Whether you are a news junky, casual reader or perhaps someone who works in media, we are here to improve what news means to you and what it means in the world. We want to make news more relevant to everyone.

The whole premise here is that news is part of a conversation, something people experience together. In digital spaces conversations happen in lots of ways from actually talking to each other to something more abstract like sharing data.

A shared environment like this raises lots of questions about data and control and community and many other things, so we want to be clear about what is happening on News With Friends. The following are the policies we apply to everything we do:

1. You will only see your friends here
2. Only your friends can see you
3. Friends agree to be friends
4. Friendships can end
5. Your activity is shared with friends by default
6. Your activity will not be shared without your consent
7. Bad behaviour won’t be tolerated
8. The law is the law
9. Things will change

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1. You will only see your friends here
   The people you see on News With Friends are the people you have agreed to connect with. You won’t see people you don’t know.
2. Only your friends can see you
   Nobody will see you here that you haven’t agreed to be friends with. There are no public posts or public messages. You have no public profile on News With Friends. If you haven’t agreed to be friends with someone then they can’t see you.

   Note: we can’t stop your friends who see your messages from quoting you or screenshotting your messages and sharing those messages somewhere else. We will always aim to provide the most private and secure space possible, but we have not yet built the privacy levels achieved by the industry leaders such as Signal at Whisper Systems.

3. Friends agree to be friends
   When you ask someone to be friends or when someone asks you, your connection has to be confirmed. Connections with people are always reciprocal. Friendship is a two-way street.
4. Friendships can end
   Sometimes it doesn’t work out, and we make it possible to step back from a friendship. Disconnecting from someone can be soft such as “Muting” someone’s activity, hard such as “Unfriending”, or even a total and outright future-proofed disconnection such as “Blocking” someone you don’t want to hear from again. Regardless the method, we don’t inform a friend of a disconnection. People can walk away from a friend connection quietly and respectfully.
5. Your activity is shared with friends by default
   Your actions inform what others see. You will be aware of what your friends are reading, and they will be aware of what you are reading. Sometimes you may prefer to read an article without being seen. So, we give you an option to turn off the recording and sharing of your viewing activity. We will always encourage you to share, but we support you if you want to opt out.

   When you turn off the recording and sharing of your viewing activity we stop recording that data in our systems, too. The data won’t exist. We will continue to share any messages you send to friends or articles you suggest. But browsing data in the app will never appear on our servers or elsewhere if you tell us to stop collecting it.

6. Your activity will not be shared without your consent
   The business model will evolve here, particularly in the early days. But we commit to protecting you from unwanted exposure. Your personal details, your connections, and your reading activity is for you to control and offer only if you explicitly give it to someone.

   To be clear, we won’t offer your data to random ad networks. We may build our own ads into News With Friends some day, but we promise to make any advertising experience here something that makes the app better and actually useful to people. You shouldn’t be surprised to see an ad or confused about how it found you.

7. Bad behaviour won’t be tolerated
   You are expected to treat everyone associated with News With Friends respectfully and to be a responsible citizen. You can disconnect from people you don’t want to be connected with, but it’s worth reiterating that we won’t accept bad behaviour from anyone, connected or not. If we find that you are abusing, trolling or attacking people you will be banned. We do not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia or other forms of hate-speech. We don’t accept threatening behaviour. People should feel safe using News With Friends, and if that’s not happening then we will do something about it.
8. The law is the law
   The parent company of News With Friends is called Kaleida Networks Ltd. Kaleida was founded in the UK and we are subject to UK law which means your activity on News With Friends is also subject to UK law. If you’re not in the UK then you are also subject to the law where you live.

   While we will always abide by the laws wherever this app is being used we will also take steps to protect people from unreasonable obligations while still operating within those laws. That means we may disable certain features or customise them in certain locations if we have to make that choice.

9. Things will change
   We are committed to all of the above. But other issues will make themselves known, too. So, we expect you to be flexible as additional policies are required. We’ll do our best to inform you of material changes and additions to this Promise. We expect you to listen out for those changes and to take them to heart if/when they happen.

Updated: 27 Nov, 2018. Changed “users” references to “people”.