Privacy Policy

1. Our approach to privacy

Hence is designed to provide a personalized discovery experience without requiring more personal information than is reasonably necessary to operate, personalize, secure, and improve the service.

We do not sell your personal information.

2. Anonymous use and accounts

Some use of Hence may be available without creating a registered account. When you use Hence anonymously, we may create an internal identifier that allows the service to maintain your experience, including personalization, reading history, saves, feedback, and other product state.

Hence may require registration to continue using certain parts of the service or to access particular features.

If you create an account, you may be able to authenticate using Sign in with Apple, Sign in with Google, or a verified email address. We may receive information necessary to create and authenticate your account, such as an account identifier, email address, and information provided by the authentication provider.

When a new account is attached to an existing anonymous Hence profile, information associated with that profile may remain associated with the resulting account so that your existing personalization and history are preserved.

3. Information we collect

We may process information about how you interact with Hence. This can include cards and topics you view, reading activity, interaction and dwell signals, likes, saves, shares, searches, feedback, content reports, Rabbit Hole activity, language preferences, and similar product interactions.

We may derive information from these interactions, such as estimates of topics that may interest you, knowledge state, reading preferences, or other signals used to personalize and improve the service.

We may also collect limited technical information necessary to operate, secure, understand, and improve Hence, such as device and app information, app version, timestamps, diagnostic information, performance information, and information about errors or requests made to the service.

4. Website analytics

When you use the Hence website, we may collect standard website analytics information such as pages viewed, referral information, approximate location derived from network information, device and browser characteristics, and interactions with the site.

We currently use Google Analytics to help us understand use of the public Hence website. Google may process information collected through this service in accordance with its own privacy practices.

5. How we use information

We may use information processed through Hence to:

• provide, maintain, and operate the service;
• create and authenticate accounts;
• personalize feeds, topics, and recommendations;
• remember reading history, preferences, saves, and interactions;
• understand how content and features are used;
• develop and improve the quality of Hence;
• measure reliability and performance;
• respond to feedback, support requests, and content reports;
• detect abuse, fraud, security issues, and technical problems;
• administer purchases and Premium access; and
• comply with applicable legal obligations.

6. Personalization

Hence uses activity within the service to determine what content may be more relevant or interesting to you. For example, content you read, skip, save, like, explore, or otherwise interact with may influence what appears in your feed later.

These signals are intended to personalize your discovery experience. They are not intended to determine sensitive characteristics about you or to make decisions about employment, credit, insurance, or eligibility for essential services.

Hence may provide settings that allow you to reduce certain types of sensitive or potentially objectionable content. We may process your selected content-sensitivity preferences to apply those settings and personalize your experience. These preferences are not intended to be used to infer sensitive characteristics about you.

7. Information you choose to provide

If you contact us, submit feedback, or report content, we may receive information you choose to provide, such as your email address, name, message, feedback, or details of the report. We use this information to handle the request and, where appropriate, improve or protect the service.

8. Purchases and Premium

Purchases made through Apple's App Store are processed by Apple. Hence does not directly receive your full payment-card details.

We may receive and process information necessary to determine and maintain your purchase or subscription status, such as product, transaction, entitlement, subscription status, and expiration information.

We may use third-party service providers to help manage purchases and Premium entitlements. These providers may process purchase, account, or app identifiers where necessary to provide those services.

9. Service providers

We may use third-party service providers to help operate Hence, including hosting and infrastructure, authentication, website analytics, purchase and subscription management, content processing, email delivery, and other technical services.

These providers may process information where necessary to perform services for us. Some third-party services may also process information under their own terms and privacy policies.

10. Advertising

Hence may introduce advertising or advertising-supported features in the future, including as part of a free version of the service.

If advertising introduces additional processing of personal information, device identifiers, or other data not otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, we will update this policy and provide any choices or notices required by applicable law before or when those practices are introduced.

11. Sharing of information

We do not sell your personal information.

We may disclose information to service providers where necessary to operate Hence; when required by law or a valid legal process; where reasonably necessary to protect users, the public, or the security and integrity of the service; or as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, or sale of assets.

12. Data retention

We retain information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including providing and personalizing Hence, maintaining account and purchase records, protecting the service, resolving disputes, and satisfying applicable legal obligations.

Different categories of information may be retained for different periods depending on their purpose. Some information may also be retained in backups or where retention is reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, legal compliance, or the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

13. Account and data deletion

Where account deletion is available, deleting your account will initiate deletion or de-identification of personal information associated with the account, subject to information we are permitted or required to retain for legitimate purposes such as security, fraud prevention, transaction records, dispute resolution, or legal compliance.

Deleting your account or deleting the Hence app does not automatically cancel an App Store subscription. Subscriptions must be managed or cancelled separately through Apple.

14. Data security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures intended to protect information handled by Hence. No method of electronic storage or transmission is completely secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

15. Your choices and rights

Depending on where you live, applicable privacy law may give you rights relating to your personal information, such as rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or obtain a copy of certain information, or to object to certain processing.

You may contact us to make a privacy request. We may need to verify your request before acting on it, and some rights may be subject to exceptions under applicable law.

16. Children's privacy

Hence is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe that a child has provided personal information to us, please contact us so that we can review the situation and take appropriate action.

17. International processing

Hence and its service providers may process information in countries other than the country where you live. Where required by applicable law, appropriate safeguards are used for international transfers of personal information.

18. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy as Hence evolves. When we make changes, we will update the date at the top of this page. If a change materially affects how we handle personal information, we will provide additional notice where appropriate or required by law.

19. Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or want to make a privacy request, please use our contact page.