Privacy policy

1Who we are

starfeed.com is independently operated and not affiliated with any company.

starfeed.com decides what data this site collects and why, and is responsible for it. Questions and requests about your data: starfeed.com@gmail.com.

2What we process

Only what is listed here. The “Every visit” groups apply to everyone; the others only if you use that feature.

3Cookies and browser storage

Cookies are small pieces of data a site asks your browser to keep and send back. Browser storage (localStorage and sessionStorage) stays on your device and is sent to us only when a feature needs it. This is the full list.

4Advertising

starfeed.com shows ads served by Google AdSense. Google and its partners use cookies and similar identifiers to show ads, including ads based on your earlier visits to this and other websites, to limit repeats and to measure results.

AdSense loads only after your first tap, click, key press, mouse-wheel turn or mouse movement, never on account or payment pages and not on pages kept out of search results (if it already loaded on an earlier page, it can stay active when you move on to such a page). In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, advertising cookies are set only with your consent.

With each ad request Google receives the page address, your IP address, browser details and its cookies. Google explains how it uses this in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services.

You can turn off personalised ads in Google's Ads Settings. Blocking or deleting cookies in your browser also limits them. We never give advertisers your email address.

Google's consent message records your choices about ads. In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland it asks for your consent before personalised ads and advertising cookies (see Your rights in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland). In US states with privacy laws you can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data for personalised ads (see Your rights in US states). AdSense never loads on this privacy policy page.

5Recommendations from Taboola

On article and star pages (news articles, hot issue and story pages, and the pages about each star, such as the profile, today, schedule, history, date archive and fan talk pages), a block of recommended stories from Taboola can appear after the page's content, in its own box marked by Taboola. It links to other stories on starfeed.com and to sponsored content on other websites, and starfeed.com is paid for the sponsored part. On other pages, such as the home page, the first page of each menu section and search, Taboola's script runs without showing anything, to count visits and to choose recommendations.

Taboola's script loads on every page shortly after the page has finished loading, except this privacy policy page, the My keys and payment confirmation pages, the email digest settings pages and error pages (if it already loaded on an earlier page, it can stay active when you move on to one of those pages within the site, but never on this page). Unlike AdSense, it does not wait for a tap or click.

Taboola receives the page address, your IP address, browser details and its own cookies and identifiers, and uses them to choose, personalise and measure recommendations, including on the basis of your visits to other sites that use Taboola. Its cookies are listed under Cookies and browser storage.

In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Taboola loads only after Google's consent message has recorded your choice, and Taboola (IAB vendor 42) reads that choice. If you do not consent, Taboola says it shows recommendations based on the page only, without personal data. If the consent message cannot load, for example because it is blocked, Taboola is not loaded.

In US states with privacy laws, Taboola is not loaded if you use the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link at the bottom of our pages. If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, Taboola is not loaded where a US state privacy law applies or where we cannot tell whether one does. If you opt out with Google's own link instead, Taboola still loads but receives your opt-out in the signal of Google's consent message. Otherwise Taboola reads your choices from that signal.

Taboola explains its processing in Taboola's privacy policy. You can opt out of Taboola's personalised recommendations or ask Taboola for your data on Taboola's request page. You can also use the industry opt-out pages of the Network Advertising Initiative and the Digital Advertising Alliance, and in Europe Your Online Choices, to turn off interest-based ads from the companies that take part.

6Service providers

These companies handle data for the site. Each keeps it under its own policies, which our code does not control, and some process it outside your country, including in the United States.

• •Cloudflare: every request passes through Cloudflare, which protects and speeds up the site. It sees your IP address, browser details, cookies, the full page address and anything you submit, such as your email address when you subscribe. It tells our server your country, may set the bot-check cookies above, and may ask your browser to report network errors to it.
• •Resend: sends our emails. It receives your email address and the full content of each email, including your personal links.
• •Google: Google Analytics measures visits and receives the full page address, referring page, screen size, browser details and your IP address. AdSense is described under “Advertising”. You can block Analytics with Google's opt-out browser add-on.
• •Taboola: receives the information described under “Recommendations from Taboola” on almost every page and shows recommended stories and sponsored content on article and star pages. It keeps that information under its own policy.
• •Hostinger: hosts the server that holds our database, logs and caches.
• •Creem: sells plans and credit packs for automated access as merchant of record and processes the payments. It receives what you enter at checkout, including your card details, and, for Developer plan usage charges, the number of billable requests. It keeps them under its own policy.
• •AI model provider: receives public news text, headlines and star names to write briefings and translations, and the Fan Talk post details listed above to check posts. It does not receive your email address, IP address or identity.

7How long we keep data

This is what the system does today. Where nothing deletes data automatically, we say so.

• •Email subscriber records are not deleted automatically, whatever their status. After you unsubscribe, the record (address, choices, token, IP hash, country and sign-up source) is kept, marked unsubscribed, and no more digests are sent. Unconfirmed sign-ups are kept too. We delete a record when you ask, and its email log goes with it.
• •Email log: kept as long as the subscriber record.
• •Push subscriptions are deleted when your browser's push service reports that they no longer exist, or after repeated failed deliveries. Unfollowing a star removes only that star. Otherwise they are kept, and so is the notification delivery log.
• •Fan contributions and reports are not deleted automatically. Public ones stay visible (schedule tips until their date has passed) unless they are hidden after reports or we remove them. Fan translations are also stored with the story's other translations until they are hidden or removed.
• •Fan Talk posts, pseudonyms and ratings are not deleted automatically. A post you delete is hidden at once, and the text of deleted or unpublished posts is cleared after 30 days. IP hashes are cleared after 7 days, or 30 days for reports.
• •Plans for automated access: the buyer's email address and company name are erased 400 days after the customer's last key ends. Summaries of the payment notifications Creem sends us (webhook events) and daily usage counts per key are deleted after 400 days. Payment records without the email address are kept for tax purposes.
• •Emails you send us, including copyright and rights notices, counter-notices and our replies: kept in our mailboxes (Gmail), starfeed.com@gmail.com for general mail and starfeedpay@gmail.com for payments and keys, and not deleted automatically, so that we can show how a notice was handled. We delete them when you ask, unless we still need them to deal with a legal claim.
• •Daily visitor hashes are deleted by an hourly job shortly after midnight UTC two days after the day they belong to, so each one is kept for one to two days, longer if the job does not run.
• •Hourly and daily page-count totals are kept. They hold numbers, not individual visits.
• •Server log: overwritten as it grows. Only about the latest 30 MB is kept, which at current traffic covers a few hours.
• •Server cache: copies of responses are kept for up to 2 hours to keep the site fast. This can include the subscription settings response, which shows your email address.
• •Application and job logs are rotated by size. Where our code writes an email address to them, it masks it to the first letter and the domain.
• •We do not run our own scheduled database backups. Our hosting provider may keep its own backup copies of the server for a limited time under its policies.
• •Cookies and browser storage stay on your device for the times listed above, or until you clear them.
• •Cloudflare, Resend, Google, Creem, Taboola and the push services keep data under their own policies.

8Your choices and rights

• •Unsubscribe in one click with the link at the bottom of every digest, or with the unsubscribe button your email app shows. Until you confirm a sign-up, nothing is sent except the confirmation email.
• •Change your stars, categories, delivery time or language, or unsubscribe, on the settings page linked from every digest. That link works like a password: anyone who has it can see your address and change your subscription, so do not forward it.
• •Stop notifications by blocking notifications for starfeed.com in your browser. This stops all of them, and your push subscription is deleted once your browser's push service reports it as gone, normally at our next delivery attempt. Unfollowing a star stops only that star's alerts.
• •Clear this site's data in your browser to remove its cookies and the storage listed above. A new device ID is created the next time you contribute.
• •Delete your Fan Talk posts and change your pseudonym yourself while your browser keeps the same identity. If you have cleared it, or want your ratings removed, ask via starfeed.com@gmail.com and tell us the post or room concerned.
• •Limit ads and analytics with Google's Ads Settings, Google's Analytics opt-out add-on or your browser's cookie settings.
• •Ask for a copy of the data we hold about you, a correction or deletion via starfeed.com@gmail.com. Tell us the email address or the contribution concerned. You can also object to how we use your data and complain to your data protection authority.
• •In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, use “Privacy settings” at the bottom of any page except this one to see Google's consent message again and change or withdraw your consent. See Your rights in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland.
• •In US states with privacy laws, use “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” at the bottom of any page except this one, or turn on Global Privacy Control in your browser. See Your rights in US states.

9Your rights in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland

If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the GDPR (or the UK GDPR or the Swiss data protection act) applies to how we handle your data. starfeed.com is the controller; see Who we are.

Legal bases. We run and protect the site (server log, bot checks, abuse limits, anonymous page counts) and answer your emails on the basis of our legitimate interest in a working, secure site. The email digest and notifications rely on your consent, which you give when you confirm the sign-up or allow notifications. Fan Talk, ratings, contributions and plans for automated access are provided because you ask for them, and payment records are kept to meet tax obligations. Google Analytics, personalised ads from Google and its partners and personalised recommendations from Taboola rely on your consent.

Consent message. You see a consent message from Google (Privacy & messaging, a consent management platform certified under the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework). It names the partners, including Google and Taboola, and their purposes, and you can consent, refuse or choose per purpose and partner. Until you answer, Google Analytics and advertising cookies are not set and Taboola is not loaded. If you refuse, you can still read everything; Google may show non-personalised or limited ads, and Taboola recommendations based on the page only.

Withdraw or change your consent at any time with “Privacy settings” at the bottom of any page except this one. Withdrawing does not affect processing that took place before.

International transfers. We and the providers listed under Service providers may process data outside the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, including in the United States. Where the law requires it, these transfers rely on an adequacy decision (for example for companies certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework) or on standard contractual clauses offered by the provider.

• •Access: ask for a copy of your data.
• •Rectification and erasure: ask us to correct or delete it.
• •Restriction and objection: ask us to limit processing, and object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• •Portability: receive the data you gave us in a common machine-readable format.
• •Consent: withdraw it at any time, as described above.
• •Send requests via starfeed.com@gmail.com. We answer within one month. You can also complain to the data protection authority where you live or work.

10Your rights in US states (including California)

This section applies if you live in California or another US state with a consumer privacy law, and is our notice at collection. It covers the last 12 months.

Categories we collect: identifiers (IP address, cookie and device IDs, and your email address or push address if you subscribe), internet activity (pages viewed, referring pages, interactions with ads and recommendations), approximate location (country; Google estimates a city), commercial information if you buy a plan, what you post in Fan Talk, and interests you pick. Sources and purposes are described under What we process; retention under How long we keep data.

We do not sell personal information for money. Letting Google, its advertising partners and Taboola collect identifiers and browsing activity on our pages for personalised ads and recommendations may count as “selling” or “sharing” under California law, and as “targeted advertising” in other states. We do not knowingly sell or share the data of consumers under 16, and we do not use sensitive personal information to infer anything about you.

How to opt out: use “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” at the bottom of any page except this one. Google also shows its own link for this in the states where its message applies; it records your choice for Google's ads and passes it to Taboola in the signal of its consent message. When you use our link, this browser stops loading Taboola, and where Google's confirmation form opens you can confirm the opt-out for Google too.

Global Privacy Control: where a US state privacy law applies, we treat a GPC signal from your browser as a request to opt out of sale and sharing. Taboola is then not loaded (also when we cannot tell whether such a law applies to you), and Google says it limits its ad processing for such requests in the states where the law requires it.

• •Right to know and access: ask what personal information we hold about you, and for a copy.
• •Right to delete and right to correct.
• •Right to opt out of sale, sharing and targeted advertising, as described above.
• •No discrimination: we do not charge different prices or give you a worse service for using these rights. If you opt out, recommendations may simply not be shown.
• •Send requests via starfeed.com@gmail.com. To protect your data we may ask you to confirm that you control the email address concerned. An authorised agent can send a request with your signed permission. We answer within 45 days. Where your state gives you a right to appeal a refusal, reply to our answer.

11Children

The email digest, Fan Talk and ratings are not intended for children under 14, and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you think a child under 14 has subscribed, posted or rated, tell us via starfeed.com@gmail.com and we will delete the record.

12Changes to this policy

When we change how starfeed.com handles data, we update this page and the date at the top.