Privacy and data rights
This notice explains how PressWatch collects and uses personal data when you visit the service, create an account, configure monitoring, receive alerts, contact support, or manage a subscription. PressWatch acts as the controller for this processing. Questions and privacy requests can be submitted through the contact page.
Data we process
- Account and identity data: email address, password hash, verification status, plan, timezone, notification preferences, and account creation date.
- Monitoring data: companies, public source URLs, selectors, keywords, exclusions, topic rules, alert preferences, and source-sharing choices you configure.
- Signal and delivery data: publisher-supplied headlines and links, source timestamps, detection and matching metadata, read/archive state, email-delivery attempts, and related errors.
- Security and technical data: session identifiers, user-agent information, privacy-preserving hashes of IP addresses or account identifiers, security events, and operational logs.
- Support and billing data: messages and contact details you submit, subscription status, Stripe customer/subscription identifiers, invoice references, and webhook records. PressWatch does not store complete payment-card details.
Where data comes from
Most personal data comes directly from you. Monitoring results come from public company websites, newsrooms, feeds, or other sources you select or that appear in the PressWatch catalog. Billing status comes from the payment provider. Security and usage records are produced when you use the service.
Why we use data and our legal bases
- To create and administer your account, run monitors, classify results, and deliver requested alerts: performance of our contract with you.
- To secure accounts, prevent abuse, diagnose failures, improve reliability, and maintain limited operational records: our legitimate interests in operating a safe and dependable service.
- To process subscriptions, invoices, tax records, and legally required requests: performance of a contract and compliance with legal obligations.
- To use Google Analytics after it is configured, measure visits and understand how people use the website: your consent. Analytics remains disabled unless you allow it, and you may withdraw that choice at any time.
We do not sell personal data. We do not use personal data for third-party advertising.
How source information is handled
PressWatch is a monitoring and notification service. It links users back to the publisher and does not rewrite, edit, endorse, or independently verify the underlying article or announcement. For reliable matching, it may remove tracking parameters from URLs, normalize spacing, cap stored headline length, and generate separate metadata such as categories, fingerprints, match explanations, update indicators, and detection times. That generated metadata is PressWatch analysis, not publisher content.
Service providers and disclosures
Data may be processed by providers that support hosting, Supabase database services, transactional email, payment processing, security, and essential operations. If you consent after the integration is enabled, Google will process analytics identifiers and usage, device, browser, referral, and approximate-location information as an analytics provider. They receive only the data needed for their role and process it under their contracts and applicable data-protection duties. We may also disclose data when required by law, to protect users or the service, or in connection with a corporate transaction subject to appropriate safeguards.
If personal data is transferred outside the European Economic Area, PressWatch will use an approved transfer mechanism where required, such as an adequacy decision or standard contractual clauses, together with appropriate supplementary safeguards.
Retention
Account, monitor, signal, and preference data are generally retained while your account remains active and are deleted or anonymized following account deletion, except where a limited record must be kept for legal, security, dispute, fraud-prevention, or financial-record obligations. Operational check history is normally retained for 90 days. Session records expire or are revoked. Provider backups may retain deleted data for a limited recovery cycle before being overwritten. PressWatch reviews retention periods and avoids keeping personal data longer than necessary.
Cookies
PressWatch uses essential cookies to provide and secure the service. Google Analytics is planned but is not loaded yet. After it is configured, analytics cookies will be set only when you select “Allow analytics.” Rejecting analytics does not affect access to PressWatch.
| Cookie | Purpose | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|
session | Keeps requests secure, stores authentication state, and supports CSRF protection. | Browser session unless a persistent sign-in is selected. |
remember_token | Keeps you signed in when you choose “Remember me.” | Up to 365 days, or until sign-out/revocation. |
presswatch_cookie_consent | Stores your analytics choice so PressWatch can respect it. | 180 days. |
_ga | Planned Google Analytics cookie used to distinguish visitors and measure site usage. Set only after consent. | Up to 2 years. |
_ga_* | Planned Google Analytics cookie used to maintain session and measurement state. Set only after consent. | Up to 2 years. |
PressWatch does not rely on consent for strictly necessary cookies. You can block them in your browser, but authentication and security features may stop working. Analytics relies on consent and remains disabled until allowed. Reopen Cookie choices in the footer to change or withdraw your selection. Withdrawing consent stops future analytics collection and removes accessible Google Analytics cookies from this site; it does not affect processing that occurred while consent was valid.
Your rights
Subject to applicable law, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, or objection, and may withdraw consent without affecting earlier lawful processing. Signed-in users can export or permanently delete their account in Settings. PressWatch may need to verify your identity and may retain data where the law permits or requires it. You may also complain to the data-protection authority where you live or work, or where you believe an infringement occurred.
Automated processing
PressWatch automatically matches and categorizes public-source items according to configured rules. This supports notification delivery and does not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about users.
Security and changes
PressWatch uses access controls, encryption in transit, secure cookies, password hashing, request validation, and operational safeguards designed to protect data. No internet service can guarantee absolute security. Material changes to this notice will be posted here and, where appropriate, communicated through the service.
Operator note: the controller's registered legal name, postal address, provider list, transfer locations, and final retention schedule must be confirmed by qualified counsel before commercial launch.