Privacy Policy
Effective date: September 24, 2026
This Privacy Policy explains how Digital Systems LLC ("Puls", "we", "us") handles personal data when you use our localized news discovery websites (pulsmedia.online and its market subdomains) and mobile applications. We are the controller of the processing described here unless a section says otherwise. Contact [email protected] about this policy or your privacy rights. Publishers you visit through Puls handle data on their own sites under their own privacy policies.
1. Data we handle
Puls does not require an account, login, or email address to browse the website or apps. We may process the following data, depending on which product (website or a mobile app) and features you use:
| Category | Examples | When collected |
|---|---|---|
| Technical and usage data | IP address, browser or app version, device and operating system, language, approximate location inferred from IP, timestamps, pages or screens viewed, referring page, crash and diagnostic events | Automatically, when you access the website or an app |
| Device sync data (mobile apps only) | A random device identifier generated on first launch and stored on your device; app platform and version; your notification/autoplay/data-saver preference toggles; your saved (bookmarked) articles; and a record of which articles you scrolled past, opened, or read | Automatically, the first time you open a Puls mobile app and periodically afterward, so your saved articles and settings persist if you reinstall the app or sync across sessions |
| Location | Not currently collected. Puls does not request your device's GPS location, and the weather shown in the website's navigation bar reflects a small fixed set of cities for your edition/market, not your actual location | N/A |
| Notifications | Not currently sent. The mobile apps include a notification preference toggle in settings for future use, but Puls does not currently register devices for or send push notifications | N/A |
| Messages | Name, email address, message and attachments you send us if you contact us directly (there is currently no in-product contact form; you would reach us at the email address in Section 9) | When you contact us, including a publisher or rights request |
| Advertising and analytics data | On the website: Google AdSense may set advertising cookies and process identifiers and ad-interaction data. In the mobile apps: the Google Mobile Ads SDK (AdMob) serves banner, native, interstitial, and app-open ads and may use the advertising identifier for ad personalization where permitted by your device permissions; Firebase Analytics (where configured for the specific app) logs in-app events such as app opens, article views, shares, bookmarks, feed refreshes, category/language changes, and errors | Subject to the device permissions and consent described in Section 4 |
Article thumbnail images shown on Puls are fetched and resized by our own servers before being sent to your browser or app, so the originating publisher generally does not receive your IP address just because a thumbnail is displayed. Publisher favicons/logos shown next to a source name are also stored on and served from our own infrastructure, not loaded directly from the publisher. This changes once you click through: opening the original story takes you to the publisher's own site or app, which then receives the request information your browser or device normally sends and applies its own privacy policy. Do not send sensitive personal information in messages to us unless necessary.
2. Why we use data and legal bases
For people in the European Economic Area, we rely on the following legal bases under the GDPR where it applies:
| Purpose | Typical data | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Deliver pages/screens and app features; remember your edition | Technical data | Contract where needed to provide a requested service, or legitimate interests in operating the service |
| Keep your saved articles and settings in sync across sessions and reinstalls | Device sync data (device identifier, settings, saved articles, read/seen status) | Contract/legitimate interests in providing the specific feature you are using (saving an article, keeping a setting) |
| Secure Puls, diagnose errors, prevent abuse and maintain logs | Technical and diagnostic data | Legitimate interests in security and service reliability; legal obligation where applicable |
| Answer inquiries and handle rights requests | Contact messages and related records | Legitimate interests in responding; legal obligation where applicable |
| Non-essential cookies or similar technology, personalized ads, or optional measurement | Identifiers, usage and ad data | Consent where required by applicable privacy and electronic communications law; see Section 4 |
| Meet legal duties and defend legal claims | Relevant records | Legal obligation or legitimate interests in establishing and defending claims |
Our legitimate interests are limited by your rights and interests. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests in the circumstances provided by law.
3. Sources and sharing
We collect data from your device/browser and from what you provide directly. RSS feeds published by news outlets supply the story metadata (headline, summary, image, link, publication time) that powers the news service; this is not personal data about you, and receiving a publisher's RSS feed does not normally mean the publisher receives personal data about you in return.
We share personal data with the following categories of providers that help operate Puls:
- Railway (application hosting for the website, backend API, and database)
- Cloudflare (DNS and content delivery for the pulsmedia.online domain)
- Google — AdSense (website advertising), AdMob (mobile app advertising), and Firebase Analytics (mobile app analytics, where a given app has Firebase configured)
- Open-Meteo (weather forecast data for the fixed cities shown per edition; we send only city coordinates, not any data about you)
We may also share data with authorities where legally required, and with professional advisers where necessary for legal claims. We do not sell personal data.
4. Cookies, ads and device permissions
Website. Google AdSense may place cookies and use identifiers to serve and measure ads on pulsmedia.online, subject to consent requirements where applicable law requires them.
Mobile apps. Every Puls app links the Google Mobile Ads SDK (AdMob), which serves banner, native, interstitial, and app-open ad formats, and requests personalized ads where permitted (it is not restricted to non-personalized ads by default). On iOS, the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt is shown before any ad request or analytics collection happens; if you decline, Apple's advertising identifier is not available and ads are shown without cross-app tracking. On Android, no equivalent prompt is currently shown before ad/analytics initialization beyond the permissions Android itself requires for network access. Firebase Analytics is linked in every app but only actually active for a given app if that app's Firebase project has been configured; where active, it logs the event names listed in Section 1. You can reset or limit your device's advertising identifier, and manage ad personalization, in your device's own settings.
5. Retention
We keep personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes above. As of this policy's effective date, our systems do not enforce an automatic deletion schedule for device sync data (the device identifier, its settings, saved articles, and read/seen records described in Section 1) — it is retained until you clear the app's local data or uninstall, or until we implement and apply a defined retention period. Advertising and analytics data collected by Google's SDKs is retained under Google's own retention settings and policies, which we do not control.
6. International transfers
Our operator is based in the United States. Our service providers may process data outside that country: Railway and Cloudflare are US-headquartered infrastructure providers, Google (AdSense/AdMob/Firebase) processes data as described in its own privacy policy, and Open-Meteo is a Germany-based service. When the GDPR applies and data about a person in the EEA is transferred to us or our providers in the United States, we rely on an applicable transfer mechanism, such as the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, and any additional measures required by law.
7. Your choices and rights
Where the GDPR applies, you may request access to, correction or deletion of your data; restriction of processing; portability where applicable; and information about our processing. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests and withdraw consent at any time without affecting earlier lawful processing. You can request these at [email protected]; for the mobile apps, uninstalling the app and clearing its data will also remove the locally-stored device identifier, and you may separately ask us to delete the corresponding server-side record by providing the device identifier or enough detail for us to locate it. We may need to verify your identity and may retain information where a legal exception applies. You also have the right to complain to a competent data protection authority. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects; the only automated logic that uses your reading history is limited to not re-showing you articles you've already seen, which does not have a legal or similarly significant effect on you.
8. Children
Puls provides general news discovery and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13, we do not verify user age beyond that, and our advertising integration (Google AdMob) is not currently configured with child-directed treatment. If you believe a child provided us personal data in a manner requiring parental consent, contact [email protected] so we can investigate and take appropriate action.
9. Changes and contact
We may update this policy as features, providers or laws change. We will post the revised version with its effective date and give additional notice where required.