Stay informed on your terms.

You can read and share stories without an account. Device-local saves and your privacy choice use browser storage. Signing in stores the session needed to keep your account available.

News notifications

Browser alerts are optional and separate from analytics. When you enable them, we store a browser delivery address, encryption keys and a private token used to manage your choice. Your browser provider handles delivery. We do not need your name or email. The token stays on your device; the server stores only its hash. You can turn alerts off on the news updates page or in browser settings. Expired subscriptions are removed. Unused subscriptions expire after 180 days, and delivery records are retained for 30 days.

Optional analytics

Analytics starts only after you choose to allow it. It can record story IDs, reading time, page use, sharing-button choices and outbound-link clicks. We do not send your email or comment text to Google Analytics. A share-button click tells us you opened a sharing option, not that you published a post.

Your account and comments

Your account email is private. Your chosen display name and approved comments are public. You can delete your comments, remove likes and saves, or delete your Brief community profile from the account page. Sign-in authentication records may also be used by other services sharing this account; contact the project about removing them.

Retention

Detailed opted-in reading events are deleted after 90 days. Aggregate readership can remain. Comments, likes and account saves remain until you remove them or the service removes them. Public comments can be copied by other readers, even after deletion here.

Advertising

When Google advertising is active, ads are placed automatically. Google's consent message controls advertising choices. You can revisit those choices from Privacy choices.

Music and external sources

Music is loaded from its original host only after you press play. That host receives the network request needed to deliver audio. Opening a source link takes you to the source’s own website and privacy terms.

Contact

For privacy questions or a data request, use the contact details on the Observatory privacy page.