Privacy Policy

Effective Date: January 31, 2026

The Stringer ("we," "us," or "our") operates an AI-powered web monitoring and intelligence briefing service. We are committed to protecting your privacy and being transparent about how we collect, use, and protect your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding your personal data.

1. Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account, we collect:

  • Email address (required)
  • Name (optional)
  • Authentication credentials (managed by Clerk)
  • Account creation date

User Preferences

  • Email delivery frequency (daily or weekly reports)
  • Subscription tier (FREE or PRO)

Source Monitoring Data

Information you provide to use our service:

  • URLs of websites you choose to monitor
  • Custom nicknames for monitored sources
  • Historical scrape logs and content summaries
  • Content hashes (for change detection)

Usage Data

  • Rate limiting counters (test scrape counts)
  • Source activity status
  • Report delivery logs

Analytics Data

We use Vercel Analytics to collect anonymized usage statistics to improve our service. This does not include personally identifiable information.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

  • Provide and maintain our web monitoring service
  • Scrape the URLs you specify and detect content changes
  • Generate AI-powered summaries of detected changes using OpenAI
  • Send email reports to you based on your preferences
  • Enforce usage limits based on your subscription tier (FREE: 5 sources, PRO: enhanced limits)
  • Enforce rate limiting (10 test scrapes per hour)
  • Improve our service functionality and user experience
  • Communicate with you about your account
  • Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms of Service

3. Third-Party Services & Data Sharing

We work with trusted third-party service providers to deliver our service. Your data is shared only as necessary for these services:

Clerk (Authentication Provider)

Handles user authentication and account management. Stores email, name, and authentication credentials.

Bright Data Web Unlocker (Web Scraping)

Fetches HTML content from the URLs you specify for monitoring. We send the URLs you configure; they return the web page content.

OpenAI (AI Content Summarization)

Processes scraped content to generate AI-powered summaries using GPT-4o-mini. We send cleaned text content (truncated to ~12,000 characters) and receive summaries.

Resend (Email Delivery Service)

Sends your email reports. We share your email address, name, and the content of your intelligence briefings for delivery purposes.

Vercel (Analytics & Hosting)

Provides anonymized analytics about site usage to help us improve the service.

IMPORTANT: We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to third parties for marketing purposes.

4. Data Retention & Deletion

We retain your data for as long as necessary to provide our services and fulfill the purposes outlined in this policy. Specific retention periods for different data types are being established and will be updated in this policy.

Your Control Over Your Data

  • Delete Sources: You can delete any monitored source at any time. This will permanently delete the source and all associated scrape logs.
  • Delete Your Account: You can delete your entire account from your Settings page. This will permanently remove:
    • Your account information
    • All monitored sources
    • All scrape logs and historical data
    • All report records

Note: Account deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. Your data in third-party services (Clerk) is managed according to their respective retention policies.

5. Data Security

We implement security measures to protect your personal information:

  • SSRF Protection: We validate all URLs to prevent access to private IPs, localhost, or unauthorized resources.
  • URL Validation: All URLs are sanitized and validated before processing.
  • Ownership Verification: All operations verify user ownership to prevent unauthorized access.
  • Content Hashing: We use SHA-256 hashing for secure content comparison and change detection.
  • Authentication: Secure authentication provided by Clerk with industry-standard protocols.

While we strive to protect your data, no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security.

6. Cookies & Tracking

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies:

  • Authentication Cookies: Clerk manages session cookies to keep you logged in securely.
  • Analytics: Vercel Analytics collects anonymized usage data to help us improve the service.

These cookies are necessary for the service to function properly. By using The Stringer, you consent to our use of cookies.

7. Your Rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

  • Access: You can view all your data through the dashboard.
  • Update: You can update your email preferences and account information at any time.
  • Delete: You can delete individual sources or your entire account through the Settings page.
  • Export: Contact us if you need a copy of your data in a portable format.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at embracys@gmail.com.

8. Children's Privacy

The Stringer is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us immediately at embracys@gmail.com.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by:

  • Updating the "Effective Date" at the top
  • Sending an email notification to your registered address
  • Displaying a notice on our service

Your continued use of The Stringer after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

THE STRINGER

Email: embracys@gmail.com