DIScovery News — Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 23, 2026

DIScovery News ("the app") is published by Magical Media, LLC ("we"). This policy explains what the app collects, why, and what control you have.

The short version

• You can use the whole app without giving us any personal information — choose "Explore first" or the anonymous "Continue on this device" account.
• We never sell your data and never track you across other companies' apps or websites. The app shows no App Tracking Transparency prompt because it does no such tracking.
• Ads in the free tier are non-personalized.
• You can delete your account and its server data in the app: Settings → your account → Delete account.

What we collect, and why

Account data (only if you sign in)

• Email address — only when you sign in with Google, or with Apple if you share it; used to identify your account. The anonymous device account has no email.
• First name — if your Apple or Google account shares it, or you type one in Settings; used only to greet you in the app.
• Account ID — created for every account (including anonymous ones); it keys everything below.

Your picks and activity (only if you sign in)

• Follows and mutes (parks, outlets, shows), votes, and story opens — used to personalize your For You feed and to honor your mutes in alerts.
• Wishes (phrases you ask us to watch for) and your trip plan (destination and dates) — used to find matching stories, send the alerts you turn on, and write your trip brief.
• Source suggestions you send with "Request it" — the name, link and note you type. They help us decide what to add.
• Purchases of wish packs — the App Store transaction ID and product, so the wishes you bought follow your account.
• Push tokens — if you turn alerts on, or follow a live event or trip on your Lock Screen, your device's push token is stored against your account so we can deliver what you chose. Turning alerts off (or deleting your account) removes it.

These are linked to your account ID.

Without an account

• Widgets register an anonymous push token (no account attached) so we can refresh them when big news breaks.
• The Clips feed sends the IDs of videos this device watched recently and the channels it follows, so each response is ranked for you. We use them for that one response and don't store them.

On this device only (never uploaded)

Saved stories, podcast downloads and transcripts, playback positions, reading history used by the "While you were away" module, and your local settings stay on your device. Calendar events you add and journaling suggestions you pick are handled by iOS and never sent to us.

Analytics (all users)

We use Firebase Analytics (Google) with app-scoped identifiers (the IDFV) to understand aggregate usage: screens viewed, stories/videos/episodes opened, searches performed inside the app, ad-slot views and taps, and purchases made. This is not linked to your account, is not used for ad personalization (we disable that signal), and does not use the advertising identifier (IDFA). Google may derive an approximate location from your IP address for these reports.

Anonymous counters (all users)

"Most Viral" rankings come from an anonymous per-story open counter — no user or device identifier is attached.

Advertising

The free tier shows ads: our own placements, ad-network tags, and Google AdMob. AdMob requests are non-personalized — ads are chosen from context, not from a profile of you — but Google's ad SDK still collects device identifiers, an approximate location derived from your IP address, ad interactions and diagnostic data to serve, measure and protect ads. See how Google uses information from apps that use its services. Some placements are sponsored or affiliate links and are labeled as such; where a link is an affiliate link, we may earn a commission. DIScovery News+ members see no ads.

AI features

Some features are written by AI and labeled that way in the app: the daily briefings, "The story so far", Smart Alerts, and your trip brief are generated by Anthropic's Claude from published news coverage. For your trip brief we send Anthropic your trip's destination and travel dates (for the post-trip recap, the exact dates) — never your name, email or account ID. Anthropic processes this on our behalf. Other AI features (key points, translations, summaries of what's on screen) run on your device with Apple Intelligence and don't leave your iPhone.

Videos

Videos play in YouTube's embedded player, and our servers use YouTube API Services to find and describe videos. When you play a video, YouTube's Terms of Service and the Google Privacy Policy apply.

Subscriptions and purchases

DIScovery News+ and wish packs are billed by Apple through your Apple ID. We receive no payment details. See our Terms of Use.

Sharing

We use service providers to run the app, each processing only what's described above on our behalf: Supabase (database, authentication), Apple (sign-in, push notifications, payments), Google (Firebase Analytics, AdMob, Google sign-in, YouTube), and Anthropic (AI features). We don't sell personal data and don't share it with data brokers. We would disclose data if legally required to.

Retention and deletion

Account data lives until you delete it. Settings → your account → Delete account permanently removes your account and every server-side record tied to it (profile, name, follows, votes, interactions, wishes, trip plan, wish balance, push tokens) — immediately and irreversibly. If you signed in with Apple, deleting your account also revokes the app's access to your Apple ID. Source suggestions you sent stay, with your account ID removed. Deleting your account does not cancel a DIScovery News+ subscription — manage that in your Apple ID settings. Anonymous analytics are retained per Firebase's standard retention controls.

Children

The app is a news reader intended for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children.

Changes

We'll update this page when practices change and note the date above. Material changes will be called out in the app.

Contact

Magical Media, LLC · [email protected]