps — to deliver, secure, and troubleshoot the Services and to enforce rate limits (for example, to prevent abuse of the flag form).
• Email engagement. To run our opt-in email programs we keep operational records such as when we last sent you a digest or newsletter. Our email provider may also process limited delivery data.
• Local storage. We use your browser's local storage for non-tracking conveniences — for example, to remember that you've seen the introductory tour. This data stays on your device.

3. How we use information

• To create, operate, secure, and maintain your account and keep you signed in.
• To provide paid features, process subscriptions and payments through Stripe, manage trials and renewals, and prevent payment fraud.
• To send transactional and opt-in email — including email verification, password resets, and (only if you opt in) the newsletter, digests, breaking-news alerts, and topic-based notifications you requested.
• To save and apply your preferences, followed topics, and saved articles.
• To review reader flags and improve the accuracy of our reports.
• To operate, monitor, debug, protect, and improve the Services, and to detect, prevent, and respond to security incidents, fraud, and abuse.
• To respond to your inquiries and provide support.
• To comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Use.

We process your information where doing so is necessary to provide the Services you request, to pursue our legitimate interests in operating and securing the Services, to comply with law, or based on your consent (for example, opt-in email). We do not use your information for behavioral advertising.

4. AI-assisted reporting

Our reports are produced with the assistance of third-party AI models (currently xAI's Grok) and reviewed by a human editor. These models process publicly available source material — such as news-broadcast transcripts and related public reporting — to generate summaries, letter grades, factuality scores, and political-lean ratings. We do not submit your account information, email address, preferences, or payment data to these AI systems as part of generating reports. Grades and ratings are our editorial opinions about the evidence and reporting reviewed, not statements of fact about any individual.

5. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not "share" it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We disclose information only as described below:

• Service providers (processors) who handle data on our behalf under contract:
  • Cloudflare — website hosting, edge delivery, security, and our database (which stores account, preference, and subscription records).
  • Stripe — payment processing and subscription management; Stripe collects and stores your payment details directly under its own privacy policy.
  • Resend — delivery of our transactional and opt-in email; it processes your email address and message content to send those messages.
  • xAI — AI processing of publicly available source material to generate reports (no personal account data is sent for this purpose).
  • Apple — if you enable notifications in our iOS app, Apple's Push Notification service delivers those notifications to your device (see Section 13).
• Identity providers — Google, Apple, or X, only if you choose to sign in with them, and only to authenticate you and receive the limited profile described in Section 2.1.
• Embedded media — reports may embed the original source video (e.g., from YouTube). Playing an embedded video loads content from that provider, which may set its own cookies under Google's Privacy Policy.
• Legal and safety — when we believe in good faith it is necessary to comply with law, legal process, or a lawful request; to enforce our Terms; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of CladFacts, our users, or the public.
• Business transfers — in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this Policy.

6. Cookies and similar technologies

We use a strictly-necessary session cookie to keep you signed in and may set basic security/functionality cookies. We set no advertising or third-party analytics cookies and use no cross-site trackers. Embedded YouTube players may set their own cookies when you play a video. You can control cookies through your browser settings; disabling the session cookie will prevent you from staying signed in.

7. Data retention

We keep account information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the Services. We delete or de-identify your account data on request, or within a reasonable period after account closure, except where we must retain limited records to comply with legal, tax, accounting, or regulatory obligations, resolve disputes, or prevent fraud and abuse (for example, limited billing records and security logs). Backups are purged on a rolling schedule.

8. Security

We use technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information — including encryption in transit (HTTPS), one-way hashing of passwords, scoped access controls, and reputable infrastructure and payment providers. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. Please use a strong, unique password and keep your credentials confidential.

9. Your choices and rights

• Access and update. You can view and update your account details and preferences from your account page.
• Email. You can turn email programs on or off in your account at any time; transactional messages (e.g., verification, password reset, billing notices) are necessary to operate the Services.
• Cancel a subscription. You can cancel anytime from your account's billing portal; see the Terms of Use for billing details.
• Delete your account. You can request deletion of your account and associated data by emailing support@cladfacts.com; we will action it subject to the retention exceptions above.
• Export. You may request a copy of the account data you provided to us.

Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights described below. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any privacy right. To make a request, email support@cladfacts.com; we may need to verify your identity before acting.

9.1 U.S. state privacy rights (incl. California)

If you are a resident of California or another U.S. state with a comprehensive privacy law, you may have the right to know/access the personal information we hold about you, to request correction or deletion, and to opt out of the "sale" or "sharing" of personal information and certain targeted advertising. We do not sell or share personal information and do not engage in targeted advertising, so there is nothing to opt out of, but you may still exercise your access, correction, and deletion rights as described above. You may use an authorized agent where permitted by law.

9.2 EEA / UK rights

If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you may have rights to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or object to processing of your personal data, and to data portability. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. You may also lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. We act as the controller of account data and rely on the legal bases described in Section 3.

10. International data transfers

We operate in the United States, and our service providers may process information in the United States and other countries. If you access the Services from outside the United States, you understand your information may be transferred to and processed in countries whose data-protection laws may differ from those of your jurisdiction. Where required, we use appropriate safeguards for such transfers.

11. Children's privacy

The Services are intended for a general audience and are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. Paid subscriptions require you to be at least 18 (or to have a parent or guardian agree on your behalf). If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.

12. Third-party sites

The Services link to and embed third-party content and sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties; their information practices are governed by their own policies.

13. Our mobile app (iOS)

We offer a CladFacts iOS app that presents the cladfacts.com reading experience inside a mobile app. The same practices described in this Policy apply when you use the app, including account, subscription, and AI-reporting practices. A few app-specific points:

• No tracking, no analytics, no advertising identifier. The app contains no third-party analytics or advertising SDKs, does not access Apple's advertising identifier (IDFA), and does not track you across apps or websites. We do not present an App Tracking Transparency prompt because we do not track.
• Push notifications (optional). If you choose to enable notifications, your device registers with Apple's Push Notification service and provides us a device token — an Apple-generated identifier for delivering notifications to your device. We store that token (and, if you are signed in, an association to your account) solely to send the new-report and breaking-news alerts you asked for. Apple processes the delivery of each notification. We do not use the token for advertising or cross-app tracking. You can turn notifications off at any time in the iOS Settings app, which stops delivery; you may also email us to have a stored token deleted.
• Home Screen widget (optional). If you add the CladFacts widget, it periodically requests our public list of the latest reports from our servers to display headlines on your Home Screen. This request is the same public data anyone can read on the Site and does not collect additional personal information from you.
• On-device settings. The app stores small preferences (such as that you've seen the introductory tour) on your device. When you are signed in, the app uses the same strictly-necessary session cookie described in Section 6 to keep you logged in.
• Purchases. Paid subscriptions are processed by Stripe as described in this Policy. Where Apple processes a purchase or subscription you make through the App Store, Apple handles that payment under its own terms and privacy policy.

14. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy as the Services evolve or as required by law. We will revise the "Last updated" date above and, for material changes, may provide additional notice (such as on the Site or by email). Your continued use of the Services after an update takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised Policy.

15. Contact us

Questions, concerns, or privacy requests? Email support@cladfacts.com or write to CladFacts LLC, attention: Privacy.

This Policy is provided for transparency and general information and is not legal advice.