Privacy Policy

App waitlist

When you join the app waitlist, we collect your email address, your optional answer about how you found WeirdWire, the signup time, a source tag, and the signup page. We use your email to contact you about app access and the other fields to understand where signups come from.

The signup passes through our website hosted on Vercel and Google Apps Script, and is stored in a Google Sheet managed by WeirdWire. To ask us to remove your signup or stop contacting you, email sev@weirdwireapp.com.

Website and contact information

If you email WeirdWire, we receive your email address and the information you choose to include. We use it to address your message.

Our hosting providers may process technical request information to deliver the website and protect the signup service. The website includes a YouTube video player; playing or interacting with it may allow YouTube to process information under its own privacy policy.

How waitlist information is used and processed

We use waitlist email addresses for updates about app access. Optional referral answers and signup attribution help us understand how people find WeirdWire.

Vercel hosts the website. Google Apps Script processes signups, and Google Sheets stores the waitlist for WeirdWire. These services process the submitted information, including your email address.

Joining the app waitlist is separate from subscribing on YouTube or requesting a newsletter by email. Existing newsletter requests are not app-waitlist consent.

Removal and privacy requests

To request removal from the app waitlist or ask us to stop sending app-access updates, email sev@weirdwireapp.com. Include the email address you used to sign up.

For other privacy questions, website enquiries, or information you sent to our general inbox, email boss@weirdwireapp.com.

About the app

The WeirdWire app is in development and is not yet publicly available. The screenshots on this website show a development preview. This website waitlist does not create an app account.

Optional beta app measurement

Google Analytics for Firebase measurement remains off for the distributed beta. A separately disclosed one-phone QA test may collect data only on Sev’s confirmed phone after he personally chooses Allow beta measurement. It uses the data and privacy settings described below, including two-month user/event retention; aggregate reports may remain longer. The test checks consent, withdrawal, event receipt and deletion-control mapping, ends with measurement off, and activates no other beta tester. Test identifiers are retained privately; the test does not submit server deletion or promise erased server data. The linked analytics property has its privacy settings configured. Sev has accepted deletion-request responsibility; native consent validation, validation of the deletion process and general beta activation readiness remain pending. Joining the website waitlist does not turn measurement on.

The prepared design requires a choice in the app before measurement starts. Reading and saving stories do not require agreement. The settings include Allow beta measurement and Turn measurement off, and store the choice on the device. These controls still need native-device testing before release.

What measurement would collect

If enabled with consent, measurement would help us understand which stories readers see, open, save, unsave or try to share, and where stories or images fail to load. The prepared event fields contain story identifiers, the app area, and limited action or result categories. Opening the share sheet and the operating system's reported outcome are separate events. Neither proves that someone received the story.

If measurement is enabled, Google would also process automatic app, device and session information, such as app version, operating system information, activity timing and approximate geography derived from an internet connection. An app-instance identifier can connect activity across sessions on the same installation. That makes the information pseudonymous, not anonymous, even without a name or email address.

The prepared custom events do not include article text, headlines, share recipients, email addresses, precise location or raw error messages. The configured property has Google Signals, granular location/device collection, ads personalization, enhanced audience integration and optional account data sharing turned off. The prepared app also disables advertising identifiers; final-device validation remains pending. Coarse geography and other automatic metadata may still be processed. This app work adds no website analytics and does not change the separate processing used to deliver news and images.

How long analytics could be kept

The linked Google Analytics property is configured for two months of user-level and event-level retention, without restarting the user retention period when someone returns. Google removes expired data on its processing schedule. Standard aggregate reports are outside that retention limit and can remain longer. Advertising-account links and a raw analytics export service are not part of the prepared beta design.

Turning measurement off

The prepared off control stops new measurement and clears events waiting in the app's own queue. It does not delete data already sent. Google's SDK can store accepted events on the device for later upload, so an event may have left the app's queue without reaching the server yet. The app shows a retry message if a setting change fails. A reviewed local fix makes the Off preference write independent of stalled SDK operations; it cannot guarantee persistence if device storage fails or the app stops before the write finishes. Real-device offline and post-opt-in behavior still needs testing.

Local reset and server deletion are different

The prepared control, Prepare deletion codes and reset locally, saves the installation identifiers needed to identify analytics from that device. It turns measurement off and requests a local reset. It does not automatically contact Google or delete server data. Codes may cover more than one identifier; they should be kept privately before uninstalling and never posted publicly.

Server deletion requires a separate administrative request. Sev has agreed to handle analytics deletion requests for WeirdWire at sev@weirdwireapp.com. The private code-handling and administrative submission route remains unavailable and still needs validation before measurement is offered beyond the separately disclosed one-phone QA test. Please do not send deletion codes until the submission process is available. A submitted request is not proof that deletion is complete, and aggregate reports and separate website, news and image logs may have different retention and deletion behavior.

Changes and contact

We may update this policy as the website and app change. The date above identifies the latest published update.

WeirdWire LLC · 54 State St Ste 804 · Albany, NY 12207