Privacy Policy — Sprout News

1. Who We Are

Sprout News ("we", "us", "our") is a digital news publication operated as part of the Sprout Digital Ecosystem. Our primary website is https://sprout.news. For the purposes of data protection law, Sprout News is the data controller responsible for the personal information collected through this website and our newsletter.

If you have questions about this policy or our data practices, please email privacy@sprout.news.

2. Data We Collect

We collect the minimum data necessary to provide you with our service. We do not sell your data, share it with advertisers for targeting, or use it for purposes beyond those described here.

Information you give us: When you subscribe to our newsletter, you provide your email address and optionally your first name. When you contact us, you may provide your name, email and message.
Usage data: We collect anonymised data about how pages are accessed — including browser type, approximate location (country/region level), referring URL, and pages viewed. This data is not linked to any individual identity.
Local storage: Our website stores minimal data in your browser's localStorage — specifically your bookmark list, subscription status, and notification preferences. This data never leaves your device and is not sent to our servers.
Cookies: We use only essential cookies required for the site to function. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. See Section 5 for full details.

3. How We Use Your Data

We use your data only for the following purposes:

To deliver our daily news briefing newsletter to subscribers
To respond to enquiries and support requests
To understand how our website is used at an aggregate level, so we can improve it
To process advertising enquiries and partnerships
To comply with legal obligations

We will never use your data to send unsolicited marketing unrelated to Sprout News, sell it to third parties, or use it for automated profiling or decision-making that affects you.

When you subscribe to the Sprout News daily briefing, we store your email address and first name (if provided) in our email service provider's system. We use this data solely to deliver our newsletter.

Every edition of our newsletter includes an unsubscribe link. Clicking it will immediately remove you from our mailing list and we will delete your email from active lists within 7 days. You may also unsubscribe at any time by emailing privacy@sprout.news.

We track newsletter open rates and click rates at an aggregate level to understand content performance. These analytics are anonymised and not linked to individual identities.

5. Cookies

We use the minimum number of cookies necessary for the site to function. We do not use advertising cookies, social media tracking pixels, or third-party analytics cookies.

Essential cookies: Required for the website to function correctly. They cannot be disabled without breaking the site.
Font loading: We use Google Fonts for typography. Google may set cookies as part of this service. We have minimised this by using display=swap and preconnect hints. You can review Google's Privacy Policy for details.

Our website does not use Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, or any other behavioural tracking tool.

6. Third-Party Services

We share data with a minimal set of trusted third-party processors:

Email service provider: We use a third-party email platform to send our newsletter. They process subscriber email addresses under our instructions and are bound by a data processing agreement.
Hosting & infrastructure: Our website is hosted on secure cloud infrastructure. The hosting provider processes web traffic data on our behalf.
AI pipeline (Grok/xAI): Our VeriFact™ system queries the xAI Grok API for news analysis. These queries contain only news topics — no personal data is sent to the AI provider.
Google Fonts: Font files are loaded from Google's servers. This may involve your IP address being processed by Google.

We do not use any advertising technology providers, data brokers, or behavioural analytics platforms.

7. Data Retention

We retain your data only for as long as necessary:

Newsletter subscribers: Until you unsubscribe, after which we delete your data within 7 days.
Contact form data: 12 months from the date of contact, unless we have a legitimate reason to retain it longer.
Anonymised analytics: 26 months, after which it is deleted or further anonymised.
Local storage (browser): This data stays on your device and is cleared when you clear your browser data. We have no access to it.

8. Your Rights

Under Indian data protection law and applicable international frameworks, you have the following rights:

Right to access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to correction: Ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
Right to deletion: Request that we delete your personal data ("right to be forgotten").
Right to withdraw consent: Unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time.
Right to complain: Lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority if you believe we have mishandled your data.

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@sprout.news. We will respond within 30 days.

9. Children's Privacy

Sprout News is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal data, please contact privacy@sprout.news and we will delete it promptly.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify newsletter subscribers. Continued use of Sprout News after such changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

Email: privacy@sprout.news
Website: https://sprout.news

We aim to respond to all privacy enquiries within 10 business days.