Privacy Policy

Who runs Tilde

Tilde is made by Kshitij Koranne, an independent developer who also publishes as KJR Labs. When this page says "I" or "me", that's who it means.

This policy covers the Mac app (from the Mac App Store or downloaded directly), the iPhone app, and the web version at tilde.kjrlabs.in.

What I collect

From the app and the web reader: nothing about you or what you read. Tilde doesn't ask for your name or email, doesn't assign you an ID, and doesn't send usage statistics or crash reports to me. I don't run a database, and there is no server that holds anything about you or what you read.

Website visit counts

This website counts visits with Umami, a cookie-free tool that I host myself. It records the page you open, where you came from, your browser, device type and approximate country. It does not store your IP address, set cookies or follow you to other sites, and the data is not shared with anyone. It never sees the feeds you add or the articles you read.

What stays on your device

Everything Tilde needs to work is kept locally:

• the feeds you subscribe to and any groups you put them in
• the articles Tilde has downloaded, their text, and the search index built from them
• what you've read and saved, and your settings

On a Mac this lives in the app's own folder: ~/Library/Containers/in.kjrlabs.tilde for the App Store version, or ~/Library/WebKit/in.kjrlabs.tilde for the direct download. On an iPhone it lives inside the app's own storage, which iOS keeps private to Tilde. On the web it lives in your browser's storage for this site, along with a cached copy of the app so it can open offline.

None of it syncs anywhere. If you export your subscriptions as an OPML file, that file goes wherever you choose to save it.

Who Tilde talks to

Tilde has to go online to do its job. These are the only places it connects to:

• The sites you subscribe to. Tilde fetches feeds from the sites you add. It also fetches an article's web page when you press "Read the full article", and loads images from those sites if you turn on "Load remote images" (off by default, because images are often used for tracking). Those sites see what any website sees when it's visited, such as an IP address and the time of the request (in the web version, feed requests reach them from Vercel's servers rather than from your connection). Their own privacy policies apply. Links you open go to your usual web browser.
• Google Fonts. Tilde's typefaces are loaded from Google's servers (fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com). When that happens, Google receives your IP address and basic browser information, as it would for any web request. Tilde sends Google nothing else. See Google's privacy policy.
• Vercel (web version only). The website is hosted on Vercel. Browsers aren't allowed to fetch most feeds directly, so the web version asks a small function on Vercel to fetch each feed and hand it back. That function doesn't store anything or keep its own logs. Vercel, like any web host, records basic request details (time, the address being fetched, browser type) that it keeps for a short period, typically no more than a day, and that I can see only for troubleshooting. See Vercel's privacy policy. The Mac and iPhone apps never use this function; it contacts each site directly.

If you downloaded Tilde from the Mac App Store, Apple handles that download under its own privacy policy. If you've chosen in macOS settings to share analytics with app developers, Apple may pass me anonymous crash reports and overall usage numbers. That's controlled by Apple and by you, not by Tilde.

Removing your data

Because everything is on your device, you can delete it yourself at any time. On a Mac, quit Tilde and delete the folder listed above. On an iPhone, delete the app and its data goes with it. On the web, clear this site's data in your browser settings. There's no copy anywhere else, so there's nothing for me to delete on my side.

Wherever you live and whatever privacy laws apply to you, I hold no personal data about you, so there's nothing for me to access, correct or hand over. You're still welcome to email me with questions.

Children

Tilde isn't made for children and doesn't knowingly collect information from anyone, children included, because the app doesn't collect information. What appears in Tilde comes from the sites each person chooses to subscribe to.

Changes to this policy

If anything here changes, I'll update this page and the date at the top. If Tilde ever starts collecting any data, this page will say so clearly before that happens.

Contact

Questions about privacy, or anything else: kshitij.koranne@icloud.com