Privacy notice

Who is responsible

SignalsMonitor is operated by Melting Face, the trading name of the studio that builds the site. The public site is signalsmonitor.com. The studio site is meltingface.lol. Privacy requests go to hello@signalsmonitor.com.

Information you give us

• Email address. Creating an account or asking for a sign-in link stores your email. Sign-in is passwordless: we email a single-use link. A sign-in link expires after 15 minutes. An account-verification link expires after 24 hours. We do not ask for or store a password. If you ask for the daily World in 5 minutes note, we email a confirmation link first. The daily note is sent only after you confirm, and every note includes an unsubscribe link. If you create an alert for a place, topic, or keyword, we store that choice. Email alerts start only after you confirm, browser alerts use the same opt-in as breaking-story alerts, and every email has an unsubscribe link. Alerts are rate-limited and a story is sent at most once per alert.
• Chat display name. Joining chat uses a display name of 3–24 letters, numbers or underscores. If you leave it blank, the site assigns a guest name. That name is shown on public posts. It is not an account, and it cannot take a name that already belongs to a signed-in reader. A reader account can keep a separate permanent handle. Your email is not shown with either name.
• Reader preferences. If you save them, we store your default time window, category, reading density, whether to show images, reduce motion, show catch-up, your chosen time zone, and handles you have muted or blocked.
• Followed stories. Stories you follow are stored against your account, up to 500. We also store when you last visited so the account page can show what changed.
• Browser alerts. If you turn on breaking-story alerts, the browser gives us a push address for that device. We use it only to send those alerts. Turning the alerts off, or the browser reporting that the address is dead, removes it.
• Chat posts and reports. You can read and post with a display name. An account is not required. Messages are stored and shown publicly with that name and the time. A report stores the message, the chat session that sent it, and the reason. Chat is rate-limited. Moderator review uses a separate key, not a guest session.

Information collected automatically

• Account session. After you use a magic link, the browser stores an HttpOnly session cookie (__Host-sm_reader on the live site). It lasts up to 30 days and is dropped if it is unused for 7 days. A matching token is used to block cross-site form posts. The cookie is strictly necessary for a signed-in account.
• Chat. Joining chat stores an HttpOnly cookie named sm_chat_session for up to 30 days. It remembers the guest display name in this browser so later posts stay on that name. It is strictly necessary for guest chat. It does not identify you as a signed-in reader, and it cannot be used as someone else’s account. If you later create an account in this browser, that cookie can attach the guest name you already used, when this browser still owns it. A signed-in reader posts with the account session above instead.
• On this device only. The browser keeps a last-known copy of the live map and source list, chat mute and block lists, the Live TV rotation, and your cookie choice. That stays in local storage on your device. It is not sent to us as an account record.
• Security and delivery. The server processes IP addresses and ordinary request data to deliver pages, apply chat rate limits, and protect the service. We do not build an advertising profile from that data.
• Google Analytics. Measurement ID G-Y3BXCC0LE3 loads only after you choose Accept on the cookie banner. It can then set cookies such as _ga and _ga_Y3BXCC0LE3. IP anonymisation is turned on in the tag. Account pages and internal tools do not load it. Reject, or change your mind later from Cookie settings, and the tag is not loaded. Known analytics cookies are expired in the browser.
• Publisher photographs. A story card or story page may load a photograph from the publisher that supplied it. That publisher can see your IP address. If the image fails, the card shows a category mark instead. The sign-in page does not load those photographs.
• Cameras and live video. Camera snapshots and permitted live video load from the organisation that published them. That organisation can see your IP address and may set its own cookie.

Why we use it

• To provide the account you asked for (email, handle, preferences, follows, sign-in links). Legal basis: steps you requested, and the account service itself.
• To run public chat (display name, message text, reports, and the chat cookie or account session used to post). Legal basis: the feature you chose to use, and our interest in keeping a public room usable and limited.
• To keep the site secure (session cookies, rate limits, request data). Legal basis: our legitimate interest in operating a safe service.
• To understand aggregate visits (Google Analytics). Legal basis: your consent. You can refuse, and you can withdraw consent later. The map, stories and account work either way.

How long we keep it

• Sign-in links: 15 minutes, then they cannot be used. Verification links: 24 hours.
• Account sessions: up to 30 days, or 7 days without use, or until you sign out.
• Chat session cookie: up to 30 days, or until it is replaced. Messages stay in the room history, as described below.
• Account email, handle, preferences and follows: until you ask us to delete the account, or until the account is removed.
• Public chat messages: kept so the room has a history. A moderator can hide or remove a message. Deleting a message does not automatically delete the account.
• Analytics: only if you accept. Google’s own retention then applies to that measurement property. Rejecting consent stops new collection from this browser.

Who else sees it

Your email is used to send the sign-in message, the daily-note confirmation, the daily note if you confirm it, and to reply when you write to hello@signalsmonitor.com. Those messages are sent by Resend from accounts@mail.signalsmonitor.com. That sender address is not the contact inbox. We do not sell personal information. Public chat posts are visible to anyone who opens chat. Story text and headlines come from public feeds and are shown to every reader; that is publisher content, not your personal data.

If you accept analytics, Google may process that measurement data outside the United Kingdom, including in the United States. The sign-in email is sent by Resend, which may process the recipient address outside the UK.

Your rights

If UK or EU data-protection law applies to you, you can ask for a copy of the account information we hold, ask us to correct it, erase it, or restrict it, and you can object to uses based on legitimate interests. You can withdraw analytics consent at any time from Cookie settings in the footer. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK, or to your local EU authority.

To use these rights, email hello@signalsmonitor.com and say which email address the account uses. We will need that address to find the account. There is no separate self-serve delete button in the product.

Children

SignalsMonitor is a general news site. It is not directed at children, and accounts are not intended for anyone under 16.

Changes

If the product starts collecting something new, this page will be updated and the date at the bottom will change.